News Disneyland to give Snow White’s Scary Adventures dark ride a major facelift in 2020

[mickEblu]

My parents let me go to Disneyland alone once when I was 9 or 10. A part of me thinks they were crazy and another part me is envious. Envious that they felt confident enough to do that for whatever reason.

 

[1HAPPYGHOSTHOST]

When I watch it nowadays, I still love it. It is probably my favorite Part 2 for a horror movie franchise. It took everything great about the first one and improved on it. Modern horror movies don't have anything that feels as big and exciting as that toy factory finale. Plus, Child's Play 2 is one of the most perfectly paced movies ever, not a single second is wasted in it. A lot of newer movies feel bloated, and a lot of filmmakers could learn from Child's Play 2 if they want an example of a tightly paced movie.

I really love the dark ride finale in 3, even if the rest of the movie is one of the weaker installments in the series. I really miss the 80s/early 90s era of horror movies where they went for a mix of fun and scary. A lot of more recent ones aren't much fun.

100% Agree with you. It improved on everything in the first movie and there is not a wasted scene in the movie and has a really nice flow. Plus out of all the films, in this one Chucky to this day actually scares me. He is a real threat in this one and more of an unstoppable force. He has some great one liners, probably the best of the series but everything about Chucky in this movie is pure evil and menacing especially at the end where they just can't kill him no matter what they do. He keeps coming after them. In the other films he is more funny than scary from that point on but in Child's Play 2 he can give Freddy and Jason a run for their money. It is a fantastic sequel on every level.

 

[1HAPPYGHOSTHOST]

Whoa!! They let you in by yourself?? what did you do the whole day? how did you get home?? did anyone ask about your parents???? I am fascinated by this story.

My parents let me go to Disneyland alone once when I was 9 or 10. A part of me thinks they were crazy and another part me is envious. Envious that they felt confident enough to do that for whatever reason.e

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

There was a quote attributed to legendary animator Don Bluth, known for his rather "intense" animated movies. He believed that kids could handle pretty much anything as long as you have a happy ending. I largely agree with that philosophy, I've always enjoyed animated movies with a nice balance of scary/bright, and feel similarly about rides based on children's stories.

While i've said i'm not a massive fan of the 71 version of Snow White, I do love the 1983 Disneyland version (and its Paris counterpart even moreso). I feel it struck a satisfying balance between having some dark "scary" parts and lighter elements. This new version sounds like it's planning on unbalancing it way too much.

To be honest, I'm raising eyebrows at all the praise for a version of the ride that ended with the Witch succeeding in killing the riders as well.

Then again, one of the most popular dark rides on the site is one where the riders get hit by a train and go to Heck, so...

There are several reasons why I think Toad succeeded in ways I believe Snow White 71 struggled with-

1- It immediately clicks that you're supposed to be Mr Toad. You're driving his motorcar and everyone else in the ride is reacting to you as you pass. The perspective is consistent throughout and there's no chance of not getting it. In Snow White 71, riders were also said to be playing the role of Snow White. But it wasn't as clear and went over the heads of a lot of people. Unlike Toad's cars, Snow's vehicles don't give any clues as to who you represent. At least half of the scenes also don't really feel like you're viewing from Snow's perspective.

2- Mr Toad's "bad" ending feels well earned. With Snow White, riders are random bystanders hunted and killed by a psycho. But with Toad, the role is flipped. YOU play as a crazy lunatic terrorizing the characters inside. You try to run over everyone, crash through buildings, get sent to prison and escape to cause more carnage. Most people get why this might end violently with you sent to hell.

3- Toad's death and hell scenes are hilarious and played for laughs, far too entertaining to scare many people. Unlike Snow White 71's non-silly and abrupt ending.

 

[mickEblu]

Whoa!! They let you in by yourself?? what did you do the whole day? how did you get home?? did anyone ask about your parents???? I am fascinated by this story.

Lol. My dad was attending a seminar at the Disneyland hotel. I begged him to take me with him so I could go to Disneyland for the day. We got to the DL hotel around 9am or so. Had a quick breakfast and then took the monorail to DL. He told me what time to go back and meet him for lunch and took the monorail back to the hotel. Now I’m thinking I must have had to ask someone for the time. I obviously had no cell phone and was never much of a watch guy. Anyway, after lunch I took the monorail back to DL until 5 or 6 pm when I met him back at the hotel. My one and only solo trip. I remember being kind of embarrassed when the CMs would ask me “how many?” And I’d reply with just “one.”

A family friend of my mom actually spotted me at the park and asked me who I was with. I remember where she found me too. Getting off the Horse Drawn Street Cars. Lol. What kid goes to DL by themselves and rides a Main Street vehicle? I think the thought process was something like “I’m alone and want to cross off all the things I never get to do when I’m here with bigger groups.”

 

[1HAPPYGHOSTHOST]

There was a quote attributed to legendary animator Don Bluth, known for his rather "intense" animated movies. He believed that kids could handle pretty much anything as long as you have a happy ending. I largely agree with that philosophy, I've always enjoyed animated movies with a nice balance of scary/bright, and feel similarly about rides based on children's stories.

While i've said i'm not a massive fan of the 71 version of Snow White, I do love the 1983 Disneyland version (and its Paris counterpart even moreso). I feel it struck a satisfying balance between having some dark "scary" parts and lighter elements. This new version sounds like it's planning on unbalancing it way too much.


There are several reasons why I think Toad succeeded in ways I believe Snow White 71 struggled with-

1- It immediately clicks that you're supposed to be Mr Toad. You're driving his motorcar and everyone else in the ride is reacting to you as you pass. The perspective is consistent throughout and there's no chance of not getting it. In Snow White 71, riders were also said to be playing the role of Snow White. But it wasn't as clear and went over the heads of a lot of people. Unlike Toad's cars, Snow's vehicles don't give any clues as to who you represent. At least half of the scenes also don't really feel like you're viewing from Snow's perspective.

2- Mr Toad's "bad" ending feels well earned. With Snow White, riders are random bystanders hunted and killed by a psycho. But with Toad, the role is flipped. YOU play as a crazy lunatic terrorizing the characters inside. You try to run over everyone, crash through buildings, get sent to prison and escape to cause more carnage. Most people get why this might end violently with you sent to hell.

3- Toad's death and hell scenes are hilarious and played for laughs, far too entertaining to scare many people. Unlike Snow White 71's non-silly and abrupt ending.

Thank you for putting into words why I love Mr. Toad's Wild Ride so much and why to me it is the best Fantasyland Dark Ride even though everyone says Alice is.

 

[1HAPPYGHOSTHOST]

Lol. My dad was attending a seminar at the Disneyland hotel. I begged him to take me with him so I could go to Disneyland for the day. We got to the DL hotel around 9am or so. Had a quick breakfast and then took the monorail to DL. He told me what time to go back and meet him for lunch and took the monorail back to the hotel. Now I’m thinking I must have had to ask someone for the time. I obviously had no cell phone and was never much of a watch guy. Anyway, after lunch I took the monorail back to DL until 5 or 6 pm when I met him back at the hotel. My one and only solo trip. I remember being kind of embarrassed when the CMs would ask me “how many?” And I’d reply with just “one.”

A family friend of my mom actually spotted me at the park and asked me who I was with. I remember where she found me too. On the Horse Drawn Street Cars. Lol. What kid goes to DL by themselves and rides a Main Street vehicle? I think the thought process was something like “I’m alone and want to cross off all the things I never get to do when I’m here with bigger groups.”

This is the real Home Alone 3. You lived every kid's fantasy. sooo lucky. your dad sounds awesome.

 

[mickEblu]

You guys want to talk about one liners, I’m watching Coming to America right now on TV. What Gold.

I hope the sequel does it justice.

 

[1HAPPYGHOSTHOST]

You guys want to talk about one liners, I’m watching Coming to America right now on TV. What Gold.

I hope the sequel does it justice.

Love that film. One of Murphy's best.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Thank you for putting into words why I love Mr. Toad's Wild Ride so much and why to me it is the best Fantasyland Dark Ride even though everyone says Alice is.

I don't know if I actually have a favorite of the classic Fantasyland rides, in their 1983 forms that is. Some people like to rank them, but they're all wonderful IMO.

It was a sad day when Magic Kingdom lost its Mr Toad in the 90s. That was one of my most often ridden attractions as a kid. I also like the larger dual-track layout (and also greater quantity of scenes) more than the DL's. Though DL's did receive an enormous improvement to the mural quality in 1983 that the MK version never got (as well as its awesome Toad Hall facade). So Disneyland's is still an incredibly worthy version that i'm glad still exists.

 

[Californian Elitist]

You're right, all children do not react the same. But the majority of children reacted poorly which led to the changes.

Changing the attraction from scary to not so scary does not alienate any other audiences. People will still go on and still love it.

Nobody is a bad person for making something scary. They just won't meet their objective in creating a children's ride if that's their objective. Anaheim's current objective is to have a children's ride that a majority of children will enjoy, unlike its previous version.. hence the changes

Nobody said that their new initiative is to attract pre-schoolers.. its to be more inclusive. If you don't understand what that means, Meriam Webster has defined it as, "including everyone". Viva Navidad wasn't debuted to cater to preschoolers.. and neither will the new Tiana ride with it's 40 inch height requirement.

Rides with height requirements do exclude people who are not tall enough to ride.. for their own safety.. you know, so they live to see another day.

As someone who used to work in Fantasyland, operating the dark rides, I can tell you that the majority of children did NOT react “poorly” to Snow (I’m actually not sure what you mean by “poorly”). If by poorly, you mean frightened, I can count on one hand of how many times I witnessed children screaming and crying after getting off the ride.

 

[TragicMike]

Says the guy with a monsters inc avatar. Glass houses my friend.

Nope sorry, don't see the correlation. Monsters Inc. is a legitimately fantastic film that can be enjoyed by all ages.

 

[mickEblu]

As someone who used to work in Fantasyland, operating the dark rides, I can tell you that the majority of children did NOT react “poorly” to Snow (I’m actually not sure what you mean by “poorly”). If by poorly, you mean frightened, I can count on one hand of how many times I witnessed children screaming and crying after getting off the ride.

I’ve taken my kid on all the dark rides at different ages all throughout the last 5 years. He never screamed or cried after getting off of any of them. However, there were moments on ALL of them that frightened him to the point he would clench and/ or close his eyes. Another thing they have in common is they re all dark (or at least have parts that are) which is something little kids don’t particularly like. This change “isn’t for the kids.” I’m not sure how safe these imagineers jobs are between big projects but I’d imagine this change is something just starts as pitch to keep some of these people employed between the Galaxies Edges of the world.

 

[mickEblu]

Nope sorry, don't see the correlation. Monsters Inc. is a legitimately fantastic film that can be enjoyed by all ages.

Snow White can’t be? The adults that cried for the first time watching an animated movie in 1937 would definitely disagree. Not that I think Snow White can’t be enjoyed now but maybe in 60 years people will feel the same way about Monsters Inc as you do today.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I’ve taken my kid on all the dark rides at different ages all throughout the last 5 years. He never screamed or cried after getting off of any of them. However, there were moments on ALL of them that frightened him to the point he would clench and/ or close his eyes. Another thing they have in common is they re all dark (or at least have parts that are) which is something little kids don’t particularly like. This change “isn’t for the kids.” I’m not sure how safe these imagineers jobs are between big projects but I’d imagine this change is something just starts as pitch to keep some of these people employed between the Galaxies Edges of the world.

Exactly. I don’t have children, but I remember being a kid and doing the same thing, closing my eyes and holding tightly on to my mom. It was scary but not too scary to the point where I refused to ride. I rode all the dark rides during every trip. The visiting children are irrelevant.

I refuse to believe any “news” about the update until it actually reopens.

 

[Ismael Flores]

Exactly. I don’t have children, but I remember being a kid and doing the same thing, closing my eyes and holding tightly on to my mom. It was scary but not too scary to the point where I refused to ride. I rode all the dark rides during every trip. The visiting children are irrelevant.

I refuse to believe any “news” about the update until it actually reopens.

I think that is why i am disappointed in the change they are doing, The scary aspect of the ride is what made the ride thrilling for young children and at the same time is what will create mental memories or memorable pictures. to me the scary scenes in Snow white are similar to the first time a young child is finally able to ride a coaster. It is a sense of accomplishment that you were able to go thru it and conquer the fear.
I doubt passing by another scene of happy ever after will be remembered and cherished as much.

 

[mickEblu]

I think that is why i am disappointed in the change they are doing, The scary aspect of the ride is what made the ride thrilling for young children and at the same time is what will create mental memories or memorable pictures. to me the scary scenes in Snow white are similar to the first time a young child is finally able to ride a coaster. It is a sense of accomplishment that you were able to go thru it and conquer the fear.
I doubt passing by another scene of happy ever after will be remembered and cherished as much.

Yup. The scary/ weird stuff sticks. The talking skull (and drops) on POTC, hearing the Yeti growls from Fantasyland below and the Supreme Leader from Captain EO are some of my strongest most vivid memories of being a kid at DL.

 

[MattFrees71]

Not the one I'm thinking of. Someone got right up to the shadow and took a flash photo of it. Thought it was Passport to Dreams but don't see it on their Twitter.

This is from the Facebook page of the creator of "WidenYourWorld" vintage WDW website.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I think that is why i am disappointed in the change they are doing, The scary aspect of the ride is what made the ride thrilling for young children and at the same time is what will create mental memories or memorable pictures. to me the scary scenes in Snow white are similar to the first time a young child is finally able to ride a coaster. It is a sense of accomplishment that you were able to go thru it and conquer the fear.
I doubt passing by another scene of happy ever after will be remembered and cherished as much.

Absolutely. The scare factor is what makes Snow memorable. I think each dark ride in Fantasyland has something about it that makes it unique from the others (maybe not so much Pinocchio) and to take whatever respective factor away is counterproductive, in my opinion. But that’s what Disney is all about nowadays.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

Will there be a new dancing feature installed?