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

[Sharon&Susan]

The Pinocchios have never struck me as being at all different from each other, but that could be my anti-PDJ bias showing.

I don't think that's a biased statement at all, unlike all of the other 3 big Fantasyland courtyard dark rides (Toad, Peter Pan, and Snow White) there was never any pre-'83 versions or clones that added new scenes or tried to change the structure.

Some changes I noticed in Pinocchio, other than the obvious changes (like Paris having 3 row vehicles or it being in French) and some art redrawn
-Tokyo replaces Pinocchio's "Hi Diddle Dee Dee" in the first scene with "I have No Strings" similarly Tokyo also replaces "Turn On That Old Music Box" in the finale with "Little Wooden Head"
-Paris lengthens the Stromboli scene slightly giving Jiminy Cricket his own little alcove away from the rest of the scene.
-In Tokyo, The Rough House has a projection of two kids boxing each other, in Paris and DL it's a projection of many kids duking it out in there
-Disneyland seems to be the only one to attempt the Lampwich transforming effect
- Additional 2D donkeys in the Tokyo for some reason
-Tokyo doesn't have a fireplace in Geppetto's house, DL and Paris seem to have different fire effects
-The final window in his house for some reason is different in every version (DL it's closed, Tokyo shows the village at night, Paris shows the village during the day which includes the ride's exterior)

 

[Brer Panther]

Did you know that the kid who voiced Pinocchio in Pinocchio's Daring Journey also voiced Schroeder in a few Peanuts productions?

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

Sounds like the transformation of the ride is more like a heart transplant than a facelift.

 

[Chupaca Bruh]

My first trip to Disneyland was in 1965 when I was 9 years old. As there was the ticket system to deal with and our family did not have lots of money we got ONE of the large book of coupons. Dad let us pick a couple extra E tickets but that was it. I did not choose to ride Snow White and I don't know why. The same happened on our trips in 1970 and 1971. After that we bought a few extra tickets during the day. These were all one day trips. It wasn't until the coupon books were done away with that I rode Snow White. I LOVED all the scary parts. The dungeon and evil forest. All the witch scenes and skeletons. That was what made the ride so great. I, slightly, understand why they have remodeled and re-imagined it. A little more balance is probably good. Let us hope that what they have done inside is quality and impressive. I just think homogenizing the spooky, scary, evil parts out of all the rides to appease scared kids is the wrong direction to go.

 

[Brer Oswald]

I don't think that's a biased statement at all, unlike all of the other 3 big Fantasyland courtyard dark rides (Toad, Peter Pan, and Snow White) there was never any pre-'83 versions or clones that added new scenes or tried to change the structure.

Some changes I noticed in Pinocchio, other than the obvious changes (like Paris having 3 row vehicles or it being in French) and some art redrawn
-Tokyo replaces Pinocchio's "Hi Diddle Dee Dee" in the first scene with "I have No Strings" similarly Tokyo also replaces "Turn On That Old Music Box" in the finale with "Little Wooden Head"
-Paris lengthens the Stromboli scene slightly giving Jiminy Cricket his own little alcove away from the rest of the scene.
-In Tokyo, The Rough House has a projection of two kids boxing each other, in Paris and DL it's a projection of many kids duking it out in there
-Disneyland seems to be the only one to attempt the Lampwich transforming effect
- Additional 2D donkeys in the Tokyo for some reason
-Tokyo doesn't have a fireplace in Geppetto's house, DL and Paris seem to have different fire effects
-The final window in his house for some reason is different in every version (DL it's closed, Tokyo shows the village at night, Paris shows the village during the day which includes the ride's exterior)

Speaking of Little Wooden Head, if anyone finds the version used in the Tokyo ride, let me know.

To my knowledge, it’s completely unique to that variant of the ride, and it sounds wonderful

 

[TP2000]

I can't look at the California Monsters Inc ride the same way after seeing the Tokyo one.

Eh, it looks great aesthetically, and they clearly spent a bunch of money on it (as they do on everything in Tokyo).

But I've ridden that a couple of times now in Tokyo, and each time it's been rather underwhelming. The flashlight gag is more trouble than it's worth; you spend the ride waving this flashlight around for no apparent reason and stuff happens whether you flash a light on it or not. It's gimmicky and dumb, and seems to detract from the experience rather than add to it.

Sometimes I think WDI tries too hard to make things "NEW!" and "Interactive!" instead of just trying to tell a good story. The Tokyo version of Monsters Inc. is one of the best examples of that.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Eh, it looks great aesthetically, and they clearly spent a bunch of money on it (as they do on everything in Tokyo).

But I've ridden that a couple of times now in Tokyo, and each time it's been rather underwhelming. The flashlight gag is more trouble than it's worth; you spend the ride waving this flashlight around for no apparent reason and stuff happens whether you flash a light on it or not. It's gimmicky and dumb, and seems to detract from the experience rather than add to it.

Sometimes I think WDI tries too hard to make things "NEW!" and "Interactive!" instead of just trying to tell a good story. The Tokyo version of Monsters Inc. is one of the best examples of that.

Yeah I feel the same way about Tokyo's Monsters. Rode it a couple times and tbh I don't really have much of a desire to ever ride it again. Maybe an unpopular opinion but rides where interactivity is the main selling point of the attraction are kinda lame to me. Feels too much like carnival rides. I'd rather just do a normal dark ride where I'm sitting back and looking at stuff, much like California's Monsters. Tokyo's attraction does have some cool practical effects though.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

They're bloody spookhouse rides with plywood, blacklight and static mannequins. That's what makes them charming. The Little Mermaid one doesn't really count, neither does Monsters Inc. Poo is closest to the older ones, but it feels too wide and not claustrophobic enough.

 

[brb1006]

Eh, it looks great aesthetically, and they clearly spent a bunch of money on it (as they do on everything in Tokyo).

But I've ridden that a couple of times now in Tokyo, and each time it's been rather underwhelming. The flashlight gag is more trouble than it's worth; you spend the ride waving this flashlight around for no apparent reason and stuff happens whether you flash a light on it or not. It's gimmicky and dumb, and seems to detract from the experience rather than add to it.

Sometimes I think WDI tries too hard to make things "NEW!" and "Interactive!" instead of just trying to tell a good story. The Tokyo version of Monsters Inc. is one of the best examples of that.

Yeah I feel the same way about Tokyo's Monsters. Rode it a couple times and tbh I don't really have much of a desire to ever ride it again. Maybe an unpopular opinion but rides where interactivity is the main selling point of the attraction are kinda lame to me. Feels too much like carnival rides. I'd rather just do a normal dark ride where I'm sitting back and looking at stuff, much like California's Monsters. Tokyo's attraction does have some cool practical effects though.

At least the audio-animatronics at the Tokyo Monsters is better than the ones at DCA.

 

[Okee68]

Among all the insipid changes made in this god-forsaken "update", that animated screen of Grumpy in particular is one of the worst things I've ever seen in a Disney dark ride. I hate screens as is, but with this one, they made absolutely no attempt at making it look even slightly convincing. What we have here is quite literally a tiny Grumpy directly to the right side of riders, with no forced-perspective parallax trickery whatsoever to make the animation look like anything other than a tiny Grumpy. It's all just so frustrating.

We can only hope that the meatheads responsible for this never notice that Mr. Toad still exists; it's one of the last remaining vessels of original Disneyland and deserves to remain a work of unadulterated genius.

 

[Brer Panther]

You know, all this talk about dark rides having scarier moments isn't a bad thing because it balances the light-hearted moments brings this to mind - say what you want about the Winnie the Pooh ride(s), but that DOES have a scarier moment in the middle with the "Heffalumps and Woozles" sequence.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Eh, it looks great aesthetically, and they clearly spent a bunch of money on it (as they do on everything in Tokyo).

But I've ridden that a couple of times now in Tokyo, and each time it's been rather underwhelming. The flashlight gag is more trouble than it's worth; you spend the ride waving this flashlight around for no apparent reason and stuff happens whether you flash a light on it or not. It's gimmicky and dumb, and seems to detract from the experience rather than add to it.

Sometimes I think WDI tries too hard to make things "NEW!" and "Interactive!" instead of just trying to tell a good story. The Tokyo version of Monsters Inc. is one of the best examples of that.

I'll grant you all of that, but I'll also take "underwhelming with a budget" over "underwhelming without one" a thousand times over.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

I've decided to watch Disney's animated feature length films in chronological order starting with Snow White on Disney+. It's a great movie, and it has held up pretty well over time, especially considering it's 85 years old.

Last night I watched Pinocchio, which, in contrast, is a far darker and disturbing film. Since Disneyland's Snow White's Adventures is now a bit more lighthearted maybe Pinocchio's Daring Journey should be made scarier?

 

[PiratesMansion]

I've decided to watch Disney's animated feature length films in chronological order starting with Snow White on Disney+. It's a great move, and it has held up pretty well over time, especially considering that it's 85 years old.

Last night I watched Pinocchio, which, in contrast, is a far darker and disturbing film. Since Disneyland's Snow White's Adventures is now a bit more lighthearted maybe Pinocchio's Daring Journey should be made scarier?

I'd be in favor, but I know modern Disney would never do anything like that.

Do you have a copy of Make Mine Music? It's the one official film that's not on the service.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

I'd be in favor, but I know modern Disney would never do anything like that.

Do you have a copy of Make Mine Music? It's the one official film that's not on the service.

I don't. It's odd that Make Mine Music isn't on Disney+. Apparently none of the film's 10 shorts are on Disney+ either.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I don't. It's odd that Make Mine Music isn't on Disney+. Apparently none of the film's 10 shorts are on Disney+ either.

Nor available on any other streamer, which I thought might be the reason why it's late to D+. So, at this point... ??

 

[Brer Oswald]

Nor available on any other streamer, which I thought might be the reason why it's late to D+. So, at this point... ??

It’s a similar thing with the dozens upon dozens of “safe for work” Disney cartoons they haven’t added, or have in certain countries but not others.

I don’t think there’s a reason beyond them not seeing value in the effort (despite putting stranger, more obscure stuff on the platform).

“The Martins and the Coys” is sometimes speculated as a reason, but it was censored from the video release. Why not upload that? It’s better than nothing.

 

[Stevek]

Eh, it looks great aesthetically, and they clearly spent a bunch of money on it (as they do on everything in Tokyo).

But I've ridden that a couple of times now in Tokyo, and each time it's been rather underwhelming. The flashlight gag is more trouble than it's worth; you spend the ride waving this flashlight around for no apparent reason and stuff happens whether you flash a light on it or not. It's gimmicky and dumb, and seems to detract from the experience rather than add to it.

Sometimes I think WDI tries too hard to make things "NEW!" and "Interactive!" instead of just trying to tell a good story. The Tokyo version of Monsters Inc. is one of the best examples of that.

The Tokyo version really doesn't appeal to me either. I've always been a fan of the DCA version though it does suffer a bit from having to shoehorn the story into the SSL ride layout.

 

[MisterPenguin]

It’s a similar thing with the dozens upon dozens of “safe for work” Disney cartoons they haven’t added, or have in certain countries but not others.

I don’t think there’s a reason beyond them not seeing value in the effort (despite putting stranger, more obscure stuff on the platform).

“The Martins and the Coys” is sometimes speculated as a reason, but it was censored from the video release. Why not upload that? It’s better than nothing.

Yeah, according to Wiki, the movie was already altered to be G rated (by modern standards). So...

 

[Deleted member 107043]

Yeah, according to Wiki, the movie was already altered to be G rated (by modern standards). So...

Not looking to start another one of those discussions, if you know what I mean, but I believe there ought to be an appropriate venue dedicated for showcasing problematic American 20th century films produced by Disney and other studios in their original format - with context of course. Sweeping the ugliness under the rug and subsequently not confronting it head on is one of the many reasons why we haven't made more progress with systemic racism, sexism, etc.