Where the old ride suffered from a lack of conclusion, the new one suffers from too many conclusions. Before, there was just the mural book, awkwardly crammed into the corner between a violent death and the unload area.
Now there's the kiss. And then the animated book. And then Snow and the prince waving farewell. And then the mural book, now with fiber optics. For a ride that's barely over 2 minutes long, about a quarter of that time is spent in the various finales.
WDI's modern dark rides have an awkward tendency toward curtain-call endings, where all the characters make a final appearance, celebrating with each other and/or waving to the passing vehicles. It does nothing to progress the through-line of the attraction, whether that's defined as a series of moods and emotions, or a true linear story. It only introduces an awkward 4th-wall-breaking element right as everything is getting wrapped up. Have we been visible to these characters the whole time? Why are they only now acknowledging us?
Indiana Jones has the cracked boulder. DL's Pooh has the non-sequitur birthday party. Gran Fiesta Tour has the trio performing together. Epcot's Nemo ride has the Big Blue World. Little Mermaid has perhaps the most blatant one. Radiator Springs Racers has Lightning and Mater in the caves. Ratatouille has the rat restaurant party. Frozen ever after has In Summer. Runaway Railway has the picnic in the park.
This trend seems to have started with DLP's Snow White, followed by WDW's 1994 Snow White redo. And now DL's Snow White has it too.
I'm not sure why it's become such a pervasive design approach that it's practically required now, but it's seldom executed well, and rarely serves a meaningful purpose. When you're trying to convey a lot of information to riders in a limited amount of time, it seems like a waste to reuse the same trope that rarely adds value to the attraction as a whole, yet it's incredibly pervasive.
What's up with Dopey, and why haven't they put the flowers back in his hand? It just looks really weird having him with an empty clenched fist. I remember the preview video said something about how impressed we would be by the interaction between the Dopey and Snow figures, but they aren't even facing each other half the time. Was there something originally planned here that didn't work out? The holding area at the end of Seven Dwarfs' Mine Train at WDW features a really cool animatronic of Dopey and Snow who hold hands and dance across the entire cottage, surely a smaller version of that could have been done here.
Also, anybody else notice they knocked out an entire wall in the cottage of the Dwarfs? I'm assuming this is because the room and track layout are designed to draw your attention to the staircase with the Snow White figure, but she isn't there anymore, so now it's just one big room.
Before:
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Now:
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Dopey at least looks like he could be holding his hand up to dance with Snow White. Meanwhile, poor Sneezy underneath him has been missing his flute for literal decades at this point. I was hoping that this overhaul might finally replace the missing prop, since it was far more intensive than typical refurbishments, but it appears we've lost the opportunity yet again. At this point, I highly doubt it will ever return.
Prior to The Haunted Mansion, Snow White basically was Disneyland's "Haunted House" ride - skeletons and all!
Now with the changes to it and Tower of Terror, DLR has lost two of its peak "spooky" rides, and that's a shame.
Snow White and Tower of Terror were both advertised as spooky rides that fit the season when DLR launched the first Halloweentime in 2006, along with Haunted Mansion Holiday. Oddly, HMH is less spooky than the regular version of the ride, yet it's the only one that (probably?) still remains after 15 years.