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Original Alice in Wonderland Ride
- Thread starter AllyInWonderland
- Start date
Clover Bailey
Well-Known Member
Exactly. The WDW one had a HUGE facade and began in the castle, whereas the DL version starts in the mine scene with the dwarfs digging.
George Lucas on a Bench
Well-Known Member
That's WDW. DL's wasn't like that. There used to be a whole website about the history of the DL one.
Clover Bailey
Well-Known Member
Who are you replying to? I would like to know.
GiveMeTheMusic
Well-Known Member
DL's Snow White starts in her cottage, not in the mines. WDW's (like TDL's) starts outside the queen's castle.
Djali999
Active Member
By far the best resource to learn about the early Disneyland Fantasyland rides is old back issues of The "E" Ticket Magazine. I don't recall if they had an issue devoted to the original Alice, but they did put out terrific articles on the original Snow White, Toad and Pan rides. I realize these have been out of print forever, but excellent PDFs and, of course, valuable print copies do circulate amongst collectors and historians.
The Alice figure in the '83 edition of the ride was kinda spooky, but mostly because they weirdly put an adult size head on a static cast of the Mickey Mouse Revue Alice body and didn't do much to paint and finish her properly. From the ride vantage point it was okay because she was basically behind you as you rode past her. Still, it was nice to see they created new, on-model Alice for the big refurb last year.
Ken Netti's Snow White's Scary Adventures site has a good overview of the 1955 version of the ride, although be warned, Ken is more enthusiastic than he is accurate, especially in regards to the 1971 MK version. For the research on the '55 ride for my post at Passport to Dreams I pulled primarily from the old E-Ticket article, but Ken's reportage of the '55 version strikes me as pretty good. Here it is: http://www.kennetti.fi/swscary_2.html
The Alice figure in the '83 edition of the ride was kinda spooky, but mostly because they weirdly put an adult size head on a static cast of the Mickey Mouse Revue Alice body and didn't do much to paint and finish her properly. From the ride vantage point it was okay because she was basically behind you as you rode past her. Still, it was nice to see they created new, on-model Alice for the big refurb last year.
Ken Netti's Snow White's Scary Adventures site has a good overview of the 1955 version of the ride, although be warned, Ken is more enthusiastic than he is accurate, especially in regards to the 1971 MK version. For the research on the '55 ride for my post at Passport to Dreams I pulled primarily from the old E-Ticket article, but Ken's reportage of the '55 version strikes me as pretty good. Here it is: http://www.kennetti.fi/swscary_2.html
Clover Bailey
Well-Known Member
The link is not working for me. If it still works for you can you post even just a bit of it here for me please?
George Lucas on a Bench
Well-Known Member
I miss the Cheshire Cat head at the end with the dialogue:
''I do hope I don't meet anymore mad people!''
''Oh, you can't help that! LOL!''
''I do hope I don't meet anymore mad people!''
''Oh, you can't help that! LOL!''
dweezil78
Well-Known Member
Bringing back an old thread here because the original Alice has always been of interest to me and, well, this blew my mind. Did you guys know that when Arrow built the original Alice ride for Disney they also built ANOTHER one in 1961 in the UK under license from Disney?? Well, the license I guess ran out and some changes were made (there is inexplicably music from Willy Wonka used)...but.... but... the guts are still mostly there. And looking at the little in the way of old pics from Disney's Alice, this checks out.
If you've ever wanted to take a ride on the original Alice ride with some changes and lack of Disney-ness, here's your chance:
If you've ever wanted to take a ride on the original Alice ride with some changes and lack of Disney-ness, here's your chance:
Donaldfan1934
Well-Known Member
Looks like a freaky carnival style nightmare version of the Disneyland original.
D
Deleted member 107043
George Lucas on a Bench
Well-Known Member
I just want to say that while I wish I could have experienced the original versions of the FL dark rides, I do love the 80s redos. Even if Snow White's Scary Adventures was perhaps best in its 1971 WDW Magic Kingdom form (AKA completely horrifying), I don't think the redos to lighten them up and add Snow White herself ruined either the WDW or DL versions. I really miss the WDW version and the DL version is in my top 3 attractions at DLR. Whenever Haunted Mansion is turned into a neon cartoon, I can always depend on that ride to deliver on the macabre.
Rich T
Well-Known Member
Some answers to above questions from this 60's kid:
The original DL cheshire cat didn't have dialogue; they looped his insane laugh from the film's Tulgey Wood scene over and over.
The original Snow White ride at DL started in the Mine. There was no cottage scene, magic mirror scene, or Dwarfs on a cliff face. There were, however, black strings hanging in 2 locations to simulate cobwebs dragging across your face! How hygienic was that?!?
There was/is an issue of E Ticket devoted to the original Alice ride. It's awesome!
The original DL cheshire cat didn't have dialogue; they looped his insane laugh from the film's Tulgey Wood scene over and over.
The original Snow White ride at DL started in the Mine. There was no cottage scene, magic mirror scene, or Dwarfs on a cliff face. There were, however, black strings hanging in 2 locations to simulate cobwebs dragging across your face! How hygienic was that?!?
There was/is an issue of E Ticket devoted to the original Alice ride. It's awesome!
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Rich T
Well-Known Member
I do think they should just eliminate the "Happily Ever After" mural that comes after the witch gets hit by lightning. It just makes people laugh. Better to keep that finale as it was originally--Boulder, crash doors, exit. Perfect dark ride ending.
Rich T
Well-Known Member
I love the videos of that Blackpool Pleasure Beach ride, but--except for the similar outdoor section idea--it's nothing like the pre-1984 DL Alice ride... well, aside from the pure strangeness of the whole thing. The DL original, believe it or not, was even weirder. I loved it and must have ridden it about a hundred times. The screaming doors at the end were the one of my favorite things in all of Disneyland.
Clover Bailey
Well-Known Member
I think I could have possibly found an image of the original DL Snow White ride. This morning I was playing Monopoly: Disney Parks Edition and I got a card that said "Discover a mine full of diamonds: Collect $200".
The image on the card showed Doc holding a lantern, but what surprised me was the background. It was live action, in some sort of facade, and it showed a stone entrance saying Diamond Mine with a fence in front of it. What I really noticed was that inbetween the fence and entrance, there was some sort of track or river. And if you've seen the original DL Snow White ride is that it started in the Mine instead of the Dwarf's Cottage. So what I speculate is that this could maybe be the original boarding area of SWSA back in 1955.
The image on the card showed Doc holding a lantern, but what surprised me was the background. It was live action, in some sort of facade, and it showed a stone entrance saying Diamond Mine with a fence in front of it. What I really noticed was that inbetween the fence and entrance, there was some sort of track or river. And if you've seen the original DL Snow White ride is that it started in the Mine instead of the Dwarf's Cottage. So what I speculate is that this could maybe be the original boarding area of SWSA back in 1955.
Rich T
Well-Known Member
I think it's from somewhere else; the original ride had a very simple (but beautiful) flat mural facade, much like a traditional carnival haunted house. Here's the entry doorway for the vehicles:
There's a fantastic article about the mural here:
Sounds like a cool image you've got, though: Are you sure it's not from SD Mine Train?
dweezil78
Well-Known Member
Both of these versions also have the upside down room sequence though, no? That was pretty much the only thing I even really knew of the original!
Rich T
Well-Known Member
My guess is the Blackpool ride was "inspired" by the Disney ride. The Upside Down Room was created for Disneyland, and is a location that doesn't even exist in the film or books (it's based on a brief sight-gag in the movie where Alice doesn't realize she's hanging upside down in a rightside-up room). The DL ride's unusual 2-level indoor/outdoor layout is a result of it's particular location in a very tight space: It has to climb up over Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and then back down again. The Disneyland Upside Down room, like the whole ride, was very stylized and based on the designs of Mary Blair, while the Blackpool version is very generic- looking. And those cheshire cat vehicles are very noisy and clunky compared to the arrow-designed caterpillars.
The Blackpool ride kind of reminds me of those imitation Disney animated movie knock-offs you see on DVD a week after a new Disney film hits theaters (Ice Princess!). I mean...did Blackpool even bother to get the rights to the Willy Wonka music? But, what the heck, it still looks like a fun dark ride, and Disney certainly doesn't have exclusive rights to Wonderland.
The Blackpool ride kind of reminds me of those imitation Disney animated movie knock-offs you see on DVD a week after a new Disney film hits theaters (Ice Princess!). I mean...did Blackpool even bother to get the rights to the Willy Wonka music? But, what the heck, it still looks like a fun dark ride, and Disney certainly doesn't have exclusive rights to Wonderland.