Snow White's Scary Adventures

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Snow White's Scary Adventures
Attraction Poster
Land	Fantasyland
Designer	WED Enterprises
Attraction type	Dark Ride
Theme	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Vehicle type	Mine Cars
Vehicle names	Doc, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Grumpy, Happy, and Dopey

Disneyland
Opening date	July 17, 1955
Guests per car	4
Ride duration	1:51 minutes
Re-dedicated	May 23, 1983
Required Ticket	C

Magic Kingdom
Opening date	October 1, 1971
Guests per car	4 (1971-1994); 6 (1994-present)
Ride duration	2:50 minutes
Re-dedicated	December 1994

Tokyo Disneyland
Opening date	April 15, 1983
Guests per car	4
Ride duration	2:30 minutes

Snow White's Scary Adventures is a dark ride at the Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris theme parks. Located in Fantasyland, it is one of the few remaining attractions operational on Disneyland's opening day in 1955. The ride's story is based on Disney's animated film version of the classic story, its very first animated feature film.

[edit] History

Snow White's Scary Adventures opened on Disneyland's opening day as Snow White's Adventures. The problem was that Imagineers had designed the ride so that guests felt like they were the main character of the story; in this case, guests were Snow White. Few people understood this and wondered why Snow White wasn't in the Snow White ride. During 1983, all of the Fantasyland dark rides were redesigned slightly, as part of the big Fantasyland overhaul, to include the main characters of the films the attractions represented, and this one was no exception. Thus Snow White is in the attraction today. Also, Tony Baxter, Senior Vice President of Creative Development at Walt Disney Imagineering, was so afraid of messing everything up that he asked for all dark rides to be 25% longer. In this way, he could claim that even if they were not better, they would at least be longer.

Walt Disney World's original take on this ride, like their early version of Peter Pan's Flight, also suggested the guests be Snow White herself. But that version of the ride scared preschoolers. Around Christmas of 1994, a kinder, gentler version of the ride emerged, specifically aiming to reduce these complaints, as well as add the princess Snow White to make it fancier. Additionally, that version of the ride took some cues from the version at Disneyland Paris, including increasing the ride capacity of each ride vehicle from four to six passengers.

[edit] Walkthrough

[edit] Disneyland

Guests enter the ride building via the Evil Queen's castle, which looks rather dark and foreboding. Above the entrance to the ride, there is a window and pair of curtains behind it. Every now and then, the Queen parts the curtains and is in plain view of the guests. Next to the entrance door, there is a golden apple. Touch the apple and some bloodcurdling cackles are heard. The guests wind their way through a dungeon inside the castle, passing by a book of poisons. The book reads, "One taste of the poisoned apple and the victim's eyes will close forever in the Sleeping Death..." Like most of the dark rides, there is a mural. The beginning of the ride itself looks like the Dwarfs' cottage. Boarding the ride vehicle, the guests enter the Dwarfs' cottage, where they hear the music and yodeling of one of the film's songs, "The Silly Song". You pass Snow White, who is climbing the stairs to the second floor of the cottage, with some of her animal friends following. The guests then move past the Dwarfs, who are performing "The Silly Song". Doc is on mandolin, Grumpy is on organ, Happy is on accordion, Bashful is on guitar, Sleepy is on fiddle and Dopey is on Sneezy's shoulders.

Leaving the cottage, the guests pass by the Queen who says, "Soon I'll be fairest in the land." They then enter the Dwarfs' diamond mine, which is full of jewels of many colors. They then pass under a branch with two vultures perched on it and then enter the Queen's castle. There, they see the Queen's back to them as she stands before her Magic Mirror with her beautiful reflection in it saying, "Magic Mirror on the wall..." Then she snaps around and sees the guests. They see that she has become an ugly, green-eyed, toothless witch with a wart on her nose. "With this disguise, I'll fool them all!" she adds. The guests then pass through the castle, ladened with skeletons. Nearby, the Witch and a raven are in a dungeon area. It seems she'll do anything to become fairest in the land, even if it means creating a poisoned apple for Snow White, which is precisely what she is doing. The guests then see the Witch in a small boat as she heads for the Dwarfs' cottage. Next the guests wind their way through a menacing forest, whose trees have ugly faces and its branches look like talon-like hands ready to grab the helpless guests in the cars. Bats fly everywhere and logs look more like snapping crocodiles. The guests then turn towards the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs. The door opens and there's the Witch, who now wants to offer the guests the apple! The guests then turn towards a mountainside where the Dwarfs are hot on the Witch's trail. Nearby, the Witch is trying to roll a boulder down the side of the mountain and crush the pursuing Dwarfs below. But a strike of lightning causes her to tumble to her death. She screams as the guests leave the area.

The guests then go back out into light and there's a giant book with a silhouettes of Snow White, her Prince and the Prince's horse as they wander away towards a castle. The words at the bottom of this picture reads, "And they lived happily ever after." The guests then disembark from the cars and leave.

[edit] Walt Disney World Resort

The Disney World attraction is similar to Disneyland, but in different order with a few new scenes. Guests board by a mural depicting the cast of "Snow White" and begin their ride in the Queen's courtyard where Snow White is seen working outside. The Queen is watching her (and the guests) from her window.

Inside the castle, the scene is similar to the Disneyland version (with the Queen turning into the Witch and working at her cauldron), although the Magic Mirror has been added. The ride continues into the forest, and then into the Dwarves' Cottage, sans Snow White on the stairs. In a new scene, the riders pass the Witch giving Snow White the apple, then emerge from the cottage to see her gloating that she is fairest in the land.

From there, guests ride through the mines where the Dwarves call to them to stop the Witch. After the Disneyland scene where the Witch tries to drop a rock on the guests, there is a new ending with the Prince waking Snow White amidst the cheering Dwarves.

[edit] Pre-1994 Version

The original Disney World version of the ride was very different, and arguably scarier. Snow White did not appear, and the Dwarves showed up briefly in one scene.

The queue was similar to Tokyo's current one. It featured the Dwarves' mines and their house was visible in the distance. The guests began by entering the castle in a scene very much like the current ride; however, there was no Snow White cleaning. Upon entering, the guests see a mirror, but not the magic one. The Queen still transforms into the Witch and is still seen at the cauldron. The riders "crash" through the dungeon walls and escape through the forest (still bumping into the Witch).

Soon, the guests arrived at the Dwarves' cottage to see the animals peering in on them. They passed the Dwarves (in their only appearance) walking up the stairs to their room to investigate a scary shadow, which was presumably Snow White. The Witch is waiting in the doorway with an apple.

The final scene is the diamond mines, where the Witch appears several more times. Her final appearance is on top of a doorway, pushing an enormous jewel onto the riders. They then enter a room full of flashing lights, implying they'd just been crushed. It was very similar to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. For obvious reasons, the ride was later changed.

[edit] Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Paris' ride is basically the same as the current Disneyland version. The only real difference is a happy ending similar to Disney World's. However, in this variation, instead of passing Prince Charming waking up Snow White and then Dopey on an arch, everyone is on the arch.

[edit] Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo Disneyland has a mix of all the rides. It begins in the castle where the Queen transforms into the Witch, moving on to the dungeon and passing her on boat. After going through the forest, you enter the cottage and see the Dwarves singing, with Snow White watching from the stairs. Exiting the cottage, guests find the Witch outside waiting for them, then enter the mines. They approach the cottage again to find the Witch is once again waiting. The ride ends like Dineyland's version, with the Dwarves and Witch on the cliff.

[edit] Attraction facts and figures

• The ride vehicles are all mine cars, each one named randomly after one of the Seven Dwarfs, just like in the film, where their names are carved on the foot boards of their respective beds.
• The Dwarfs playing their respective instruments in the cottage scene are as follows: Doc on mandolin, Grumpy on organ (though his organ's pipes are rather unorthodox--they feature wood-carved animals that, among other activities, shove nuts in their mouths), Happy on accordion, Bashful on guitar, Sleepy on fiddle, and Dopey is on Sneezy's shoulders.
• In the scene when the Witch offers the guests the poisoned apple, guests consistently tried (and often succeeded) to steal the apple. When Fantasyland was reopened in 1983, they solved the problem of the ever-missing poisoned apple by replacing it with a 3D image of an apple. Guests who reach out to steal the apple now find their hands passing through it.
• There were 7 Witch figures in the Pre-1994 Version in Walt Disney World. Today, there are only 6.

[edit] See also

• List of current Disneyland attractions
• Magic Kingdom attraction and entertainment history
• Tokyo Disneyland attraction and entertainment history