Snow White's Adventures

Snow White's Adventures was an attraction at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World Resort that opened on October 1, 1971. It was a much darker version of the Snow White film, with the title character nowhere to be found - the concept was that you were Snow White. On October 14, 1994, it was closed for refurbishments.

On December 16, 1994, it was reopened as Snow White's Scary Adventures and featured Snow White and the Dwarfs - but the word "Scary" in the title wasn't added until 1998. Snow White was not seen at all in the 1971 version, as mentioned, and the Dwarfs showed up only briefly in one scene. There were also seven witch figures in this version, whereas there were only six in the final, 1994 version.

Ride overview

The queue was similar to Tokyo Disneyland's current queue for the ride. It featured the Seven Dwarfs' mine, with their cottage visible in the distance.

Guests got in the vehicles, which capacity was four passengers. They began by entering the castle in a scene very much like the 1994 ride; however, there was no part where Snow White was seen cleaning (the riders were supposed to be Snow White). Instead, they saw a side of the Dwarfs' cottage as "I'm Wishing" played in the background. Upon entering, with Queen Grimhilde watching in a nearby window, the guests saw a mirror, but not the magic one. The Evil Queen still turned into the Wicked Witch by saying, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall... I AM THE FAIREST ONE OF ALL!" and was still seen at the cauldron preparing a poison apple. The riders crashed through the dungeon walls, looking at skeletons, and escaped through the forest with monstrous trees and crocodile logs (bumping into the witch, who is on a boat).

Soon, guests arrived in the Seven Dwarfs' cottage to see forest animals peering in at them. They then passed the Seven Dwarfs, (in their only appearance, using the same Dwarfs figures in the Stormy Climax scene from the Snow White ride in Disneyland) walking up the stairs to their room to investigate a frightening shadow (which looks like Chernabog, the Devil, from the Night on Bald Mountain segment in Fantasia and Kingdom Hearts). The Evil Witch was waiting in the doorway with an apple. The final scene was the diamond mines, where the Evil Witch appeared several more times. Her final appearance was on top of a doorway, pushing an enormous jewel onto the riders and saying "GOODBYE, DEARIE! EEHEEEHEE!". Riders would then enter a room full of flashing cartoon-like strobe lights with the Witch's cackling, bizarrely distorted and sped up and skipping like a broken record, echoing in their ears...implying that the witch had killed you (Much like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, where it implies riders that get killed by the approach of a train). Guests then returned to the load area and disembarked.

Disney legend Ginny Tyler did the voice of the Wicked Witch in this version, while Mel Blanc, Paul Frees, Hal Smith, Hans Conried and Dallas McKennon did the voices of the Seven Dwarfs. The same actors also voiced the Dwarfs in the Mickey Mouse Revue (Another Walt Disney World attraction before moving to Tokyo Disneyland as one of its original attractions).

Aftermath

Around Christmas of 1994, a less frightening version of the ride, Snow White's Scary Adventures, took its place; an appearance by Snow White was also added. The redesigned ride took some cues from the version at Disneyland Paris, including increasing the ride capacity of each ride vehicle from four to six passengers.

Snow White's Scary Adventures closed on May 31, 2012 to make way for Princess Fairytale Hall, part of Disney's New Fantasyland Expansion. A new Snow White ride, themed to the mines in which the Seven Dwarfs mine jewels, is one of the main attractions of the expansion and is now open called Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.