Snow White's Adventures
| Snow White's Adventures (1971 attraction) | |||||||||||||
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| General statistics | |||||||||||||
| Attraction type | Dark ride | ||||||||||||
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering | ||||||||||||
| Theme | Snow White | ||||||||||||
| Vehicle type | Mine car | ||||||||||||
| Riders per vehicle | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Rows | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Riders per row | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Duration | 2:30 | ||||||||||||
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 ride was designed to feel as if you were Snow White, explaining why she did not appear at all in the ride. Very few guests got this point, considering the ride focuses on the Witch character. The ride had 7 Witch models, and only one scene with frightened Dwarfs. It was one of the opening day attractions at the park.
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 the Queen. watching in a nearby window, the guests saw a mirror, but not the magic one. The Evil Queen turned into the Wicked Witch by saying, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall... I AM THE FAIREST ONE OF ALL!". Guest then crashed through the dungeon seen at the cauldron preparing a poison apple. The riders crashed out of the castle, only to bump into the Witch on a boat. Guests then fled through a dark forest with scary trees and alligator logs.
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, and the Evil Witch was waiting in the doorway with an apple. Then the guests entered the Diamond Mine, where the witch tried to topple over the timber beams and crash a minecart into the vehicles. 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, thus 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).
Refurbishment and Closure
On October 14, 1994, it was closed for refurbishments and reopened as Snow White's Scary Adventures. This version was a lot more lighthearted, with Snow White appearing 5 times, the Dwarfs celebrating, a happy ending, and fewer scenes with the witch. However, the ride still had a dark feel and on May 31, 2012, the ride permanently closed, being replaced by a non-scary ride, the Seven Dwarf's Mine Train,
The revamp was due to parents saying the ride was 'horrific' and nothing like the movie. However, the ride has gained a cult following in recent years, with Kennetti creating a tribute to all versions, and getting lots of praise from some people for 'capturing the nightmarish scenes of the original movie'. It has also been widely recognized for being scarier than the Haunted Mansion back when the park first opened.
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