If you ask any Disney fan what one attraction they would bring back if they could, you will get pretty standard answers. There will be a group of people who talk about the Future World West Triumvirate — World of Motion, Universe of Energy, and Horizons, or those who long for the classic Fantasyland attractions 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Heck, every once in a while you’ll even run into the guy who wants Backlot Tour rebuilt at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. As you listen to these pinnings for Disney’s “golden years” however, a name you rarely hear is Snow White’s Adventures, which is odd considering it might just be the best dark ride Disney ever created.
Now before you start comparing these bygone attractions, or yelling that Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride represented the pinnacle of the format, I want to make one thing clear: the Snow White attraction that I am talking about ran from 1971 until 1994 at the Magic Kingdom. We are not discussing the Disneyland original or its 1984 update, and we are especially not talking about the toned-down Snow White’s Scary Adventures that opened in 1994. What we are talking about is the 1971, eerie and downright scary Magic Kingdom original.
We will get into my argument for the attraction’s greatness later, but before we start, let’s take a step back and walk through the attraction itself.
Snow White’s Adventures opened with the rest of the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971, behind a façade that looked much too cheery for the attraction that guests were entering. Located in the middle of Fantasyland, the ride instantly had a problem. Due to both the medieval tent that drew guests to the attraction (which may or may not have been originally designed for a proposed Sleeping Beauty attraction) and the misleading name of the attraction itself (Snow White never appeared within), from the outside, Snow White’s Adventures seemed like a merry Disney Princess dark ride. What happened after the loading area, however, could not have been more different. Instead of a fun romp through the 1939 Disney classic, guests got a physiologically dark and thrilling trip that ended with their own murder at the hands of a crazed witch! Sound intriguing? Let’s take a deeper dive.
Snow White’s Adventures began with guests leaving the loading area and entering the Castle Courtyard. Here, the vehicles passed the Wishing Well, where riders could hear Snow White serenely singing “I’m Wishing”. So far, so good. The vehicles would then head towards the Seven Dwarfs Cottage (cute!) before taking a sudden U-Turn and entering the Evil Queen’s castle, while she looked on forebodingly from above.
Moving into the next scene, guests entered the castle itself, and more specifically the Queen’s Throne Room. Here, the Queen calmly stated “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall” to her Magic Mirror, before transforming into the Wicked Witch before guest’s eyes and screeching “I am the fairest one of all!”. The most prominent features of the Witch were her glowing yellow and red eyes, which stared menacingly at guests. Remember the eyes — they’ll keep coming back.
Running away from the Wicked Witch, guests traveled further into the castle and down into the dungeon. In this scene, guests first came upon a skeleton locked in a cell. The cadaver looked out towards the ride vehicles and reached for a water pitcher just outside the bars. Deeper in the dungeon, guests saw a second chained skeleton and the glowing red eyes of rats: a sign of things to come.
Leaving the dungeon, guests were brought face to face with the Wicked Witch at her cauldron. Here in her laboratory, the old hag menacingly offered guests a poison apple, before shrieking with delight. Nearby, her pet raven sat perched atop a skull. Passing the Witch, the vehicles were almost crushed by a falling shelf of glass equipment, barely exiting in time. Behind them, guests could hear the sound of the shattering glass. Seemingly free of danger, riders exited the castle.
Outside the castle walls, guests reached the edge of the Dark Woods, where they tried to find refuge from the Witch. Unfortunately, here on the dark, foggy lake, the old hag appeared quickly on a boat and again tried to offer her apple. The vehicles then passed by a group of log-like crocodiles, the last of which snapped at guests. Nature proved to be no refuge from the terror.
Now finding themselves inside the Dark Woods themselves, riders were surrounded by Monster Trees with blazing red eyes, which reached their talon-like branches towards them. Also, surrounding guests in the woods were the haunting sounds of howls, crickets, and even the wailing scream of a banshee. There was no music in this scene, only the disparate sounds of the forest. Floating deeper in the woods, glowing, menacing eyes kept watch on the ride vehicles as they passed.
At this point in the attraction, guests reached the Seven Dwarfs Cottage. Far from being a respite, however, the lingering sense of danger continued. Inside the cottage, white eyes on ornate carvings followed guests as they entered. This motif was continued by the anthropomorphic objects (chairs, plates, and a water pump), who also seemed to have glowing white eyes and looks of terror on their faces. Before transitioning into the next room, guests could see the frightened look of Snow White’s forest friends peering through the window, dreading something ahead.
Finally, guests finally met up with the Seven Dwarfs, who were climbing their stairway with trepidation. At the top of the stairs, the shadow of a demon seemed to be awaiting the little men. On the stairway banister, the eyes of intricately carved owls stared straight ahead.
Below the Seven Dwarfs, the Wicked Witch again appeared, holding her apple and offering it to guests. The vehicles then saw the cadaver-like women again, illuminated by lightning and screeching with delight, as they ran back out into the Dark Woods and towards the Seven Dwarfs Mine.
While the inside of the Diamond Mine featured “a-million diamonds” that sparkled all around. The omnipresent Witch was also there, bent on murder. Here, she gleefully tried to push a timber beam down, in order to crush guests below. With her humped back and one single eye uncovered, the Witch shrieked “Bye-bye people” as guests once again barely made it by alive.
Following the collapse of the mineshaft, a runaway mine car was whizzed at guests, as the unseen, frenzied Witch cackled at her attempted homicide.
Having once again escaped death, the ride vehicles continued forward towards the mine’s door, which seemingly led to safety. Perched above the doorway, however, the Wicked Witch stood, prying a giant diamond loose to drop on guests as they passed underneath. After all that had happened, the Witch was finally successful. The door in front of guests vanished and the vehicles went into the attraction’s final passage. Here, stars illuminated around them, and the Wicked Witch, omnipresent as always, cackled in a distorted and sped-up way. The Evil Queen had finally won, and riders had died. The attraction then ended. Pretty good right?
Snow White’s Adventures was created with the vague notion that guests were essentially a stand-in for the title Princess, and thus were experiencing the attraction from her point of view. As such, it has also been criticized for going over guest’s heads or being too esoteric. This, combined with the large number of complaints that Disney received about the frightening nature of the ride, would eventually lead to its 1994 refurbishment. At this time, the attraction’s tone was significantly lightened, Snow White was added throughout the ride, and a “happy ending” was installed to end things on a positive note. This refurbishment didn’t make the attraction better however, it simply made it palpable to a different demographic. You see, the problem with Snow White’s Adventures wasn’t that the main character was missing in action, or that it was too scary, it was that Disney had a great ride that it didn’t know how to present to the proper audience.
What Disney created with the original 1971 Snow White’s Adventures was something wholly unique; it was a dark ride that was legitimately scary. A ride that in a short three minutes, managed to create a permeating dark ethos. To the great credit of the Imagineers who created the attraction, Snow White’s Adventures used flat set pieces, scale models, and fairly primitive Audio-Animatronics to create a true piece of art. The attraction was an impressionist retelling of the emotional journey of Snow White, and guests got to experience it first hand.
Perhaps only in the pre-graveyard Haunted Mansion or the beginning third of Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean, did Disney have an attraction that was so atmospheric. The thrill of Snow White’s Adventures came from its perfectly set tone and the feeling that real danger was right around every corner.
With all that being said, the question remains — why wasn’t the attraction more popular? I think the answer is fairly simple: Snow White’s Adventures was never advertised properly, nor represented well from the outside of the attraction itself. Had Disney marketed the attraction to an older audience, gave guests a better idea of what the attraction would be, and perhaps emphasized the Wicked Witch in the attraction’s name, they could have had the psychologically thrilling, teen-oriented attraction that the company would search for throughout the 1990s. In other words, Snow White’s Adventures could have been what Disney hoped to create with the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter or Tower of Terror.
Instead, however, the attraction was presented as a Snow White attraction with a cute exterior, and little warning about what guests were about to experience. As a princess attraction aimed at the younger audience who flocked to it’s a small world and Peter Pan’s Flight, the attraction was not only a disaster, but it was the antithesis of what it was expected to be. Had it been properly portrayed to guests, Disney could have had a classic attraction in the same vein as the Haunted Mansion or Space Mountain. A ride that would become both a right of passage and something to conquer.
Whether or not Snow White’s Adventures is the greatest dark ride of all-time, the attraction brought something unique to the format. It was a fever-dream, thrilling, and downright scary attraction that held a unique place in the fabric of the Magic Kingdom. The attraction should have been remembered with Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, as a gold standard Fantasyland attraction. Instead, the original attraction remains largely forgotten. The 1994 Snow White’s Scary Adventures closed in 2012 to limited fanfare and is often remembered simply as the mediocre attraction that it was. Things didn’t have to be this way though if only Disney had realized what they had.
The Mickey Wiki is a Columnist for the Boardwalk Times
