Snow White's Scary Adventures or simply Snow White and her Adventures and Snow White's Adventures as it was originally named is an attraction with a shared development history and parallels with the Haunted Mansion.
Description[]
Snow White's Scary Adventures is a dark-ride attraction found in the Fantasyland of Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland as-well as formerly having appeared in the Fantasyland of Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. The Florida incarnation of the ride having shut down in 2012 to be replaced with the Fairy Tale Hall meet 'n' greet area but had a successor in the form of the roller-coaster Seven Dwarves Mine Train, also in the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland. All versions of the ride are themed to the 1937 Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
The ride was an opening day attraction in California's Disneyland, originally being named Snow White and her Adventures but was later renamed due to guests not understanding how intense the ride was. The ride has guests riding wooden vehicles carved by dwarves through the castle of the Evil Queen, the forest outside the castle, and through the dwarves' cottage and mine. The attraction put guests in the role of Snow White from the film, being relentlessly pursued by her step-mother the Evil Queen who wishes to murder her.
Connections[]
The Haunted Mansion[]
The attraction was largely developed by imagineer and visual-artist Claude Coats who also largely developed the Haunted Mansion, being known for the more intense and ominous elements of the original ride while Marc Davis was more responsible for the humour. Many of Coats' more scary ideas and designs for the Haunted Mansion were turned down to make it more family friendly and it is believed that these ideas were passed on to Snow White and her Adventures. There are also many parallels between the ride elements of the attractions.
Snow White's Scary Adventures has a scene in which guests pass through a dark forest attempting to escape the lair of the Evil Queen. As guests travel through the forest, the trees all turn to face the guests which reveal them having horrific faces, snarled mouths and glowing eyes. These are a more extreme version of the Scary Trees found in the attic descent of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion; both of these being reminiscent of a similar scene from the 1937 film where Snow White is terrorized by perceived animate trees and logs. Blueprints for the Haunted Mansion show that the trees were intended to move towards guests in their Doom Buggies similarly to how the trees move in Snow White's Scary Adventures. These trees appeared dancing with the Disney Villains and Donald Duck in the Grim Grinning Ghosts segment of Disneyland Fun and Lets Go to Disneyland Paris outside of the Antebellum Mansion and Ravenswood Manor respectively.
The dungeon scenes of the ride featured skeletons chained and barred up, calling out for help from guests as they passed by. In addition to being reminiscent of the Coffin Occupant, these are highly reminiscent of a cobweb man who once was featured in the attraction of Walt Disney World. There was also a giant orange spider feeding on a skeleton which was in this scene as guests were warned to go back.
Phantom Manor[]
Griffins are mounted on the walls and hold onto ropes which are attached to the curtains in the séance circle scene in this attraction. These griffins in Phantom Manor deeply resemble wall-mounted griffin statues from the Evil Queen's secret lair in Disneyland with the only real difference being that the Snow White Gargoyles hold onto maces.
When exiting Phantom Manor to Boot Hill, if guests look back at the manor they can see the Phantom in a window of the mansion, looking at them through a curtained window. This is highly reminiscent of an addition to Snow White's Scary Adventures implemented in 1983 where the Evil Queen can be seen from the entrance to the attraction (themed to her castle), peering at guests in a very similar fashion.
Other Connections[]
- The Evil Queen's potion ingredients (which can be observed from the ride) can be seen on a shelf in Port Royal Curios and Curiosities. This being the Haunted Mansion's unofficial gift-shop in Disneyland.
- The Evil Queen's hag form used to be caged in the shop Le Bat en Rouge in New Orleans Square, trying to bargain with guests for them to free her.
- Tokyo Disneyland had a walk-through attraction known as the Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour which was influenced by Snow White's Scary Adventures. In the first scene of this attraction, there was a changing portrait of Snow White turning into the Evil Queen. They made a similar appearance outside of Phantom Manor in Let's go to Disneyland Paris.
- The Evil Queen's hag form and the scary trees appeared outside of the antebellum mansion in the Grim Grinning Ghosts segment of Disneyland Fun. They danced alongside the Disney Villains of the Big Bad Wolf, Maleficent, Captain Hook and Jafar while terrorizing Donald Duck dressed as a ghost.
- The Evil Queen of whom the ride is predominately themed around is considered an official member of the Disney Villains. The Hitchhiking Ghosts and Oogie Boogie are also considered a member of this group and so the Evil Queen has had a number of appearances alongside Haunted Mansion characters.
- She is the villain who assembles all of the Disney Villains to attack Mickey Mouse in the nighttime show Fantasmic!, a show which in Disneyland is found on Tom Sawyer's Island and the Rivers of America as seen from New Orleans Square.
- The evil queen's witch-form appeared in-front of the Haunted Mansion and Phantom Manor in the Grim Grinning Ghosts segments of Disneyland Fun and Lets Go to Disneyland Paris.
- The Evil Queen assisted in the take-over of the House of Mouse in the film Mickey's House of Villains alongside the Hitchhiking Ghosts, Opera Ghosts and Madame Leota.
- An incarnation of the Evil Queen's witch-form appeared as a resident of Halloween Town in the film the Nightmare Before Christmas of which Haunted Mansion Holiday and Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare are based on.
- In 2010, she appeared alongside Dr. Facilier from the Princess and the Frog (2008) outside of Phantom Manor where they scared guests near the exit in Boot Hill.
- The Evil Queen was a major character in the show Once Upon a Time under the name of Regina Mills which also featured Madame Leota and Memento Mori.
Gallery[]
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