Snow White's Scary Adventures
| Snow White's Scary Adventures | |
|---|---|
| Park | Magic Kingdom |
| Land / area | Fantasyland |
| Type | Dark ride |
| Opened | October 1, 1971 |
| Closed | May 31, 2012 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering
|
| Status | Closed |
Snow White's Scary Adventures was a dark ride in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, based on Disney's 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It opened with the park on October 1, 1971 — as Snow White's Adventures, without the word "Scary" — and closed on May 31, 2012. Its building became Princess Fairytale Hall, and its story was carried on in the park by Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which opened in 2014.[1]
History
The Florida ride followed Disneyland's 1955 original, including that ride's most misunderstood design choice. Snow White herself did not appear in the 1971 version at all. The intention was that the guest was Snow White: the mine cars were the heroine's point of view, and the story's threats — above all the Queen, who appeared repeatedly, transforming into the Witch — were directed at the rider. Many guests never grasped the device and simply asked where Snow White was, while others complained, with reason, that a Fantasyland ride built around pursuit, a haunted forest and a poisoned apple was frightening for small children.[2]
Disneyland had addressed the same complaints in its 1983 Fantasyland rebuild, adding the heroine and renaming its ride Snow White's Scary Adventures. Florida kept its original, scarier version for another decade. The Magic Kingdom ride closed on October 14, 1994 for a major refurbishment and reopened on December 16, 1994 under the "Scary Adventures" name, aligned with the California version.[3]
The irony was noted at the time: the ride acquired the word "Scary" in the same refurbishment that made it considerably less scary, the new name serving partly as a warning label the softer ride no longer quite needed.
Experience
The 1971 version was a first-person ordeal. Riders boarded four-person mine cars and were carried through the Dwarfs' mine and cottage largely as witnesses to danger: the Queen at her mirror and at her cauldron, the transformation into the Witch, the Witch offering the apple, the dark forest with its reaching trees and glowing eyes, and the Dwarfs appearing mainly in fright. Snow White, the Prince and any happy ending were absent; the ride ended in menace rather than resolution.
The 1994 version retold the film as a story guests watched rather than endured. It used larger six-person cars and a brighter, more complete narrative. Snow White now appeared five times, including at the wishing well and dancing with the Dwarfs in the cottage; the Dwarfs were given a fuller presence, the Witch's appearances were reduced, and the ride gained the ending the original had withheld — the Prince's kiss, the couple departing, and Dopey waving goodbye from a bridge as the cars passed beneath.
Even softened, the ride kept a darker register than its Fantasyland neighbours: the transformation scene, the forest and the Witch remained its centrepieces, and the "Scary" name stayed accurate enough for parents of toddlers.
Closure and legacy
The ride's end came as part of the Fantasyland expansion of the early 2010s, which planned a dedicated Snow White attraction — the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train — making a second Snow White ride in the same land redundant, while princess meet-and-greets needed a permanent indoor home. Snow White's Scary Adventures closed permanently on May 31, 2012, after a final period in which long-time guests made deliberate farewell visits.[4]
Princess Fairytale Hall opened in its building on September 18, 2013. The Mine Train, which opened on May 28, 2014, inherited more than the story: several figures from the closed ride, including the cottage-scene Dwarfs and the two vultures from the forest, were moved into its finale, while its Snow White, Dopey and Sneezy figures were newly made.[5] Versions of the ride survive at other Disney parks, but the Magic Kingdom's — first the park's most frightening telling of the story, then its most complete one — is gone, remembered in two distinct forms by two generations of guests.
See also
- Snow White's Enchanted Wish
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- Fantasyland (Magic Kingdom)
- List of defunct Disney attractions