One of Disneyland's original Fantasyland dark rides will be getting a big tech upgrade in the new year.
Disneyland confirmed today that it will be substantially refurbishing Snow White's Scary Adventures, refreshing and adding scenes to the classic attraction.
"Imagineers are implementing state-of-the-art audio and visual technology throughout the attraction, including new music, LED black lighting, laser projections and a new animation system. The exterior of the attraction will be completely refreshed with new, fairy tale-inspired details to complement the nearby charming Sleeping Beauty Castle," Disneyland said in a press release.
Snow White and Her Adventures opened with the park in 1955, adding the "Scary" to its title during its 1983 "New Fantasyland" redesign, which was the last time the ride got a major overhaul. Originally, Disney's original princess did not appear in her eponymous ride, as you were supposed to be experiencing the adventures from her point of view.
That didn't explain why you saw the Wicked Witch meeting her demise at the end of the ride, though, because - as I've insisted many time before - from Snow White's POV, the magic/poison apple worked. She takes a bite and the next thing she knows, the Prince is kissing her and whisking her away to Happily Ever After.
Disney is promising more of that Happily Ever After in the new version of the ride, which should benefit from more modern animation technology. The current version will close after January 6, 2020. No reopening date has been announced yet.
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I love this tiny little ride, and I think it fills an important niche in the overall theme park experience. Not every ride has to be an epic adventure that warrants waiting in the hour long line. Sometimes a couple minute ride with a 10 minute wait is just the ticket. I understand the reasoning for changing the ending, but I'm going to miss the glorious nonsensical ending with the witch getting electrocuted followed quickly with "And they lived happily ever after".
@ Russell Meyer I would hardly call it a pig of a ride. As Angry Duck said not every ride has to be epic. These little classic rides fill an important role and make the park more enjoyable for people of all ages. I appreciate that despite the lack of space they are keeping them rather than turning them into meet & greets or revenue generating venues.
I don't think the ride is a "pig" per se, but the decision to just upgrade the tech and do a slight rework to the ending is more of a minimalist approach. Obviously gutting and reworking all of the ride's scenes would take more effort (and money), but that's really what this attraction needs instead of just a technological upgrade. This attraction steadily lags behind the rest of the Fantasyland attractions (below even the mediocre Pinocchio's Daring Journey), yet Disney is not taking the time while it's down to fix its most inherent flaws (poor pacing and uneven narrative).
I agree that every park needs some smaller rides like this that have shorter lines to disperse guests, but Fantasyland is full of them, and if Disney is going to take the time to upgrade the lighting, music, and add projection mapping, why not perform a full and proper rework of the attraction. I have no idea how much they're spending on this, but you'd have to believe it wouldn't cost that much more to modify the scenes (most of which are comprised of cardboard cutout-style figures), allowing the attraction to make more narrative sense.
@Russell Meyer, have faith. They haven’t even begun to work on it. Maybe it will turn out to be just what the ride needs.
russell meyer--I don't understand what you mean? I suspect other people do not either. What is a complete reworking? As you said. The ride has a small footprint. The ride has to skip a ton from the movie due to that. I don't see how they can change the basic narrative of the ride given the confined space. All of the tech that the articles mentions seems like it would make a significant difference. I suppose they could add a modern animatronic. But they wasted (what was it one or two billion) on the whole disney band project with limited utility. Due to that and now Hong Kong (completely distinct from China per the treaty) and the disneyland in China having some attendance issues (due to the Chinese Governments abuse of human rights and disallowing a ton of classes of speech), money is not infinite. Disney is making a profit, but there is around 40 percent of companies that have been more profitable in the last 20 years. Disney is about in the middle of companies in the US for profit margin. And. Disney has more risks on the downside than a significant number of other corporations.
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It's a shame Disney can't do more with this than upgrade the tech inside. The narrative of this attraction has always been problematic, primarily because of the small space that it occupies. While it sounds like they might be reworking the ending to tone down the "scary", this seems like more of a "lipstick on a pig" move.