The earliest memory I have of Snow White’s Scary Adventures at Disneyland is being in the shadowy, utterly terrifying woods with monster trees crunching all around the ride vehicle as the old witch jump-scares you for what felt like the hundredth time. I can’t tell you how old I was when I first rode the ride, but my first introduction to the hag form of the Evil Queen, even before I watched Walt Disney Animation’s Snow White in its entirety, was specifically the Disney Sing-Along Songs: Disneyland Fun! VHS tape my parents got me. It’s one of my biggest kid core memories, which probably explains my career.
In it the Disney Villains dance along to “Grim Grinning Ghosts” and it is childhood nightmare fuel in the best way. The costuming on the hag, with its face mask contorted to one expression based on the look post-transformation in Snow White, will haunt you. I wore that tape out as I eagerly anticipated annual birthday or Christmas trips to Disneyland as a Southern California native.
Snow White’s Scary Adventures is the version of the ride that existed between 1983 and 2020 at Disneyland; it was the second version of a ride that opened along with Disneyland itself in 1955. Scary Adventures is locked into my childhood memories; it was legit harrowing, because the original perspective of the ride was that “you” were dropped in as Snow White is leaving the kingdom and encountering the scary woods and the rest of the story she wasn’t privy too… but hey, theme park universes do their own thing. I never got to ride the Walt Disney World version, but it’s known to also have been horrifying, before being replaced by a Princess meet-and-greet area and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train family coaster at the Magic Kingdom. But yes, there were once two Snow White attractions with no Snow White, involving a ride into some very Evil Dead-tinged woods with a wicked old witch trying to kill you at every turn. Truly, it was the best.
The Imagineers didn’t hold back; the design of the dark woods with those monster tree faces was disturbingly disorienting, especially in contrast to the very cheery and bright fairytale fare outside. It was so metal: the beautiful Evil Queen animatronic did a transformation where, right before your eyes, she would cast the spell on herself then twist toward riders as the old hag with screeching cackles that are seared into my memory. Then for the rest of the ride she would pop out at you like the Babadook, taking you by surprise no matter how familiar you were with its storybook twists and turns.
Much like the VHS version of the old hag, her figures’ faces stuck creepily in those haunting expressions. It was most excellent and sorely missed because it made the Fantasyland mainstay just as scary as the Haunted Mansion. It was such a memorable thrill ride, with the iconic and truly scary version of the queen’s disguise, which with her first appearance in my consciousness on that tape made me terrified of her. It really toed that line of scary and fun as a gateway ride for little horror fans in the making.
Disneyland celebrates its 70th this year with the third incarnation of its Snow White attraction, Snow White’s Enchanted Wish, which opened in 2021. While the fun spooky elements have been ripped out in favor for more scenes with Snow White, a few major elements from the ride remain. Thankfully the Evil Queen’s epic transformation is still the showstopper effect, and we love the poison apple sequence that works along with the polished look to the incredible original set designs. And there’s a couple of her peek-a-boo moments still featured as part of its new, more cutesy storyline that tamed the horror show it once was into a more digestible Disney family ride.
Still, it is a little saddening that it’s hard to find official images of the older ride that many people today still remember; a lot of its past as Snow White’s Scary Adventures has seemingly been scrubbed from the official Disney Experiences channels. We’d much rather see Disney embrace its own weird history and acknowledge why certain rides are given thematic changes. Taking away the work Imagineers put in that version is silly when they should be proud of scarring kids for life—because those kids learned you can overcome fears and leveled up to the next thrill ride like the Haunted Mansion, the former Tower of Terror, and the seasonal Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy.
I believe that in theme parks, you should build up to those more intense rides, because you can’t just go from pixie dust and singing animals to ghosts and drops on coasters. Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad this current version was my daughter’s first ride. (You can see how it went in my social media post above.) I love how Snow White’s Enchanted Wish now combines scenes from the animated film into the environment and has a dazzling mine sequence and more fairytale romance as the through-line. Would it have been my daughter’s first ride if it were still Snow White’s Scary Adventures? Not a chance.
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