The Paris equivalent of California’s “Snow White’s Scary Adventures” is simply called “Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains” which translates literally as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, thus giving the attraction the same name as the film upon which it is based.
Both are Fantasyland dark rides, which have existed in some form since the opening of their respective park.
In each you travel around the show building in a Dwarf’s Mine Car. These vehicles have a dwarf’s name on the front, in the appropriate language, which has made some people believe that they are supposed to be beds.
The Mine Cars in France are bigger, having three rows of riders, compared to Anaheim’s two.
In many other ways such as ride length, the audio-less sections and the exterior curtains periodically opening to reveal the Queen, the two rides are generally carbon copies.
One “mistake” that links the two is that the outside of the attraction and the queue area including the “Secret Chamber”, implies that the ride will start inside the Queen’s castle whereas it actually starts inside the Dwarfs’ cottage.
Likewise, in terms of chronology, the “Secret Chamber” section of the queue area of both features lighting and sound effects which imply that the Queen has already transformed into the witch, whereas this does not actually occur until half way through the ride.
Both “Secret Chambers” feature a book of spells behind faux-iron bars. Although both mention the poison apple (in their respective language), the France version also references “L’antidote…premier baiser d’amore” which translates roughly as “The antidote…love’s first kiss”.
I should also mention that in France, this Chamber does not feature the griffins that appear stateside. Creatures of a similar design, however, can be found in the Séance scene of Disneyland Paris’ Phantom Manor.
The recent(ish) changes to the lighting of California’s transformation scene have not yet made it to Europe, making that section feel crude in comparison. Also, in this room, California features the raven sitting on a beautiful throne, whereas in France, the familiar is perched on a spell book. However, a greater amount of real estate means that Paris’s ride has a better “reveal” of this section, taking Guests over a drawbridge, before the double doors part.
Towards the end of both rides is the “cottage door” scene, in which the Hag is seen to be offering an apple. Both versions have had this replaced by a hologram although in France, for about six months, the entire arm of the witch (including the apple effect) had fallen off and was lying on the floor, in full view of riders.
In the following scene, the order of the dwarfs is identical in both versions, from Dopey on the far left to Doc on the far right nearest the Hag as she tries to lever an object onto the rider’s Mine Car. In Paris, this object is some form of boulder, whereas in California there have been arguments put forward saying this object is an oversized emerald.
In France, the lighting seems all over the place in this section, making it less clear what has happened and to whom. However, this is compensated for in the final scene, which proves our heroes survived. This features waving figures of Snow White (on a horse), her Prince and Dopey, ears-a-wriggling, standing amongst various woodland creatures on a bridge. This addition may be the reason for the aforementioned addition to the book of spells.
Although visually more interesting than Anaheim’s simplistic open book stating “And they all lived happily ever after”, these animatronics look out of place. They appear to pout rather than smile, and our eponymous heroine seems to have grown her hair by at least six inches since we saw her in the ride’s opening.
I will end by mentioning one of my favourite details. In the foliage outside the attraction, there is a pickaxe. This may refer to the chap who the Queen sends to kill Snow White, but -seeing as in the 1937 Disney movie this character is a Huntsman with a dagger, rather than a Woodman with an axe- I would like to think that this prop is supposed to belong to one of the dwarfs, dropped in their rush to rescue our heroine – although I always was an idealist.
Portions of this article first appeared in my musings for DLDHistory.com in November 2010.