Friday, January 16, 2009

Snow White’s Scary Adventures: Interior Views



For collectors of Disneyland images, interior shots of the Dark Rides are the equivalent of The Holy Grail. Even today, taking photos of a Dark Ride’s interior can be challenging; a moving vehicle causes blur, and the low-level of light means you either have to use a flash (which ruins the visual effect of the attraction) or shoot at a high speed (which produces a very grainy image at best). Here are two vintage images that were used to promote the attraction on the 3D Viewmaster Reels. The first shot is a scene that no longer exists. Strangely enough, the mining scene today (located early in the attraction) shows the mine and the treasure, but no dwarves.



Shot #2 shows the Evil Queen, transformed into The Old Crone. She is holding the poisoned apple, just dipped in the deadly brew and still "dripping" with the potion.



Here is an amateur shot of The Old Crone about to dip the apple in the cauldron, taken in April 1959.



And here is a similar scene today, which has become much more elaborate:



Stay tuned for tomorrow as I begin a new vintage series with a few rare shots of the Snow White queue murals. See more Disneyland Snow White’s Scary Adventures photos at my website.

4 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

Did you take that last photo? If so, it really came out great! The Imagineers did a pretty good job of emulating the look of the film, although the witch gets a bit lost in all of that lovely detail.

Unknown said...

Wow...

Great shots, indeed!

rhinodad said...

Dave,

Did you or someone else 'photoshop' the apple in the 1959 pic? Looks sort of out of place.

Daveland said...

Rhinodad - No photoshop back in 1959! That was my addition...I thought the photo needed a little pizzazz. And yes Major - the current photos were ones that I shot. Thanks!