I did these both in about 5 minutes just to see how they would look
Snake with lattice deform
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6271631151410614424&hl=en
Snake with curve deform
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4289114757402623493&hl=en
Not terribly artistic but I think you could apply the same method for someting much better.