Peter Pan's Flight: Then and Now

When I was little, my family went to Disney nearly every year. With grandparents that live in Florida, it was easy to add a Disney vacation onto a trip to see them. My grandfather and I had the same favorite ride: Peter Pan's Flight. I loved the story of Peter Pan and adored London, having gone on a trip there when I was seven. I thought that the ride was absolutely magical and was entranced by how the 'ships' that you ride in were attached to the track above rather than below.

While Peter Pan’s Flight doesn’t depict a culture or group of people in the way that Pirates of the Caribbean or It’s a Small World does, it is an interesting adaption of a century-old story. Peter Pan was originally a play written by J.M. Barrie, a British playwright, near the turn of the century. Disney’s animated movie version of the tale was released in 1953 and significantly sanitized the tale, making Peter much more of a “good guy” than the ambiguously moral character he originally was and turning the scary villain Captain Hook into an almost goofy character.

Peter Pan’s Flight opened in Disneyland in 1955, just two years after the movie premiered, and the version I grew up loving appeared at Walt Disney World in 1971. It depicts a very condensed version of the story of Peter Pan, with important scenes making an appearance. Captain Hook only appears in a few scenes, where he looks laughable rather than intimidating. My favorite part of the ride is the nighttime scene of London, albeit a much cleaner and less gritty London than actually existed in the time that J.M. Barrie’s story is set.

One of the parts of the Peter Pan story that has come under scrutiny over time is its portrayal of Native Americans. The Indian princess Tiger Lily and her warriors are portrayed as a savage, if sometimes friendly group of people. The 1953 movie includes a song, “What Makes the Red Man Red?” that is blatantly racist, even for the 1950s. There is a part of the ride that depicts Tiger Lily and her Indian tribe sitting around a campfire. The Indians’ skin is red and they are seen sitting in a cross-legged position and in supposedly traditional dress. I can see that this portrayal of Native Americans might be questionable.

Peter Pan’s Flight is a very sanitized, child-friendly version of the Peter Pan tale in which the Indians are presented rather stereotypically, London is a clean and pretty place, and Captain Hook is a more laughable than fearsome villain. Disney’s adaption (in its movie and ride form) took much of the poignancy and the reality out of J.M. Barrie’s original tale. I think that while this cleaned-up version is in many ways less enjoyable for me as a young adult who loves the original Peter Pan tale, it increased my happiness levels on the ride as a child. Children, or at least children like I was, prefer things to be happy and light and avoid things that are scary or dark. I think that in many ways, Peter Pan's Flight was designed as a ride for children that they could enjoy without being scared, which resulted in a very tame version of the story.