Magic Kingdom: Disney alters Peter Pan’s Flight plan
Peter Pan’s Flight, the longtime attraction at Walt Disney World, has reopened at Magic Kingdom theme park after a six-week refurbishment. There have been changes that visitors can easily spy.
It’s not a major overhaul. The Fantasyland attraction remains a dark ride in which passengers are in miniature galleons that appear to float above London landmarks and other elements of “Peter Pan,” the 1953 animated Disney film.
The most notable visual change for passengers involves the scene featuring Native Americans. But here are five things to know before you lift up again for Peter Pan’s Flight. Here we go:
The characters
The previous version of the attraction included a Never Land Tribe scene with animatronic drumming natives with a chief in a headdress and Tiger Lily, a character from the film and works by novelist/playwright J.M. Barrie. Tiger Lily is no longer sitting, but dancing with her grandmother, Disney says. The duo is performing the traditional “Fancy Shawl Butterfly Dance,” the company says. The drummers remain, but the headdress, which can be considered stereotypical, is gone. This all happens quickly, right after passing Mermaid Lagoon, as the action moves higher.
The setting
There are other changes there, including baskets of vegetables plus fish cooking over an open fire. Designs on the background tents have been changed from a buffalo, a bird and the sun to a turtle, a couple of stars and an animal paw print.
The world
Changes are also coming to the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland in California. There are similar attractions in Disney parks in France, China and Japan. Hong Kong Disneyland is Flight-free.
The changes
Disney World has made changes to several Magic Kingdom attractions over the years based on sensitivity. That includes small alterations, such as the addition of a figure in a wheelchair in “it’s a small world” in 2023. At Pirates of the Caribbean, a scene in which a redheaded woman was auctioned off was revised to give Redd a rifle, lines and a leadership role in 2018. On a larger scale, the Splash Mountain ride, which utilized characters based on the “Song of the South” film, was remodeled to become into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which opened this summer with characters from “The Princess and the Frog.”
The history
Peter Pan’s Flight wasn’t technically an opening day attraction at Magic Kingdom, although it was planned to be. The ride, which had already been a part of the Disneyland lineup, debuted Oct. 3, 1971, two days after the park was open to the public. “Only two attractions planned to be ready on opening day failed to accommodate Friday visitors,” Orlando Evening Star reporter Dick Marlowe wrote in the Oct. 4, 1971 edition of the newspaper. “One of them, Peter Pan’s Flight, was working by Sunday afternoon and quickly became a favorite – particularly for the youngsters.”
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