Walt Disney Imagineering has unveiled its latest attempt to replace insensitive racial stereotypes in Disney’s theme parks.
Peter Pan’s Flight has reopened at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Inside the attraction, Imagineers have removed the Native American caricatures inspired by the 1953 Disney animated film. In their place, park guests will now find “the Neverland Tribe’s Harvest Festival featuring Tiger Lily,” said Michael Hundgen, vice president of creative, Walt Disney World portfolio at Walt Disney Imagineering.
Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Imagineering
Smithsonian Magazine has detailed the racist history of Peter Pan’s Native American tribe. I would like to refer you to this link if you want to know why Disney felt this change was necessary. Remember that Disney rejected his 1953 film on Disney+:
Disney+ disclaimer that appears before “Peter Pan.”
Disney renewed its commitment to the Peter Pan intellectual property with an expensive new attraction as part of the Fantasy Springs expansion at Tokyo DisneySea: Disney is offering a new way to fly with Peter Pan in Tokyo. So it’s no surprise that Disney chose to keep the Peter Pan rides in the United States rather than convert the popular floating dark rides into another intellectual property, as the company did with Splash Mountain.
The change in Orlando is intended to give Tiger Lily more power, while portraying the other tribe members with a dignity that was missing in the previous version of the scene.
I’ll wait until I see the new scene in person in Orlando or Anaheim when it inevitably comes to Disneyland before I say more. But for now, it’s nice to see Disney working on expanding a popular attraction like this.
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