Disneyland is about to to replace one in every of its oldest rides to right racist tropes about Indigenous individuals.
Peter Pan’s Flight, one of many authentic theme park points of interest when Disneyland opened in Anaheim in 1955, will replace Tiger Lily and her tribe within the experience, which has come below scrutiny for its racist portrayal of Native American characters.
An up to date By no means Land Tribe scene just lately was unveiled on the firm’s Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., and the corporate mentioned riders can anticipate to see these revisions in any respect its areas globally. The corporate didn’t present a timeline.
“Imagineers have a longstanding historical past of creating updates and enhancements to points of interest and experiences so they continue to be contemporary and related,” Disney officers mentioned in an emailed assertion.
James Matthew Barrie, who wrote the play “Peter Pan” after which the novel “Peter and Wendy” within the early twentieth century, used racist phrases like “redskins” and “savages” to explain Native American tribes, and this imagery carried over into the 1953 adaption of his work in Disney’s animated movie “Peter Pan,” with musical numbers like “What Makes the Crimson Man Crimson?” In 2015, Disney was accused of whitewashing Tiger Lily by having Rooney Mara, a white girl, painting the Native American princess in “Pan.”
Disney has posted an advisory concerning the 1953 movie on its web site noting, “The movie portrays Native individuals in a stereotypical method that displays neither the variety of Native peoples nor their genuine cultural traditions.” Its 2023 live-action movie “Peter Pan & Wendy” tried to flesh out Tiger Lily’s narrative arc by giving her character extra talking strains and hiring Indigenous actress Yara Shahidi to play the half.
Earlier than final week’s replace at Walt Disney World, Tiger Lily and her tribe had been depicted sitting round a fireplace with crossed arms whereas others drummed. The tribesmen have exaggerated options like broad noses and huge feathered headdresses. The up to date figures present Tiger Lily and her grandmother dancing across the hearth and males drumming within the background.
Disney didn’t reply when requested if it had consulted Indigenous tribes on the change.
“We contemplate ourselves fixed learners and as we establish methods that may make our points of interest and experiences extra genuine and relatable, and our tales join extra deeply to our company, we make considerate modifications,” Disney officers continued of their assertion to The Occasions.
Not everybody was proud of the modifications Disney was making to the basic experience.
“Go woke go broke,” one person on Fb commented on information of the modifications.
However others had been blissful to see the corporate updating portrayals they thought of stereotypical and dangerous.
“Drum circle and dancers, I adore it. Somebody put quite a lot of thought into the replace fairly than simply eradicating it,” commented one other.
