It certainly didn’t make many headlines. But a small change to a painting on a popular attraction’s queue is enough to signal a more moderate Disney.
More than a year ago I was sounding the alarm that the Disney Parks were being scanned and audited by a group called “Story Matters” in an effort to find anything and everything that might offend. Based on their findings, the Jungle Cruise attraction was heavily modified. Based on their findings, a now-cancelled Spaceship Earth refurbishment would have had the storyline altered around modern political issues. Based on their findings, terms like “boy” and “girl” had to be struck from the parks… now swapped with cult-like gender inclusive language at all times. Now instead of sir or ma’am, we’re all “friends.”
That may all be coming to an end based on an important report out of Blog Mickey.
Disney World Removes “Indian Camp” Reference at Peter Pan’s Flight in Magic Kingdom https://t.co/OgmkzklHUv
— BlogMickey.com (@Blog_Mickey) August 1, 2022
Rather than striking the depictions of North American indigenous persons as they exist in Neverland, it now appears that Tiger Lilly and her family will be staying on the attraction. According to my sources, that’s a full reversal of what the Story Matters Group likely wanted. There’s absolutely no way in this world that I can believe Carmen Smith wanted to keep those characters in Peter Pan’s Flight. And yet stay they will.
Now, instead of being removed, they’re being renamed. No longer are they “indians,” now they’re the Never Land Tribe. That’s the first time they’ve been given this title anywhere within Disney, so is this a new canonical term for them? Is their existence and continuance within the lore of Disney’s Peter Pan being reestablished with a new title? It seems the answer to this question is “yes.”
You may not think this is a big deal. You may even think this is a morally reprehensible decision on the part of Disney. Whatever the case is for you, I’m recognizing it as yet another signal that the company has begun to moderate. One year ago, this would have been a totally different decision. Today, Disney is not only keeping the characters from Peter Pan, but they’re also giving them a new title.
Perhaps those in charge of Disney read the following critique by a guest writer for That Park Place, David Walker, himself a Native American with a strong opinion about Disney World’s alterations to his cultural representation:
More galling, is Disney’s diversity and inclusion efforts, in which they remove any depiction of Indigenous peoples from the story and populate the colonial explorers with a group of ethnically diverse people. Leading the explorers is Alberta Falls, a woman with Indian and British ancestry. Others among the expedition include, Alberta’s Irish cousin on her father’s side, Siobahn, who is nicknamed Puffin because of her fondness for those birds. Dr. Kon Chunosuke, a Japanese entomologist, Rosa Soto Dominguez, a Mexican artist recently returned from an exhibition in Paris, Dr. Leonard Moss, a black Canadian botanist and at the bottom of the totem pole is Felix Pechman, the skipper of the Jungle Cruise charter that’s originally from Florida. How progressive it is of Disney to cast a number of women as colonial jungle explorers. But, how racially insensitive it is to cast an Irish woman, a black man, a Mexican woman and an Indian woman as members of a colonial expedition when these peoples had their own experiences of colonialism under British and Spanish expansion. How inclusive of Disney to paint the victims of colonialism as colonial explorers. Thank goodness, they replaced the peoples under the treat of colonial expansion in this particular narrative with a boatload of apes.
So for those of you who think there is still no evidence of Disney moderating its positions and leaving politics behind… keep paying attention.
For all the latest news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. As always, drop a comment down below and let us know your thoughts!
I feel like the Splash Mountain change will, if Chapek is serious about moderating the company, will likely be the last time anything woke happens in the parks. Let’s face it, the money is already spent on rethemeing it so there’s no going back.
They have NOT spent any money on it!
Interesting how the small stuff is changing. It’s the little indicators. Anyone can wait until it’s obvious. That’s why I like this blog and Valliant Renegade.
As a side note, Razorfist interviewed the BattleTech author whom recently got fired. The BT community isn’t happy.
Between LOTR and BT I think they bit off more than they can chew. Those fandoms are quite territorial.
Looks like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
Neverland Tribe? Did the Peter Pan author give it this name? Why not give it no name? Not sure if it’s a good sign of moderation, but these are busy bees and they’re still changing Splash Mountain.
Are they removing Walt from Disney World?
I don’t see this as a win for moderation. I see this as a forced change, like the Washington Redskins, in the name of political correctness. We can’t say “Indian” or “Redskins” anymore, because that’s somehow offensive to some white people that think it’s offensive to Indians.
This is a loss, not a win. A win would be Chapek telling them to pound sand, while the name remained.
But when did they first say “how”?