Yesterworld: The Untold History of Peter Pan’s Flight - Disney’s Most Popular Fantasyland Ride.

this episode of yester world is sponsored by Verve stay tuned after the video to learn more and go to vr v co / yes to world to begin your free 30-day trial of Verve premium alright buzzy here we go oh no buzzy the ride stuck oh boy I feel my anxiety kicking in got to keep myself distracted say do you want to hear about the history of the original Peter Pan flight like how it came to be the lesser-known versions of the attraction its changes and how it became what it is today you do [Music] [Music] our story begins in 1953 with the release of Peter Pan which at the time became Disney's second most successful feature-length animation behind Snow White but the film's success would go far beyond the movie itself as the same year Walt Disney was officially ready to move forward with a little idea he was working on called Disneyland and in September with the help of animator herb Ryman his vision was realized in its first visual representation in the form of a sketch and alongside a Snow White ride Pinocchio Square an initially planned Alice in Wonderland walkthrough from the very beginning Peter Pan was chosen as one of fantasy lands main attractions we crossed the moat threw Sleeping Beauty's castle into the world of imagination once here we can fly with Peter Pan to Neverland wander with Alice through Wonderland because in this land hopes and dreams are all that mattered the first official map of Disneyland which came from that original sketch offers an even deeper look into the initial vision for the park and Peter Pan the central theme of the medieval castle courtyard would tie all of the Fantasyland rides together however over the course of the parks development Fantasyland was drastically scaled back due to budget and time constraints so like the other main attractions Peter Pan's castle courtyard slash village theming would become more of a Medieval Fair but while the appearance of Peter Pan show building would be revised even further the write itself would see the least amount of changes during fantasy lands revision process compared to the other dark rides the Pinocchio village idea was scrapped altogether and a new dark ride based on mr. toad would replace it as a main attraction the Alice in Wonderland walkthrough which had been revised into an elaborate dark ride was eventually put on hold in favor of a literal teacup attraction even the snow white ride would see changes to both his exterior and original layout with a number of show scenes cut during revisions but aside from staying true as to its initial vision Peter Pan would also allow Majan ears to experiments and divert from the conventional structure of dark rides Peter Pan would use an overhead conveyor system that were normally used in factories to transport materials above the floor this would provide the illusion of flight as visit would soar up to 17 feet above the ground and instead of tight corridors and being surrounded by flat cutouts Peter Pan would have wide open show scenes utilizing forced perspective but believe it or not while the show scenes were built at the Disney Studios fairly early on the construction of Peter Pan began only months before the park was to open thankfully the ride was completed just in time for the grand opening of Disneyland in July of 1955 it's a Peter Pan [Music] it looks as if this is going to be one of the most exciting rides of all when the park opened Fantasyland had a number of experiences based on other Disney animated films but the main attractions were Snow White in her adventures mr. Toad's Wild Ride in our destination Peter Pan flight after taking in the view of the rides medieval tent like design and purchasing a ticket if you hadn't done so already you passed through an archway and the rides beautiful mural came into view as you entered your very unique looking replica of Captain Hook ship you might have noticed that unlike Snow White and mr. toad whose vehicles were individually named these were an exception but you probably wouldn't have cared because your adventure was about to begin in the original 1955 version you soared from the loading station past the mural before making a sharp turn into the show building through a bland untamed entrance immediately you found yourself flying through the darling children's mostly empty nursery but as the room was only 16 feet long within moments you flew out of the window into London using a combination of models backdrops and forced perspective you were given the illusion is if flying higher and higher into the sky and in a scene that's remained at least altered in the attractions history you soared high above London and passed by iconic structures like Big Ben as you flew away from London towards the North Star you went into a stargaze corridor and you'd see a rotating figure of Tinkerbell who would also guide your way you then arrived to Neverland and it really was a sight to behold but unfortunately have yet to come across a single full image of the original 1955 model aside from this of the Native American village initially Neverland was to feature the mermaid lagoon and iconic rainbow but while they appeared in concept art and even the rides mural they didn't make it into the final scene once he reached the other side of Neverland with Captain Hook ship rocking back and forth in the water below supposedly you'd actually fly through the left eye of skull rock itself going off the original artwork it seemed as if you would physically pass through but given the overhead track system this seems highly unlikely however going off some unused schematics for a future version we'll get to later and to admit I could be mistaken it seems skull rock was partially built as seen here but in this version of painting or scrim gave the illusion as if passing straight through once you've entered skull rock bat circled above and stalactites filled the cavern within a mostly pitch-black environment you then came face to face with Captain Hook who yelled at Smee to shoot down your ship as you turn the corner you'd encounter the infamous crocodile and Smee aiming his musket and after nearly being hit you descended back to the ground towards the rides exit from opening day the original version of Peter Pan was incredibly popular but with the park's time and budget constraints the production values of the scenes were far less than Walt had initially envisioned this was also the case for many of the other lands within the park so the late 1950s saw a sort of phase 2 expansion / update of Disneyland this included the submarine voyage Matterhorn and finally realized Alice in Wonderland attraction and 1960 an updated Peter Pan flight but there's a little more to the story before we continue a frequent complaint of the dark ride Fantasyland attractions was that aside from the rides mural Peter Pan was never seen in Peter Pan mr. toad was never seen in mr. toad and Snow White was never seen in you get the idea but this wasn't an oversight initially Peter Pan was to be in the ride either as a vehicle or part of a scene but the idea was changed to instead have guests become Peter Pan and see the attraction through his point of view this was applied to all of the Fantasyland dark rides where guests took on the role of the protagonist in these beloved Disney films however visitors never quite got the concept and Disney was constantly flooded with complaints about not seeing the title characters of these attractions so while the other dark rides would have to wait a bit more time to rectify this issue Peter Pan was the first attempt to try to correct it during its 1960 update the first change was literally the entrance into the ride itself as now you'd fly towards a brick wall before turning into a pair of windows that opened into the nursery now you're receiving from me not mentioning the Peter Pan and Tinkerbell effect in dialogue from the movie according to a document from November 1960 these were actually part of the update family portraits repainted walls a barking Nana a Tinkerbell figure and Peter Pan projection along with dialogue from the movie are specifically listed in the document as I mentioned before the London scene would see the least amount of overall changes but it would get updated 3d buildings motorized traffic a new clock face and updated Tinker Bell figure Neverland was also given an update but as I mentioned earlier I've only come across visuals from this and future versions of the ride so I don't have anything to compare it to but one of the biggest changes was removing the effect of seemingly passing through skull rock instead you now simply flew past it and it was moved to a new location along the wall the final scenes were also given a major update as Captain Hook's figure was much more realistic and now featured movements as he raised his hook Smee was moved right next to Hook with Tiger Lily held captive in his boat and thus now featured an effect with speakers under your seat to give you a startle as he shot at your vehicle and the crocodile was moved to nearby smees original location with a new animated jaw that for some reason can be seen before he was relocated finally the ending was still a long dark cavern but now featured new wind effects in the addition of skulls and bones perhaps alluding to past visitors who were shot down by Smee now as you can probably imagine it's incredibly difficult to truck changes to an attraction like Peter Pan as it was so rarely photographed but it seems the original version of the attraction would see even more changes over the years the entrance into the nursery was redesigned again this time with a mural but it seems the effect of the windows opening into the scene were abandoned the nursery was also redesigned with new wallpaper in a slightly different Nana the lighting and painting and Neverland would also become more vibrant the finale was also updated again with more realistic figures and lighting and Tiger Lily was now held captive underwater but now it's time to jump forward a bit in time to the grand opening of the Magic Kingdom in 1971 we didn't this vacation for me for the kids we did this for you Margaret so you could get out of that hot sweaty kitchen and have the fun of your life right here in Disneyworld ooh let's use another part of the opening special come on Margaret we're gonna have some fun sweetheart on your feet now come on this is your holiday okay let's just cut to Julie Andrews [Music] when the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971 while Snow White was completely reimagined it would still ignore the complaints of the original version not including the character of Snow White it was also an incredibly nightmare-inducing attraction however thus Whaley renamed Peter Pan's flight was a whole other story the nursery scene now featured the darling children and the flight over London was even more impressive and elaborate than its disneyland counterpart this version of Neverland finally included the two scrapped elements of the original with the mermaid lagoon and Rainbow and the characters with the neverland were expanded as well this version also included the scene once planned for Disneyland's version showing a fight between Peter Pan and Captain Hook the rest of the attraction tied very closely to the end of the original animated film and this version of the ride was met with high praise for keeping the magic of the original but expanding the scenes and narrative but flash-forward to Disneyland in the early 1980s as it was becoming very clear that fantasy lands original dark rides which hadn't seen any major updates in over 20 years were long due for an overhaul so work officially began on New Fantasyland in 1982 which would include more than just updated rides but would finally see the realization of Walt's original vision of the land as a castle courtyard it would also more-or-less finally realize his initially planned Pinocchio village idea with a brand new attraction based on the animated film however unlike Snow White which was demolished entirely and rebuilt from the ground up only Peter Pan's exterior was demolished in the original truck layout would remain mostly the same the only exception was the finale as the nearby Mad Hatter was demolished to expand the attraction and add a separate unloading platform the rides new entrance was initially redesigned on a much larger scale but the final look would closer match its original 1950s design it was also during the New Fantasyland project that the iconic pirate ship restaurant Captain Hook's galley was demolished to make way for Dumbo's new location the reason I bring this up is because it's long been rumored that pieces of the restaurant were used in the updated Peter Pan but we'll get back to this in a bit there's a magical place not far from here where all your dreams come true [Music] where Papa's to me to real boys and go on real adventure why you can even fly in May of 1983 New Fantasyland officially opened to the public were finally characters like Snow White Alice and Pinocchio could be found in their own attractions this was also the case for Peter Pan but interestingly while the queues for mister toad and Snow White were now mostly enclosed Peter Pan was the only one that remained very similar to its open original structure in this new version instead of turning left into the show building the nursery had been expanded to begin immediately after taking flight Peter Pan's shadow from the 1960 update remained mostly the same along with the flight over London scene aside from updated effects and set pieces Tinker Bell was no longer in the starfield corridor but on the plus side the updated Neverland finally got its rainbow and while it seems the original effect of appearing to fly through skull rock was planned this was eventually scrapped as it would reside in the same place as the 1960s change with poor tiger lilies still trapped underwater from here on the ride played out very similar to Magic Kingdom's version and near the end of the ride Disneyland finally got its mermaid lagoon as a separate final scene also from here to the unloading platform was where the rides track went into the space formerly occupied by the Mad Hatter shop now as far as the pirate ship restaurant supposedly the lanterns riggings and other pieces were repurposed into Peter Pan but while it is true that these were in fact removed prior to its demolition I've personally yet to find any evidence of them in the ride even back then that being said outside the attraction you can actually find the hook from the restaurant sign on your left as you exit the vehicle much like Florida's version the updated Peter Pan brought the beloved attraction even more to life and with another more recent update in 2015 Peter Pan's flight looks better than ever now the age-old question has always been why's Peter Pan so incredibly popular with such long wait times almost year-round well for one the fourth lowest hourly load capacity of all the other attractions at Disneyland and ranks at number 51 of 66 within the entire resort with a similar placement at the Magic Kingdom and with versions at Disneyland Paris Tokyo Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland it's the only original Fantasyland dark ride to appear in all five main theme parks it also allows visitors to more or less experience the ability of flight which is after all the second most desired superpower Behind teleportation which the ride also does in a way it's also the only dark ride attraction that isn't confined to tight spaces or rely on plywood cutouts for scenery and doesn't include some of the more terrifying and darker elements of the others so I think it's a combination of these factors that ensures Peter Pan's flight knock on wood isn't going anywhere anytime soon unlike Magic Kingdom snow ye that one still really bothers me you know what else bothers me having two resorts expensive DVD collections or low-quality online videos to watch classic cartoons of the past but with fur that's no longer an issue however Verve has way more to offer than just classic cartoons and now features the science-fiction animated series genlock which stars Michael B Jordan Dakota Fanning Maisie Williams and more just go to VR video slosh yester world or click on the link in the description to sign up for a free 30-day trial of Verve premium today as always thank you all so much for watching and if you haven't already and make sure to check out the yester world podcast in the description below and we'll see you next time on yester world

Channel: Yesterworld Entertainment

Views: 1,097,711

Keywords: Yesterworld Theme Park, the history of Peter pan’s flight, disneyland Peter Pan flight, disneyland Peter Pan ride, disney Peter Pan ride, magic kingdom Peter Pan ride, history of Peter Pan, peter pan Disneyland history

Id: Ea-wXmBKVTU

Length: 16min 55sec (1015 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 02 2019