10 Things You May Not Know About Peter Pan’s Flight

1. Bringing Pixie Dust to Florida

Peter Pan’s Flight was one of the opening day attractions in Disneyland (and one of the few to still exist!). Years later, the Magic Kingdom version opened on October 3rd, 1971, two days after the opening of the park itself. This version saw the inclusion of Peter Pan (no, he wasn’t in the Disneyland version), as well as the addition of several new scenes, such as the Mermaid Lagoon and the Lost Boys camp. Captain Hook’s 48-foot pirate ship was now fully realized and served as the setting for Captain Hook and Peter Pan’s climactic duel. The Florida version introduced the moving walkway load/unload system, similar to the setup at the Haunted Mansion. This allowed the queue to move faster, thus increasing the attraction’s capacity.

2. The Flight to Neverland

The experience of flying above London is one you’ll never forget, and the attraction is home to one of the simplest special effects in the Magic Kingdom; that of the cars driving through the streets below. The cars are actually small black-lit dots that are painted on chains (similar to bicycle chains). Simple? Yes. Unforgettable? Definitely. (Pay close attention and you can even hear the faint honking of the horns!) There are no fancy holograms here, no complex CGI effects, just some classic Disney cleverness and cinematic know-how. Continuing on, you’ll soar past the full Moon, where you can see the silhouettes of Peter Pan, Wendy, Michael, and John. Everyone has their favorite scene, whether it’s the Mermaid Lagoon, tthe final battle between Peter Pan and Captain Hook, or the humorous encounter between Hook and his nemesis, the crocodile. And who among us hasn’t peered into the volcano, trying to see how far down you can see!

3. Wendy’s Outfit

The Wendy figure on the gangplank is the only character wearing real clothing on the whole ride. The rest are made of plastic.

4. What Could Have Been

In August 1954, while working on the attraction, Imagineers wanted to build other scenes that never made it to the ride. These included a giant rainbow, scenes from Crocodile Creek, and Hangman’s Tree. They also wanted the boats to be flying in a clockwise-direction at Skull Rock, which is the opposite of how it turned out.

5. No Building? No Problem!

During the construction of the Disneyland version of the attraction, Imagineer Bob Mattey and others built a testing track right inside the Disney Studio. This had to be done since the buildings for the dark rides in Fantasyland had not been finished yet. Here you can see Walt Disney himself inspecting the ride vehicles!

6. Down to the Wire

Claude Coats, Ken Anderson and other Imagineers worked tirelessly in an attempt to complete Peter Pan’s Flight in time for the opening day of Disneyland. Under the pressure of such an extreme time restriction, they painted straight onto the wood inside the building, making up a lot of it as they went along. Normally, a great amount of time and consideration would go into the planning and painting of an attraction. Templates would be made, and care would be taken to perfectly match the concept drawings done in pre-production. Unfortunately, the time constraints imposed by the tight deadline didn’t allow for such preplanning. The results, however, were still spectacular!

7. Building Blocks

If you look closely at the toy blocks in the Darling nursery in the queue, you’ll notice they spell out “Peter Pan!”

8. Hey, Those Aren’t Real Clouds…

The clouds above London are actually plastic bags.

9. Flying High…Well, Not Really

Despite the use of forced perspective to make you seem farther up than you already are, the highest you’ll ever be is a mere 17 feet.

10. Landmarks You Didn’t Notice

Famous scenes in the attraction include the Thames River, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower Bridge, and the Parliament Building.

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