Viral Disneyland Content Creator Defends Her ‘Special Friendship’ With Peter Pan

迪士尼网红博主回应与“彼得·潘”的“特殊友谊”争议

As a Disney content creator, Toni Kulusich posts meet-and-greet videos with lots of different Disneyland theme park characters. But her favorite is Peter Pan. 作为一名迪士尼内容创作者，托妮·库鲁西奇（Toni Kulusich）经常发布与迪士尼乐园中各种角色的互动视频。但她最喜欢的角色是彼得·潘。

A hugely popular character in the Disney parks, Peter Pan has a large internet fan base and is beloved for his spontaneity and playful interactions with guests as well as his sharp-tongued, often bratty personality. Kulusich, a 27-year-old Los Angeles native who goes to Disneyland about once a week on her annual pass, loves making videos of herself with Peter, posting videos of herself playing tag with him or skipping around the parks. 彼得·潘是迪士尼乐园中极受欢迎的角色，在网络上拥有庞大的粉丝群。他因其随性、与游客俏皮的互动，以及言辞犀利、略带顽童性格的特点而备受喜爱。27岁的库鲁西奇是洛杉矶本地人，她持有年卡，大约每周去一次迪士尼。她热衷于拍摄自己与彼得互动的视频，比如一起玩捉人游戏或在乐园里蹦蹦跳跳。

Kulusich, who uses her middle name online for privacy reasons, never thought there was anything problematic about her Peter Pan content until August 2, when she saw that a video in which she’d gifted Peter a crocheted duck keychain was getting a lot of attention. As the views grew from 10,000 to a million, the negative comments started to pile up. “Slice that duck open and make sure there’s no AirTag inside,” one commenter wrote. “Imagine being known for being the creep that follows Peter Pan around,” another said. As the controversy unfolded, her TikTok following more than doubled, from about 50,000 followers to 125,000. 出于隐私考虑，库鲁西奇在网上使用中间名。她从未觉得自己的彼得·潘相关内容有什么问题，直到8月2日，她发现自己发布的一段送给彼得一个钩针编织鸭子钥匙扣的视频引发了大量关注。随着播放量从1万飙升至100万，负面评论也随之而来。“把那只鸭子切开，确保里面没有AirTag（追踪器），”一位网友写道。另一位则评论说：“想象一下，因为是那个整天跟着彼得·潘转的怪人而出名，是什么感觉。”随着争议发酵，她的TikTok粉丝数翻了一倍多，从约5万涨到了12.5万。

Kulusich was surprised. She knows about the internet’s antipathy toward so-called “Disney adults,” or people obsessed with the Disney movies and theme parks, with many accusing them of being self-indulgent, overgrown children. But she also doesn’t think her Disney fandom has crept into the rest of her life in an unhealthy way. She has a husband of four years and a full-time job as the manager of a big-box retail store. She has no formal affiliation with the brand and just makes Disney content as a hobby. “It’s not like I’m going to the store or to my job and thinking about Peter Pan,” she says. “It’s just that when I’m inside Disney, I’m able to release my inner child and the kid who doesn’t want to grow up. And that’s what [Peter Pan] stands for.” 库鲁西奇感到很惊讶。她了解互联网对所谓“迪士尼成年人”（即沉迷于迪士尼电影和主题乐园的成年人）的厌恶，许多人指责他们是自我放纵、长不大的孩子。但她并不认为自己对迪士尼的狂热以不健康的方式影响了她的日常生活。她结婚四年，拥有一份大型零售店经理的全职工作。她与迪士尼品牌没有任何正式合作，制作迪士尼内容纯属个人爱好。“我并不是在去商店或上班时还在想彼得·潘，”她说，“只是当我身处迪士尼时，我能够释放内心的童真，那个不想长大的孩子。而这正是（彼得·潘）所代表的意义。”

But that’s not what the people combing through her Instagram and TikTok accounts thought. They unearthed 10-year-old videos of her meeting Peter at Disneyland as supposed evidence of her obsession, even circulating a Change.org petition to have her banned from the parks. They analyzed Peter Pan’s body language in the videos, saying it reflected his discomfort with her; they commented on her wedding video and expressed sympathy for her husband, accusing Kulusich of secretly being in love with Peter Pan. (Kulusich’s husband, a marine, is a more casual Disney fan but is “really supportive” of her content, she says, though he prefers Cars’ Lightning McQueen to Peter Pan.) 但那些翻遍她Instagram和TikTok账号的人并不这么认为。他们挖出了她10年前在迪士尼与彼得见面的视频，作为她“痴迷”的所谓证据，甚至在Change.org上发起请愿，要求禁止她进入乐园。他们分析视频中彼得·潘的肢体语言，称其反映了对她的不适；他们在她的婚礼视频下评论，对她的丈夫表示同情，指责库鲁西奇暗恋彼得·潘。（库鲁西奇的丈夫是一名海军陆战队员，虽然只是个普通的迪士尼粉丝，但据她说，他“非常支持”她的内容，尽管他比起彼得·潘更喜欢《赛车总动员》里的闪电麦坤。）

Worst of all, Kulusich says, someone figured out where she works and posted the address, prompting her manager to change her hours for security reasons. “It’s definitely taken a toll on my mental health,” she says. “Imagine waking up to thousands of comments saying you’re a crazy stalker lady every single day.” 最糟糕的是，库鲁西奇说，有人查到了她的工作地点并公布了地址，导致她的经理出于安全考虑不得不调整她的工作时间。“这绝对对我的心理健康造成了损害，”她说，“想象一下，每天醒来都要面对成千上万条说你是疯狂跟踪狂的评论。”

By the end of last week, Kulusich was known worldwide as the deranged “Peter Pan Girl,” the Baby Reindeer of the Disney influencer ecosystem (a reference to Netflix’s 2024 black comedy series about a Scottish comedian’s stalker). “People really just took a five-second video of me with Peter Pan out of context and ran with it,” she says. 到上周末，库鲁西奇已在全球范围内被称为疯狂的“彼得·潘女孩”，成为了迪士尼网红圈里的“驯鹿宝贝”（Baby Reindeer，指Netflix 2024年一部关于苏格兰喜剧演员被跟踪的黑色喜剧剧集）。“人们真的只是断章取义地拿了我一段五秒钟与彼得·潘互动的视频，然后就开始大肆炒作，”她说。

The internet obsession with “Peter Pan Girl” touches on a few different internet culture flash points: the rapid spread of social media misinformation, the hysterical nature of TikTok armchair analysis and dogpiling, and of course, the widespread loathing of Disney adults. 互联网对“彼得·潘女孩”的痴迷触及了几个不同的互联网文化热点：社交媒体虚假信息的迅速传播、TikTok上“键盘侠”分析和网络暴力的歇斯底里，当然，还有对“迪士尼成年人”的普遍厌恶。

But Kulusich is not the first Disney content creator to be accused of violating the boundaries of popular “face” characters (Disney’s term for characters who appear in the parks outside a full-body suit, unlike Mickey and Minnie). In the mid-2010s, a similar fandom crept up around “Spieling Peter,” a Peter Pan character performer so named for his ability to “spiel” with park guests, with Tumblr fangirls documenting his every move. And in recent years, as the Disney influencer ecosystem has exploded on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, there’s been extensive social media discourse about Disney fans potentially making “face” characters uncomfortable, even accusing them of encouraging them to break character by asking them inappropriate questions on camera, potentially putting their jobs at risk. (When they are in the parks, actors must behave like their characters at all times.) 但库鲁西奇并不是第一个被指责越界的迪士尼内容创作者。她所接触的是“真人角色”（Face Characters，迪士尼对那些不穿全身玩偶服、露出脸部的角色的称呼，与米奇和米妮不同）。2010年代中期，围绕“Spieling Peter”也曾出现过类似的粉丝现象，这位彼得·潘扮演者因擅长与游客“即兴交谈”（spiel）而得名，Tumblr上的女粉丝们记录了他的一举一动。近年来，随着迪士尼网红生态在TikTok和Instagram等平台上的爆发，社交媒体上出现了大量关于迪士尼粉丝可能让“真人角色”感到不适的讨论，甚至指责粉丝通过在镜头前提出不当问题诱导角色“出戏”，从而可能危及他们的工作。（在乐园内，演员必须时刻保持角色状态。）

As a Disney content creator, Kulusich is well aware of the rules and guidelines governing character behavior in the parks, sometimes referring to the actor playing Peter Pan as a “friend of Peter,” using Disney-approved terminology. 作为一名迪士尼内容创作者，库鲁西奇非常清楚乐园内关于角色行为的规则和准则，有时她会使用迪士尼官方认可的术语，将扮演彼得·潘的演员称为“彼得的朋友”。

“I would never put him in a situation that would harm him or his role or his career or his character integrity,” she says of Peter Pan. She also refutes the popular accusations that she spends an inordinate amount of time chasing Peter around the parks. To bolster this point, she showed me a “Disney Unwrapped” post, her version of Spotify Unwrapped, revealing that she only “met” Peter Pan seven out of her past 30 visits to the parks. “我绝不会让他陷入任何会伤害他本人、他的角色、他的职业生涯或角色完整性的境地，”她谈到彼得·潘时说。她还反驳了外界关于她花费大量时间在乐园里追逐彼得的指控。为了证明这一点，她向我展示了一份“迪士尼年度总结”（Disney Unwrapped，类似于Spotify的年度总结），显示她在过去30次入园记录中，只“遇见”了彼得·潘7次。

But it’s also clear that Kulusich’s interest in Disney—and for that matter, Peter Pan—extends beyond that of the average fan or even the average Disney adult. She says the actors playing Peter know her name and recognize her from week to week, remembering the gifts she has given them and their previous interactions. “I do think people know that Peter Pan and I have a special friendship,” she tells me. 但显而易见，库鲁西奇对迪士尼——以及彼得·潘——的兴趣确实超出了普通粉丝，甚至超出了普通“迪士尼成年人”的范畴。她说，扮演彼得的演员知道她的名字，每周都能认出她，记得她送过的礼物和之前的互动。“我确实认为大家知道我和彼得·潘之间有着特殊的友谊，”她告诉我。

Disney did not respond to a request for comment. 迪士尼未回应置评请求。

Since the online backlash started, Kulusich has briefly considered whether some of her critics may have a point. “I’ve been asking myself: Why do I go meet him? Why do I go out of my way to try and find him? Why do I want to go and meet Disney characters and have these interactions with them?” she says. 自从网络反弹开始以来，库鲁西奇曾短暂地思考过，批评者是否有些道理。“我一直在问自己：我为什么要去找他？我为什么要费尽心思去寻找他？我为什么想去见迪士尼角色并与他们进行这些互动？”她说。

And she has landed on a very simple answer. “Seeing him makes me happy; 她最终得出了一个非常简单的答案。“见到他让我感到快乐；