5 stories behind your favorite Planet Snoopy rides
Kelly Obbie
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What’s in a name? How about nearly 70 years of comic strips and cartoons! Each Kings Island ride has a story behind its creation and theming, but the Planet Snoopy rides have some extra history to them. Read below to learn how the adventures of the PEANUTS gang inspired rides in Planet Snoopy.
Snoopy vs. Red Baron
- In the classic PEANUTS comic strip and cartoons, Snoopy goes on one of his wildly adventurous daydreams as a World War I flying ace battling The Red Baron. The real-life Red Baron was Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, an ace fighter pilot for Germany in World War I. He earned the nickname “The Red Baron” after the color of his plane, and he is considered one of the best combat pilots of World War I.
Kite Eating Tree
- In the original PEANUTS comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, Charlie Brown’s kite constantly gets stuck in a one particular tree despite his persistence and optimism. Schulz based the tree on his own experiences of losing kites to trees. As his kites always disappeared into the tree, he imagined that the tree must have eaten them. As Charlie Brown would say, “That’s my kite you’ve got up there, and I want it back!”
Race for Your Life Charlie Brown
- This ride first operated at Coney Island in 1968. It later arrived at Kings Island for the park’s opening and was known as Kings Mills Log Flume. Today, the ride is named after the 1977 PEANUTS movie Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown! In the movie, Charlie Brown and the rest of the PEANUTS gang enter a summer camp raft race against a group of cheating bullies. After many obstacles and conflicts, Woodstock’s raft, consisting of sticks and a leaf, is the only one to cross the finish line!
Joe Cool’s Dodgem School
- This ride’s theme comes from one of Snoopy’s alter egos. Joe Cool is a college student who wears a “Joe Cool” T-shirt and sunglasses and lives in a dorm room (Snoopy’s doghouse). He appears in many PEANUTS comic strips and cartoons, hanging out at “the union” and complaining about classes.
The Great Pumpkin Coaster
- Although many know the Great Pumpkin from a 1966 PEANUTS television special, the unseen creature originally appears in the original PEANUTS comic strips. Linus first refers to the Great Pumpkin in 1959, and he believes that the Great Pumpkin will appear in a pumpkin patch every Halloween and deliver toys. Although the Great Pumpkin never appears, Linus mentioned it annually in the comic strips, and this inspired the classic cartoon special.
Planet Snoopy has something for everyone, right down to your tiniest Snoopy fans. Do you remember reading the original PEANUTS comic strips? Do you still watch the television specials every year? Comment below!