It's a Small World

For other uses, see Small world.

It's a Small World
File:Its A Small Worldattractionposterdlrp.jpg
Ride statistics
Attraction type	Boat canal
Designer	Walt Disney; Mary Blair
Vehicle type	Boat
Duration	11-14
Wheelchair accessible

It's a Small World
Ride statistics
Designer	WED Enterprises

It's a Small World (formatted “it's a small world” by the Walt Disney Company) is a popular attraction at several Walt Disney theme parks: Disneyland (in California), the Magic Kingdom (in Florida), Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Resort Paris. It has been announced that it will open in Hong Kong Disneyland in 2008. The ride features a multitude of audio-animatronic figures in the style of children of the world singing the ride's title track (composed by the Sherman Brothers), which has a theme of global peace.

History

In 1956, Walt Disney attended a conference, along with many other notable celebrities of the time, at the invitation of President Eisenhower. The conference was about founding a national organization to help promote world peace through international civilian travel. (This dream became a reality in 1956, when Eisenhower founded the People to People Student Ambassador Program.) Inspired by the ideas from the meeting, Disney returned to California and set to work, creating the It's A Small World ride at Disneyland.

Like several other Disneyland attractions, It's a Small World originated with the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair (it was Pepsi's pavilion.) After the fair closed, the ride was transferred to Disneyland along three other attractions from the fair that year; Primeval World Diorama, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and the Carousel of Progress. The attractions design was by Mary Blair, who was also an art director on several Disney animated features (including Cinderella and Peter Pan). Like many Disneyland and Walt Disney World attractions, scenes and characters were designed by Marc Davis, while his wife, Alice Davis, designed the outfits of the dolls. Many of the dolls were created by Joyce Carlson who is honored with a shop window along the Magic Kingdom's Main Street U.S.A. The sign there reads: "Dolls by Miss Joyce, Dollmaker for the World."

The name of the ride was originally "children of the world". When Walt Disney demonstrated it to songwriters Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman, the ride's soundtrack featured numerous national anthems all playing at once. Disney said, "I need one song." In response, the brothers wrote what would arguably be known as the most performed and translated song on earth: It's a Small World.

Disneyland plans to temporarily close the ride in January 2008 for 10 months to refurbish the ride as well as deepen the boat channel due to multiple layers of fiberglass repair patches that have caused boats to bottom out and get stuck during portions of the ride. It will also feature the original boats, a fresh coat of paint, and the original spires. Rumors floating around speculate that in a manner similar to Hong Kong Disneyland, Disney characters may be added to their country of origin, ex: Simba in Africa, Peter Pan in Europe, Mulan in China, etc. Despite rumors to the contrary, Disneyland does not blame the issue on overweight tourists.

Characteristics

Exterior

The outer façade of the building at Disneyland is a gigantic clock with a happy face. On the quarter-hour, wooden dolls representing different cultures parade out of the clock. After the last dolls exit the clock, a pair of giant doors swings open to reveal two large toy blocks — one block with the hour, and one block with the minutes, written in highly stylized numerals — then a bell tolls indicating the time.

The exterior has been slightly redesigned and repainted over the years, first as all-white with gold trim, then in shades of blue colors, then in white with pastel accents. Currently it is all-white with gold trim, as it was in the 1960s. The gardens around the building are decorated with topiary animals.

Disneyland

It's a Small World
The white with pastel accents color scheme from 1983.
Ride statistics
Designer	WED Enterprises
Duration	14:23
Wheelchair accessible

The boats travel through a tunnel into the show building, which is much larger than the facade and is located backstage between the back of Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin and the roundhouse for the Disneyland Railroad and Disneyland Monorail System. This portion of the ride features stylized animatronic dolls in national costumes singing the title song in numerous languages. At Disneyland, boats carrying the riders visit the regions of the world in separate rooms:

• The Hello Room greets the guests to the attraction, showing different cultural greetings from around the world.
• The Scandinavia/North Pole room, with dolls representing Scandinavia, with the song sung in Swedish.
• Europe, with the song sung in English with a Cockney accent, as well as having a yodeler in the section representing Switzerland. (Currently, the song is sung in French in the European scene in Paris, and the Holiday versions of California and Tokyo. The song is sung in German in Paris, but only in the Finale)
• Asia, with the song sung in Japanese.
• Africa, with the rhythm of the song marked with drums then sung in English.
• South America, with the song sung in Spanish.
• South Seas, with the song sung with an underwater gurgling sound by mermaids for the first section of the room (Disneyland and Disneyland Paris only), and the traditional Polynesian version of the song throughout the rest of the room.
• New Guinea, a small, relatively dark room with a rainforest scene and native drummers playing the song rhythmically
• The Finale Room, with representatives from all the cultures of the world dressed in white versions of their native costumes and singing in English in unison. A cowboy and American Indian standing together are the only dolls during the ride that represent the United States. The Finale Room was inspired by the final verse of the Christmas hymn, Once In Royal David's City, which says, "When like stars, His children crowned, All in white, shall wait around."

At the other Disney parks, the path of the flume winds around one large room, emphasizing its theme that the world is small and interconnected. The order in which the countries appear and the countries that are represented vary in each version of the ride.

• They do not all begin with a separate room for the Arctic; the Scandinavian dolls are in the Europe room.

File:SmallWorldTopiary wb.jpg Topiary sculptures lining the waterway in front of It's a Small World.

File:SmallWorldCanCan wb.jpg Can-can dancing figures representing France.

Magic Kingdom

It's a Small World
Ride statistics
Designer	WED Enterprises
Duration	13:30
Wheelchair accessible

• At the Magic Kingdom in Florida, the ride recently reopened with a state-of-the-art sound system, a few new animatronic figures, and a loading area similar to the ride's façade at Disneyland.
• The rainforest scene is in the Latin America room.
• The Goodbye room, showing different postcards and parting phrases from different cultures around the world, though in the Magic Kingdom version, there are flowers instead.

Tokyo Disneyland

It's a Small World
Ride statistics
Designer	WED Enterprises
Music	It's a Small World (album)
Duration	13:30
Wheelchair accessible

The Tokyo Disneyland version of the attraction is similar to the Magic Kingdom version except for these differences:

• The exterior is like Disneyland's, while the queue is similar to the original Magic Kingdom version.
• The finale is sung in Japanese.

Disneyland Paris

It's a Small World
Ride statistics
Designer	Walt Disney Imagineering
Duration	6:24
Wheelchair accessible

In Disneyland Park (Paris), the ride is different from, but similar to, the other versions of the ride. The backgrounds and music are all brand new. There is a new room: a North America room, with dolls representing Canada and the United States. This version also has a complete Middle Eastern section in which the song is sung in Arabic. Although usually in the finale scenes the song is sung only in the language of the location (English in California and Florida, and Japanese in Tokyo), in the finale scene of Paris, the song is sung in German, and English along with French.

Hong Kong Disneyland

It's a Small World
Ride statistics
Designer	Walt Disney Imagineering
Duration	14:10

The Hong Kong Disneyland version currently under construction will add 30 Disney characters to certain scenes, in areas where their stories originated. It will also have expanded Asian and North American sequences, and the promise of "a spectacular 'curtain call' with some extraordinary optical lighting effects not seen on any other Disney ride" .

Holiday season

"it's a small world holiday" lighting display.

Since 1997, Disneyland has featured "it's a small world holiday" during the Christmas and winter seasons. The attraction is usually closed in October to receive temporary holiday decorations inside and outside, only to reopen in early November before the start of the busy Holiday tourist season. The overlay has proved very popular and at one point during its run needed the use of FASTPASS machines (which have since been removed). The attraction is the same boat voyage through many regions of the world featuring choruses of children singing. During the ride, the main theme song is not played fully, but instead the children of the world sing "Jingle Bells" and a bridge of "Deck the Halls" added to the main theme. The holiday overlay has since been implemented at Tokyo Disneyland.

During the 2005–2006 holiday season, in order to remove some of the massive crowds from the main plaza during the popular Remember... Dreams Come True fireworks spectacular, a second viewing station was installed at It's a Small World. At the same time, the outdoor facade incorporated a sophisticated, elaborate multi-media presentation projected on the colored patters of the outer façade each quarter hour after dusk.

The song

The well-known catchiness of the song is due not only to its constant repetition for the duration of the ride (which lasts about fifteen minutes, not including time in line), but Robert B. Sherman explains that the structure of the song may also play a role:

Like many songs, It's a Small World has a verse and a chorus. One thing which makes this song particularly 'catchy' is that the verse and chorus work in counterpoint to each other. This means that you can play the same chords over and over again, but with different melodies. The repetitive, yet varied pattern tricks your mind into absorbing the work without it becoming tiresome to your ear .

Additionally, the World's Fair version of the song is the one commonly heard on various Disney compilation albums. The song also inspired a Disney Read-Along.

Attraction facts and figures

Disneyland attraction version:

• Animated/unanimated figures: 400
• Slogan: The happiest cruise that ever sailed 'round the world.
• Ticket Required: "E"

Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World) attraction version:

• Grand Opening: October 1, 1971 (Opened with Magic Kingdom park)
  • Closing Date: May 2, 2004
• Grand Re-Opening: March 18, 2005
• Flume capacity: 500,000 US gallons (2,000 m³) of water
• Animated/unanimated figures: 472
  • Audio-Animatronics Dolls: 289
  • Toys: 147
  • Animated Props: 36
• Slogan: The happiest cruise that ever sailed the seven seas.

Disneyland Paris attraction version:

• Slogan: The happiest cruise that ever sailed around the world.

Hong Kong Disneyland attraction version:

• Ride Area: 83,500 sq ft (Planned)

Pop Culture References

Due to the popularity of the song, the song and ride have been spoofed many times in popular culture.

• In the hit 1994 film The Lion King, the primary antagonist, Scar asks Zazu to "sing something with a little *pause* bounce in it." Zazu responds by beginning to sing It's a Small World when Scar cuts him off by saying, "No! Anything but that."

• Family Guy spoofed the ride in the episode The Courtship of Stewie's Father, where Stewie is found lost at Walt Disney World and is taken by Disney security guards to a ride called It's a Tiny World. Stewie is chained to the ride and is forced to sing It's a Tiny World otherwise he'll be forced to be in a christmas movie with Tim Allen. He is freed by Peter by the end of the episode.

• The Nickelodeon series My Life as a Teenage Robot parodied the ride in the episode The Wonderful World of Wizzly as The World Ain't So Big.

• Fairly odd Parents spoofed the ride in a episode which called it "its a dull world"

See also

• It's a Small World (album)
• List of current Disneyland attractions
• Magic Kingdom attraction and entertainment history
• Tokyo Disneyland attraction and entertainment history

External links

• Disneyland Park - It's a Small World official site
• Walt Disney World Resort - It's a Small World official site