It really is! I was fortunate enough to meet one of the creators of “It’s a Small World,” Alice Davis when she was boarding a cruise at Port Canaveral. I still remember this ride, from my first visit in 1985, and it has always been one of my favorites. I know many people who feel the same. And many still that think it’s as annoying as a ride can get! It seems like it’s really a love-it or hate-it type of ride. Either way, it’s an old attraction, with an interesting history. The ride is a great place to just kick back and relax.
“It’s a Small World” is very popular, and can be found at Disneyland California, Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. It is expected to open at Hong Kong Disneyland in 2008. “It’s a Small World” is of course, a ride that features lots of audio-animatronic figurines, all with a distinct child-like quality, dressed and designed to look like children from all over the world, and they sing the notorious song. The song being sung throughout all of the countries is intended to signify a unified theme of world peace.
This ride, just like many others, originated at the New York World’s Fair, as Pepsi’s pavilion. When the fair was over, the ride was transferred to Disneyland. Mary Blair designed the attraction, and the scenes and characters were designed Marc Davis, and his wife, Alice Davis, designed all of the dolls’ outfits. Alice later went on to design all of the outfits for Pirates of the Caribbean. The name was originally called “Children of the World.” The Sherman Brothers had the original soundtrack consisting of many national anthems which played all at once, but Disney asked them for one song, which resulted in the brothers writing “It’s a Small World.”
In Disneyland, the façade of the building looks like a giant clock, and every fifteen minutes, wooden dolls parade out of the clock. The building has been redesigned over the years, but is currently white with gold accents, as it was originally in the 1960’s. Inside, there are hundreds of stylized dolls. These dolls are dressed in national costumes, and they sing the song in many languages. In Disneyland, the boats take guests through several rooms: the Hello Room, which greets them, and shows many different greetings from around the world; the Scandinavia/North Pole, with dolls dressed in Scandinavian garb, and the song being sung in Swedish; Europe, where the song is sung in German, Dutch, Spanish, French, and Italian, as well as English with a British accent, and a yodeler to represent Switzerland; next is Asia, where the song is sung in Japanese, then Africa, where dolls keep rhythm with drums, Latin America, where songs are sung in Spanish, and the South Seas, with mermaids, and Polynesian versions of the song. Next is New Guinea, which is a small room with native drummers and a rainforest scene, and the Finale room, with all cultures dressed in white singing together in English. This room is the only place where the United States is represented, with a cowboy and an American Indian standing together. The other parks are pretty close to the Disneyland version, except that the path of the boat is a circular path around one large room, to impress that the world is small and interconnected. Perhaps it really is…it sure is a nice warm fuzzy thought, I think.