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. 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 After the fair closed, the ride was transferred to Disneyland along with three other attractions from the fair that year; Primeval World Diorama, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and the Carousel of Progress.
The attraction's design was done by Mary Blair, who was also an art director on several . Like many Disneyland and Walt Disney World attractions, scenes and characters were designed by Marc Davis, while his wife, Alice Davis, designed the costumes for the dolls. Blaine Gibson sculpted the animatronic figures, while Harriet Burns painted them. 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." Rolly Crump designed the Tower of the Four Winds .
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 one of the best known Disney tunes of all time: ''It's a Small World ''. It is argued that the song may be the most performed and translated song on earth. Rumors of removing the rainforest scene for a United States scene were squashed by a memo from Marty Sklar, but various Disney characters will seamlessly be added throughout the attraction, which has received mixed feedback.
Characteristics
Exterior
The outer of the building at Disneyland presents very stylized flat cut-out turrets and towers, minarets and domes, some vaguely reminiscent of world landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Surrounding them are numerous squares, triangles and rectangles. A major feature is a gigantic three-dimensional clock with a round, happy face that swings back and forth. 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 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 pink and 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
The boats travel through a tunnel into the show building, which is much larger than the fa?ade 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 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 .
* Europe, with the song sung in with a Cockney , and as well as having a yodeler in the section representing Switzerland.
* Asia, with the song sung in .
* Africa, with the rhythm of the song marked with drums and 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 , 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 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.
* All parks but Hong Kong do not begin with a separate room for the Arctic; the Scandinavian dolls are in the Europe room.
* In Paris, in addition to French, the song is sung in German and English. In Hong Kong, the song is sung in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese.
Magic Kingdom
* At the Magic Kingdom in Florida, the ride underwent a major refurbishment from May 2004 to March 2005, reopening with a sound system, a few new animatronic figures and a loading area similar to the ride's fa?ade at Disneyland.
* The rainforest scene is in the Latin America room.
* The Goodbye room shows different postcards and parting phrases from different cultures around the world, though in the Magic Kingdom version, there are flowers instead.
* The nearby Pinocchio Village Haus restaurant overlooks the queue area.
Tokyo Disneyland
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 interior is similar to the Magic Kingdom version.
*The finale is sung in Japanese and the Japanese version sung in the Asian section is different from the Magic Kingdom version, and the rest of the Disney parks.
*The Goodbye scene is much smaller
Disneyland Park
In Disneyland Resort Paris, the ride is different from, but similar to, the other versions of the ride. The backgrounds and music are all different and 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. In the finale scene, the song is sung in German and English as well as French.
Hong Kong Disneyland
The Hong Kong Disneyland version opened on April 28, 2008 with 38 classic Disney characters added to scenes where their stories originated. This version also features an expanded Asian scene, a Middle Eastern scene and a new scene for North America. The finale features a spectacular "curtain call" with some extraordinary optical lighting effects not seen on any other Disney ride.
The song "it's a small world " is sung in 9 different languages. Among those languages, , , and are unique to Hong Kong Disneyland. The finale is sung in 3 languages: , and . In an interesting design twist, the only two bridge structures that cross over the flume path of the boats are San Francisco's Golden Gate and a traditional Chinese garden bridge . They serve to symbolically link the United States with China. The attraction is the largest indoor ride at Hong Kong Disneyland, and the location of the ride is beyond the Disneyland Railroad next to The Golden Mickeys attraction.
There are 11 scenes in this ride:
*Welcome
*North Pole
*Europe
*Middle East
*Africa
*Americas
*Asia
*Islands
*Rainforest
*Finale
*Goodbye
The 38 Disney characters that appear in this ride include:
*
*
*
*
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*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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*Simba
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*Mufasa
*Jose Carioca
*Donald Duck
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*
*
*
*
*Baloo
*Mowgli
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*Mushu
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*
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*
*
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*
Holiday season
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 . 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 and Disneyland Paris .
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 fa?ade incorporated a sophisticated, elaborate multi-media presentation projected on the colored patterns of the outer fa?ade each quarter hour after dusk.
The song
The well-known is due not only to its constant repetition for the duration of the ride , 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.
The song was later given two covers for the dance video game Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix: a Eurobeat cover by ABeatC All Stars and a Happy Hardcore instrumental remix entitled ''"IT'S A SMALL WORLD "'' by and , which featured sampling of Donald Duck and was the hardest song in the game.
In Ecuador, this song serves as a theme for the chain of toy stores called Mi Juguetería. The original 1964 version of the song can be heard as one enters the store.
Attraction facts and figures
Disneyland attraction version:
* Animated/unanimated figures: 400
* Slogan: The happiest cruise that ever sailed 'round the world.
* Ticket Required: ""
Magic Kingdom attraction version:
* Grand Opening: October 1, 1971
** Closing Date: May 2, 2004
* Grand Re-Opening: March 18, 2005
* Flume capacity: 500,000 US gallons 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:
* Grand Opening: April 27, 2008
* Opening Day: April 28, 2008
* Ride Area: 83,500 sq ft
* Animated/unanimated figures: 514
** Audio-Animatronics Dolls: 202
** Disney Characters: 38
** Toys: 220
** Animated Props: 42
* Slogan: ''Rediscover the world of laughter.''
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, asks Zazu to "sing something with a little--''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 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'' as a tiny Dutch boy, otherwise he'll be forced to be in . He is freed by by the end of the episode.
*The series ''My Life as a Teenage Robot'' parodied the ride in the episode '''' as ''The World Ain't So Big''.
*In Shrek, when Donkey and Shrek are in Duloc, the song that the puppets sing is a spoof of ''It's a Small World''.
*A fourth-season episode of ''The Simpsons'', "Selma's Choice," involves Aunt Selma taking Bart and Lisa Simpson to Duff Gardens, a Disneyland-style amusement park dedicated to Duff Beer. Its rides include a boat ride in which animatronic children extol the virtues of Duff, singing a song - 'Duff Beer for me! Duff Beer for You! I'll have a Duff! You have one too!'
*In Rugrats in Paris in Reptarland the children, Coco, and Charles enter a take on "It's a Small World" called "It's a Ooey Gooey World" with a catchy song.
*In the Pokémon episode "Enter Galactic", James sings "It's a new world after all" to the tune.
*In an episode of the Adult Swim series entitled The Oblongs where Bob Oblong gets a jaw disorder in the scene where they are at Bob's work, they go on a ride called "It's a Third World After All", which is an obvious spoof on It's a Small World After All.
*In ''The Return of Jafar'', Genie sings a brief melody of "It's a Small World".
*In ''College Road Trip'', Doug says, "In the words of my favorite ride ever, It's a Small World After All."
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