"it's a small world"

Encyclopedia : I : IT : ITS : "it's a small world"

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"it's a small world" is an attraction at Disneyland (in California), the Magic Kingdom (in Florida), Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris.

Like several other Disneyland attractions, "it's a small world" got its start in the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair, and after the fair closed the ride was transferred to Disneyland; when the other parks opened they, too, had versions of the ride. The attraction was designed 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.

The name of the ride was originally "children of the world". When Walt Disney demonstrated it to the Sherman Brothers the ride's soundtrack featured numerous national anthems all playing at once. Disney said, "I need one song." In response, the brother songwriting team wrote what is now the most performed and translated song on earth: "it's a small world". Often dismissed as trivial, the song nevertheless has remarkably profound lyrics having been written in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The deep lyric is cleverly disguised by its simple but catchy, melody and is often regarded as the first world anthem.

The ride and its song are intended to be sweet, though many find the repetitive song corny and annoying. Despite this, "it's a small world" remains one of the most popular attractions in the parks.

Characteristics

Exterior

The outer façade of the building at Disneyland is a gigantic clock. On the quarter-hour, stick puppets representing different cultures parade out of the clock, then a bell tolls as 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.

The exterior has been slightly redesigned and repainted over the years, first as all-white with gold trim, then in myriad pastel colors, in white with pastel accents, and is currently all-white with gold trim as it was in the 1960s.

The gardens around the building are decorated with topiary animals.

Show

Inside the building, 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 Arctic regions with dolls representing Canada and Scandinavia, with the song sung in Swedish.
• Europe, with the song sung in German, English with a British English accent, Dutch, Spanish, French and Italian.
• Asia, with the song sung in Japanese.
• Latin America, with the song sung in Spanish.
• Africa, with the rhythm of the song marked with drums then sung in English.
• Oceania and Australia, with the song sung with an underwater gurgling sound by mermaids for the first section of the room (Disneyland and Disneyland Paris only), and English with an Australian accent for the rest of the room.
• A small, relatively dark room with a rainforest scene and Polynesian drummers.
• A grand finale with representatives from all the cultures of the world dressed in white versions of their native costumes and singing in English in chorus. A cowboy and American Indian standing together are the only dolls during the ride that represent the United States.

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 the countries appear and which countries are represented vary in each version of the ride.

• They do not begin with a separate room for the Arctic; the Scandinavian dolls are in the Europe room.
• The rainforest scene is in the Latin America room.
• In the Disneyland Paris version of the ride, there is a North America room, with dolls representing Canada and the United States.
• 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.

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 September or 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 temporary FASTPASS machines (which have since been uninstalled). 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" are 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.

Parodies

The song and the ride have been the subjects of numerous parodies:

• By Disney's own film The Lion King (in which Zazu, as Scar's bard, sings the song, much to Scar's distress) and Jim Henson's MuppetVision 3D attraction
• In the Disney movie Kronk's New Groove, Yzma and Kronk go to their lab and at the beginning there's a fast-paced song in the background with a parody of it's a small world figures.
• An episode of The Simpsons, "Selma's Choice," featuring Duff Gardens and its Little Land of Duff ride ("Duff beer for me/Duff beer for you/I'll have a Duff/You have one too!")
• An episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog set in "Doc Gerbil's World," an underground river complete with Audio-Animatronics and a repeating, monotonous soundtrack.
• The "The Wonderful World of Wizzley" episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot, where Brad, Tuck, and Jenny are at an amusement park and ride on a ride called The World Ain't So Big.
• An episode of Family Guy as "It's a Tiny World", where Stewie is chained to the floor with hundreds of other children and forced to sing on the threat of appearing in a Christmas movie starring Tim Allen, but the children are later freed by Peter.
• An episode of Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain (a spinoff of Pinky and the Brain), in which Brain attempts to take over the world by altering a key verse in the show's version of the song during the "Happy Sappy Children of Many Lands" ride.
• The 2005 movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, wherein a display of saccharine, singing "Wonka's Welcome Song" are subsequently torched by the display's own fireworks display (and are later seen in the Doll Hospital and Burn Ward, which was described by Wonka as being "relatively new").
• In the film Shrek, Donkey unwittingly activates a souvenir photo-generating kiosk which welcomes the pair to the city of DuLoc via animatronics and a song extremely similar to those of "it's a small world".
• Fun-Fun Universe (from FoxTrot) has a ride like "it's a small world" near 'Souviner-land' that promotes spending and the lyrics are changed ("It's a fun-fun world where children sing/it'a a fun-fun world where bells ring-a-ling/it's a fun-fun world both high and low/it's a fun-fun world, go spend that dough!).
• In (2005), one of Dr. Drakken's evil plans is "it's a small world"-like rides to drive people insane.
• The song "Ana Ng" by They Might Be Giants includes the lyric "all alone at the '64 World's Fair / eighty dolls yelling 'small girl after all'." In some live performances the band replaces the song's usual bridge with the repeated line "it's a small girl after all" sung to the tune of the original.
• In another Disney film, The Lion King 1 1/2, when Pumbaa stops the movie to go to the bathroom, Timon starts humming the song,then he starts singing it, then he starts humming it again. Also on the Virtual Safari on the movie's DVD, they go through a bug-themed version of "small world". At one point, Uncle Max says he "can't get that song out of his head."

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 ten minutes, not including time in line), but Robert Sherman, Jr., 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 (See note 1).

There are, of course, many who would disagree with this assessment.

Attraction statistics

• Grand Opening: April 22, 1964
• Closing Date: October 17, 1965
• Designers: WED Enterprises
• Sponsors:
• * Pepsi-Cola
• * UNICEF
• Ride System: Flume Ride

• Grand Opening: May 28, 1966
• Designers: WED Enterprises
• Animated/unanimated figures: 605
• Slogan: The happiest cruise that ever sailed around the world.
• Former Sponsors:
• * Bank of America
• * Mattel
• Ride Length: 11:56
• Ticket Required: "E"
• Ride System: Flume Ride

• Grand Opening: October 1, 1971 (Opened with Magic Kingdom park)
• * Closing Date: May 2, 2004
• Grand Re-Opening: March 18, 2005
• Designers: WED Enterprises
• Length: 1,085'
• Flume capacity: 500,000 US gallons (2,000 m³) of water
• Animated/unanimated figures: 472
• * Audio-Animatronics Figures: 289
• * Toys: 147
• * Animated Props: 36
• Slogan: The happiest cruise that ever sailed the seven seas.
• Ride Length: 13:30
• Ride System: Flume Ride
• Former Sponsors:
• * Mattel (1991–1999)

• Grand Opening: April 15, 1983 (Opened with park)
• Designers: WED Enterprises
• Sponsors: Sogo Co., Ltd.
• Ride System: Flume Ride

• Grand Opening: April 12, 1992 (Opened with park)
• Designers: WED Enterprises
• Slogan: The happiest cruise that ever sailed around the world.
• Sponsor: France Telecom
• Ride System: Flume Ride

• Projected Opening: Summer, 2007-2008 (Phase 2 extension)

References

See also

• List of current Disneyland attractions

Attractions at Disneyland-style parks

Main Street, U.S.A.: The Dapper Dans | Disneyland Railroad | Disney in the Stars | Disney on Parade | Fantasy in the Sky | Main Street Electrical Parade | Remember... Dreams Come True | Walt Disney World Railroad | Wishes | World Bazaar

Fantasyland: Cinderella Castle | King Arthur Carrousel | Mad Tea Party | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh | Matterhorn Bobsleds | Mickey's PhilharMagic | Mr. Toad's Wild Ride | Peter Pan's Flight | Pinocchio's Daring Journey | Skyway | Sleeping Beauty Castle | Snow White's Scary Adventures | "it's a small world"

Tomorrowland: Adventure Thru Inner Space | America Sings | Autopia | Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters | Captain EO | Carousel of Progress | Delta Dreamflight | Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage | Honey, I Shrunk the Audience | If You Had Wings | Innoventions | PeopleMover/Tomorrowland Transit Authority | Magic Journeys | Rocket Jets/Astro Orbitor | Rocket Rods | Space Mountain | Star Tours | Stitch's Great Escape! | The Timekeeper

Frontierland: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad | Country Bear Jamboree | Pinewood Indians | Rivers of America

Adventureland: Indiana Jones Adventure | Jungle Cruise | Pirates of the Caribbean | Raging Spirits | Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room

Other: Club 33 | Critter Country | Fantasmic! | The Haunted Mansion | Liberty Square | New Orleans Square | Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin | Splash Mountain

 

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