Time Magazine claimed in 2014 that they had determined the most popular song of all time. No, it’s not “Happy Birthday” and no, it’s not a song by Elvis or the Beatles. In their own words, Time Magazine “did the math,” calculating that one song was approaching 50 million playthroughs after almost 50 years of its existence (in 2014). The song in question is “It’s a Small World” by Richard and Robert Sherman, and it’s integral to arguably the most iconic ride at any Disney theme park.
Walt Disney once pitched this attraction as the “happiest cruise that ever sailed.” More than half a century after he conceptualized this celebration of international cultures and inclusiveness, it’s become the symbolic heart of Disney theme parks, entertaining generations of children (and their parents) with its fervid optimism. Let’s take this opportunity to go Behind the Ride to learn five tricks of the trade that have made It’s a Small World so iconic.
The experience: Bringing all the cultures of the world to Disneyland
The trick: More puppets than you’d find on the set of Sesame Street
Image: Disney
When we go Behind the Ride on most attractions, the story lies in the engineering details. With It’s a Small World, the list of Disney icons who had a hand in its construction is the more noteworthy aspect. As we’ll discuss, a pair of Hollywood celebrities, Joan Crawford and Walt Disney, started the project. Then, many of Disney’s most famous Imagineers like Rolly Crump, Yale Gracey, Marc and Alice Davis, and Bob Gurr had a hand in its design. In fact, a pair of them, Roger E. Broggie and Bert Brundage, earned a patent for the Omnimover in the wake of designing It’s a Small World.
The true hero(ine) of the story is another person near and dear to the hearts of Disney fanatics. Mary Blair’s relationship with The Walt Disney Company went back to 1940, meaning that she was more than 20 years into her animation career prior to building the puppets that would become the ultimate legacy of her storied life. Given that she handled colors and styling for Disney classics such as Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Peter Pan and also handled illustrations for Little Golden Books during the 1950s, that’s an amazing statement.
Image: Disney
During the 1950s, Blair had left Disney to freelance, and one of the reasons why was that she wanted to spend time raising her children. When Uncle Walt called in 1963, he offered her a chance to create puppets mimicking the look and style of children across the world. She couldn’t resist the siren song of a return to Disney for this project, and all theme park tourists are grateful. Much of her work is still on display today.
Disney needed Blair because one of the secrets of It’s a Small World is that all the dolls are the same. To cut down on the manufacturing time, the company built hundreds of dolls with the same shape and appearance. Blair did the heavily lifting in distinguishing them. She added color to areas such as eye and hair color and skin tone. What was remarkable about her work is that the world was on the precipice of another global conflict at the time. Blair eschewed fear in favor of hope and optimism, crafting happy dolls for all the lands.
Image: DisneyThe husband and wife team of Marc and Alice Davis handled the rest of the set design. Marc crafted the “movie sets” for each scene, building laudable representations of the various countries. Then, Alice handled the costumes to complete the designs of Blair. The work of these three artists has stood the test of time. Disney is reverential to the original designs for the puppets of It’s a Small World. While they’re not above adding new ones, they restore rather than replace any of the damaged older pieces.
The experience: Transitioning a pavilion to its permanent home
The trick: Pixie dust from Uncle Walt himself
Image: Disney
The backstory of It’s a Small World is every bit as amazing as its popularity and longevity. During the early 1960s, lots of corporations and other enterprises including state governments engaged in an arms race. The ultimate goal was to build the most impressive pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair, a massive event at the time. Many of these industrialists tried to broker deals with Walt Disney and his famous Imagineers at WED Enterprises.
A shrewd businessman, Disney understood that he held all the power in negotiations. So, he persuaded a trio of organizations including Ford Motors, General Electric, and the state of Illinois to agree to his terms. In exchange, he built unforgettable and lasting attractions like The Carousel of Progress, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln (the genesis of the Hall of Presidents), and a third one that was a last minute addition.
Pepsi Cola had little luck in getting their World’s Fair pavilion off the ground. Desperate, they listened to one of their board members, actress Joan Crawford. She recommended that they do whatever was needed to persuade Disney and his team to construct their pavilion. They agreed.
Image: Disney
It’s a Small World was an immediate hit, and after the following year’s World’s Fair ended in 1965, Pepsi Cola owed Disney and his team a great deal of money. Cleverly, the entrepreneur agreed to lower the cost of payment on one condition: they had to pay to transport the entire attraction to Disneyland, where it would take up permanent residence.
Uncle Walt capitalized on the pop culture awareness of the 1964 World’s Fair, marketing one of his pavilions on Pepsi Cola’s dime. Then, he again got them to foot the bill in relocating it to his storied theme park, where it quickly became one of the most popular attractions. It’s a Small World was already in operation at Disneyland by May of 1966, barely seven months after the World’s Fair ended. Some of the items transported from New York famously still have the 1965 shipping stickers on them.
Disney earns a lot of positive press these days for their acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars on the cheap. What the company founder accomplished with It’s a Small World rivals all of these business deals.
The experience: A trip around the world in 15 minutes
The trick: Building the proverbial “little boat ride” that Uncle Walt had envisioned
Today, everyone’s familiar with the Omnimover as a concept. A series of connected ride carts move at a set speed along a conveyor belt. It’s a ride cart system that offers benefits to the person in the vehicle as well as those operating it. Via the omnimover, a theme park attraction will position the rider precisely where they need to be to enjoy the spectacle. While you’re enjoying the ride, the park employees know exactly where you are and how long you’ll take.
Disney and their successors employ Omnimovers as a way to control throughput AND rider safety. Your ride cart is on rails the whole time, both pushing along to the next waypoint and guaranteeing that you don’t stray off the course into more dangerous areas strewn with mechanical moving parts. Simply stated, the Omnimover is THE most important innovation in theme park history. And its roots trace back to the development of what Walt Disney described as a “little boat ride.” You’ll soon discover that It’s a Small World isn’t an Omnimover attraction, though!
When one of New York’s most famous urban planners, Robert Moses, implored Walt Disney to construct a “children’s village,” the leader of WED Enterprises ran with the idea. He expanded the request, building a world village instead. Each section would reflect a specific culture, and the only way such an offering was feasible was by controlling the speed of movement of pavilion visitors. Disney designed an entirely new ride system for the boats that would float down the man-made waterways of It’s a Small World.
Image: Disney
You may not realize this, but the original version of the Omnimover came with wheels. Legendary Imagineer Rolly Crump illustrated mock-ups of the boats. He later recounted, “We would put Walt on a boat that was on wheels and that was elevated to the right sightline, and then push him through the ride.” Disney wanted to tell a story similar to a motion picture, which was their default thought process. The Omnimover allowed them to do this; however, It’s a Small World didn’t have one at the time. Instead, it was the forerunner of the technology.
Disney built the equivalent of aqueducts for It’s a Small World. Since they enclosed the space and thereby confined the boats to a linear path, the voyagers on the “little boat ride” were on a one way ride downstream. Imagineers loved this idea so much that they explored it further, eventually finalizing the premise of joined vehicle carts with the now defunct Adventures Thru Inner Space, which debuted in 1967. That’s the takeaway about It’s a Small World. Since the boats aren’t connected together to keep the chains moving, so to speak, it’s not an Omnimover.
The experience: The world’s most impacting earworm
The trick: Inventing a song so positive in nature that it’s literally unforgettable
Believe it or not, the music of It’s a Small World could have been worse. While a famous online poll once chose the titular song as the most annoying earworm ever, Disney originally had different plans. As the “little boat ride” would pass through each country, the puppets were expected to play the applicable national anthem. One of the Shermans described the end result as “one horrible cacophony,” and their friend, Walt Disney, pressed them to craft a piece of music that would save the day.
Given the time constraints, what the Shermans achieved with It’s a Small World is among the greatest accomplishments in theme park history. Pressed for time and with only vague details about the attraction that they knew only as an international boat ride, they locked on a single concept. With all the global infighting during the Cold War, the folks politicking missed something obvious. We all share the same sun and moon, no matter the matter where we hold citizenship.
The lyrics quickly flowed from there.
Image: Disney
Still, the Shermans faced an uphill battle during the creative process. Uncle Walt had warned them that any lyrics that they wrote had the following stipulations: “It had to be simple and translatable, and yet it had to be repeated so often over a 14-minute ride that it couldn’t be boring.” Instructions like that are how we wind up with “Who Let the Dogs Out.” Somehow, the talented duo tapped into the same vein of optimism as Blair had. Ultimately, a song that they figured would be forgotten the instant the 1964 World’s Fair ended has now been played more than any other piece of music ever. And they should get bonus credit for predicting the social media era half a century out with the lyric, “There’s so much that we share.”
PS: You can read more about the Sherman Brothers and their impact on Disney here.
Miscellany
Image: DisneyDisney was so appreciative of the contributions of Mary Blair that she earned a spot on the ride. She’s flying from a balloon in the Eiffel Tower scene in Paris. Look for a blonde woman wearing glasses. Otherwise, she might blend in with the other 300+ dolls that comprise the attraction.
One of the explanations for the ubiquity of the song is that Disney never copyrighted it. As a celebration of inclusion, Uncle Walt and the Sherman Brothers chose not to do so, making it a gift to the world.
Pepsi was the original sponsor for the ride, but it was supposed to have a different name. They were trying to honor a popular charity with their attraction. The awkward title for the World’s Fair was Pepsi-Cola Presents Walt Disney’s “It’s a Small World” – A Salute to UNICEF and all the World’s Children. Call it The Phantom Menace for short.
Twenty-nine different countries are represented on the attraction, and the song is performed in five languages. As long as you speak English, Italian, Japanese, Spanish or Swedish, you can understand it. Whether that’s a net positive is in the eye of the beholder.
Flickr (license)
To take a memorable “little boat ride” in 1964, you had to pay 95 cents as an adult or 60 cents as a child. That’s the equivalent of $7.40 and $4.67 today. More than 10 million attendants at the 1964 World’s Fair happily paid the price of admission for It’s a Small World.
As a concession to branding, Disney added 37 of their licensed characters to the Disneyland (i.e. original) version in 2008. Each of them resides in the appropriate country, so you’ll see Mulan (and Mushu!) in China, Lilo and Stitch in the South Seas, and so forth.
Finally, here’s something you can track the next time you ride It’s a Small World. To reinforce the lyrics and the concept, each section includes a sun and a moon. You’ve probably been too busy looking at the dolls and scenery to notice, though.
