It's a Small World

It's a Small World (stylized in all lowercase and in quotations or with exclamation mark) is an Old Mill boat ride located in the Fantasyland area at various Disney theme parks around the world. Versions of the ride are installed at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California; Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida; Tokyo Disneyland; Disneyland Paris; and Hong Kong Disneyland. The inaugural version of the ride premiered at the 1964 New York World's Fair before permanently moving to Disneyland in 1966.
The ride features over 300 audio-animatronic dolls in traditional costumes from cultures around the world, frolicking in a spirit of international unity, and singing the attraction's title song, which has a theme of global peace. According to TIME.com, the Sherman Brothers' song "it's a small world" is the most publicly performed song of all time. In recent years, the Small World attractions at the various Disney parks have been updated to include depictions of Disney characters—in a design compatible with the original 1960s design of Mary Blair—alongside the original characters.
The ride was fabricated at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank as Children of the World, and created by WED Enterprises. It was shipped to the 1964 New York World's Fair, where it was housed at the UNICEF pavilion (sponsored by Pepsi), which featured at its entrance a kinetic sculpture, The Tower of the Four Winds, a 120-foot perpetually spinning mobile created by WED designer Rolly Crump. The ride joined three other World's Fair attractions—Magic Skyway (Ford pavilion), Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln (Illinois pavilion), and The Carousel of Progress (General Electric pavilion)—that Disney was already involved with. All were intended to be dismantled and rebuilt at Disneyland after the World's Fair had closed in 1966.
Mary Blair was responsible for the attraction's whimsical design and color styling. The scenes and characters were designed by animator Marc Davis, who also choreographed the audio-animatronic figures' dances. His wife Alice Davis designed the dolls' costumes. The costumes were heavily influenced by other countries' clothing, as Walt Disney had directed Alice Davis to "do whatever it takes to make these look like dolls every woman in the world would want to have". Crump designed the toys and other supplemental figures on display, as well as the original attraction's facade. The animated dolls were designed and sculpted by Blaine Gibson.
Arrow Development was heavily involved in the design of the passenger-carrying boats and propulsion system of the attraction. Two patents that were filed by Arrow Development staff and assigned to The Walt Disney Company illustrate passenger boats and vehicle guidance systems with features very similar to those later utilized on the Disneyland installation of the attraction. The firm is credited with manufacturing the Disneyland installation.
"Children of the World" was the working title of the attraction. Its soundtrack, composed by the Sherman Brothers, was originally supposed to feature the national anthems of every country represented throughout the ride; they were all played at once, resulting in cacophony. Walt conducted a walk-through of the attraction scale model with his staff songwriters Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman, saying, "I need one song that can be easily translated into many languages and be played as a round." The Sherman brothers then wrote "It's a Small World (After All)" in the wake of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which influenced the song's message of peace and brotherhood. When they first presented it to Walt, they played it as a slow ballad. Walt requested something more cheerful, so they increased the tempo and sang in counterpoint. Walt was so delighted with the final result that he renamed the attraction "It's a Small World" after the Sherman Brothers' song. Recordings of the song were first sold in October 1964.
The Sherman Brothers originally wanted to donate all profits from "It's a Small World (After All)" to UNICEF, but Walt Disney dissuaded them from doing so, telling the brothers that the song would become popular. The Christian Science Monitor wrote of the song in 1967: "Visitors go away humming it as though they had made it up themselves." Robert B. Sherman's youngest son, Robert J. Sherman, has said that this song is the single most-performed and most-translated piece of music ever produced. In 2014, it was estimated that the song had played nearly 50 million times worldwide on the attractions alone, beating the radio and TV estimates for "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" and "Yesterday", which were believed to have been played at least eight and seven million times, respectively. On average, the song is played 1,200 times during a 16-hour operating day.
A third verse celebrating the attraction's 45th anniversary was written and popularized, but not incorporated into the ride. In 2022, a 1964 recording of "It's a Small World (After All)" performed by the Disneyland Boys Choir was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Shortly before his death, Richard Sherman composed a new verse to It's a Small World. On November 27, 2024, Disney premiered it in a short film on ABC. On February 12, 2025, it was announced that the new verse would be added to the Disneyland version of the attraction starting on July 17, 2025, as part of Disneyland's 70th anniversary celebration.
The first incarnation of It's a Small World—which debuted at the 1964 New York World's Fair at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, U.S.—was a last-minute addition. It was only announced in August 1963, eight months before the fair was to open. The Ford Motor Company and General Electric had engaged Disney early on to create their pavilions for the 1964 New York World's Fair. WED Enterprises had already been at work developing a crude audio-animatronic fashioned as Abraham Lincoln when the state of Illinois approached Disney to create the Illinois Pavilion. Afterward, Pepsi approached Disney with a plan for a tribute to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. Walt Disney Productions agreed to construct, maintain, and operate a boat ride for Pepsi-Cola, which was called "It's a Small World – A Tribute to UNICEF". Pepsi also gave UNICEF $100,000 for the construction of an exhibit next to the ride, as well as $200,000 in bonds.
The World's Fair opened on April 22, 1964, and UN Secretary General U Thant dedicated It's a Small World three days later, on April 25. Tickets cost 60 cents for children and 95 cents for adults, and proceeds from ticket sales were donated to UNICEF. Despite the admission fee, it was still one of the fair's most popular exhibits, with 35,000 to 40,000 daily riders on average. The attraction saw nearly five million visitors during the first year alone. A writer for The New York Times wrote that the "wondrous boat ride" was worth riding multiple times, and The Christian Science Monitor called the attraction "one of the greatest contributions to world peace ever shown anywhere". The World's Fair version of the ride was also featured in the TV show Disney Goes to the World's Fair.
The fair did not operate between October 18, 1964, and April 21, 1965. Between the fair's two seasons, the figures were refurbished at Disney's studios in Hollywood. The ride remained otherwise unchanged, although the queue line was modified to increase visitor flow. To accommodate the high ridership, the ride was operating 15 hours a day by mid-1965; the attraction had recorded 10.3 million total visitors by the end of the second year. After the fair ended on October 17, 1965, the Walt Disney Company planned to send the ride to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, U.S. Its high hourly capacity influenced future attractions; Pirates of the Caribbean had been under construction at Disneyland as a subterranean walk-through, but that design was changed to a boat ride.
The ride was located on one of the largest sites in the fairground's industrial zone. The 1965 Official Guide Book to the New York World's Fair described the ride as "a salute to the children of the world". As planned, the ride was nine minutes long and could accommodate 54,000 visitors an hour. Outside was Rolly Crump's 12-story Tower of the Four Winds, an openwork structure made of aluminum. The tower was a large sculpture measuring 120 feet (37 m) tall, with depictions of animals that blew around in the wind. Next to the ride was a store for UNICEF, and there were also UNICEF exhibits that were managed by Disneyland staff.
Entertainers dressed as the Seven Dwarfs roamed around the attraction's queue line, mingling with riders. Silent jets propelled the boats through a winding track. The boat ride depicted faraway locations where people could buy Pepsi-Cola, as well as fanciful depictions of landmarks such as the Tower of Pisa, Taj Mahal, and Eiffel Tower. Throughout the ride were audio-animatronic dolls of singing children from around the world, placed on both sides of the ride. There were 350 figures that sang the "it's a Small World (After All)" song in various languages. Each of the figures was intended to be in constant motions; some figures sang, while others danced or played instruments. Each section of the ride included figures from a different nationality, except at the end of the ride, where figures from every nationality sang side-by-side.
In February 1966, Walt Disney announced that It's a Small World would be reinstalled at Disneyland as part of a $23 million expansion of that theme park. The ride was installed at the northern end of Fantasyland, opening on May 28, 1966. One critic for the Chicago Tribune said the ride "captures the essence of Walt Disney as it shows the children of the world in joyous abandon". Within a year, It's a Small World was one of the park's most popular attractions. In 2014, The Providence Journal estimated that the Disneyland installation of It's a Small World had carried 290 million riders since its opening. The ride's popularity has been attributed to its design, the 15-minute ride time, the fact that the queues typically move quickly, and its indoor location.
The ride building occupies a 1.25-acre (0.51 ha) site and is four stories high, covering 65,000 square feet (6,000 m). The facade was designed by Rolly Crump, who was inspired by Mary Blair's styling. On the attraction's primary facade, Crump designed a clock with a smiling face, located 30 feet (9.1 m) high. Every 15 minutes, costumed wooden dolls dance out from the base of the clock. When the ride opened, it was accessed by an oval pavilion surrounded by gardens and paths. There were originally 70 ride vehicles. The boats carry voyagers past representations of structures such as mosques, huts, and castles, as well as figures singing "It's a Small World (After All)" together in their native language.
When the ride was moved to Disneyland, the Tower of the Four Winds was scrapped. In addition, representations of children from the Pacific islands and the Arctic were added to the attraction, and the number of figures was expanded to 500. The ride was originally sponsored by Bank of America. It was an E-ticket attraction, which meant that only visitors with an E ticket—the highest tier of Disneyland admission ticket at the time—could ride.
The facade was changed several times, the first major change occurred in 1978 where the clock tower had blue colors. Following the opening of another version of the ride at Disneyland Paris in 1992, the entire facade was given a pastel colored scheme in 1993. In addition, the Bank of America canceled its sponsorship in 1992. The toy company Mattel agreed to sponsor the attraction in late 1991 and built a shop at the ride's exit the next year. The guest loading flow on and off the dock was reversed to accommodate the new gift shop's location; previously, guests entered the loading area from the western end of the dock, and exited from the eastern end. The ride was also given a modified version of John Debney's soundtrack used at Paris. Mattel dropped its sponsorship in 1999 and closed its store at the attraction's exit. In 2002, the original 1966 audio was brought back to the ride along with reverting the facade's colors back to the classic white, and gold scheme.
Disneyland's "It's a Small World" was closed from January to November 2008 (closed and reopening in a holiday version, skipping the summer season) to receive a major refurbishment. The building's structure was improved, permanent attachments created for the "It's a Small World Holiday" overlay, the water flume replaced and its propulsion upgraded to electric water jet turbines, and the attraction's aging fiberglass boats redesigned in durable plastic. The refurbishment added 29 new Disney characters, each in their native land in a similar manner to the Hong Kong Disneyland version.
Osram Sylvania agreed to a twelve-year sponsorship in 2009. The sponsorship was taken over by Sylvania's parent firm Siemens AG in 2014, and Siemens discontinued its sponsorship effective October 2017. The ride got another change during It's a Small World Holiday in 2022, in which two new dolls in wheelchairs (one in the South America scene and one in the Finale room) were added in the ride. In 2025, Disney announced that a third verse would be added to the soundtrack on the Disneyland version of the ride, as well as two new Disney characters from Coco will be added in the South America room.
On October 1, 1971, a version of the ride opened within the Fantasyland section of Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, U.S. It was one of Magic Kingdom's original rides. This version of the ride included over 600 figures with costumes.
The attraction lacks the elaborate facade present on the Disneyland version of the attraction, and it is also smaller in scale compared to the Disneyland ride. For three decades, the Magic Kingdom version of the attraction underwent relatively few changes. Depictions of Chinese dolls were added in the 1990s, and a set of laughing African children with hyenas were removed in the 1970s.
Kodak sponsored the attraction in the early 1980s. The toy company Mattel agreed to sponsor the attraction in 1991, discontinuing its sponsorship in 1999. The ride was closed in May 2004 for refurbishment, which included a new entrance, a refurbished exterior, and a new sound system inside. After the renovation was completed, the ride reopened in 2005. In 2021, for the park's 50th anniversary, its facade was repainted in bright colors. A doll in a wheelchair was added in 2023, and further minor adjustments to the dolls took place in 2024.
Another version of It's a Small World opened at Tokyo Disneyland in Chiba, Japan, on April 15, 1983. The Tokyo Disneyland version of the attraction is identical in layout to the Magic Kingdom version except for these differences:
On March 1, 2017, Tokyo Disneyland's version of "It's a Small World" closed down for refurbishment for its first major update since the park's opening in 1983. Reopened in April 2018, to coincide with Tokyo Disneyland's 35th anniversary, the attraction featured 40 characters from Disney properties including Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Aristocats, Brave, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Pinocchio, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, Hercules, The Three Caballeros, Mulan, Tangled, Lilo & Stitch, Frozen, Finding Nemo, and Moana similar to its counterparts in California and Hong Kong.
The attraction was initially set to be relocated to another area in Fantasyland with a new facade similar to the California counterpart as part of original expansion plans announced in October 2014 for the resort within the next ten years, before being revised and updated. The transformed version of the attraction soft-opened on April 15, 2018, revealing an updated color scheme for the facade, a new tick-tock sound and parade music (similar to the ones used in Hong Kong and Anaheim), an entirely reconstructed loading area dubbed "Small World Station," a new Welcome room, an extended Goodbye room, rebuilt set pieces, and music tracks new to the ride including a Mandarin language track added to the China scene formerly exclusive to the Hong Kong version along with the aforementioned Disney characters.
On March 27, 2024, Tokyo Disneyland announced that "It's a Small World" would receive a Marvel-themed overlay, called "it's a small world with Groot", closing on September 17, 2024 for installation. The park did not specify when the overlay would end, but it indicated that the ride would reopen in 2025. It was announced that the opening date of the overlay occurred from January 15 to June 30, 2025.
A fourth version of It's a Small World opened at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France, on April 12, 1992. France Telecom was the original sponsor of the Disneyland Paris version of the ride.
The attraction at Disneyland Paris is a departure from other versions of the attraction. The facade features rearranged and slightly redesigned landmarks with a completely different clock tower. The exterior clock face features a wide-awake sun on its left half and a sleeping moon on its right half. Unlike all other versions of the ride, every scene is housed in one room with arches being used to define sections of the ride. The scenery design is a complete departure from Mary Blair's distinctive style, though the dolls used remain identical to all other versions. The ride also uses a completely different soundtrack composed by John Debney. This is the first version of the ride to incorporate a vibrant European room with dolls singing in French and German, a distinct Middle Eastern section with dolls singing in Arabic and Hebrew and a scene for North America with dolls representing Canada and the United States. In the Finale room, in addition to the song being sung in English, it is also sung in French. Also, the attraction had a post-show area called World Chorus that was sponsored by Orange S.A., which opened with the park in 1992 and then closed in 2010 to make way for the Princess Pavilion meet and greet area.
As part of an ongoing plan to refurbish several attractions for the park's 25th anniversary, this version was refurbished for six months, reopening on December 19, 2015. The refurbishment included a different color scheme for the facade that is identical to the color scheme when it first opened, restored assets and special effects, refurbished boats, new LED lighting to replace the old stage lighting, and all 176 dolls in the ride being progressively replaced through 2017. The entrance and exit rooms have been completely revamped, being identical to the entrance scene in Hong Kong Disneyland's version and the exit scene in the Magic Kingdom and Hong Kong Disneyland versions (rendered in the Mary Blair style similar to the other parks). The soundtrack has been completely remastered with the base instrumental removed from the majority of the ride's audio except for the finale, making the soundtrack more similar to the original version. Additionally, new audio tracks are added including a new recording of someone yodeling to the tune of the song in the Switzerland scene.
Disneyland Paris's "It's a Small World" was scheduled to be closed for extensive refurbishments from November 2021 until May 2023. After an additional nineteenth-month delay and during Disneyland Paris' 30th anniversary celebration and the Walt Disney Company's 100th anniversary celebration, the ride was officially reopened on May 5, 2023 and featured 3 new, added, disabled and handicapped, Wheelchair accessible dolls in 3 scenes: a German doll in the Germany scene, an Arabian doll in the Arabia scene and another German doll in the Finale scene.
The Hong Kong Disneyland version of the attraction on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, opened on April 28, 2008. It is located in the Fantasyland section of the park. Hong Kong Disneyland marketed the ride using a Cantonese version of the song "It's a Small World (After All)" by James Wong Jim. The ride is mostly modeled after the original Disneyland counterpart in that the boats travel through a canal. Some of this version's prominent and unique characteristics include:
Starting in 1997, Disneyland has featured "It's a Small World Holiday" during the end-of-the-year Christmas and holiday season. The Disneyland version of the ride has been redecorated nearly every year since then. The attraction is closed in late October to receive temporary holiday decorations inside and outside and reopens in early November before the start of the busy holiday tourist season. After the holiday season, "It's a Small World Holiday" stays open until late January where it closes to remove the holiday overlay and return to classic "It's a Small World" in early February. Almost one million lights are included during the holidays. In "It's a Small World Holiday", the main theme song is not played in full; instead, the children sing "Jingle Bells" and a bridge of "Deck the Halls" in addition to the main theme. In addition, the ride has decorations and symbols that are based on the holidays celebrated in different parts of the world. A projection show introduced in 2005 plays every 30 minutes across the facade while playing a techno version of the Nutcracker suite.
In 2003, Tokyo Disneyland introduced a version of "It's a Small World Holiday" called "It's a Small World Very Merry Holidays". Although having lights on the clock tower, the rest of the facade was covered in giant snowflakes. The inside of the attraction also had a modified soundtrack, the Asia room, and finale used Japanese vocals replacing the English dub used at Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. The 2011 season was skipped due to damaged props from the earthquake that same year. The Holiday overlay was removed in 2015 due to Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare having higher demand, and the two attractions being to close to each other.
Disneyland Paris introduced a Holiday overlay in 1999. The first iteration of the overlay though was poorly made. The ride used an incomplete soundtrack mixed in with the ride's regular audio. The first iteration was removed in 2006. For the 2009 winter season, the overlay returned, and it received an official name of "It's a Small World Celebration". The ride received an overhaul including, new lighting, Holiday decorations throughout the inside, and the entire attraction now used the full "It's a Small World Holiday" soundtrack. The clock tower was also given a Santa Hat worn until a refurbishment in 2015. Following that renovation, "It's a Small World Celebration" was planned to use an updated soundtrack originally set for winter 2016. It was delayed for unknown reasons. "It's a Small World Celebration" returned for the 2017–2018 holiday season, featuring an updated soundtrack. Since then, it has not returned.
Hong Kong Disneyland implemented its own version called "It's a Small World Christmas" that highlights the Disney character scenes in Christmas fashion with an appearance of Santa Claus in the Arctic scene. Despite being heavily decorated on the outside with clock tower dolls displayed in Holiday attire, the ride was barely decorated on the inside. The audio also was a mix between the regular, and Holiday soundtrack that would transition at points. Hong Kong's overlay lasted only one season possibly due to poor feedback.
As part of Disney's "Let the Memories Begin" campaign for 2011, a nighttime projection show premiered at the Disneyland version of It's a Small World on January 27, 2011. The Magic, the Memories, and You show projected sequences of Disney attractions and characters set to Disney music onto the exterior facade of It's a Small World to fill its architectural features, personalized with exclusive photographs and videos of park guests taken that day by Disney's PhotoPass cast members. The show also existed in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, but was projected onto Cinderella Castle. As the Let the Memories Begin campaign drew to a close, the show ended its run on Labor Day, September 3, 2012, at both locations. The Florida version was eventually replaced by Celebrate the Magic in fall 2012 and later by Once Upon a Time in 2016.
The Magic, The Memories, and You theme song was later used for Celebrate! Tokyo Disneyland as part of the Tokyo Disney Resort 35th Anniversary celebration that premiered at Tokyo Disneyland on July 10, 2018.