It's a Small World (stylized in all lowercase and in quotations or with an exclamation mark) is an Old Mill boat dark ride located in the Fantasyland area at various Disney theme parks around the world. Versions of the ride are installed at Disneyland in Anaheim, California; Magic Kingdom in Bay Lake, Florida; Tokyo Disneyland; Disneyland Park (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 regalia 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, 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.
Background
Ride 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 conceived 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.
Song "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 July 1963 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 to 120 beats per minute and sang in counterpoint. Walt was so delighted with the final result that he renamed the attraction "It's a Small World" after the 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, at 48 seconds long, 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 and on July 7, 2025, it was announced that the Magic Kingdom version of the attraction would receive the new verse as well.
World's Fair 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 publicly 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. Disney seemed to be the showman to give us the package we want ... He's terrific. He's got his hands in more bowls than anyone I've ever seen, but he accomplishes what he sets out to do. — J. G. Mullaly, Ford's World's Fair program manager
Operations 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.
Description
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 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 Eiffel Tower, the Windmill, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Parthenon and the Taj Mahal. 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 motion; some figures sang, while others danced or played instruments like fifes, snare drums and bass drums. 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.
Disneyland
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 the 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 site and is four stories high, covering . 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 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.
1966–2008 changes
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.