40 Fun Facts About It's a Small World

Which Disneyland ride was planned as a wax museum until It's a Small World showed boats worked?

Pirates of the Caribbean was redrawn as a boat ride once the 1964 World's Fair showed how fast boats could move a crowd. It opened in 1967 as the last attraction Walt Disney helped design.

The It's a Small World song was written in 1963 in the shadow of which Cold War standoff?

The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was still fresh when the tune was written the following July. That is why a theme-park singalong is, at heart, a plea for peace.

What were the dolls of It's a Small World first meant to sing, until it proved a noisy clash?

National anthems from every country on the route were to play at once, and the result was a din. Walt Disney then asked for a single tune that would work in any language.

In which Disney animated film does a caged bird start singing the It's a Small World song?

The Lion King has the hornbill Zazu strike up the tune from his cage, and Scar cuts him off at once. The gag works because the melody is famous for sticking in the head.

Proceeds from It's a Small World at the 1964 World's Fair went to which United Nations agency?

UNICEF received every fare, and the boat ride was billed as a salute to the agency. Adults paid 95 cents to board and children 60.

Which soft drink company paid for It's a Small World as its attraction at the 1964 World's Fair?

Pepsi-Cola signed up so late that the ride was announced only eight months before opening day. Its rival Coca-Cola had a pavilion of its own at the same fair.

The songwriters of the It's a Small World theme won two Academy Awards for which Disney film?

Mary Poppins earned the pair both of their Oscars, one of them for the chimney sweep's song. They collected the awards in 1965, a year after the boat ride first sailed.

Which US president was Disney's talking robot at the 1964 World's Fair alongside It's a Small World?

Abraham Lincoln stood up and spoke in the Illinois pavilion, and the show was running at Disneyland by the following year.

Which animated sitcom spoofed It's a Small World at a beer-themed park called Duff Gardens?

The Simpsons took Bart and Lisa there with their aunt Selma in a 1993 episode. Duff Gardens itself sends up Busch Gardens, the parks first built to promote a brewery.

In Disneyland's It's a Small World Holiday, the dolls mix the theme with which sleighing song?

Jingle Bells shares the soundtrack each winter, when the ride closes in late October and reopens in early November in holiday dress. The holiday version has run nearly every year since 1997.

It's a Small World sits in which themed land at all five Disney parks that have the ride?

Fantasyland hosts every version of the ride. In California the building anchors the land's northern end, where it was installed in 1966.

Miguel and his dog Dante joined Disneyland's It's a Small World in 2025 from which Pixar film?

Coco sent its young guitarist and his dog to the South America scene in 2025, the year Disneyland turned 70. They join dozens of Disney characters drawn to match the dolls.

It's a Small World was an opening-day ride in 1971 at which Walt Disney World park?

Magic Kingdom opened with the ride on October 1, 1971, in a smaller form than the California original. The Florida version has no grand outdoor facade.

Which songwriting team behind Chitty Chitty Bang Bang also wrote the It's a Small World theme?

The Sherman Brothers, Richard and Robert, were Walt Disney's staff songwriters when he asked them for it. By one estimate their theme is the most publicly performed song of all time.

It's a Small World debuted at the 1964 World's Fair, held in which New York City borough?

Queens hosted the fair at Flushing Meadows, the park that had also held the 1939 World's Fair. The 1964 fair's giant globe, the Unisphere, still stands there.

In what style was the It's a Small World theme first played for Walt Disney, who wanted it cheerier?

A slow ballad was how the song began. Walt wanted it happier, so the songwriters pushed the tempo up to 120 beats a minute and sang it in counterpoint.

Which Disney concept artist for Cinderella and Peter Pan gave It's a Small World its look?

Mary Blair based the look on paintings of children she made on a South American tour with Walt Disney. He asked for her because he prized her eye for color.

Which Disney live-action film sends a boy inventor onto It's a Small World at the 1964 World's Fair?

Tomorrowland turns the boat ride into a secret doorway: a pin handed to young Frank Walker drops his boat into a hidden city of the future.

Which park's It's a Small World opened in 2008 with Disney characters already among its dolls?

Hong Kong Disneyland opened its version with 38 Disney characters in the scenes where their stories are set. The California original soon borrowed the idea.

Which new figures did Disneyland add to It's a Small World in 2022 to make the ride more inclusive?

Dolls in wheelchairs joined the South America scene and the finale in 2022. The versions in Florida and Paris each gained their own the following year.

It's a Small World at Disneyland once required which lettered coupon, later slang for a big thrill?

An E ticket was Disneyland's priciest coupon, reserved for the biggest attractions until ticket books ended in 1982. Astronaut Sally Ride used the phrase to describe her shuttle flight.

Which toymaker sponsored Disneyland's It's a Small World in the 1990s and ran a shop at its exit?

Mattel, the maker of Barbie, signed on in late 1991, and the boarding dock was reversed so that riders would leave past its new shop.

Which financial giant first sponsored Disneyland's It's a Small World, staying until 1992?

Bank of America put its name on the ride when it reached California in 1966. It ended the deal in 1992, the year another version opened outside Paris.

Disneyland's It's a Small World facade went pastel in 1993, then returned to which classic colors?

White and gold came back in 2002, ending nine years of pastels adopted after the Paris version opened. The gold accents were refreshed again for the park's 60th anniversary.

In 2022 the Library of Congress added a 1964 version of the It's a Small World song to which list?

The National Recording Registry took in the 1964 version sung by the Disneyland Boys Choir, judging a theme-park tune culturally and historically significant.

Walt Disney wanted the It's a Small World song to translate easily and work in which musical form?

A round lets singers start the same tune at different moments and still fit together. Walt wanted one melody that every scene on the route could share.

What silently pushed the boats of It's a Small World along their track at the 1964 World's Fair?

Water jets moved the boats in near silence, and the idea lasted. The Disneyland ride was upgraded to electric jet turbines during its 2008 overhaul.

Which Disney firm, later renamed Walt Disney Imagineering, created It's a Small World in the 1960s?

WED Enterprises took its name from the initials of Walter Elias Disney. The firm kept that name until 1986.

Which Marvel hero starred in an overlay of Tokyo Disneyland's It's a Small World announced in 2024?

Groot gave the overlay its name, and the ride closed in September 2024 so that the Marvel scenes could be installed among the dolls.

Which costumed Disney characters roamed the queue for It's a Small World at the 1964 World's Fair?

The Seven Dwarfs mingled with waiting families, and there were plenty of them: the ride drew nearly five million riders in the fair's first season alone.

Which Disneyland transport, running since 1955, passes through the facade of It's a Small World?

The railroad steams across an overpass and through an opening in the facade. An earlier station there was removed in 1966, when the ride was installed.

A doll of the designer of Disneyland's It's a Small World holds a balloon on which landmark?

The Eiffel Tower carries the tribute: a child-sized figure halfway up the ironwork, easy to miss from a moving boat.

In which 2010 Wii game is the clock tower of It's a Small World the first boss that players fight?

Epic Mickey makes the smiling clock a boss driven mad by hearing the ride's song without a break for decades. The game's Gremlin Village is modeled on the ride.

Which 120-foot spinning sculpture marked the entrance to It's a Small World at the 1964 fair?

Tower of the Four Winds was a 12-story aluminum mobile hung with animals that turned in the breeze. It never reached California: it was scrapped when the ride moved west.

Which Enchanted Tiki Room designer created the smiling clock of Disneyland's It's a Small World?

Rolly Crump built the facade around a clock whose doors open every 15 minutes for a parade of wooden dolls. His 2012 memoir is titled It's Kind of a Cute Story.

Which Disney Legend, once a lingerie designer, made the costumes for It's a Small World's dolls?

Alice Davis researched national dress and turned it into more than 150 costumes. The workshop methods she set up became Disney's standard for dressing its figures.

Which United Nations Secretary-General rode It's a Small World days after the 1964 fair opened?

U Thant took the boat ride with children of United Nations officials on April 25, 1964. The Burmese diplomat led the organization from 1961 to 1971, the first Asian to do so.

Which Disney sculptor, later creator of the Partners statue, shaped the dolls of It's a Small World?

Blaine Gibson was a Disney animator who sculpted as a hobby until Walt Disney saw his animal sculptures at an art exhibit in 1954 and moved him to the parks.

Which California firm behind the Matterhorn Bobsleds built the ride system of It's a Small World?

Arrow Development of Mountain View engineered the boats and their guidance. Disney thought enough of the firm to buy a third of it in 1960.

Which Passion of the Christ composer scored the Disneyland Paris version of It's a Small World?

John Debney wrote a fresh soundtrack for the Paris ride in 1991, and Disneyland in California used a version of it from 1993 to 2002.