This week, in my final article to compare the Fantasylands in California and Paris, I shall be looking at “it’s a small world”, the ride which –according to Marty Sklar- has a “song [which] will drive you bananas if you hear it often enough, but from a message standpoint … is a timeless attraction”.
Both versions of the attraction keep the title in lower case and enclosed in quotation marks. For this article however, I shall use the abbreviation of iasw, although I have known several Cast Members use the initials FAD instead, standing for “F-ing Annoying Dolls”.
Both rides last approximately fifteen minutes and feature the titular song as composed by the Sherman Brothers for the “Children of The World” pavilion at the 1964 World Fair. However, the song was re-recorded for the Paris’ park, using choirs from around Europe.
iasw in Paris was an opening day attraction. It has only had one sponsor (France Telecom) which has been funding the ride from park-opening until 2009. Over the years, California’s iasw (which opened in 1966) has had several sponsors, including Bank of America. Mattel and Sylvania. At the World’s Fair, it was sponsored by Pepsi-Cola but promoted UNICEF.
The “America” scene in Paris is much bigger than the equivalent room in California; the scene existed in Paris long before it was added to the one in Anaheim. Paris’s iasw also features a Middle-Eastern section (not appearing in Anaheim) in which the dolls sing in Arabic.
With the exception of Ariel, Paris’ iasw does not feature any of the 29 Disney/Disney*Pixar characters added to the California version in 2009; however, France’s ride does feature Slinky Dog from Toy Story (who doesn’t appear in the Anaheim ride). Both versions feature Hidden Mickeys and Magic Carpet from Aladdin.
Both rides start with a “hello room” and end with a “goodbye room” with the penultimate scene being the “Finale” where representations of dolls from previous scenes wear white and sing together. In the version in California, all dolls sing in English in this section; in Paris this scene also features verses in French and German.
Neither version offers Fastpass (although California’s “it’s a small world holiday” was the world’s first attraction ever to offer this service, back in 1999).
Further differences include: the Great Britain scene in France doesn’t feature the song being performed in a (bad) cockney accent; the French version doesn’t feature a “hidden Mary Blair” halfway up its Eiffel Tower; the French attraction is completely covered so as to help protect it from the elements; the French ride is made up of one big interconnected room, rather than lots of little rooms; the floor is flooded in Paris whereas the water only exists in troughs in Anaheim; the clock face outside the park (with a display every fifteen minutes) in France is shaped like the sun and the moon, whereas in California it is based on the dolls’ faces. (The clock and the identical faces were both designed by the same man: Gregory S. Marinello).
Whereas California’s iasw annually turns into “it’s a small world holiday”, France’s becomes “it’s a small world celebration”.
In terms of similarities, both versions of the ride feature a sun or moon in virtually every scene, both are continually loading mass capacity attractions (with the one in California being the first ever Disney ride which could be described thus), both feature topiaries around the exterior (although France’s version also features fountains), both feature the Disneyland Railroad visibly traveling between the queue area and the show building, and both feature the “please remain seated” spiel at the end of the ride in English, French and Spanish.
Portions of this article first appeared in my musings for DLDHistory.com in August 2011, which also featured an interview with Chris Bailey who was the director of the (now-closed) post-show for DLP’s iasw.