00:00It's a Small World was launched on a very large stage.
00:27The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, where over 10 million visitors joined the happiest cruise that ever sailed around the world.
00:35Take a trip on the happiest cruise that ever sailed and let your heart fill with the kind of peaceful optimism that the original attraction was founded on and continues to be all about.
00:45However, what those visitors saw wasn't what was originally planned.
00:49The happy cruise went through a major change before it ever launched.
00:52The main concept was always a charismatic boat ride past hundreds of singing, audio-anatronic dolls from six continents.
01:00However, initially the international dolls were going to sing all the various national anthems on all those continents.
01:06This would have resulted in a disharmonous jumble as guests listened to one anthem as they approached the next.
01:13A world of laughter, a world of dew.
01:18East meets West.
01:22It's a small world.
01:24And that's the name of our latest attraction at Disneyland.
01:27Its stars are the children of the world.
01:30Every land from A to Z, from Asia to Zulu land is represented.
01:34From sketches and finished drawings, these scale models were constructed.
01:41Then by our electronic process, which we call audio-animatronics, they were given voice and movement.
01:49Now this is a scale model of a 30-foot-high clock at the small world entrance.
01:55It's the most unique musical timepiece ever created.
02:00At each quarter hour, when its cod, ears, and springs, and wheels are set into motion,
02:06the clock actually performs the time.
02:11Instead of a multitude of overlapping melodies, a single anthem was written by Richard and Robert Sherman
02:17to fill the entire trip with a 15-minute reminder that it is, indeed, a small world after all.
02:22The Shermans originally intended their song to be played as a slow ballad,
02:27but the playful spirit of the crews demanded a bouncy tempo.
02:30The building in New York was vastly different from what was constructed in Anaheim.
02:34For the fair, it's a small world was in the Pepsi-Cola Pavilion,
02:38where the relatively bland exterior was dressed up with the signage
02:42and elaborate 120-foot-tall, 100-ton artwork in front.
02:47The structure was called the Tower of the Four Winds,
02:50had mobile elements that expressed the boundless energy of youth,
02:53according to its designer, Disney legend Raleigh Crump.
02:56At Disneyland, that structure is now echoed with an artistic sign out front
03:00made of twisting, bending metal tubes.
03:03Anaheim's acre-and-a-half small world building
03:06supplanted the old train depot at the back of Fantasyland
03:09and extends well beyond the park's perimeter berm.
03:12The facade is an intricate, smile-inducing collage of moving shapes
03:17that evoke grand monuments like the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, etc.
03:22from around the world.
03:23Wonderful and whimsical, this isn't architecture, it's L'Architecture,
03:27designed by several Disney legends, among them Mary Blair.
03:31The exterior has undergone several paint revisions
03:34that have taken it from white and gold to white and blue color schemes
03:37to a sweet rainbow of candy pastels.
03:40The gold trim is made of actual 22-karat gold leaf,
03:43and some of the fancy decorations are in large duplicates
03:46of personal jewelry owned by the designers.
03:49A lavish topiary garden, a complex cuckoo clock
03:52that chimes with marching toy soldiers every 15 minutes,
03:55and the Disneyland trains, which pass across the building's layered frontage,
03:59all add to the fanciful fun.
04:01As charming as it cruises, the trip itself is almost unnecessary
04:05because there's so much to see on the building's exterior.
04:09Inside the building, the winding 1,400-foot river,
04:12laid out by Disney legend Claude Coates,
04:14meanders past over 300 singing dolls and about 250 kinetic toys and effects.
04:20Everything is scattered across dozens of Mark Davis-created scenarios
04:24to illustrate how happiness is a global emotion,
04:27whether it's experienced by island kids on surfboards,
04:30Dutch girls clacking their wooden shoes,
04:32giggling hyenas in Africa,
04:34or skating Scandinavians.
04:36Veteran guests may remember the sponsor's cheery reminder at the exit
04:40that no matter where in the world they went,
04:42Bank of America would be there.
04:43V of A, which helped fund Disney film projects dating back to the Snow White in 1937,
04:49sponsored It's a Small World until 1992,
04:52when Mattel took over.
04:54In recent years, Sylvania displays a slogan about making our small world brighter.
04:58After debuting in New York in 1964,
05:02It's a Small World got two big pages in Disneyland's 1965 souvenir book,
05:07a year before the attraction even opened in Anaheim.
05:10At its Disneyland premiere in 1966,
05:13international children's ceremoniously poured water from each of the world's oceans
06:06with an immersive story and unforgettable visuals at a World's Fair pavilion.
06:10It was a surreptitious coincidence that sparked the famous attraction's beginnings.
06:16Just as the Silly Symphony's short film series was a place to develop and experiment with cutting-edge techniques
06:22that could later be implemented in his feature films,
06:25these pavilions would serve the same function.
06:27Walt could design a brand new attraction's ride system effects and technology on a smaller scale
06:32before developing them in a larger capacity elsewhere like Disneyland.
06:36While Walt was negotiating with the state of Illinois on the Lincoln Project,
06:41he received word that the Pepsi-Cola Company was looking to partner.
06:44In conjunction with UNICEF,
06:46Pepsi had a huge amount of space at the World's Fair,
06:48but did not have much time or money.
06:50Disneyland supervisor Joe Fowler told Pepsi that
06:53there just was not enough time to get the pavilion ready,
06:56and this was coming from someone who built Disneyland in one year.
06:59Walt thought otherwise.
07:01Walt told the Imagineers that they would be working on one more project.
07:04He described it as a little boat ride that maybe we can do.
07:08As veteran Imagineer Raleigh Crump said,
07:10we thought, little boat ride?
07:12We were working on Lincoln and the Carousel of Progress,
07:15both of which were using the highest technology and animatronic figures,
07:19and we were working on Ford too.
07:21All of this and Walt wants us to do a little boat ride.
07:24It's a Small World closes January 2008 through February 2009 for refurbishment.
07:30After the 2009 refurbishment,
07:32new boats made of colored resin replace the original fiberglass ones.
07:37The new boats are the same size, design, and color scheme as the originals
07:40and can accommodate between 12 and 15 riders.
07:44Added characters,
07:45Cinderella, Gus, and Jack look out over their new home in France.
07:49Look up and spy Peter Pan and Tinkerbell flying around the moon.
07:53Alice and the White Rabbit await the Queen of Hearts in England.
07:56Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket dance in the Puppet Theater stage in Italy.
08:02...over Fantasyland toward It's a Small World.
08:05Through the use of audio animatronics,
08:08children from every corner of the world come alive,
08:11singing and dancing a musical fantasy on this globe-circling cruise.
08:15Let's turn the clock back to the opening day ceremonies of
08:27It's a Small World.
08:28More than 500 children and Old World folk dancers in their native costumes
08:45participated in the parade.
08:47The dedication ceremonies were attended by councillor officials,
09:01representatives of the press,
09:03and thousands of Disneyland visitors.
09:06But the very special guests were children from many nations.
09:09Water flown to Disneyland from the major oceans and seas
09:27was added to the Small World's seven sea waves.
09:30...and the
09:44...and the
09:46...and the
09:51...and
09:52...and
09:53...and
10:56There are quicker and quieter ways to find out the correct time, but they're not as
11:09much fun.
11:11Notice the gentleman in the foreground in a yellow shirt and hat.
11:27That's my grandfather, when we visited Disneyland in 1977.
11:39The original sets built at Grosh Studios.
11:412016 marks the 50th anniversary of It's a Small World opening at Disneyland.
11:51It's a Small World opening at Disneyland.
19:07Specs. Capacity 5,400 per hour. Capacity per boat 15. Cycle time 11 minutes 43 seconds. Load time 15 seconds. Unload time 15 seconds. Trip time 11 minutes 21 seconds. Dispatch interval 11 seconds. Trips per hour 5. Distance travel 1,400 feet. Speed 1.3 miles per hour.
19:29Alice Davis' adorable doll costumes fastened with Velcro for easy access whenever the mechanisms needed repair. Careful pruning is required for temporaries. Industrialized dehuman fire being replaced.
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