Small World redux

Whatever your opinion of It’s A Small World (and its unforgettable – no matter how hard your try – theme song) there’s no doubt it’s a work of art and a tribute to its designer Mary Blair.

The Re-Imagineering blog has posted details on the “updating” currently underway at the Disneyland attraction. These “improvements” include adding Disney characters to foreign locales and an expansion of an American presence to the piece -an expansion the blog points out was “…never intended for American audiences from the show’s very inception.

In consciously excluding a large scale U.S.A.-land from It’s a Small World (a lone cowboy and indian in the finale was just enough), the original show writers were asking American audiences to step away from their own national consciousness and take stock in the wider world around them. It’s a Small World was never about nationalistic fervor. It was about finding our common humanity outside our own borders.”

Read more at Re-Imagineering.