Disney World is the Happiest Place On Earth For Everyone…Except Me.
I love going to Disney World. I’ve been to both Disney World and Disneyland numerous times. Give me a chance to travel to a world of fantasy and imagination, and I’m there.
I’m a person who is most fascinated by the Imagineers and the detail the Disney Park staff puts into their theme parks and hotels. However, Disney is a place that originated my greatest fears: animatronics, people in full fur costumes, and one particular attraction.
You know the ride. You know the song. Most people love it. I’m not most people. “It’s a Small World (After All)” is the creepiest song I’ve ever heard. The ride is one of my greatest fears. No, I’m not joking. Here’s my take.
#1. The Song is a Broken Record.
Now before the Small World lovers out there start defending the composition of the Sherman Brothers, I’m not here to insult it. The Sherman Brothers wrote many of the Disney songs we all grew up loving. My favorites include the ENTIRE Mary Poppins soundtrack and “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room.”
The thing about “It’s a Small World (After All)” is, even though it’s catchy, it’s never-ending. It's the same stanzas repeating over and over and over again like a never-ending carousel of madness. And I feel stuck on it. Have you ever had a song stuck in your head but the same part keeps repeating over and over and you feel like you’re going to go insane so you start living in your worst nightmare?
It never stops and never continues, much like an old ‘45 stuck in the record player. The music scratches and itches at your skin, but no matter how hard you try, you can’t scratch the itch away. So there you are, stuck in a timeless loop of repeated insanity. Yeah, that’s how the song affects me. The kicker is, after the song is over, it DOES get stuck in your head. So Broken Record Brain it is.
If you’ve ever been on the It’s a Small World ride in Disneyland or Disney World, you know the theme song is on a constant loop. There you are stuck in a boat hearing the same notes, lyrics, and high pitched voices while being taken through the different cultures of the world. We’re the record, the ride is the needle of the record player. To me, it’s like nails on a chalkboard. Shivers quiver through my bones.
#2. Dolls Moving? No Thank You.
Disney is known for their animatronics. Walt created the first animatronic version of a person for the 1964 World’s Fair. Abraham Lincoln made his debut in Flushing Meadows/Corona Park, Queens, where I’m happy to be a native of the borough Disney contributed so many attractions to, including It’s A Small World. It was a huge technological breakthrough. As most Disney fans know, he was an innovator and paved the way for technological advancement through the power of imagination, possibility, and the fantastic.
I appreciate his foresight, but inanimate objects that are purposefully made to move? Robots made to look like humans? Dolls made to sing and dance? No thank you. To me, that's a creepy town. I used to lie awake at night under my covers while the porcelain dolls my Grandmother gave me stared me down from their shelves. Yes, I’m talking about those dolls you see in TV shows or movies that are usually in some creepy old lady's house or a bed and breakfast full of old weird-looking toys.
So now that you know my attitude toward inanimate objects that come to life, you can see why the It’s a Small World dolls leave me uneasy. I know they are not anywhere near the status of the Johnny Depp version of the Jack Sparrow animatronic on Pirates of the Caribbean, but they remind me too much of porcelain and Chucky doll creepiness. No, I’ve never seen the Chucky movie, and never intend to.
#3 White Sea
It’s a Small World’s message is one beyond admirable. I’m a big advocate for embracing other cultures and educating myself about the people of the world. Accepting and embracing each other’s differences is a big message of my children’s book, Bella the Buck-Toothed Ballerina, but Mr. Disney already paved this message’s way through an interactive ride full of entertaining story-boarding.
As mentioned before, we are taken through scenes of dolls representing children of the world's different cultures. The song is the driving force and through-line connection for the rider. Disney is known for their research so, in every single country the rider experiences, the dolls are wearing culturally appropriate clothing and dancing in the style their country originated to the Sherman Brothers’ “It’s a Small World (After All).”
The song actually switches languages at points to highlight the accuracy of the different represented cultures we are experiencing. It’s all encompassing. I find it fitting that Disney decided to make this a water ride, as water covers 71% of the earth's surface and flows about every land in the world. All of us humans are 60% percent water no matter where we come from. Water is not only essential to our lives, but it is essential to the world and connects us all together.
Now, here’s where this section’s qualm about It’s a Small World comes into play. At the end of the ride, all of the dolls wear white. Considering the context, story, and message of the ride, white is used to signify unity and acceptance. This is beautiful, except my brain being my brain, and this ride with the same song over and over and my fears of animatronics, my thoughts don't automatically go there.
Instead, they’re uneasy. I don’t automatically see hope or feel my heart burst because of it’s message of acceptance. Combine the aforementioned creepiness and fears, I don’t see white as hope. I see death. I see all of the animatronic children wearing the same exact color dancing weirdly happily to a song that never stops as if they have died and they are in some off-beat section of heaven.
There you have it, folks. You have experienced the unique intricacies of my brain and anxious fears. This is no way a critique on the efforts of Walt Disney or the Sherman Brothers. This is simply how I quirkily react to this particular ride in Disney World and Disneyland. Quite frankly, all of the animatronic rides freak me out. I don’t like fake people, both made and behaved. Thank you for coming to my Small World Ted Talk.
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