The classic ride “it’s a small world,” located in Fantasyland at Walt Disney World, had some unexpected issues when the attraction was without music!
The ride was down for about 10 minutes until Cast Members caught onto the problem and attempted to fix the attraction’s audio.
While some visitors may see the ride without music as a pleasant experience, the the story behind the song, and the ride, are a part of what makes the ride loved by so many.
When Walt Disney was in need of a song for the ride that could be sung by Audio-Animatronic figures in multiple languages, he reached out to Academy-Award-winning brothers, Richard and Robert Sherman for help. The brothers took a short break from working on Mary Poppins to write the classic song we know celebrating the cultures around the world.
“it’s a small world” was created for the 1964-1965 New York’s World’s Fair and was overseen personally by Walt Disney, with the support of UNICEF. The attraction was a huge success. The ride spent two years on display there and was shipped to Disneyland, where it opened on May 28, 1966. Due to the popularity of the ride, “its a small world” was one of the Opening Day attractions at Walt Disney World in 1971.