The Big Job of Creating ‘It’s a Small World’: A Tribute Gallery

Walt with two key creators of the attraction: Disney-studio animator Marc Davis (he also forged the strikingly angular anatomies of Cruella de Vil and Maleficent, among many other assignments) and artist Mary Blair (who'd worked on crucial inspirational art for a number of Disney cartoon features in the 1940s and '50s.) It was Davis who created the characters and tableau settings, while Blair's folk-art-styled concept sketches had a child-friendly, highly abstracted visual style that was then translated into physical dolls and settings.

Mary Blair beholds a model created from some of her magically whimsical designs. The figures of children in colorful native outfits—along with many animals found in specific locales—were then fabricated into larger audio-animatronic figures that moved with pre-programmed choreography as audiences passed by in boats.

Marc Davis's wife Alice Davis was a gifted artist who wasn't able to forge a career path in the male-dominated world of character animation. (Yes, it could be a small, sexist world back then—and not just at Disney but in all of Hollywood). But she was a gifted artist, and found ways to shine. She served as costume designer for "Small World," overseeing hundreds of diverse, authentically rendered outfits.

Walt Disney (right) before the Tower of the Four Winds sculpture, initially assembled in Glendale, Calif., before its shipment to New York. Alas, it never made the return trip: It was too difficult and costly to transport it back, so it was left for scrap metal after the fair closed in 1965.

Mary Blair (left) and Alice Davis in 1964 with a sampling of festive dresses.

Could this lion model, keyed to Mary Blair's designs, be any more whimsically appealing?

Golds and oranges dominated Blair's color schemes for certain rooms.

Ooh la la: Here's France and a line of can-can dancers, a la "Small World."

A vintage shot, taken in 1965, of a tableau depicting Asian children.

Here's how the attraction appears at DIsneyland today, framed by yet more wonderful Mary Blair design work at the entrance.

The "Small World" ride has been given tweaks and additions to bring specific Disney and Pixar characters into the mix, joining scores of essentially anonymous child figures representing various nationalities. In this room, Jasmine and Aladdin take a magic carpet ride. (They've also recently been incarnated in a full-blown Disney stage show on Broadway). The new doll costumes and toy decorations are intended to blend with the original style schemes established by Mary Blair.

Classic scenes, such as this tableau of Asia, have been carefully curated and spruced up of late.

Another Mary Blair-orchestrated charmer.

A newer section of "Small World" depicts England, complete with Disney's version of Alice from "Alice in Wonderland." The plucky Alice's design was strongly shaped, once again, by Mary Blair--both in Disney's 1951 animated feature and in the attraction.

Aloha, Disney guests: Here are Lilo and Stitch--two among the 29 Disney and Pixar characters now peeking out from the ride's scenes.

Scandinavia, "Small World" style.

The grand finale. So is that tune stuck in your head now? Happy travels, and remember: It's a small world after all.