Last week, I got e-mails from a bunch of West Coast
Disneyana fans who were hoping that JHM might champion their cause. Which was
to protest — in the strongest possible terms, mind you — Radio Disney’s
decision to distribute brochures inside of Disneyland.
“And what was the problem with these brochures?,” you ask. Well,
they showed Guests where exactly to find
all of the Disney characters that had recently installed inside of the newly
refurbished “it’s a small world.”
Copyright 2009 Disney. All Rights Reserved
As politely as possible, I told those people “No.” Pretty
much for the same reason that I didn’t join last year’s “Save the Rain Forest”
campaign. Because – to be perfectly honest
here – I thought that Disneyland’s “small world” redo was a pretty stupid thing
to get all worked up about.
Mind you, one of the reasons that I feel that way is that I’m
lucky enough to know Alice Davis. That Disney Legend who – along with her
husband, Marc and their good friend Mary Blair – helped to create the original
version of “it’s a small world” for the 1964 New York World Fair.
Alice Davis working on the original version of “it’s a small world.” Copyright Disney. All Rights Reserved
Ms. Davis recently made a trip to Disneyland to check out
this refurbished attraction. Care to guess what her reaction to the revamped
ride was?
Here (special thanks to Shelly Smith for this transcript) is
Alice’s take on the Disney characters being added to “it’s a small world.”
Copyright 2009 Disney. All Rights Reserved
“Some things I like. Some I don’t like. I think that a
committee changed ‘it’s a small world.’ Every so many years, a new group of
Young Turks comes into the Company and thinks that they know better. And they
change things like ‘it’s a small world’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’I don’t mean to throw rocks at them. But back when I worked
at WED, we were lucky. We just had Walt to tell us how things should be,
instead of some committee trying to decide things.Copyright 2009 Disney. All Rights Reserved
Which is why WDI is so lucky to have Kim Irvine. She’s a
very talented person. Kim was born with a Disney spoon in her mouth. Her
father-in-law was Dick Irvine and her mom was Imagineer Leota Toombs.Leota was one of the first Imagineers. Kim’s mother was one
of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. Toombs was generous and sincere,
and she taught Kim to know & respect all the early Disney artists like Mary
Blair.Copyright 2009 Disney. All Rights Reserved
So I take my hat off to Kim. It’s not ‘small world’ as it
was before. But Kim did the best possible job with what she was given, and I’m
very proud of her. I can’t think of anyone who would have handled the ‘small
world’ redo project as well as she did.Kim did what she could to keep this
attraction as ‘small world’-like as possible. She was very
clever with how she did that. But instead of appreciating all of that effort,
everybody is up in arms.Copyright 2009 Disney. All Rights Reserved
A lot of people decided before they even
rode the revised version of ‘it’s a small world’ that they were going to hate
it. Well, to them I say, ‘Get a key and open your minds.”Kim Irvine did a wonderful job here and the general public
needs to understand & appreciate that. Sure, this was a project that was
started by a committee. But that committee was smart enough to hand this
project off to an artist who actually understood this attraction and really respected the people who
originally created ‘it’s a small world.’ Which is why this redo turned out as
well as it did.Copyright 2009 Disney. All Rights Reserved
Of course, the funny part of this story is – in another
couple of years – another group of Young Turks will come along and undoubtedly ask
that even more changes be made to ‘it’s a small world.’ I just hope that Kim
Irvine is still around then to help guide that committee. Show them how to make
changes with heart.Disney’s damned lucky to have her.”
Copyright 2009 Disney. All Rights Reserved
So long story short here: If Alice Davis is okay with the
changes that have been made to Disneyland’s newly-character-fortified version
of “it’s a small world,” then I’m okay with them too.
And as for those of you who still have your knickers in a
twist over this non-issue … I believe that William Shatner – in his somewhat
infamous appearance on “Saturday Night Live” back in December of 1986 – put it best:
“Get a life, willya?”
Copyright 2009 Disney. All Rights Reserved
Your thoughts?