Disneyland’s new Small World scene draws inspiration from ride creator

With the debut today of the rehabbed It’s a Small World ride at Disneyland, the public gets its first look at the controversial new “Spirit of America” scene — the focus of much angst and anguish in chat rooms and blog posts.

On one side of the boat ride, the new scene features an American West tableau with cowboys, Indians and “Toy Story” characters Woody, Jessie and Bullseye. On the other side, farmer dolls in overalls and straw hats populate an agricultural heartland montage.

“Spirit of America” replaces a tropical rainforest scene, which got severely truncated and unceremoniously tucked into another room on the ride.

Walt Disney Imagineer Kim Irvine, who oversaw the Small World rehab, explained her approach to the new American scene during a boat ride through the attraction today.

Irvine based the new scene, in part, on original concept art by Small World ride creator Mary Blair. Fellow Imagineer Tony Baxter accidentally discovered the sketch at a recent Comic-Con event.

“It just confirmed our suspicions that she always meant to have a scene for America,” said Irvine, who says the scene may have been cut from the original attraction because of time constraints.

The original sketch includes many elements — buttes, cactuses and the sun — incorporated into the new American West scene.

“It really helped me get the color tones right,” Irvine said of the sketch. “The hardest part for me was really capturing Mary Blair’s style. It really has an innocent, childlike quality.”

A lasso-twirling cowboy, familiar to many Small World fans, was relocated from the finale to the American scene.

The goal of the renovation, Irvine said, was for the changes to be as seamless and unobtrusive as possible.

“We stuck to Mary’s story,” Irvine said.

Complete Small World coverage:
> Disneyland costume designer dresses 300 Small World dolls
> Whoops! Disney inadvertently reveals new Small World characters
> Disneyland to add ‘Alice’ to Small World ride
> Save Small World, ride creator’s family begs Disneyland
> Disney, Pixar artists rally to preserve Small World ride
> Disney fires back at Small World ‘rumors’
> Disney fires another salvo at ‘complaining’ Small World fans

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the Los Angeles Times Funland blog: latimes.com/funland.

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times staff writer

Photos: Disney

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5, 2009 at 4:31 pm by Brady MacDonald and is filed under California, Disneyland, Family & Kids, Orange County, Theme Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.