Character Additions to "It's a Small World"

You may know that the "It's a Small World" attraction underwent some major refurbishment this year and reopened back in February. There's an article and pics here. Not only did the ride get some routine clean ups and maintenance done, but Disney also added some familiar movie characters to the ride. This was a subject of much controversy among Dland and Small World attraction fans. Some feared the characters would look out of place among the very stylized Mary Blair figures. Well, I had the opportunity to see the new figures this summer. It was great. Not only were the figures great, but I hadn't been on the ride in about a decade so it was almost like riding it for the first time. The ride really is great...and extra great after you've been walking around Dland for two days in 80-90 degree weather. So, I took plenty of pics, me being a camera whore. I didn't get all of the character additions because some of them snuck up on me and we were past them before I got the chance to get a pic. So here are my pics for those of you who haven't experienced the new additions! (BTW, click on the pics for larger views. You can really see the detail.) Enjoy!

Alice! I think she fits right in. In fact, she probably fits in the most because Mary Blair actually did some Alice work. You can see it and her work from some other Disney movies here.


Here's Cinderella. I actually had to ask my friend who she was at first because I didn't see the mice and I think she looks really generic. Also, BTW, this is the London section which is first. Before Alice there was Peter and Tink flying above but I passed them before I could get a pic. I think they could have done some other characters here too like Sleeping Beauty and her fairies which would have been less generic than Cinderella. There are other films set in England too that they could have added or done instead of Cinderella but whatever, she's okay.


Pinnochio! The only thing about this one is that I wonder why they did him one dimensional. I mean all of them are puppets. They could have taken advantage of him since he IS a puppet. Also, he's really isolated with no other characters around him like they just stuck him in there which I thought was weird too.


Here's Aladdin and Jasmine. I thought they went really well. They were in the right place and blended with the style and everything. I was happy with this addition.


Here's a close-up of Mulan. I barely caught her before we went into the next room. She's sort of tucked into a corner. She holds on to a kite that looks like Mushu that's not in this pic. The only problem I had was this was it's place stuck in the corner and I also would have liked to see her in her normal outfit instead of her boy stuff. It would have gone better with the blossoms behind her too. But, other than that, I think it's a great interpretation of the boy version of Mulan.


Here's Simba and Pumbaa. Timon is also there but I didn't get him in the pic. I was so happy to see them there because I love the Lion King. I also thought they did a good job here of capturing the Mary Blair spirit (which must have been hard because they are animals) but still making them recognizable.

So that's it for this post. I have more Small World pics but I'll put them in another post because this one's already pretty long.