Small world: one song

Guests who are perusing through the indoor portion of Four Winds Square will soon come across a large open cardboard box, whose flaps fold out into the plaza, welcoming guests within its walls. On the two flaps are posters made up of different animals and pictures from different countries around the world all with the name of the countries they are representing written above in “crayon.” At the top of the box, where guests walk under, there is a sign that reads “Small World: One Song” under which it reads “Sponsored by UNICEF.”

Once inside the “box” guests are welcomed to a waiting area, a room decorated with artwork from children submitted from schools all around the world. Guests can sit on paper-mache (appearing) benches and seats, or can meander around the lobby and take a look at the submitted art. Each art piece will have the student’s name and where they’re from, as well as the title of their piece. The art pieces switch out every few months to both showcase different students’ artwork as well as to keep the lobby fresh for each visit.

Before entering the theater proper, a series of television screens that had previously been flipping through different videos and pictures created by children around the world flicker on. These tvs soon show a UNICEF representative, speaking about the show.

“Hello, and welcome to Small World: One Song, my name is ___ and I am one of the many people who work each and every day to make sure that children all across the globe can get medical treatment, safe water, a good education, and all of the other luxuries each of us enjoy every single day. Today, we have a special treat in store, as so many of our children as part of our ‘One Song’ program have donated a favorite stuffed animal of theirs to the show to perform a little bit about their culture for each of you. All of these ‘stuffies’ are going to sing classic folk songs from multiple different countries, hoping to bring a bit of culture into your Disneyland Experience. But first, please heed a few important messages before entering the theater. Please refrain from eating, drinking, and smoking while within the theater. While we encourage you to join in on the celebration with pictures and video, we do ask that you refrain from use of flash photography and external video lighting. The lights will be darkened when in the theater, so please try to remain in your seats until the end of the show when the lights return. If you must exit the theater for any reason, please carefully and politely make your way across the aisle, exiting to your left-hand side of the theater marked “exit.” Now, with that out of the way, the doors will be opening towards you momentarily, so please remain safely behind the yellow line until they fully open, then make your way all the way across your row to make plenty of room for others. Well, I guess that’s all! I sincerely hope you enjoy Small World: One Song!”

With that, the theater doors swing out, beckoning guests into the theater for the show. The theater holds 800 people, safely between the theater size for The Hall of Presidents and The American Adventure. Speaking of The American Adventure, this show has a similar system to it, where each set of animatronics are actually stored underneath the show building, down with the Utilidors, and are brought up using mechanized lift systems during their portion of the show.

The animatronics featured in the show all represent different animals, creatures, plants, or other important things from different cultures across the world, all with a very soft and cuddly appearance as they are supposed to resemble stuffed animals given by different children. For each country or geographic region, different plush animals are featured. Listed below are the different animatronics in the show and the songs they perform...

Throughout each performance, the animatronics are randomized and changed out, meaning that each show could have a totally different roster than the last time guests see it. This is controlled by the cast members who run the program. A total of 20-30 animatronics will perform per show (depending on length of clip in each song), each between 30 seconds to one minute. At the end, all of the animatronics, including those who didn’t perform in the show, rise up to sing the original song “Small World: One Song,” a song all about unity and world peace, written by Lionel Richie as a sort of sequel to “We Are the World” (which I totally almost put in here as the final song).

Once the show (that runs around 25 minutes) wraps up, guests are ushered out of the theater and back into the indoor portion of the land, where guests may return to the amazing and fun artistic stylings of Four Winds Square.

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