Tony Baxter, senior vice president of creative development for Walt Disney Imagineering, recalled the discussion: "Do we dare touch inside the ride? And how much do we touch it? How close to Mary Blair can we get it -- because if it stands out, then people are looking at it for the wrong reason.
"There's been a lot of tug of war between should it stand out or should it blend in."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, August 14, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 41 words Type of Material: Correction
Small World ride: A Business article Feb. 5 about Disneyland's revamped It's a Small World ride said one scene depicted Peter Pan and Tinker Bell flying over "one tower of the London Bridge." The scene shows the Tower Bridge in London.
"Unobtrusive" became the watchword as the Imagineers sought to add elements that had been popular at other Small World attractions at Disney's overseas parks.
Park aficionados like Oleg Chaikovsky, who has made trips to Disneyland every year since he was 5 and is now a father, knows that some Disneyphiles will consider any change inexcusable.
"I'm withholding judgment until I see it in person, because I'm not against change," said Chaikovsky, who plans to attend a preview today for annual pass holders. "But I also wonder why are we changing it if it is popular."
Disney has incorporated characters from recent films in updates of other park attractions. For example, Capt. Jack Sparrow (looking very much like Johnny Depp) now appears throughout the refurbished Pirates of the Caribbean; the "Finding Nemo" crew populates the submarine voyage.
In Small World, the characters -- which look like children playing dress-up -- show up in the settings of their original stories: Peter Pan and Tinker Bell fly over one tower of the London Bridge, the Pinocchio marionette appears in a puppet show in Italy; Aladdin and Jasmine ride a flying carpet in the Middle East scene.
"We wanted to add the Disney characters, because we wanted to give it a new life . . . to make it continue to be relevant to our audiences today, because we think this message is so important," Sklar said.
Threads of music from Disney and Pixar films accompany many of the characters, woven in between the familiar "Small World" melody composed by brothers Richard and Robert Sherman, who won an Academy Award for their "Mary Poppins" score.
The strains of "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" provide an almost imperceptible audio clue that the little blond doll accompanied by mice Jacques and Gus is, indeed, Cinderella.
A recording of rare Chinese instruments provides the acoustic backdrop for Mulan in China. But even that decision sparked vigorous discussion among the Imagineers, who were still adjusting the volume this week.
