During our recent voyage on “it’s a small world” at Magic Kingdom, we noticed the backdrop of the “shimmering” finale scene is nearly in ruin.

The Mary Blair-style clouds are covered in white streaks and discoloring, while less prevalent staining is still visible on the purple sky.

There are white streaks and dark stains, with the latter making it hard to tell where the intentional fade to black begins and ends. The staining appears to be caused by condensation over time, but still, in the over 50-year-history of this attraction, the walls have never reached this level of neglect.

Honestly, “it’s a small world” at the Magic Kingdom has been in rough shape for a while and to quote the ride’s famous theme song, “it’s time we’re aware”. The lighting remains dark and abysmal compared to every other version of the ride on earth, the sound system is outdated and in need of replacement, and there are constantly dozens of animatronics and effects that simply do not work for months on end. The ride should have gone down for lengthy refurbishment to add Disney characters before Walt Disney World’s 50th anniversary, during which many of these issue would have hopefully been addressed. The pandemic made Disney cancel this and many similar projects which Disney World has still not embarked on.

We recently reported on the dirty boats of “it’s a small world,” prompting Walt Disney World to clean them. While “it’s a small world” at the Magic Kingdom doesn’t go outside like its Disneyland counterpart, it still accumulates grime from the day-to-day cycling. Combined with other issues, like dirty PeopleMover seats and mold in Toy Story Land, guests have called the overall cleanliness at the parks into question.

“it’s a small world” had a major exterior refurbishment in 2020 and a three-day interior refurbishment in July 2021, both of which seemed to be holdovers from the expected closure to add the Disney characters. The last nearly year-long, major refurbishment of the ride was in 2004-05.

A further refurbishment is not currently on the calendar at Walt Disney World, but it recently got an inclusivity update with the addition of a doll in a wheelchair.

Did you know the iconic “it’s a small world” theme song has been inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry? Love it or hate it, the earworm, composed by the Sherman Brothers, is a recognizable classic in American history.

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