'it's a small world' getting musical makeover

In addition to renovating Disneyland's 'it's a small world' boat ride and placing additional Disney characters throughout, Disney is also giving the beloved song of the same name a musical makeover.

John Dennis, the Walt Disney Imagineering music director, is tasked with blending new musical arrangements with the classic multilingual song. Adding to the original song of the pre-renovation attraction will be a difficult task. So far the not-yet finalized set calls for three new musical arrangements consisting of folk instruments, solo vocals, guitars, bass, and features wood flute and percussion as well as traditional Chinese instruments in appropriate scenes.

The original melody was penned by songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman who at first created a song encompassing several national anthems and was rejected by Walt Disney on the basis of being an "insufferable cacophony."

“For a man who wasn’t a musician, wasn’t a composer, Walt had a sense of music and a sense of story and a sense of presentation,” mused John Dennis. “He knew a good tune could go straight from the head to the heart. He learned that in his feature films. He knew a song could move a story along very quickly.”

Soon after, the Shermans crafted the song known today the world-over as "Small World." Said Dennis, “The nature of the music of ‘Small World’ is that seamless aspect. It goes and goes and goes. It never stops, it never ends.”

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Read Lifthill's previous coverage of the 'it's a small world' renovation:

Disneyland's Small World to undergo long rehab

Disneyland 'small world' characters leaked

Play the video below for a showing of the 'it's a small world' facade lighting.