The ride features over 300 audio-animatronic dolls[1] in traditional costumes from cultures around the world, frolicking in a spirit of international unity, and singing the attraction's title song, which has a theme of global peace.

The ride was fabricated at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank as Children of the World, and created by WED Enterprises.

It was shipped to the 1964 New York World's Fair, where it was housed at the UNICEF pavilion (sponsored by Pepsi), which featured at its entrance a kinetic sculpture, The Tower of the Four Winds, a 120-foot perpetually spinning mobile created by WED designer Rolly Crump.

[9][10] The costumes were heavily influenced by other countries' clothing,[10] as Walt Disney had directed Alice Davis to "do whatever it takes to make these look like dolls every woman in the world would want to have".

Two patents that were filed by Arrow Development staff and assigned to The Walt Disney Company illustrate passenger boats and vehicle guidance systems with features very similar to those later utilized on the Disneyland installation of the attraction.

Its soundtrack, composed by the Sherman Brothers,[16] was originally supposed to feature the national anthems of every country represented throughout the ride; they were all played at once, resulting in cacophony.

[11] Walt conducted a walk-through of the attraction scale model with his staff songwriters Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman, saying, "I need one song that can be easily translated into many languages and be played as a round.

"[17] The Sherman brothers then wrote "It's a Small World (After All)"[18] in the wake of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which influenced the song's message of peace and brotherhood.

Walt was so delighted with the final result that he renamed the attraction "It's a Small World" after the Sherman Brothers' song.

[31][32] The Ford Motor Company and General Electric had engaged Disney early on to create their pavilions for the 1964 New York World's Fair.

[5]: 56  Afterward, Pepsi approached Disney with a plan for a tribute to UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.

[33] Walt Disney Productions agreed to construct, maintain, and operate a boat ride for Pepsi-Cola,[34] which was called "It's a Small World – A Tribute to UNICEF".

[40] To accommodate the high ridership, the ride was operating 15 hours a day by mid-1965;[48] the attraction had recorded 10.3 million total visitors by the end of the second year.

[49] After the fair ended on October 17, 1965,[50] the Walt Disney Company planned to send the ride to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, U.S.[51][52] Its high hourly capacity influenced future attractions; Pirates of the Caribbean had been under construction at Disneyland as a subterranean walk-through, but that design was changed to a boat ride.

[64] In February 1966, Walt Disney announced that It's a Small World would be reinstalled at Disneyland as part of a $23 million expansion of that theme park.

[67][68] One critic for the Chicago Tribune said the ride "captures the essence of Walt Disney as it shows the children of the world in joyous abandon".

[70] In 2014, The Providence Journal estimated that the Disneyland installation of It's a Small World had carried 290 million riders since its opening.

[49][67] The boats carry voyagers past representations of structures such as mosques, huts, and castles,[69] as well as figures singing "It's a Small World (After All)" together in their native language.

[57] In addition, representations of children from the Pacific islands and the Arctic were added to the attraction,[74] and the number of figures was expanded to 500.

[77] The toy company Mattel agreed to sponsor the attraction in late 1991[78] and built a shop at the ride's exit the next year.

The refurbishment added 29 new Disney characters, each in their native land in a similar manner to the Hong Kong Disneyland version.

Reopened in April 2018,[101] to coincide with Tokyo Disneyland's 35th anniversary, the attraction featured 40 characters from Disney properties including Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Aristocats, Brave, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Pinocchio, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, Hercules, The Three Caballeros, Mulan, Tangled, Lilo & Stitch, Frozen, Finding Nemo, and Moana similar to its counterparts in California and Hong Kong.

[102][103] The attraction was initially set to be relocated to another area in Fantasyland with a new facade similar to the California counterpart as part of original expansion plans announced in October 2014 for the resort within the next ten years, before being revised and updated.

[104] The transformed version of the attraction soft-opened on April 15, 2018, revealing an updated color scheme for the facade, a new tick-tock sound and parade music (similar to the ones used in Hong Kong and Anaheim), an entirely reconstructed loading area dubbed "Small World Station," a new Welcome room, an extended Goodbye room, rebuilt set pieces, and music tracks new to the ride including a Mandarin language track added to the China scene formerly exclusive to the Hong Kong version along with the aforementioned Disney characters.

The scenery design is a complete departure from Mary Blair's distinctive style, though the dolls used remain identical to all other versions.

The entrance and exit rooms have been completely revamped, being identical to the entrance scene in Hong Kong Disneyland's version and the exit scene in the Magic Kingdom and Hong Kong Disneyland versions (rendered in the Mary Blair style similar to the other parks).

Additionally, new audio tracks are added including a new recording of someone yodeling to the tune of the song in the Switzerland scene.

[114] Hong Kong Disneyland marketed the ride using a Cantonese version of the song "It's a Small World (After All)" by James Wong Jim.

[125] As part of Disney's "Let the Memories Begin" campaign for 2011, a nighttime projection show premiered at the Disneyland version of It's a Small World on January 27, 2011.

As the Let the Memories Begin campaign drew to a close, the show ended its run on Labor Day, September 3, 2012, at both locations.