"It's a Small World" was a mobile application that is based on the Disney Parks attraction of the same name. The application was released in 2011 in tie-in with the 45th anniversary of the attraction's opening at Disneyland at the Fantasyland area at the park as well as a book also released in tie-in with the 45th anniversary. It was developed by Budge Studios and published by Disney Publishing Worldwide Applications.
On August 14, 2012, the app was updated to include more languages where the player could experience the app in six different language options: Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Japanese, Italian, Korean, and Spanish.[3]
The app was removed from the App Store on May 2, 2013.
Overview[]
Based on the Disney Parks attraction, It's a Small World is an interactive application where guests are able to explore diversity of different parts of the world based on the scenes from the "It's a Small World" ride. The application features two modes: standard mode and sing-along mode. The standard mode was done in the style of a storybook app where the texts that appear were based on the lyrics of the song written by the Sherman Brothers (Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman). In this mode, users would see texts appearing on screen while passing through many sceneries around the world seeing animated images of various children and animals based on the ones seen in the attraction itself. Each scene that the player passes through consists of a different country which they can interact with the scenery while passing through each scene along the way.
The end of the standard mode contained a sing-along mode where the lyrics to the song "It's a Small World" appear on screen where a "bouncing ball" leaps through the lyrics encouraging the player to sing along with the lyrics onscreen (similar to karaoke videos). This scene was also accessible in sing-along mode where it consisted of the same scene from the standard mode where it directly takes the player to the end of the story where a sing-along sequence begins and the players are encouraged to follow the bouncing ball with the lyrics onscreen like in regular mode.