This article is about the 1977 unused film pitch. For the confirmed film, see It's a Small World (film).
It's a Small World was a rejected pitch for a film adaptation of the theme park attraction of the same name by writer Larry Pontius, created in 1977. [1]
Taking the form of a Cold War family comedy, it got as far as a story treatment, script, and poster concept before being rejected in favor of trying to chase a science fiction fad kicked off by the success of the original Star Wars film, which resulted in 1979's The Black Hole.
Synopsis[]
Imagine that it's the day afternoon tomorrow, with the constantly escalating tensions of the world raised to fever pitch. When even the smallest spark can start a fire. And then it does.
The spark's name is Aleksei, the nine-year-old son of the Russian Consul General in Paris. Not once believing the stories that he's heard about the "evil" Chinese, the boy ventures across the boulevard and over the fence to the Consulate of Communist China -- where he is caught by Chinese security guards who take him into custody. When his father learns of Aleksei's capture and detention, he demands that the Chinese Consul immediately release the boy and, naturally, is refused. The rankled tempers devolve into a shouting match of spying and kidnapping accusations.
When the story of Aleksai hits the media, millions of people hear about it. and resulting media firestorm brings Red China and the U.S.S.R. to the very brink of war. One by one, the other nations of the world are also lit ablaze by suspicion and rage.
Suddenly the "Aleksai Affair" is an urgent matter for the United Nations. However, it quickly becomes clear that -- while there may be calmer heads here -- (there is fuel being thrown) on the fire. There are people (in the world) who want to take advantage of war. Particularly Alexander Bashillian, the despotic ruler of a small nation in a backwater of the world that only has one major industry -- munitions.
Into this desperate situation walks a most unlikely group of heroes: the students of the United Nations school, a special educational facility for the children of U.N. Ambassadors. They're a small group of kids of different races, from different countries and ethnic backgrounds that -- (when they're) forced together, have found that they can get along just fine.
These kids are young enough to think that the world should do as they do. But what can the children of the U.N. Ambassadors do keep the world from blowing itself up?
Disappear.
When they do, in a faked mass kidnapping plot hatched by the son of the U.N. Ambassador from Iceland and the daughter of the U.S. Ambassador, the "Aleksai Affair" is instantly old news. Forgetton by everyone ... except for Bashillian, the munitions despot.
Alexander tries to stir the fires (of war) by casting blame for the crime on one -- or both -- of the nations entangled in the original affair. When that fails, Bashillian sends his agents to join the thousands already on the hunt, but with a dark goal in mind: to find & kill the children of the U.N. Ambassadors. With the hope of making a bad situation worse.
But the United Nations' children have other plans. Not just to stop Bashillian and his evil agents. But to stop the world as well. To bring our planet back from the brink of disaster.
Trivia[]
- Had this film been completed, it would have been the first film to be based on a park attraction.
