By Patrick
Virginia Postrel considers Disney's revamping of "It's A Small World":
Like the Miss Universe pageant's opening ceremony and the International House of Pancakes, "Small World" portrays a happy, colorful internationalism. But...it also assumes segregation and stasis. "Small World" was designed for an audience that would rarely, if ever, encounter foreign cultures. Now it's a time machine back to a world in which international travel was rare and large-scale trade and immigration unknown. When a blogger complains that adding Disney characters "not only trivializes the central theme but more disturbingly seems to emphasize global brand marketing," he is lamenting the small world as it came to exist. Amid the complexities and conflicts of real globalization, the international appeal of Disney characters is as good a testimony as any that the children of the world really do share something in common.