It’s been quite the run for A Bug’s Life fans.
Within the span of seven years, Pixar’s second-ever film no longer has a permanent presence in the Disney Parks. The removal of A Bug’s Land at Disney’s California Adventure and It’s Tough to Be a Bug! at Disney’s Animal Kingdom feels coincidental in many ways. The move to reimagine these spaces makes a ton of sense. Yet, you have to feel for A Bug’s Life fans.
The origins of It’s Tough to Be a Bug! is unique. Disney’s Animal Kingdom was a year away from opening, and Walt Disney Imagineering wanted to do a show inside the Tree of Life, the park’s icon. Long story short, and I’m sure there is quite the backstory here but Disney CEO Michael Eisner suggested A Bug’s Life as a tie-in, and the rest was history. It’s Tough to Be a Bug! alsohad the rare distinction of being an attraction based on a film that hadn’t even opened in theaters yet. A Bug’s Life premiered in theaters seven months after the opening of the attraction.
A Bug’s Life would then get its own themed land at Disney’s California Adventure in 2002. The land included Flik’s Flyers, Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train, andIt’s Tough to Be a Bug! among other offerings.
So what happened to these A Bug’s Life attractions and lands? Well, they both would close to make way for new experiences. A Bug’s Land would close to make way for Avengers Campus. Even if you have mixed feelings about Marvel and Avengers Campus, most guests can admit this decision made sense. Flik’s Flyers would then be rethemed and moved to Pixar Pier as Inside Out: Emotional Whirlwind.
Yet the legacy of A Bug’s Land is felt throughout Avengers Campus. It’s probably a happy coincidence but two bug-themed heroes occupy real estate in the land (Ant-Man’s Pym Test Kitchen and Spider-Man’s WEB SLINGERS). Avengers Campus has also gone out of its way to pay tribute to A Bug’s Land and the earlier iteration of Bountiful Valley Farm. The most notable easter eggs are the Bountiful Valley enlarged condiments at Pym Test Kitchen and various A Bug’s Life references in WEB SLINGERS. In Avengers Campus lore, Ant-Man and the Wasp shrunk A Bug’s Land using Pym Particles. The two sometimes show off the small model to guests.
At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, It’s Tough to Be a Bug! closed last night to make way for Zootopia: Better Zoogether. Disney will now be inserting a franchise that has a sequel and likely more tie-in projects on the way. Similar to A Bug’s Land getting replaced by Marvel, another big franchise just was waiting in the wings to be added to the Disney Parks. If Avengers Campus was any indication, I fully expect Zootopia: Better Zoogether to be filled with references to It’s Tough to Be a Bug! and A Bug’s Life. The new show at the Tree of Life is expected to premiere later this year. Although it won’t be like the original It’s Tough to Be a Bug! opening months before its film, Zootopia: Better Zoogether and Zootopia 2 will open pretty close together. A synergy dream for The Walt Disney Company.
A Bug’s Life, like most Pixar films, was easy to translate into the Disney Parks. However, A Bug’s Life is just a single, standalone film. In a world where Disney prioritizes the synergy machine and its famous flywheel, it’s not entirely shocking that Disney opted to replace the attractions and lands of a Pixar film that likely won’t be revisited. It’s however tough that fans of this film lost all attractions from the franchise in a span of seven years. There just is no other way to say it.
It’s Tough To Be A Bug’s Life Fan.
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Zach Perilstein is the Editor-in-Chief of the Boardwalk Times
