Goodbye Bug’s Life, Hello Zootopia! Plus Why It’s Tough to Be an Employee at Pixar
This weekend fans said their final farewells to “It’s Tough to be a Bug.” This film has entertained guests since Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened in 1998. It was the centerpiece of the Tree of Life, which serves as the icon to the park. We look at the origins of how the attraction came to be. We’ll look at what was so great–and what was not so great about this attraction. With the official closing this week, we’ll talk about the transition to the new replacement show, “Zootopia, Better Zoogether” We’ll look at what has been shared to date, and project what might be the plot of this show. Then we’ll close off with a little known story about Pixar when it went into crisis mode of creating A Bug’s Life and Toy Story II, all within a year. It may be tough to be a bug, but at one time, it may have been tougher to be a Pixar employee. So join us as we bid adieu to It’s Tough to be a Bug.
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Origins
It’s Tough to Be a Bug seems completely connected to the Tree of Life, which is the central icon of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The two have been inseparable since park opening in 1998. It’s somewhat hard to think of seeing one go without the other. They truly have been a part.
In fact, Jim Korkis had shared a backstory that went with the tree and with the Bug’s Life film. The official Imagineering backstory when the park first opened was:
“Once upon a time, no vegetation would grow on Discovery Island. There were no trees, no shrubs, no flowers, nothing. It was a barren piece of land. Then, one day, a tiny ant planted a seed and made a wish. He asked for a tree to grow — a tree large enough to provide shelter for all the animals.
“Magically, the ant’s wish came true and a tree began to grow — and it kept growing until there was room beneath its limbs for all the animals from A (ants) to Z (zebras). And as the tree continued to reach for the heavens, the images of all the animals that took shelter beneath its shade appeared on its trunk, roots, and branches.”
Image by Disney
That’s the published back story of how the two came together. But the real back story of the attraction takes us to the early days where Joe Rohde and team were trying to figure out what would be the central icon of the park. Ideas ran from a Noah’s Ark to a three level carousel with different animals to ride. Ultimately the concept of a Tree of Life won the day. But how to create it? Which tree should be built? While ultimately the 145 foot form takes a Baobab sensibility, it’s said that actually a small bonsai tree from Epcot’s Flower and Garden festival offered creative input as to the interest in building a tree with a large canopy in it.
The challenge was to create a massive tree that could hold 45 secondary branches leading to 756 tertiary branches leading to 7,891 end branches, leading to 103,000 translucent, five-shades-of-green leaves. As many know, the answer to building a strong edifice that could withstand hurricane winds came in the form of an oil rig that could form a base that would still allow space to hold some kind of attraction within.
Imagineer Joe Rohde, who led Imagineering through the project stated: “The Tree of Life is a technological marvel, but it’s also a symbol of the beauty and diversity and the grandeur of our animal life on Earth…It’s a celebration of our emotions about animals and their habitats. We want you to look up at it, to regard it with awe and wonder and to translate those feelings to the real animal world.”
Image by Disney
Truly one of the great acts of sculpturing craftsmanship are the some 337 plus animals carved into the tree. My friend Rick Barongi, who was first individual to join Imagineering from the zoo world, shared how one such animal was determined, and how other ideas were brainstormed to create the final output.
Curious that after you’ve weaved through the trail past all these animals, you finally arrive at the entrance of “Tough to be a Bug” where you find the sculpture of David Graybeard. Its the last animal you see as you enter the attraction. How did this show come to be the centerpiece of The Tree of Life. As Rick mentioned in the interview, a restaurant had been considered along with other ideas, such as a show based on The Lion King.
In a later part of the same interview Rick notes that one of the one of the biggest supporters of Disney’s Animal Kingdom was Frank Wells. But unfortunately, his untimely accident and death put the park on hold. Curiously, it was being on hold that allowed new events to emerge in the Disney universe. One of the biggest of these was Pixar’s first full-length feature Toy Story. Not long afterwards, when the project started back up again, Imagineers were in discussion with Michael Eisner about attractions for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the conversation changed abruptly when Eisner turned and asked Rick Barongi, “do kids like bugs”. Rick’s response was more than affirmative, and that kids are fascinated by creepy crawly things. Eisner then shared that Pixar had chosen for their second film a movie about bugs and wondered if the tree of life could possibly having a theater that shared the story of bugs. It would result in the attraction premiering before the film came out in the theaters.
The rest is history. The show premiered with the park. I remember seeing it during Cast Member previews. And I’ve seen it easily a hundred times in the decades since. My last opportunity to see it was a few weeks ago. My friend Nick Grande was there for the last showings of the park. He went to several shows on the last day, and saw more than his share of Disney social media influencers. Cast Members allowed guests to take away the “bugs eyes” glasses. We provide for you one of the last viewings of the show captured by Nick.
What I’ll Miss
Here are some things I will miss and maybe not miss about this film.
- The feeling of walking underneath the tree of life is something not to be taken advantage of. First it was the lobby, where movie posters themed to insects abound.
- With the posters are the sounds of Broadway musical favorites rendered in the sound of bugs. They included
- “One” (A Cockroach Line), a parody of “One” from A Chorus Line
- “Beauty and the Bees” (Beauty and the Bees), a parody of the signature song from Beauty and the Beast
- “Tomorrow” (Antie), a parody of “Tomorrow” from Annie
- “I Feel Pretty” (Web Side Story) a parody of “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story
- “Hello Dung Lovers” (The Dung and I), a parody of “Hello Young Lovers” from The King and I
- “Tonight” (Web Side Story), a parody of “Tonight” (West Side Story)
- Leaving a lobby you enter a giant cave underneath the Tree of Life. The engineering of that and the artistic approach to that cave-like setting should never be taken for granted. Again, that was the blessing of borrowing the concept of an oil derrick.
- I loved the great theatrical effects that took advantage of the setting. Beyond lightning and sound, there was wind, rain, and smoke FX. The smellitzer carried a stink bug like smell. A bug gets zapped, and the entire audience gets zapped by bugs on their seat and behind their back. Scary black widow spiders came out of no where and so did two animatronics. Flik performed upside down peering from a hole in the ceiling. And Hopper was very sophisticated for its time, literally hopping from no where to make his appearance.
- The song, “It’s Tough to be a Bug”, written by George Wilkins with the help of Imagineer Kevin Rafferty, was fun and had a delightful message. It puts a ribbon and ties the film together.
What I Won’t Miss
There were also several things that I frankly won’t miss:
- Often people tire after a while of 3D films, and this film was probably weaker than others like Captain EO, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Mickey’s PhilarMagic or MuppetVision 3D in terms of their ability to better capture 3D effects.
- Most characters were not attached to the film. Chili (played by Cheech Marin), Clair de Room, Terminator, and Weevil (played by Jason Alexander) were not characters in the film. Therefore, kids did not know who these were. That may have been a disadvantage to the film itself since some of these characters were quite fun.
- The Show was short at 9 minutes especially compared to PhilarMagic at 12 minutes, Muppet 3D at 15 minutes, Captain EO at 17 minutes, and Honey I Shrunk the Audience at 23 minutes. The one advantage to this was there was seldom a wait longer than 9 minutes.
- Kids were really scared. Scared to death. Yes, mention was made in the lobby and at the start of the show of its intense moments, but people were thinking about friendly bugs like Flik, not Hopper or giant black widow spiders attacking in the dark. If I had a dollar for every kid taken out of this theater during the movie, I could retire. And opening the doors often bled sunlight into the film. It was always a mess when the lights went out and the chaos began.
A final note. Like Spaceship Earth, many guests visiting for the first time or two had no idea there was a show inside the tree. And unlike Spaceship Earth, the sign at the entrance to the queue was so distant that you wouldn’t necessarily connect that attraction to the tree itself, much less to a theater inside the base of the tree. I think a lot of people just didn’t know what they were missing.
That same problem exists moving forward. So let’s transition and talk about what is being planned and project what it might be all about.
The Future
Opening at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in the place of the “It’s Tough to be a Bug” is “Zootopia Better Zoogether”. The show will take advantage of the theatrical setting in the Tree of Life Theater. Being housed in the centerpiece icon of not just Discovery Island but also Disney’s Animal Kingdom, it offers the opportunity to represent many biomes, not just an underground world, which is the sense you have when you visited “It’s Tough to Be a Bug”. Moreover rather than featuring just bugs, the theater will be able to incorporate animals of all kinds, which is really more in alignment with the Tree of Life itself with its animals carved into its roots and trunk.
Specifically we know that show will feature many of the characters of Zootopia, especially the characters of Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. The poster and text suggests that Gazelle’s top hit of “Try Everything!” may likely be a part of the show. Two characters drawn into the artwork seems to stand out. Officer Clawhauser is clearly at one side of the room, apparently taking over the space stage left of where Hopper used to be. We can probably assume that he will be an animatronic as well, quite possibly with a screen that can roll over when it needs to go into Yeti mode. But note that while in one drawing he appears to be behind his desk at the police station with a uniform on, in another poster he has a Gazelle t-shirt with glow rings on, as if he were attending a concert. We don’t know what the pre-show will be like. The low-cost solution is to simply have posters advertising the different biomes of Zootopia. but there is considerable space to potentially add an animatronic there to talk to the guests prior to the show. It would be great to have something else as well. You should know that the attraction queue at Zootopia included not only Officer Clawhauser but also Chief Bogo, the Cape buffalo as an animatronic. We might see one of them outside the theater in the pre-show. One thing for sure is that we’ll probably not hear the buzzing version of Beauty and the Bees, which seemed hauntingly beautiful as it was simple. Having an animatronic in the pre-show will send a strong message that Imagineers want to take the attraction to a whole new level, and not just simply make a quick replacement.
Musically we should mention not only the Gazelle references on the poster, but that Ginnifer Goodwin, the voice of Judy Hopps from the films, will be singing a song hinted at in an instagram:
A second character on the show poster shows a small child-like animal sitting on top of a drone. In fact there seems to be several drones. I’m just guessing, but one thought I have is that there could be an all points bulletin for a missing child in Zootopia. This would require the best police officers possible, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde to be front and center looking for this child. It would also allow you to visit one biome after another. Ginnifer Goodwin sings of a “collective howl” that could potentially involve the audience and help in finding her. I could potentially see that the case is solved when they realized that the small kid simply wanted to go to a Gazelle concert, which would then bring us all there, and invite us to “clap along” as we celebrate. It’s uncertain to what degree a conservation message (which is the theme of Awesome Planet over at the Land) will be woven throughout. But it will be more about being “Zoonited” in our efforts to work together for the betterment of all.
Also, from the artwork alone, it’s pretty clear that the show will be 3D as many of the characters are drawn with such glasses on their head. Actually, Disney refers to it as 4D which suggests that some practical FX will be incorporated through out the theater, similar to what previous shows. But the poster refers to it as being in Carrotvision 3D, which also references back to Judy Hopps. The drones may also allow the ability to quickly cut from one biome to another during the show.
Doing this probably means that a Zootopia land will probably never come to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It could still go elsewhere, just not here. A Zootopia land has been featured in Shanghai Disneyland along with a dark ride attraction, and my colleagues David and Leah Zanolla spoke so favorably of the look and feel of the land. But David in particular didn’t feel so keenly about the attraction which focused strongly on screens. And with this being a screen based attraction, who needs more of that in the same park. Moreover, it is thought that Joe Rohde, whose fingerprints and philosophy has guided this park since its inception (and was noted just a week ago about being involved with the Maya and the Mouse conference held to discuss what the new replacement land for Dinoland might be), did not really welcome a total park land based on anthropomorphic animals. This might be a great compromise to doing that by redoing the “Tough to be a Bug” show and putting a Zootopia style show here instead.
The show is scheduled to open “Winter 2025”. Of course for Disney, winter could be anytime to include 2026–especially if the show is delayed. But Disney’s ideal is to have this offering available in time for the busy holiday season. Moreover, Thanksgiving is when Zootopia II is slated to be theaters. And all of it is timed to be opened before the remainder of Dinoland to include Dinosaur closes to be completely remodeled.
Working Out the Bugs–Where Leaders Provide a Work/Life Balance
From my book, Disney Leadership and You, there’s a little known story about Pixar that happens at the same time “It’s Tough to be a Bug” was created for Disney’s Animal Kingdom. And it has to do with the very reason why you see Flik and Hopper, but none of the other characters from the film. To understand why, we have to go back to 1995, when Toy Story, Pixar’s first film, came out into theaters. The success of this was great news for Pixar, but it also came with the reality that they were going have to top it with something even better. In short, the stretch was topping toys with bugs.
Attaining excellence isn’t easy—even for Pixar. That was made clear to the folks at Pixar. Imagine having achieved the first full-length computer animated film, Toy Story. This was a huge triumph. But the celebration was short-lived because they now needed to go right into production on A Bug’s Life. Making a film on bugs turned out to be harder than expected and involved a different level of detail. Plus, they were trying to get down the processes of working as a studio. So there was plenty of work to be done. It would need to open in time for the holidays in 1998.
Meanwhile, with Toy Story’s success, Disney wanted a sequel by the holidays in 1999. The initial plan was to do it direct-to-video, so common with Disney animated films of that time. But then John Lasseter realized that he didn’t want to have two standards of quality at the studio, so he decreed that the story be retooled into a full-length feature.
The problem is that when Pixar told Disney that it planned to start over, Disney objected, saying that the distribution process—which was established a couple of years prior—was already set in motion. McDonalds was even planning on doing Happy Meal toys. In fact, if you look at the dates of all three of those Pixar films, they came out during the holiday period, so important to McDonald’s sales. In Disney’s view, contractually there was no changing the date. And that date was only nine months away—a nearly impossible deadline.
In the middle of all these dates came the opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom on Earth Day of 1998. The studios was already so overwhelmed with what was on its plate, that the film was actually completed by a third party operation, Rhythm and Hues. And because they really weren’t sure of the all the characters in It’s a Bug’s Life they only utilized the two characters they were certain of, Flik and Hopper. In fact, so uncertain was everything during production that it was Pixar animator Andrew Statton that voiced Hopper, not Kevin Spacey who provided the voice in the film. It also speaks to why the film isn’t perhaps continuing indefinitely at the park, as the quality of the film and the larger unknown characters have dated the film attraction over the years. Indeed, remember that the film also premiered with the opening Disney California Adventure in 2001. But it has already been taken out and replaced by Web Slingers: A Spiderman Adventure as part of the Marvel Campus there in the park.
At any rate, back at Pixar, the effort to create just A Bugs Life and Toy Story II really set in a lot of chaos. Employees who had spent years in overdrive had to work even harder. In the Pixar history, To Infinity and Beyond, the general consensus at the studio is that Toy Story 2’s production was fueled by a nine-month long adrenaline rush, induced alternately by both panic and excitement.
That kind of work brought some serious consequences, according to Sarah McArthur, Pixar’s head of production:
“We learned that people at Pixar would literally give everything they had for a film. If we asked them, they would give and not hold anything back. And because they didn’t hold back, people were hurt.“
Some staff hit the wall. A full third of the staff experienced the effects of carpal tunnel syndrome from doing repeated physical routines. The ultimate moment was when an exhausted animator set off to work with the intent of dropping off his infant child at daycare. Later in the day, while on the phone with his wife, he realized that he had never dropped the child off and that the baby had been left forgotten in the back seat. Rushing out to the car, they found the baby unconscious and poured cold water over him immediately. Fortunately, the baby was okay. But the experience was a wake-up call.
The deadlines were met, and the films were enormously successful. The films that followed afterward also had tight deadlines. But it did mean that the company had to stop and think about what really mattered. It instituted a medical team, along with massage therapists. Ergonomic furniture was brought in, and a gym was opened with yoga and tai chi classes. In addition, the company resolved not only to curb overtime, but to make sure deadlines were realistic. Many of the outcomes of this near catastrophic experience have led to shaping Pixar’s culture today—one that believes that its people are truly its greatest assets.
In my book, Disney, Leadership & You I ask leaders to consider the following:
- What resources can I provide to help others get along?
- How do I provide for balance in the lives of my employees?
- What systems and resources have I put in place to create for balance in the workplace?
Time to Travel!
Hopefully this podcast has made you realize you need help and support in planning your next trip to Disney. David and Leah with Zanolla Travel know Disney in ways few do and they can make your next trip on land or sea an exciting one–or at least less stressful! Be sure to contact them as you explore your next vacation, whether it is a Disney theme park vacation, a cruise, or an Adventure by Disney. There is no charge to utilize their services, but it will save you enormous time getting all the details right, and with their insight you can be assured you’re going to experience the best trip possible. Contact them today!
David & Leah Zanolla
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