Marvel is coming to Disney California Adventure in 2020, replacing the Pixar-themed A Bug's Land. Disney announced that news earlier this year, but it didn't reveal the specific closing date for California Adventure's kiddie land.
But today, it did.
A Bug's Land — or, what's left of it — will have its last day on Sept. 4, to allow work to begin on the new "Super Hero"-themed land. The It's a Bug's Life theater show closed last spring, so only the Flik's Fun Fair collection of kiddie flat rides has remained open this summer. But not all of those rides are going away. The Flik's Flyers ride is getting a retheme and will move into Pixar Pier as Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind next year.
A Bug's Land lies in the shadow of Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout! which first established the Marvel theme in the area. The new land will continue that with new attractions based on the Avengers, at least according to Disney's teaser art for the new land.
Note also that Disney is trying its best not to use the brand name "Marvel" to promote or even describe the family of characters that will inhabit the new land. Thank the much-discussed Marvel/Universal Studios contract for that one, which continues to limit what Disney can and cannot do with Marvel characters and branding in its theme parks, even outside of the Orlando market where Universal holds the exclusive in-park attraction rights to most Marvel characters and the "Marvel" brand.
As for A Bug's Land, I won't miss it. Here's our discussion about the land, from when it opened in 2002. (The LA Times keeps breaking its links with each website redesign, so here's the latest link to my Times review of the land, FYI.) The early 2000s were a bad time for Disney's creative leaders getting approval to develop enduring attractions anywhere other than at Tokyo DisneySea, where Oriental Land Co. was paying the bill. In the decade following, Disney has spent billions to fix the stuff that it threw up around the turn of the century, including much of the rest of California Adventure, plus expansions at Walt Disney Studios Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland.
A Bug's Land will close one day after Pixar Fest concludes at the Disneyland Resort, which happens Sept. 3. So at least Disney is giving A Bug's Land its own wake.
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Thanks for including the bit about how Disney can’t use the Marvel name in promotion. That’s just more fuel to fire Disney’s need to buy out the contract, or swap IP... maybe from the Fox deal, for it? It seems possible for them to hammer out a deal by the time the land is ready to open.
It's been reported before that Flik's Fun Fair was kept open for the Pixar Fest (since it is a Pixar IP), and would close as soon as it ended.
We're to believe that Disney can open a new land in a year and a half? Pandora took 3 1/2 years. It'll take 3 to 3 1/2 years for the Star Wars lands. It took 3 years for Cars Land and that one required little in the way of demolition. Pixar Pier was nothing more than some paint, a few things added to the coaster and new animals for the carousel, yet it somehow still lasted six months AND THEY ONLY FINISHED HALF OF IT!
The scariest figure here is that it took just over 2 years for Toy Story Land, a land as basic as you can get. Is that what we should expect from the new "Guardians of the Galaxy & Friends Land"?
Well I've always thought of California Adventure as an experiment land. No real solid theme but it seems to be fit for that park. Leave Disneyland as close to original as possible and let the Disney powers that be test market California Adventure to their hearts content. Only suggestions I have in anticipation of future changes is to rename the park California "Experiment"...
I know Bugs Land didn’t hold much joy for older kids and adults, but it was one of the few places for little kids. Slowly but surely, they seem to be taking out all of the little kid friendly areas, and that saddens me.
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" threw up around the turn of the century"...Robert, I almost had to clean my coffee off of my keyboard when I read that. No way will I believe that wasn't one of your favorite writing phrases!