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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2008 |
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You don’t have to be a myrmecologist to be fascinated by how ants build elaborate underground tunnels and other complex structures. Flik, the hero of A Bug’s Life (1998), is a particularly ingenious ant. He built a carnival from litter dropped by humans, along with leaves and twigs dropped by nature. |
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Flik’s greatest achievement is constructing a spinner ride called Flik’s Flyers. Eight single-portion food containers fly in a circle. They’re suspended from eight “balloons”—fallen leaves stitched together by Flik. The central tower consists of a non-dairy whipped topping tub, an aluminum pie tin, and bundles of twigs. |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2011 No minimum height |
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Flik’s Flyers is part of Flik’s Fun Fair. When you visit this land, you miraculously become the size of a bug. Are you ready? Your first decision is whether you’d rather sit in a Fun In the Sun Raisins box, a “Thank You” Chinese food carryout container, a Homespun Applesauce Super Snack Pack, or a Casey Jr. Cookies box. (Did you catch the homage to the train in Dumbo and the Disneyland ride?) |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 Pick a container |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 How about a Casey Jr. Cookies box? |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 Lifting off the ground |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 Flying! |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 At maximum height |
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Photo by Karen Weiss Looks more thrilling in this photo than it really is |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 Prepare for landing |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 Whip-O-Whirl—a dessert topping or a description of the ride? |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 The back side of Whip-O-Whirl |
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As you leave the ride, note that Flik’s Flyers is the only Yesterland ride with nutrition information. |
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Flik’s Flyers and the rest of Flik’s Fun Fair opened at Disney’s California Adventure (now Disney California Adventure) on October 7, 2002. It was part of “a bug’s land”, which had previously been Bountiful Valley Farm. The attraction was based on the Samba Balloon ride from Antonio Zamperla S.p.A., an Italian amusement ride company. Instead of Zamperla’s typical light theming—usually just a custom paint scheme—the Disney version was wildly inventive. That didn’t stop some Disney fans from complaining about an “off-the-shelf ride.” As the next two photos show, each balloon originally had a flower petal propeller. |
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Photo by Tony “WiseBearAZ” Moore, 2002 Flower petal propeller on each balloon |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2017 No propellers in the later years |
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Flik’s Flyers and the rest of “a bug’s land” closed permanently September 4, 2018, to become the site of the Avengers Campus. Flik’s Flyers hasn’t really “gone to Yesterland.” It’s gone to Pixar Pier—in the form of Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, which opened June 28, 2019. It’s said to use the Zamperla Samba Balloon mechanism harvested from Flik’s Flyers. |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2019 Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2019 Flying! |
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Only this time there isn’t any nutrition information. |
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© 2023 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks Updated September 15, 2023 |
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