Disney's California Adventures to Remove "A Bug's Land" in Favor of Marvel Superheroes

Disneyland is the most popular theme park in Southern California (based on attendance), and the majority of its visitors (over 18 million per year) are California residents. Because most of the visitors to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventures are from California, they tend to be repeat visitors, many with annual passes who come several times per year. That being said, they have strong opinions on what they want to see at the park. Some feel like Disney should change things up every once in a while to stop things from getting boring, while others prefer the nostalgia of seeing the same rides they enjoyed as a child. Well, according to Hugo Martin's L.A. Times article, Disney announced an impending change at their California Adventures theme park.

"A Bug's Land," an area of California Adventures themed around "A Bug's Life," one of Pixar's earliest animated features, is being closed down to make room for a Marvel-themed area, featuring superheroes from various comic books and movies owned by Disney since their purchase of the company in 2009. While "A Bug's Land" is popular among Disney's younger visitors, it's likely that the shift to Marvel will draw in more visitors, as superheroes tend to be more universal across age groups. However, since this change comes almost immediately after Disney opted to get rid of a classic and popular ride, "Tower of Terror," for a Marvel-themed attraction, "Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout," they are likely to face many upset fans.

Marvel is a very popular franchise, and so far, the various movies that Disney has created under the Marvel brand have been well-received and have made a lot of money. However, people are generally resistant to change. They tend to be set in their ways and take a while to get used to new updates, especially in theme parks they have emotional attachments to. Because this shift is such a big one for California Adventures, some parents may choose to visit other theme parks, like Universal Studios, that provide more attractions for young children, like the "Despicable Me" ride. However, once the Marvel area has been completed and people have had a chance to enjoy the attractions, it is unlikely that Disney will suffer a loss of overall visitors.

Disney has released almost no information about what visitors can expect to see in the new area. It may have a focus on the Avengers, or the X-Men, or some other group of famous superheroes, or it may just be a general hub for all Marvel characters. Interestingly, the area will not be named "Marvel Land," or anything similar, as Disney's agreement when purchasing rights limits the company from using the word "Marvel" in any theme park names. It will probably be at least a few years before the area is fully up and running, enough time for Disney to come out with several more popular additions to their Marvel cinematic universe, so it's hard to tell what the park will really look like when all is said and done.

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Disney's Acquisition of Fox Expected to Drastically Change the Entertainment Industry

Most companies in this day and age are subsidiaries of other companies and there is a relatively small number of parent corporations that own the majority of the other corporations. Disney Inc. is one of those parent companies, and their business decisions over the past couple of decades have made them one of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world. According to an article by the staff of the L.A. Times, Disney's most recent move is to acquire 21st Century Fox, a deal that could completely reshape the entertainment industry.

Most of Disney's sprawling growth has happened since Robert Iger was named CEO in 2005. However, even before Iger, Disney Inc. had begun to acquire competitors and build an entertainment empire. In 1996, Disney made a move that first brought Iger to the company: they purchased Capital Cities/ABC and thereby gained ESPN as well (which was a subsidiary of Capital Cities) for $19 billion. Iger was president of Capital Cities at the time, and the acquisition introduced him to the executive arena of the Disney entertainment powerhouse.

Then, in 2006, after Iger was made CEO, Disney made its second main power move, this time to address a decline in its animation department. After several animated films that flopped in the box office, Disney spent $7.4 billion to acquire Pixar Animation Studios in a stock deal, which allowed them to retain John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, the geniuses behind Pixar hits like "Finding Nemo" and "Toy Story." The acquisition has since paid off many times, as the Disney-Pixar animation team has arguably become the best in the world.

The action film franchises were next on Disney's road to supremacy. In 2009, Disney purchased Marvel Films for $4 billion, and in 2012, they acquired Lucasfilm (and the Star Wars franchise) for another $4 billion. Since then, Disney has made dozens of movies set in the Marvel cinematic universe and has just released another movie set in the Star Wars universe, and will soon be opening a Star Wars Land at Disneyland. Additionally, by owning those two companies, Disney has put itself in a position to rival streaming sites like Hulu or Netflix by limiting the spread of their movies on competing streaming platforms. Then, by acquiring a controlling stake in BamTech (a streaming video company) in 2017, Disney has assured itself a competitive advantage in the online streaming market, both for sports (ESPN) and TV shows/movies.

Disney's latest move to purchase 21st Century Fox could be its most important decision in making sure it remains the most powerful entertainment company in the world. It's possible that government regulators will stop the $52.4 billion deal on anti-trust arguments, but if the purchase goes through, Disney will be able to add several existing shows (The Simpsons, Family Guy, etc) to its video streaming service, will gain a majority stake in streaming competitor Hulu, and will gain control of another studio, as well as Fox's television channels, including FX and National Geographic. Disney will be more powerful than any other company could hope to be, and that is likely to affect Hollywood in unpredictable ways,

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