NGORONGORO CRATER, Tanzania—Scaling the walls of Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater is among the few terrestrial experiences we have that feel akin to ascending to heaven, or another higher plane. (Though one would hope that when he does meet St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he will not be out of breath and will be much less sweaty.)
Two thousand feet below, on the floor of the volcanic caldera, is one of the most unique ecosystems in the world. Elephants, zebras, lions, wildebeest, rhino, hippos, flamingos, hyenas: The crater walls create a distinctly protected habitat among the Serengeti plains. Spend some time in the region before visiting the area, and you can’t help but compare the area to, well, an animal spa.
Hiking up to the top of the rim, the knowledge that wildlife is not just below but all around you fuels you with adrenaline. Among the dense foliage and trees surrounding us, there are wildebeest mingling and elephants descending down into the crater in a physics-defying parade; my human-sized body can barely stay upright on the steep incline. In fact, the hike is so exposed that our guide, Arthur (who insisted on being called “King Arthur”), carried a rifle to protect us in case we encountered an aggressive animal; I was not reassured by his response on whether he’s had to use it.
We are walking not just towards the clouds, but above the clouds, gazing around at a habitat so green and full of life that it’s as if a saturated Instagram filter had been placed over the entire vista, with wildlife CGI’d in. It is a spiritual experience, one in which every breath exhales with it the deep-rooted angst and concerns that have been poisoning you.
Everywhere we turned there was wonder. And yet, there we were, phones and expensive cameras out, crouched towards the dirt, surrounding the sight like excited paparazzi about to capture the rarest of all shots. We were beside ourselves.
There, right before our very eyes, was a ball of poo. Elephant poo, to be exact. And—oh my God—on top of it, there she was: a real-life dung beetle, in all of her excrement-eating glory.
We were journalists and National Geographic filmmakers on a trip to the Serengeti to report on and learn about a suite of series that aim to explode new interest and new audiences for wildlife programming. Through cutting-edge technology and a brazen thwarting of the staid, traditional style that has long bored sought-after demographics and fostered antiquated norms when it comes to gender, age, race, and perspective, these series hope to bring vital nature storytelling to a modern age of entertainment.
Among those groundbreaking projects, believe it or not: A Real Bug’s Life, which premieres Jan. 24 on Disney+.
Once you see the series, specifically the episode “The Land of Giants,” set in the region we’re exploring, you’ll understand why this tiny beetle on a smelly sphere of elephant feces was akin to a major celebrity sighting.
A few days before the encounter, we screened the episode and spoke with producer Bill Markham, who implored us to keep an eye out for the littlest critters while we were out on safari: “Forget about the lions and the elephants.”
Of course, the goal of A Real Bug’s Life isn’t to entirely ignore the majestic beasts who hog the wildlife spotlight. It’s to elevate creatures that account for 90 percent of the species on the planet, boast some of the most astounding behaviors in the wildlife kingdom, and are vital to the survival of pretty much every ecosystem. Plus, as the series so whimsically proves, they can be as fun—and even as adorable (really!)—as their more celebrated creature counterparts.
Yes, the title’s reference to Pixar’s 1998 animated film A Bug’s Life is intentional. This is a family-friendly show, shot, scored, and styled to resemble a live-action Pixar film. Awkwafina even does the narration. “Naturalists and older fans of animals have been very well served over the years by fantastic programs on all sorts of channels,” Markham said. “But bringing together National Geographic with Disney and Pixar meant that we could tap into a new audience.”
The series trots around the globe to different micro bug worlds (get it…micro, because bugs are small?), illuminating the feats of survival and heroism that are required on a daily basis. An episode set in New York shows how jumping spiders search for their homes. One in Costa Rica reveals how orchid bees make perfume.
Each episode assigns personalities, story arcs, larger-than-life stakes, and even senses of humor so that each insect becomes its own singular character, one that you could imagine voiced by a charismatic star in a Pixar movie—or, in this case, have their lives narrated with gregarious sarcasm by Awkwafina. New camera and editing technology allows the filmmaking process to shrink down to a bug’s scale. It’s a world-building technique that allows us to see a day through these characters’ eyes, recreating in real life that before could only be animated.
In other words, as the series advertises, “a real bug’s life can be every bit as fantastical as any animated film.”
“We asked ourselves the question: What if Pixar was to make a film about real bugs?” Markham said. “How would we do that? Or rather, how would they go about it?” Part of that is creating relatable characters. And part of that is using the new generation of camera lenses that can get you down to bug’s level, so that you can, for example, look up at an ant who is less the one-tenth of an inch long.
A leafcutter ant carrying a leaf with a smaller leafcutter ant sitting on it is featured in the "Welcome to the Jungle" episode.
In “Land of the Giants,” it’s the dung beetle’s first day above ground. She’s alone and hungry, but that’s the least of her problems. As the camera pans up from her position, through blades of grass the size of skyscrapers we see an elephant walking toward her. More accurately, we see just its massive foot. The scale is akin to Godzilla stomping its way towards an infant. The episode chronicles the beetle’s mesmerizing journey, told with all the flair of an action adventure as she flies through the air at 20 miles per hour (!) to dung, which she then rolls back to safety like a mini Hercules.
“It’s really important that we made bugs engaging and entertaining to an audience that wouldn’t normally watch a program about bugs,” Markham said. “Bugs are a really important group of animals. As you probably know, many of them are in decline. I think 40 percent of species are in decline worldwide. In the U.K. in the last 20 years, they’ve declined by 60 percent. And this is an impending disaster, because bugs are so important. So it’s really important that we engage the audience so that they get to love bugs. And if they love bugs, they're gonna help to look after bugs.”
It’s funny how that manifests itself. Markham remembers learning about dung beetles’ borderline Mach-level flying speed. But he didn’t understand just how impressive that was until the first day he landed in Tanzania for filming, was standing by some elephant dung, and a dung beetle flew into him. “I can now attest,” he said, “they fly quite fast.”
A cockroach is pictured in a monitor during a shoot for "The Big City" episode.
There’s an executive at Disney who confessed to him that, before watching the series, he used to choose the “nuclear option” when he encountered ants in his house. Now he’s a dustpan-and-broom, drop-them-out-in-the-yard kind of guy. Another National Geographic colleague in New York said that the jumping spiders episode practically cured her extreme phobia of her backyard dwellers.
And then there’s me on this hike, hovering over a ball of poop with a beetle on it, fawning over it like I’m meeting my newborn nephews for the first time. As we descended back down from the crater rim, we encountered an ant colony, like the one featured heavily in “Land of the Giants.” I spent so much time staring at how they worked, inspired by the episode, that they began crawling up my leg. Yes, I had ants in my pants. And didn’t mind! Who is this person?
The challenge, though, remains as it always did before: How do you get people to watch a series about bugs, let alone care about them, when there are cooler, cuddlier animals to be preoccupied with? The gamble here is that a Pixar approach, which is finally possible because of new technology and a willingness to embrace some silliness in the wildlife space, is the answer.
An American cockroach is featured in "The Big City" episode.
“I really do hope that when people see these animals through this new lens, when they get down to their level, then we will open up people's eyes to these incredible creatures,” Markham says. “Because what they do is so much more interesting than what a lion does. A lion sleeps for 90 percent of the time. Then it will walk a while. Then it will kill something and, oh, that’s sick. But these guys are spinning webs, they’re flying in the wind. They’re working together in massive communities.”
He smiles broadly: “I think 90 percent of species on the planet are bugs, and each one is doing something different. So we’ve done 10 episodes, but we’ve got millions of episodes to go.”
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