FanX Flashback - Dave Foley & John Ratzenberger Panel Highlights [FanX 2025]

More than 25 years after “A Bug’s Life” introduced audiences to Flik, P.T. Flea and the rest of Pixar’s tiny world, Dave Foley and John Ratzenberger reunited at FanX 2025 to look back on their time behind the microphone. The two traded jokes about voice acting, considered which of their animated characters they’d actually want to spend time with and shared memories from Disney parks - including Foley’s hilarious experience taking his young children to the surprisingly terrifying “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” attraction. Here are a few of the highlights from their panel at last year's convention:

On what Dave Foley admired about Flik:

Dave Foley: Flik was a character... I kind of envied his enthusiasm.

I always sort of said that, for me, Flik had my voice but John Lasseter’s enthusiasm, because John is a bigger-than-life guy and very effusive.

So I feel like I would do better if I was more like Flik.

Maybe everyone would be better if they were more like Flik.

On which of their animated characters they would most want to hang out with:

John Ratzenberger: I guess the Abominable Snowman. He isn’t dangerous, and... yeah, snow cones.

Dave Foley: Who would I hang out with? [He considers several characters.] I guess I’d maybe hang out with Wayne from “Prep & Landing.” Yeah, I’d hang out with him. We’d just sit around complaining together.

On experiencing “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” with his children and seeing Flik at the Disney parks:

Dave Foley: I was there for the opening of the first one in Florida at the... Wild... what’s it called?

Moderator: Animal Kingdom?

Foley: Yeah. So I was there for the opening of that park with my two kids, who at that time were like five and three.

It was all closed off - it was all guests and publicists - and we’re watching. First my three-year-old got freaked out and started screaming and ran out. Then a little while later, my five-year-old got freaked out and ran out.

So we’re outside, surrounded by all the publicists and press, and my five-year-old goes, “Why did they make it so scary? Children would see this.”

But then we did see it many, many times after that.

And with my daughter from my second marriage, we go to Disneyland all the time, so she kind of grew up with that ride. In fact, my wife was pregnant with her when we opened the park.

Every once in a while, my daughter would go up to people in the park - there’d be Flik flyers around - and she’d go, “Yeah, Flik’s my dad.”

And people would look at her like, “Oh, poor sad child. She obviously probably doesn’t have a father.”

I am sad that they’ve closed it down... sad that it’s gone away.