It's Tough to Be a Bug! (Disney's Animal Kingdom)

It's Tough to Be a Bug!
Disney's Animal Kingdom
Land	Discovery Island
Theme	A Bug's Life
Opening date	April 22, 1998
Closing date	March 16, 2025
Replaced by	Zootopia: Better Zoogether

It's Tough to Be a Bug! was a 9-minute long 3-D short film based on A Bug's Life. Using theater lighting, 3-D filming techniques, audio-animatronics, computer animation, and various other special effects, the show gives the audience an idea of what it would be like to be a bug. Flik hosts the show and educates the viewer on why bugs shouldn't be seen as pests, but more as friends. The attraction opened in Disney's Animal Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort on April 22, 1998, a full seven months before the actual film debuted in theaters. The film's theater is housed inside the Tree of Life. The show was duplicated three years later in the A Bug's Land section of Disney California Adventure on February 8, 2001.

The attraction was closed in 2025 to make way for Zootopia: Better Zoogether in a wave of attraction closures.

Plot

Flik upside down in the bug hole tells everyone to put on their glasses, then he comes on stage and greets everyone while the butterflies from the curtains fly away. Then Chili scares Flik, so Flik introduces Chili while he throws crill at you. After the Termite-ator thinks the guests are intruders and puts acid on them. But after he has no more acid, he then says, "I'll be back." Then the Stink Bug comes on and it smells all around the stage. Then Hopper comes out and talks about the guests being evil to the bugs, going after their spiders coming from the ceiling and being stung by hornets. After, Hopper gets eaten by a reptile. Then Flik ends it with a song.

Development history

In 2023, it was announced that a Zootopia attraction would replace It's Tough to Be a Bug.

Cast

• Dave Foley as Flik
• Andrew Stanton as Hopper
• Cheech Marin as Chili
• French Stewart as The Termite-ator
• Tom Kenny as The Dung Brothers
• Jason Alexander as Weevil Kneevil

Other characters include Claire De Room, Henry the Bee, Additional Singing. Speaking Voices and The Announcer appear speaking and singing, but their voice actors are unknown.

Trivia

• The posters that are featured at the queue are a parody of:
  • Little Shop of Hoppers - Little Shop of Horrors
  • Antie - Annie
  • Web Side Story - West Side Story
  • Beauty and the Bees - Beauty and the Beast
  • A Stinkbug Named Desire - A Streetcar Named Desire
  • Barefoot in the Bark - Barefoot in the Park
  • A Cockroach Line - A Chorus Line
  • My Fair Ladybug - My Fair Lady
  • Termite-ator - Terminator
  • The Grass Menagerie - The Glass Menagerie
  • The Dung and I - The King and I
• The audio-animatronic for Hopper is one of the most complex ever created by Walt Disney Imagineering.

External links

• Official website (Disney's Animal Kingdom)
• Official website (Disney California Adventure)