It really is… tough to be a bug.
If you’re visiting Walt Disney World this weekend, this is your last chance to catch It’s Tough to Be a Bug before it permanently closes! The longtime-running 3D show will be gone for good after its final performances this Sunday, March 16th.
It’s Tough to be a Bug! has been part of Disney’s Animal Kingdom since the park’s 1998 opening day. This attraction – located inside the Tree of Life itself – combines 3D effects, animatronics, and immersive in-theater sensory elements to transport guests into the world of Pixar’s A Bug’s Life.
About a year before the 1998 opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney Imagineers planned to feature a show inside the park’s iconic centerpiece, but struggled to finalize the concept. Previous Disney CEO Michael Eisner proposed a tie-in with the then-upcoming Pixar film A Bug’s Life, and the creative team developed a storyline inspired by the movie’s characters.
Guests were invited to don their “bug eyes” to take in the show put on by Flik and friends. Sadly, in an effort to cut down on guests taking those iconic black bug eye glasses, Disney swapped them out for MuppetVision 3D’s purple glasses for the last few weeks of operation.
The show is especially known for its impressive Hopper animatronic and creepy crawly finale; where black widow spiders, hornets, and other insects create a dramatic and often unexpected sensory effect for theater visitors. (This may or may not have scarred this author for life as a young child)
— Let the blurred action quality of my Black Widow Spider photo read just how terrified I was of this moment as a 6 year-old (and now 33 year-old who still refuses to fully sit on the theater seat as to avoid the bug “surprises”.)
While it’s almost always sad to say goodbye to an opening day attraction, this show has certainly seen better days. We wish Flik and his troupe best of luck on their next adventure, and hopefully he still stops in to say hello to guests at the park occasionally. (And when you’re on the west coast, you can check in with him and the entirety of the now-defunct Bug’s Land in Ant-Man’s pocket at Avenger’s Campus.)
It’s Tough to Be a Bug‘s closure paves the way for another 3D show: Zootopia: Better Zootoether! The new show, debuting later this winter, will transport guests to the various biomes of Zootopia. The show will feature familiar characters from the 2016 film and the upcoming sequel Zootopia 2; including an animatronic of Clawhauser.
