One of the original attractions at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom theme park recently closed forever. The Unofficial Guides team visited during the final days of It’s Tough to be a Bug! to pay our respects to this now-extinct show.
It’s Tough to be a Bug! was a 4-D theater show inspired by the Pixar film A Bug’s Life; it was located inside Animal Kingdom’s iconic Tree of Life. The presentation was somehow simultaneously humorous and frightening, as it presented the difficulties of being small and creepy-crawly.
Take a look at the last days of It’s Tough to be a Bug! with our YouTube video:
Similar to Mickey’s PhilharMagic in the Magic Kingdom and the soon-to-close MuppetVision 4D in Hollywood Studios, It’s Tough to be a Bug! combined a 3-D film with an arsenal of tactile and visual special effects. This attraction could do a number on anybody, young or old, who’s squeamish about insects, and we received many letters over the years from readers whose children were reduced to tears by the experience.
Although some effects were no longer functioning (such as Flick’s mouth movements), it was great to see the still-astounding Hopper audio-animatronic one last time. And the show was still playing well to appreciative audiences during its last days, with viewers still vocally reacting to the dive-bombing spiders and stinging hornets just as they had since 1998.
March 16th was the last day of operations for It’s Tough to be a Bug!, and Disney even dug up some of the old bug-eye custom 3-D glasses to distribute for the final shows. As of March 17th, the theater has closed to prepare for Zootopia: Better Zoogether! The new show, scheduled to open in late 2025, will include an animatronic Clawhauser (much like the one found in the queue of Shanghai Disneyland’s Zootopia dark ride).
It’s Tough to be a Bug! was rarely crowded even on the busiest days, so we advised guests to experience it after doing all the major rides, and it ranked below average on our reader surveys. We expect the Zootopia attraction that replaces it to be far more popular, at least initially after it debuts.
Will you miss It’s Tough to be a Bug!, or are you happy to see Zootopia take its place? Let us know in the comments below!
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