Disney has announced the final day of operation for “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” in Disney’s Animal Kingdom is March 16, 2025. With the attraction set to permanently close to make way for “Zootopia: Better Zoogether!” we decided to take a final look at this opening-day show.
It’s Tough to Be a Bug!
“It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” debuted on April 22, 1998, as an opening-day attraction in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The show is housed inside the Tree of Life Theater at the center of the park. The “A Bug’s Life”-inspired show actually premiered seven months before the release of its associated Pixar film.
Signage located in Discovery Island points guests to the entrance for the Tree of Life Theater using directional arrows. Ironically, the sign for “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” is placed just above DinoLand U.S.A., which is also set to be demolished sometime next year.
The entrance for the theater is located on the right side of Discovery Island, near the Discovery Trading Company store building.
The show has a large sign in the center of the walkway, with two queue paths on either side. The stand-by line goes on the left side, while the Lightning Lane goes on the right side.
The main sign advertises “The Tree of Life Theater presents It’s Tough to Be a Bug!”
The red stand-by entrance sign is made to look like a plank of painted wood, but it has several chew marks on the corners. The bite marks are likely from the hungry caterpillar sitting on the right side of the sign. The wait time when we visited was only 10 minutes. Since the show runs 9 minutes long, this short time only involves waiting for the theater to empty before its next showing.
The Lightning Lane is also a painted red wood plant with more bite marks. The left side has a standard clock make of what appears to be the center of a rounded tree stump.
Once guests walk under the main sign, there is a smaller warning sign located on the ground. This sign alerts guests that the show includes “images of insects, loud noises, dense fog, and things that creep and crawl in the dark” so it may be frightening for small children.
The show also has a small alcove dedicated for stroller parking. The fabric sign is tan and matches the red color from the main entrance.
Another reason “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” sometime stakes longer that its estimated wait time is guests must walk several paths weaving around the Tree of Life before reaching the theater door. These paths provide a much closer glimpse of the many animals carved into the roots of the Tree of Life. In a root closest to the stroller parking area, we could spot a fish and what looks like a kangaroo with a joey in its pouch.
The roots are not only on the sides of the path, but also form arches over the walkways. We spotted a jellyfish and a horse leaping over this path.
The roots and trunk of the Tree of Life continue to decorate the majority of the outdoor queue. While some of the animals carved into the tree are easy to spot, others are not as readily apparent.
The queue path is lined on either side with large boulders and plants.
Further down the path, guests pass through a short tunnel held together by the roots and rocks.
Appropriately, the tunnel has carved images of beetles breaking through the dirt on the right side.
The stand-by and Lightning Lane queues are usually separated using a wood stanchion with tan ropes. The queue also has a few points for serpentines, but these have rarely been used unless the park is extremely full.
Around the side of the Tree of Life, the path is lined with a few more warning signs just like the one at the main entrance.
At this point, the thinner rope stanchion is replaced with a sturdy metal bar separating the two lines.
While a little separated from the main trunk of the tree, a few more animals are carved on the opposite side of the queue between the rocks.
The idea for the queue of “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” is that guests are shrinking down to the size of an insect. By the time guests arrive at the main entrance to the theater, the Tree of Life is intended to appear much larger from the ground.
Some of the darker sections in the queue are lined with round hanging linters.
In one of the final carved animal sections, we spotted a dinosaur and a large anteater carves on either side of the path.
The final outdoor area of the queue is designed so guests now appear to be standing in a level below the earth.
The walls are made to look like they are carved out from the ground. This area is also lined with the first of several parody-style posters all featuring bugs as the stars. These posters are supposed to advertise some of the many acts guests will see during their showing of “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!”
The first poster advertises “Weevil Kneevil, the aerobatic Acorn Weevil.” The poster includes a quote, “You’ll go nuts over this act” from “Mai T. Oak – The Acorn Street Journal.”
The next poster uses a more horror-movie style to advertise “Termite-Ator, the explosive Soldier Termite.” Tim Burr of The Hollow Wood Reporter remarks, “He’s armed and ready for action!”
This cute poster using pastel colors advertises “Claire De Room, the scent-illating Stinkbug!” Wilton Flowers of the Odor-lando Scent-inel has commented, “Her performance is a real gas!”
“Chili the deadly Chilean Tarantula” is described by Harry Arachnid of The Tarantula Observer as “When it comes to throwing quills, he’s a hit!”
The final poster in the outdoor section advertises “The Dung Brothers, a dynamic ‘doo doo’ duo.” Eater’s Digest has remarked, “This well balanced pair of performers were born for these rolls!”
At this point, guests can enter the indoor theater through one of the double-doors.
Directly after entering the theater, each guest is instructed to pick up a pair of 3D glasses. While these are supposed to be black ‘bug eye’ glasses, they have been replaced by the standard pink glasses from MuppetVision 3D since early February.
The cart for the glasses is black and designed to look like one of the equipment boxes commonly used to move equipment for shows or concerts.
The box has poster stickers and spray-painted stencil art on all of its sides, such as this leaf-shaped mark saying “Property of Tree of Life Repertory Theatre.”
Many of the other stickers are rectangular posters copied from the full-scale posters located further inside the theater.
“Now Playing – It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” has been carved into the wood inside the waiting area, similar in style to a theater marquee.
Guests can gather behind the yellow lines on the ground by any of the automatically-opening doors to the screen room. Each door is accented with pink and yellow lights, which flash when they are about to open.
The theater has multiple doors all leading into the same screen room, so guests can choose how close or far they want to be from the 3D movie screen.
As with most of the outdoor queue, the interior of the waiting room is meant to look like a hole dug through the earth underneath the Tree of Life. The space is accented with a few more columns and features to give it depth.
A podium is located in the center of the room and carved out of more swirling wood.
This podium is blocked from guests using a rope. Cast Members press the buttons in this panel to flash the lights and operate the theater doors.
The column reaching from the podium to the top of the roof is supposed to be more natural wood, though the carving at the top looks remarkably bug-like.
The walls on either side of the automatic doors are lined with more parody-style movie posters.
Unlike the posters on the outside, the posters on the inside advertise ‘previous shows’ that, according to the show’s lore, used the theater space before “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!”
As one example, a poster located behind the green trash can has a whole backstory that matches the nearby illumined plaque.
This poster advertises “The Dung and I.” Featuring the hit song “Hello, Dung Lovers”, the poster warns, “Without dung-eating insects, the earth would soon be piled high with human and animal excrement.”
The plaque on the nearby sphere of ‘dung’ labels it as one of the props used during this previous show saying, “In its most memorable ‘roll’ in ‘The Dung and I,’ this dung ball bounced off the stage and NEARLY brought down the house.”
Some of the other posters parody classic Disney films. While these posters are used to educate guests using several printed bug facts, they also act as a type of preview to some of the songs and characters present in the actual “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” show.
Using the tagline “Bee our guest!” this poster for “Beauty and the Bees” has the white outline of a bee holding a dying rose above some bee-related facts.
On the left side, “A Cockroach Line” is advertised using yellow and orange bugs on a light green background.
In place of “Annie” we have “Antie,” showing a ant holding a yellow flower next to a brown, dog-like ant.
“Barefoot in the Bark” is a show featuring termites. Eater’s Digest left another review, saying, “They really bring the house down!”
A poster informing guests about the number of insects living in every section of earth is called “The Grass Menagerie.”
This bold, white-and-red poster advertises “Web Side Story” and stars a Black Widow spider.
Another stinkbug-themed poster is called “A Stinkbug Named Desire.”
One final corner has two posters hanging together. The left poster is colored like the wings of a ladybug and called “My Fair Ladybug.” The poster on the right for “Little Shop of Hoppers” shows grasshoppers eating corn.
The final poster is not a parody, but instead features the ‘current performance’ of “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” The show stars Flik and a cast of “a million billion bugs.”
Once the lights turn red and the doors swing open, guests waiting in this area can move into the actual screen room.
Designed to look like it is hidden deep in the roots of the Tree of Life, the screen room is mostly shades of brown.
The seats are bench-style and do not have the usual soft cushions as other theaters across Walt Disney World. Yellow lights line the middle of each seat so the walkways are visible.
As with most of the space, the benches are meant to look like carved wood with small holes from insects burrowing inside. The holes and cracks help to hide some of the special effects located in each guest’s seat.
The roof of this space is made of hundreds of wood roots intricately woven together. In addition to providing more depth to the space, the roots also work to hide the vents and lights used during the show.
The 3D screen is hidden by a ‘curtain’ of butterflies that come alive once the film actually begins.
After a few minutes of letting all the guests find their seats, the automatic doors on the right side will close.
The hole in the roof near the front of the theater is well-lit because it is home to one of the show’s main projectors and more theater lights.
One the show officially begins, guests are welcomed by an animatronic shaped like Flik, the blue ant from “A Bug’s Life.” Flik pops out upside-down from the roof of the theater, so only his head and arms are shown.
As the show progresses, guests are visited by an animatronic figure of Hopper the grasshopper.
Unlike Flik, hopper is fully realized in animatronic form. His eyes, head, and arms all move as he rants that humans deserve to be treated as they have treated bugs.
“It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” runs approximately 9 minutes long and features several special effects that coincide with the action taking place on the large 3D screen. Air puffs replicate flying quills from a tarantula, a mist spray is supposed to be spray from a soldier termite, and guests get to smell the odor from a stink bug. Effects also come from the bench seats where guests are sitting, such as the ‘sting of a bee’ poking guests’ backsides. The show features parody songs from many of the films referenced in the movie posters, all with their lyrics changed to match their bug performers.
At the end of the show, Flik appears once more to thank guests for coming and warn them to remain seated until the doors open.
At this point, the multicolored lights in the seating area are brought up once again. Guests are instructed to leave on the left side. The 3D screen at this point has returned to it’s covered state with the pattern of brown butterflies.
A tan container that looks like a trash can is intended for guests to return their 3D glasses. The container has a repeating pattern that matches the design of the show’s original bug glasses.
Signs located on the walls by the exit remind guests to return their bug-eyes. The signs are brown with a teal bug holding a pair of 3D glasses.
A red sign matching the ones at the show’s entrance say “Please exit to the right.”
As with the entrance, this sign has several bite marks from another industrious caterpillar.
The path leading up the exit is marked with one more crewed wooden sign. This sign is painted with a copy of the “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” poster art, but it has a large “exit only” warning posted over the top.
We also have a 4K Full Show POV video on our channel, which you can watch below:
“It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” is permanently closing in Disney’s Animal Kingdom to be replaced with a new show called “Zootopia: Better Zoogether!” The new show will arrive sometime in the winter of 2025, coinciding with the release of “Zootopia 2,” and will include an original song.
Will you miss “It’s Tough to Be a Bug” in Disney’s Animal Kingdom? What are some of your favorite memories from the show? Let us know in the comments.
For the latest Disney Parks news and info, follow WDW News Today on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.