10 Fun Facts About It’s Tough To Be a Bug

As we say goodbye to It’s Tough To Be a Bug, we thought we would take one last look at the Pixar-inspired attraction and uncover some facts (and a few bugs)! Here we go!

1. Simba In the Tree of Life?

Once the concept of the Tree of Life was agreed upon, the next challenge was how to construct it. One early design proposal featured a geodesic dome similar to Spaceship Earth that would serve as a canopy for the branches and leaves. Unfortunately, it was realized that a dome design wouldn’t be very realistic, particularly since the Imagineers wanted the Tree of Life to look as authentic as possible. Instead, a new structure was devised, similar to an oil rig. The rig would serve as the skeleton for the tree, and since the external structure was more than capable of supporting the weight of the branches, it would be wide enough to hold an entire theater. But what to put inside? Initially, the idea was to develop a show based on The Lion King, but Michael Eisner suggested that the show should be about insects. Not only would that make sense in terms of the setting (after all, bugs live inside trees, not lions), but it would also tie in with Pixar’s upcoming release.

2. What, No Atta?

As the Imagineers were working out the plot for the park attraction, movie development for A Bug’s Life was only partly underway. At the time, the film’s only designed characters were Flik and Hopper. (Astute Guests will realize that these were the only two characters from the film to appear in the attraction.) So what to do for the other bugs? The Imagineers teamed up with a senior entomologist from the Smithsonian Institute to create the remaining insect cast and to develop a story about the survival techniques of bugs.

3. A Fitting Debut

Since the attraction was finished before the film was released, Flik and Hopper made their first public appearance at Walt Disney World six months before the film’s premiere.

4. Sneak Peeks

In the former Disney California Adventure version of the attraction (which closed in 2018), the theater was often used for theatrical previews, such as Maleficent, Cinderella, Ant-Man, The Good Dinosaur, and Zootopia.

5. Let’s Take In a Show

The pre-show area inside the base of the tree featured Broadway-style posters similar to those found in the queue of Mickey’s PhilharMagic, only this time the posters were for insect parodies of famous theater shows, including “Beauty and the Bees,” “Web Side Story,” “Little Shop of Hoppers,” and “My Fair Ladybug.”

6. Show Tunes

The soundtrack was composed by Bruce Broughton, who also wrote the scores for The Rescuers Down Under and Miracle on 34th Street. The theme song, “It’s Tough to be a Bug,” was written by George Wilkins with lyrics by Kevin Rafferty.

7. A Talented Cast

The vocal cast consisted of Dave Foley, reprising his role from the film as Flik, Andrew Stanton as Hopper, Cheech Marin as Chili, French Stewart as The Termite-ator, and Jason Alexander of “Seinfeld” fame as Weevil Kneevil.

8. Classic Sci-Fi Clips

The movie clips shown during Hopper’s scene included the giant grasshoppers from Beginning of the End (1947) and Empire of the Ants (1977), though the latter’s footage was shown in black and white.

9. Hopper

The Audio-Animatronic figure created for Hopper was one of the most complex ever created by Walt Disney Imagineering at that time. (And was still mighty impressive even today!)

10. That’s Unfortunate

Hopper appeared in the attraction despite his death in the movie. See? It IS tough to be a bug!

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