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It's Tough to Be a Bug!
It's Tough to Be a Bug! is a 3D film based on the 1998 Disney·Pixar film A Bug's Life. The attraction first opened with Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World on April 22, 1998, seven months before A Bug's Life debuted in theaters, and is housed within the theme park's icon, the Tree of Life.[2] A second version of the attraction opened with Disney California Adventure on February 8, 2001, as part of the Bountiful Valley Farm area of the park, until A Bug's Land was built around it, and was housed inside the Bug's Life Theater.[3] The attraction is Pixar's first presence in a Disney park. The film utilizes theater lighting, 3D filming techniques, audio-animatronics and various special effects and is hosted by Flik, an ant and the protagonist of A Bug's Life, who leads an educational presentation on why insects should be considered an important part of the lives of humans. HistoryProductionAbout a year before the 1998 opening of Disney's Animal Kingdom, Disney Imagineers had decided to place a show inside the park's centerpiece, the Tree of Life, but struggled to find an acceptable concept. Disney CEO Michael Eisner suggested a tie-in with the then-upcoming Pixar film A Bug's Life, and the creative team developed a story based on the characters from the film. Visual effects studio Rhythm and Hues was brought in to produce the 3D animated portion of the show, while Disney's special effects teams created the rest of the experience, including animatronic characters, wind, water, and foul smells.[4][5] Film
Directed by Chris Bailey and Andrew Schmidt, the film It's Tough to Be a Bug! is Pixar's first attraction presence in a Disney park. Dave Foley voices the lead protagonist, Flik, in both the attraction film and the feature film, which was released seven months after It's Tough to Be a Bug! had opened. The feature film's screenwriter, and future Pixar director, Andrew Stanton voices Hopper, the antagonist in both the attraction film and feature film, voice-doubling for Kevin Spacey, who originally voices the character in the feature film. Closure and replacementsIt's Tough to Be a Bug! permanently closed at Disney California Adventure along with the rest of A Bug's Land on March 19, 2018, and was replaced by Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, an interactive screen ride based on the Spider-Man films, as part of the new Avengers Campus themed land, based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[1] On September 9, 2023, at the Disney fan event Destination D23, it was announced that a new 3D theater attraction based on the 2016 Disney Animation film Zootopia was being considered to open at the Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom.[6] Almost a year later, on August 10, 2024, the plans were confirmed to have entered the development stage at the D23 Convention, with a new attraction titled Zootopia: Better Zoogether! expected to open in winter 2025.[citation needed] SummaryQueueAt Disney's Animal Kingdom, the Tree of Life Theater is located within the park's icon, the Tree of Life. Many animals are carved throughout the exterior queue between the roots of the trees, which aren't visible from other vantage points. Posters of various bug acts from the show are displayed before reaching the "underground" lobby area, where posters for all-insect parodies of Broadway musicals are also displayed, such as "Beauty and the Bees", "Web Side Story", "Little Shop of Hoppers" and "My Fair Ladybug".[7] The lobby music overture consists of insect renditions of signature Broadway musical numbers. Dr. Jane Goodall, who was a consultant in the development and design of Disney's Animal Kingdom, is honored just outside the doors that lead into the attraction's lobby with a larger-than-life sculpted carving of a chimpanzee, as well as on a plaque describing her achievements in zoology and primatology. At Disney California Adventure, the queue passed through a replica of Ant Island, the colony where the main protagonist lives in, before heading "underground", where the column appeared the same as the one at Disney's Animal Kingdom. AttractionFlik the ant, in audio-animatronic form, emerges from a hole in the theater's ceiling and welcomes the audience and begins to explain that insects play an important role in humans' life that they can't see and invites them to see his perspective on the matter, by donning the provided bug eyes (3D glasses). The show begins with butterflies forming a curtain together before flying away, followed by the presentation of show's title card. Flik appears onscreen to present the show's acts, beginning with Chili, a Mexican red knee tarantula (referred in the show as a Chilean rose tarantula, whose an expert quill shooter. A pair of acorn weevils, along with Weevil Kneevil, place a slingshot on the stage and launch acorns from it (triggering hidden air cannons). Chili is able to shoot the first acorn but fails to hit the second because Weevil holds on to it, then taunts Chili, who chases after him. Flik presents the second act as a "soldier termite who defends his mound by spraying intruders with acid". A piece of the set falls and the Termite-ator steps out, then shoots at a taunting flea, then the audience, sensing more intruders (triggering hidden water sprayers), despite Flik's protests, until he runs out of acid and leaves. The third act introduced is Claire de Room, a stinkbug who walks onto the stage to demonstrate her "silent but deadly" talent by targeting a flower that the acorn weevils placed in the far back stage. However, still fleeing from Chili, the Weevil re-enters the stage and crashes into the flower, causing it to move towards the audience. Claire then passes gas, which affects and disgusts both Weevil and the audience (triggering hidden smell cannons in the theater). With an explosion to the right side of the audience, Hopper the grasshopper appears in audio-animatronic form, disgusted at Flik's compassion towards humans. He orders a stag beetle to chase Flik off the stage, and four wasps hold up an extermination advertisement flyer. The wasps turn over the flyer and use it as a movie screen to show movie clips from old monster movies that featuring giant insects as monsters (Earth vs the Spider, Beginning of the End and Empire of the Ants). In an attempt to make humans experience the same torture that insects receive, a giant fly swatter attempts to flatten the audience. However, after discovering that the audience is still alive, Hopper declares war on them. The screen goes black as a hand appears with a can of bug spray, releasing the contents towards the audience (triggering a hidden fog machine above the screen). As the theater goes completely dark, hornets sting the audience (triggering a small piece of rubber tubing that pokes each guest's back), and, at Hopper's mandate, several black widow spiders drop up and down over the audience's heads, trying to capture and scare the audience, before disappearing to the theater's ceiling. Now onscreen, Hopper boasts about being undefeatable, but a chameleon appears from the back of the stage and shoots its tongue to eat him before fleeing. Flik reappears onscreen and says he forgot to mention that reptile don't care that it's tough to be a bug, which segues into the finale. Bees, dung beetles (The Dung Brothers), dragonflies and other insects sing the attraction's titular song and how insects actually help humans, before Weevil returns holding a moldy cupcake, followed by the entire cast of insects chasing after him. The butterflies come back to form a curtain once again, and Flik reappears in audio-animatronic form from the ceiling to bid adieu to the audience. After the theater is lit up again, the theater's announcer requests guests to remain seated so other insects can exit, triggering hidden rubber wheels that roll at the bottom of the seats. CastThe cast includes:[2]
MusicThe attraction's titular theme song was written by George Wilkins and Kevin Rafferty and is included in the disc "Theme Park Classics" of the Disney Classics compilation box set. The show's score was composed and conducted by Bruce Broughton, while much of the queue music was arranged by Wilkins. The queue features parodies or renditions of songs from famous Broadway shows using bug sounds.
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