It will probably break. I tried to gently pull it out and it broke right off with little effort, but he looks so much better without it anyway I didn't care.
Carefully pry it off with a very small flat-head screwdriver. A screwdriver for eyeglasses works nicely. Now, the trick is using finesse... don't go in guns-a-blazin'! Slowly pry in different sections, even it doesn't seem like it's coming off, and keep moving around and pry different ends off at a time. don't just continually pry in one spot trying to get the entire thing off. Doing it like that will most likely break it into pieces.
the more i think about it, the more i might just paint the outside instead-its gonna be purple, so having it on the inside probably wouldnt work. Thanks though everyone!