Swiss Family Treehouse

Swiss Family Treehouse was an attraction featured at several Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. The remaining versions based on the original are located at Magic Kingdom Park, Tokyo Disneyland and at Disneyland Park in Disneyland Paris. The walk-through attraction is centered on a giant treehouse where everyone can hear and see various scenes based on the Disney film Swiss Family Robinson.[1]

This article is about the attraction at Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. For the attraction at Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland, see Tarzan's Treehouse.
Swiss Family Treehouse
Disneyland
AreaAdventureland
StatusClosed
Opening dateNovember 18, 1962 (1962-11-18)
Closing dateMarch 8, 1999 (1999-03-08)
Replaced byTarzan's Treehouse
Magic Kingdom
AreaAdventureland
StatusOperating
Opening dateOctober 1, 1971 (1971-10-01)
Disneyland Park (Paris)
AreaAdventureland
StatusOperating
Opening dateApril 12, 1992 (1992-04-12)
Tokyo Disneyland
AreaAdventureland
StatusOperating
Opening dateJuly 21, 1993 (1993-07-21)
General statistics
DesignerWalt Disney Imagineering
ThemeSwiss Family Robinson

History
Tokyo Disneyland

The Swiss Family Treehouse opened November 18, 1962, in Adventureland at Disneyland,[2] two years after the Disney film Swiss Family Robinson (1960). Imagineer Bill Martin worked out the treehouse's design;[3][lower-alpha 1] Disney animator Wolfgang Reitherman, who designed the treehouse for the movie, contributed.[5] At 70 feet (21 m) tall and 80 ft (24 m) wide, constructed of concrete and reinforced steel, the attraction weighed 150 tons.[3] The tree species was humorously dubbed "Disneyodendron semperflorens grandis -- large, everblooming Disney tree."[6]

John Mills, who played Father Robinson in the movie, and his daughter Hayley appeared at the attraction's opening.[7] The attraction was a walk-through rather than a ride, in which visitors walked up 68 steps in the trunk of the tree through various "rooms" designed on the theme of the movie, with items and structures made to appear salvaged from a 19th-century shipwreck and desert island finds.[8] When it opened, the attraction required a C ticket.[9] The attraction originally opened with reddish brown leaves. However, the red leaves faded very easily in the sun and were eventually switched to green leaves sometime during the early 1960s.

When the Magic Kingdom opened at Walt Disney World Resort on October 1, 1971, the Swiss Family Treehouse was one of the original attractions of Adventureland. The tree, while intended to look real, is actually made up of steel, concrete, and stucco, stretching 60 feet (18 m) tall and 90 feet (27 m) wide. Similarly, when Euro Disneyland (now Disneyland Paris) opened on April 12, 1992, it featured a version of the attraction located in Adventureland, named La Cabane des Robinson. Tokyo Disneyland also has a Swiss Family Treehouse which opened in 1993, ten years after the park's debut.

In March 1999, the original attraction at Disneyland was closed. Refurbished and remodeled on a new theme, it reopened in June the same year as Tarzan's Treehouse.

Trivia

In the Disney Sing Along Songs volume Disneyland Fun, the Swiss Family Treehouse sign was seen during the song "Following the Leader".

Note
  1. Martin was one of the original team gathered to create Disneyland, and the art director of Fantasyland.[4]
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References
  1. Strodder, Chris (2017). The Disneyland Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). Santa Monica Press. pp. 466–467. ISBN 978-1595800909.
  2. Glover, Erin (November 18, 2012). "Today in Disney History: Swiss Family Tree House Opens in Disneyland Park". Disney Parks Blog. Retrieved 2015-02-28.
  3. Gennawey, Sam (2013). The Disneyland Story: The Unofficial Guide to the Evolution of Walt Disney's Dream. Keen Communications. pp. 219–220. ISBN 978-1-62809-013-0.
  4. "Bill Martin". D23. Disney Legends. Retrieved 2015-02-28.
  5. Mosley, Leonard (1990). Disney's World. Scarborough House. p. 266. ISBN 978-1-58979-656-0.
  6. Gennawey, Sam (2014). The Disneyland Story: The Unofficial Guide to the Evolution of Walt Disney's Dream. Keen Communications. p. 178. ISBN 978-1-62809-012-3.
  7. Philips, Deborah (2012). Fairground Attractions: A Genealogy of the Pleasure Ground. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-84966-667-1.
  8. Korkis, Jim; McLain, Bob (2019). "Adventureland". Secret Stories of Extinct Disneyland: Memories of the Original Park. Theme Park Press. ISBN 978-1683902041.
  9. Weiss, Werner (January 6, 2015). "Swiss Family Treehouse". Retrieved 2015-02-28.
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