Swiss Family Treehouse

Swiss Family Treehouse
Swiss Family Treehouse
Disneyland
Area	Adventureland
Status	Removed
Opening date	November 18, 1962
Replaced	March 8, 1999
Replaced by	Tarzan's Treehouse
Magic Kingdom
Area	Adventureland
Status	Operating
Opening date	October 1, 1971; 53 years ago
Disneyland Park (Paris)
Area	Adventureland
Status	Operating
Opening date	April 12, 1992
Tokyo Disneyland
Area	Adventureland
Status	Operating
Opening date	July 21, 1993
Ride statistics
Designer	Walt Disney Imagineering
Theme	Swiss Family Robinson

Swiss Family Treehouse is a walk-through attraction featured at Magic Kingdom, Disneyland Park Paris and Tokyo Disneyland. It was formerly located at Disneyland. The attraction is centered on a large treehouse based on the 1960 Disney film Swiss Family Robinson.^[1]

History

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]^[a] 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 short tons (140 t).^[3] The tree species was 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 due to issues with the main tree structure and former Disneyland president, Paul Pressler wanting to replace it with a gift shop. Despite this, it reopened in June of the same year as Tarzan's Treehouse, based on Disney's 1999 film Tarzan. In September 2021, the attraction closed. In April 2022 it was confirmed that it would reopen with a different theme.^[10] It reopened as Adventureland Treehouse on November 10, 2023, which is inspired by Swiss Family Robinson.^[11]^[12]

Note

^ Martin was one of the original team gathered to create Disneyland, and the art director of Fantasyland.^[4]

References

^ Strodder, Chris (2017). The Disneyland Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). Santa Monica Press. pp. 466–467. ISBN 978-1595800909.
^ Glover, Erin (November 18, 2012). "Today in Disney History: Swiss Family Tree House Opens in Disneyland Park". Disney Parks Blog. Archived from the original on November 20, 2012. Retrieved 2015-02-28.
^ ^a ^b 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.
^ "Bill Martin". D23. Disney Legends. Retrieved 2015-02-28.
^ Mosley, Leonard (1990). Disney's World. Scarborough House. p. 266. ISBN 978-1-58979-656-0.
^ 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.
^ Philips, Deborah (2012). Fairground Attractions: A Genealogy of the Pleasure Ground. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-84966-667-1.
^ Korkis, Jim; McLain, Bob (2019). "Adventureland". Secret Stories of Extinct Disneyland: Memories of the Original Park. Theme Park Press. ISBN 978-1683902041.
^ Weiss, Werner (January 6, 2015). "Swiss Family Treehouse". Retrieved 2015-02-28.
^ MacDonald, Brady (April 18, 2022). "Disneyland to give Tarzan's Treehouse a new theme". Orange County Register. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
^ "Adventureland Treehouse at Disneyland Park Returns in Fresh, New Way in 2023". thekingdominsider.com. November 10, 2022. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
^ Ace, Shannen (October 25, 2023). "2023 Opening Date Announced for New Adventureland Treehouse at Disneyland Park". wdwnt.com. Retrieved October 26, 2023.