Swiss Family Treehouse is a fascinating treehouse inspired by the film Swiss Family Robinson, high above ground in Adventureland at Magic Kingdom theme park.
The walk-through attraction is centered around a giant treehouse where everyone can hear and see various scenes based on the Disney movie Swiss Family Robinson.
As you climb the steps of the Swiss Family Treehouse, you pass through the various rooms, with explanatory placards that tell the story of the Robinsons. You get close-up views of each of the rooms, which feature furnishings from items salvaged from the wrecked vessel. There's a lantern, a log book, ornate railings, and, standing prominently in the living room, the ship's wheel from the Swallow. Ropes from the ship drive a water-wheel system that dips buckets of water from the stream, carrying it to the top of the tree. Books are open, the dinner table is set and the family pipe organ plays happily -- in fact, there's a feeling that the Robinsons could walk in at any moment. At the top of the tree, you look out on to Adventureland below -- there's a view of the winding river and Jungle Cruise, giving the feeling of being in the middle of a tropical island.
Touring Tips
- This attraction involves a lot of walking and climbing stairs, all 116 steps.
- If you walk through without pausing too much, the entire walk-through should take about 15 minutes.
- Don't miss the plaques throughout the tree (left) that tell, in journal form, the story of the Robinsons and their sons: Fritz, Ernst, and Francis.
- If you're pressed for time, you may want to bypass the Treehouse, especially if it seems there's a wait to walk through it.
Facts
- Opened October 1, 1971.
- In Disney's Sing Along Songs, Disneyland Fun, the Swiss Family Treehouse sign was seen during the song "Following the Leader".
- Disney's movie The Swiss Family Robinson was released in 1960 and starred John Mills, Dorothy Maguire, James MacArthur and Tommy Kirk.
- The 60-foot-tall treehouse has been a favorite Adventureland attraction since the Magic Kingdom opening in October 1971.
- The tree is known as Disneyodendron eximus, which means "out of the ordinary Disney tree". It's manmade with concrete roots.
- The tree's structural root system goes four stories into the ground (42 feet) below the tree.
- The moss is real, but the more than 330,000 polyethylene leaves are not! The tree itself is made from cement and steel.
- The tree has a 15-foot trunk and nine main limbs and weighs about 200 tons.
The Swiss Family Robinson Story
Swiss Family Robinson is a 1960 American Technicolor feature film starring John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, and Sessue Hayakawa in a tale of a shipwrecked family building an island home.
A family on their way to New Guinea is chased by pirates into a storm. The captain and crew abandon the ship leaving the family shipwrecked off an uninhabited island. Father and his two eldest sons Fritz and Ernst salvage as much as they can from the wreck including livestock, tools, and even an organ. As they gather what can be removed from the ship, the pirates return and begin shooting at the ship. Fritz and Ernst begin readying the ship's cannon, but they only have one shot. Suddenly, the pirates turn around; Father has put up a flag indicating the ship is under quarantine and that there is Black Death aboard. The three men construct a tree house home on the island while the youngest boy Francis investigates the wildlife (and starts an impressive collection of animals) and Mother prays to be rescued. The boys, particularly Ernst, also build inventions to provide modern amenities to the family such as drawing water and preserving food.
Fritz and Ernst head off to explore the island and try to see if anyone else lives on it or if it is connected to any other lands. While at a distant corner of the island, they again spot the pirates who originally drove them into the storm. The pirates have captured another ship and have the ship's captain and cabin boy "Bertie" captives for ransom. Fritz and Ernst rescue Bertie but the captain, Bertie's grandfather, stays behind. The three dodge the pirates and head back to the family's tree house.
Father realizes the pirates will try to reclaim her and decides to make a stand against them. Defenses are prepared by building booby-traps and fortifying a rocky outcropping. They blow up the ship's wreckage in an attempt to make it difficult for the pirates to remember where the family went aground.
Led by their captain, the pirates storm the island. The family manages a brave defense but are sorely pressed. Their defenses include pits with a tiger in one pit, rock piles, a log pile and coconut bombs (hollowed out coconuts filled with gunpowder with a fuse), all of which cause problems for the attacking pirates. When the pirate leader waves a white flag the family imagines they have routed the pirates, but the pirates instead are sneaking around the back of the fort. Francis' much-maligned "pirate alarm" is the only thing that warns them of the surprise attack. They begin defending the fortress but are soon down to only a few shots with their muskets. At this critical moment, a ship appears on the horizon captained by Roberta's grandfather (Cecil Parker) and fires its cannons at the pirates and their ship. The pirates retreat and make a desperate escape, and the family rejoices. Father, Mother and Francis choose to remain on the island while the Captain notes that Father will likely be recommended as Governor of the new colony. As for the rest of the family, Ernst chooses to return to Europe with the rescuers in order to enroll in a university to continue his studies while Fritz and Roberta plan to marry and make New Switzerland their home.
History
Before he wrote the book called Swiss Family Robinson, Johann Wyss and his kids imagined what it would be like if they were stranded on an island. So together, they came up with lots of crazy adventures for the Robinsons. Almost two years after the Disney film Swiss Family Robinson was released to theaters, in 1960, Disneyland introduced the Swiss Family Treehouse to Adventureland.
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. Yet, it looks exactly like the one in the movie.
Hidden Mickeys
- As you walk around the trunk of the tree before you get to the first room on the side of the tree is a side silhouette of Mickey. It is white with green moss splotched on it. Darker moss forms the outside part of the silhouette outline. Another way to find it is lookup at the prayer room and you will see an oar sticking out of the bottom, the blade of the oar points to the place on the trunk.