Treehouse makeover brings back Swiss Family Robinson
A family of five possessing magical and unique gifts that help survive life in the jungle will soon be moving into the Adventureland Treehouse, once Disneyland completes a twoyear makeover of the 80-foottall artificial tree.
Walt Disney Imagineer Kim Irvine revealed new details about the Adventureland Treehouse backstory during a presentation to an Adventures by Disney tour group, according to Laughing Place.
“We're getting ready to celebrate our 70th year of Disneyland and we decided to bring back the old treehouse,” Irvine said in a video posted by Laughing Place. “It's now the Adventureland Treehouse inspired by Walt Disney's `Swiss Family Robinson.'
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Irvine spoke about the Adventureland Treehouse retheming project to passengers on the $8 million Disney Theme Parks Around the World private jet tour during an exclusive presentation in Disneyland's Golden Horseshoe, according to Laughing Place.
The 24-day, globe-trotting trip to every Disney theme park around the world costs an eyepopping $110,000 per passenger. The luxurious vacation — running from July 9 to Aug. 1 — includes visits to 31 sites and 68 meals along the way.
The new backstory finds the treehouse serving as a home to a family of five — each member having a unique gift that helps them survive in the jungle.
The father, a chef, has built a kitchen where meals cook themselves and “magical water” fed by a waterwheel cools an icebox.
The musical mother has a player organ in her room that plays “Swisskapolka” in an homage to Disneyland's original Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.
The teenage daughter is an astronomer and astrologer whose room near the top of the treehouse is filled with diagrams of the stars and models of the universe.
The naturalist twin sons — one an animal lover and the other a plant lover — share a room filled with monkeys, toucans and man-eating plants.
The Disneyland treehouse has changed ownership a few times over the past six decades.
The original Swiss Family Treehouse, based on the 1960 Disney film “Swiss Family Robinson,” opened at Disneyland in 1962. The attraction was rethemed in 1999 as Tarzan's Treehouse, based on the Disney animated film from the same year about a boy raised by apes.
Disneyland closed Tarzan's Treehouse in 2021 and announced plans in 2022 for a new theme once again inspired by the “Swiss Family Robinson” novel, written by Johann David Wyss in 1812. A new “Swiss Family Robinson” television show is in the works for the Disney+ streaming service.
The Adventureland Treehouse has been closed and clad in construction tarps since September 2021 — an unusually long time for an attraction retheming. The 150-ton tree structure with 6,000 vinyl leaves even has its own species name — Disneydendron semperflorens grandis.
The transformation is scheduled to be completed this year, according to Disneyland.