MovieChat Forums > Swiss Family Robinson (1960) Discussion > The Tree House

The Tree House

posted 19 years ago by paige78mo2
6 replies | jump to latest

I have loved this movie ever since I was a kid. I always loved the house the best. I still do. I tell my husband everytime we watch it that he can build us a tree house to live in anytime he wants. I know that it is all "movie magic" but all the different gadgets and things that made the house work were so cool.

[–] simnia-1 19 years ago

I know that it is all "movie magic"

The treehouse was authentic, and some of the gadgets like the water wheel were put together by Walt Disney himself on location, and they really worked. The treehouse was left intact for years on Tobago, but it finally blew away in a hurricane. This info is available in the bonus features on one DVD release of the film.

Yes, I consider the treehouse to be the star of the movie! And it was also my favorite attraction at Disneyland until they Tarzanified it.

Some modern people do successfully live in treehouses, like in Hawaii, California, Florida, and Costa Rica, but there are drawbacks, like the tree dying, lightning strikes, hurricanes, zoning regulations, and so on. But if you really want to live in a treehouse full-time or even part-time, it's quite feasible. That is also one of my dreams. There are readily available books you can buy about modern treehouses people have built that are really used for homes. I bought one such book that I found in the architecture section at Barnes & Noble, for example.

[–] gg82 16 years ago

They turned the treehouse into a Tarzan attraction? That's sad. I went to Disney World when I was 11 and got to walk through a replica of the tree house. It put my backyard treehouse to shame! The floor plan was about 4'X4', 2 stories, with a sheet of green plastic as a roof. When we were little we used to try to camp out in it. I would have loved having the Robinson's treehouse in my backyard!

[–] pinkmomy71 16 years ago

They only turned the one in Disneyland in California into a Tarzan one. The one in Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in Florida is still Swiss Family Treehouse.

[–] brentnevers 12 years ago

This is not true.....the tree house in Orlando was Tarzan's tree the last time I was there. Perhaps it has changed back again by now, although I highly doubt that WDW execs are smart enough to correct their mistake.

The loss of the SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON tree house and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea soured me on the Magic Kingdom forever...

[–] liscarkat (19418) 4 years ago

The last time I was at Disneyland in California was 2011, and I was very disappointed to discover that the Robinsons had lost their tree house to that crappy animated Tarzan. This was one of the things that soured me on the Magic Kingdom, along with the ridiculously high admission price, the miserable overcrowding, the hours-long lines, the frequent ride shutdowns, and the ever-increasing Star Wars-ification of the park.

[–] sarchiorama 15 years ago

there is this article [blog] by kevin kidney of old photos
of the construction process
it's a bit of a mind blower as it seems
they used modern welding techniques then

http://miehana.blogspot.com/2010/03/tree-grows-in-disneyland.html