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Swiss Family Treehouse

Swiss Family Treehouse -- Disney's 1960 live-action film "Swiss Family Robinson" may not be so popular today, but it's really worth a look -- especially before you bring your kids to this walk-through attraction. The make-believe tree beautifully recreates the home the shipwrecked family in the movie builds for themselves, right down to the organ in the "living room" and the skylight in the parents' bedroom.

 

The story of the movie goes like this: A shipwrecked family of five salvages material from their downed ship, the Swallow, to create a home among the leaves of a huge old tree on a South Seas island. There are bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a library, all set up just like other 19th-century homes. Eventually, the family has to battle a band of pirates, and then they are rescued -- well, sort of. You have to see the movie!

 

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.

 

Swiss Family Tree House

Walt Disney World-Magic Kingdom- Orlando Fl.

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Uploaded on March 10, 2010
Taken on March 23, 2009