A first look at Disneyland's Adventureland treehouse

The real estate market in Southern California is brutal, especially within Disneyland's Adventureland.

Tarzan has officially been kicked out of his treehouse at the Anaheim theme park, given the boot by a cunning family of explorers. The new residents will move in on Nov. 10, when Adventureland Treehouse, inspired by Walt Disney's Swiss Family Robinson (yes, that's the full name), opens its doors to park visitors.

Disneyland gave media a tour of the treehouse on Friday morning, and those familiar with the previous Tarzan Treehouse, which closed last year, will find a much livelier space. Gone are the static animals of yesteryear, replaced by a bevy of animatronic and mechanical creatures, self-playing instruments and a dazzling, functional waterwheel, a throwback to the original Swiss Family Treehouse that opened at Disneyland in 1962.

There's still a lot to climb and the upper floors remain inaccessible to those who can't make the trek, but the ground floor is probably the place most guests will love. It is there where we meet Jane, a robotic ostrich who looks askance at the tourists who visit her house. But more on Jane in a second. Also on the ground floor is an artwork room featuring interpretations of each main space of the treehouse, which is designed to give guests who can't climb a taste of what's inside.

So let's take a look. Here are five things you should know about the renovated Adventureland Treehouse.

Fun scenes, like this monkey trying to manipulate a feeder, pepper Adventureland's Treehouse.

(Christian Thompson/Disneyland Resort)

1. It's a rare park experience that isn't tied to a Disney movie.

When the Tarazan Tree House was remodeled, rumors arose about which properties the renovated space would be inspired by. Social media seemed to opt for “Encanto,” noting that Antonio’s character had a magical home in the forest that embraced animals. It was not so. While Adventureland Treehouse has many nods to previous Disney properties (copies of the books “Tarzan of the Apes” and “Swiss Family Robinson” are housed in a small library), the space is one of the rare ones in all of Disneyland. Resort to not being associated with a movie or television series.

Kim Irvine, the Walt Disney Imagineer who has long served as Disneyland's art director, said the creative and executive teams wanted to create an experience that evoked the Walt Disney era without being directly tied to a property, especially now. that the park is approaching its 70th anniversary in 2025.

“I think the idea was very tempting to our executive team to recreate something that was actually Walt's dream and come back, especially with the anniversaries we're celebrating, to model it on Walt Disney's Swiss Robinson family.” Irvin said. “We talked a lot about other IPs and stuff like that, but this seemed to resonate.”

Still, there is a brief allusion to “Encanto.” Keep an eye out for a Victrola in one of the upper rooms, which Irvine says was inspired by the look and colors of the animated film.

Father's cooking space at Adventureland Treehouse, adorned with a lighted fireplace.

2. The idea is for guests to make up their own stories about the Tree House.

As the story goes, Adventureland Treehouse is home to a family of five, led by a musician mother and a chef father. A popular question was asking Irvine to reveal the family's names. She didn't say, since Disney keeps the family lineage a bit vague. We know, for example, that the daughter is studying astronomy and is fascinated with astrology, and we can see that the twin sons are nature lovers, but Adventureland Treehouse focuses on environmental storytelling rather than narrative.

This allows visitors to graft their own stories onto the Adventureland Treehouse and the family that lives there. “We thought about the 'Swiss Robinson family' story, but we thought maybe it wasn't as relevant to people today,” Irvine said. “So what if we were inspired by that story and it's about a family that made this amazing home together through sheer creativity and innovation, but made it a different family? “So we changed their roles.”

The ground floor features the father's cooking space, complete with a bright fireplace and a cluster of pinwheels. Mother’s room houses an old-style pedal organ that plays, of course, “Swisskapolka.” The daughter's room has a mystical feel, filled with art and an amazing telescope. But the presence of the children is felt everywhere, as if one were “collecting animals,” Irvine said, and the tree is dotted with a variety of critters.

An audio-animatronic ostrich looks over a bamboo fence at Disneyland's Adventureland Treehouse.

3. Jane the ostrich is the star of the attraction.

The ground floor space is home to one of the highlights of Adventureland Treehouse, as it is here that visitors will come face to face with the aforementioned Jane the Ostrich. While the movie “Swiss Family Robinson” had a variety of animals, including an ostrich, Jane, of course, takes her name from “Tarzan.”

We mainly see Jane's neck and face, swaying and moving back and forth behind a fence. From time to time Jane stops to look at us, seemingly suspicious.

“There was an ostrich and a lot of animals in 'Swiss Family,' and it's a lot of fun for kids to have animals,” Irvine said, adding, “Ostriches have a lot of humor and character. “It seems like the perfect pet for them.”

But he is not the only pet in the family. A clever scene can be found at the top of the treehouse, in an animal feeding room. Here visitors will see a hanging monkey, trying to manipulate a timer designed to release food. The monkey's name is Rascal. But don't overlook the toucan and the little jumping frogs, as the Adventureland Treehouse is full of life.

Adventureland Treehouse's waterwheel carries buckets of water to the tree.

4. Disney recreated a key element of the original Swiss family treehouse

A staple of the original Swiss family treehouse that was removed for the “Tarzan” renovation was a working waterwheel at its base, which transported buckets of recycled water to the top of the house. Irvine said the team wanted to bring back the water fountain, which adds some movement and energy to Adventureland. He went looking for concept art and photographs of the waterwheel, with the help of Becky Cline of the Walt Disney Archives.

“She said, 'Kim, I think I have the waterwheel,'” Irvine said. “As a collector, they had it back in the parking lot of a warehouse. We were able to take it. It didn't work anymore. “I was in pieces.” But Disney took molds from the original waterwheel to create the new one, wanting the Adventureland Treehouse to truly harken back to the park's past.

From a narrative point of view, water has magical abilities. “Our story is that everything the family has created actually comes out of this mystical water that runs under the tree from a spring,” Irvine said. He pays special attention to the music room, where a brass-like elephant trunk that spits water powers the instruments.

An astronomy-focused room at Adventureland Treehouse.

5. You will find nods to the Society of Explorers and Adventurers (IYKYK)

When introducing Adventureland Treehouse to the media, Irvine noted that it was time to renovate the space.

“Over the years, it became a little less popular,” Irvine said of the Swiss Family Treehouse, which received its first renovation in 1999. “The movie 'Tarzan' came out, so we decided maybe we should put the property intellectual there and change it. the story of 'Tarzan'. This was successful for many years. …But now, we thought that intellectual property was not so popular anymore and really [wanted] to preserve that tree.”

Disney took the opportunity with the remodel to tie Adventureland Treehouse into Disney's broader narrative of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. What is the Society of Explorers and Adventurers? It is a connected narrative universe only found in Disney theme parks, especially in the US, on the Jungle Cruise in and around Disneyland, and at Walt Disney World in Florida.

Here, visitors will see a Society of Explorers and Adventurers banner hanging in the daughter's room, as well as correspondence in space with the group's astronomer. It's all kept a little vague, though, as the Society of Explorers and Adventurers is for theme park fans who want to dig deeper.