In fact, had it been known how successful it would be, the budget might have been bigger. Disneyland began welcoming guests to the revamped treehouse on June 23, 1999. U.S movie theaters nationwide began showing Tarzan on June 18, 1999. With the Swiss Family booted from their jungle home, the giant artificial tree received a massive makeover, including thousands of replacement vinyl leaves and a new suspension bridge entrance from a new neighboring tree stump. The Swiss Family Treehouse closed March 8, 1999. They didn’t realize that we really did save their home because it would have been gone completely.” “There were people wearing Dorothy McGuire tee-shirts with ‘Save our home’ and all this stuff. “I took a lot of flack,” explained Baxter. When the plan was revealed, some people were unhappy. It gave us enough money to restore it, put new leaves on it, beef it up structurally, build a second tree with a swing bridge out to it-and we got it there opening day.” “They said if you can do it for a certain amount of money-which was very, very little-and get it there the day that the movie opens, we’ll allow you to do that. “I pitched that we could convert it over,” Baxter continued. Baxter had seen the movie in production in Paris and he was impressed. Just like Swiss Family Robinson, Tarzan would feature a treehouse built with salvaged items from a shipwreck. Treehouse in Disney’s 1999 animated feature Tarzan It was becoming hard to see it in the future of Disneyland. In an interview on the Season Pass Podcast (episode 240, “The Tony Baxter Interview Part 2,” July 24, 2013), Imagineer Tony Baxter described what Disneyland management had in mind: “The park, under the management at that time, seized on the idea that that location was a crossroads it would be ideal to tear out the tree and put in a merchandise shop. The mighty artificial tree needed structural work. In the late 1990s, Paul Pressler, who had a background in merchandising, was the president of the Disneyland Resort. For more than 36 years, guests imagined themselves living in the arboreal “mansion” with an ingenious plumbing system delivering water from the stream below to the rooms that Father, Mother, Fritz, Ernst, and little Francis called home. Tarzan’s Treehouse replaced the Swiss Family Treehouse, which had opened at Disneyland in November 1962. Perhaps he wandered over from the Jungle Cruise, and Trader Sam is wondering where he went. His realistic appearance doesn’t match the style of the figures you encountered in the tree. There’s a baby elephant near the base of the tree. Gramophone playing the “Swisskapolka” from the Swiss Family Treehouse Potts from Beauty and the Beast, just as in the film Tarzan You’ll find interactive activities and even some Easter eggs.Ĭhip and Mrs. Jane is also very still, perhaps contemplating her next pen stroke.Īfter you make it back down all the stairs, your tour continues on the ground level. Tarzan is staying very still, which is good when you’re an artist’s model. Perhaps they’re mesmerized by the glowing images in the frame.Īs we get to the next room, baby Tarzan has become adult Tarzan-and he’s with Jane, the first other human he met since he was a baby. Unlike the brilliantly animated Sabor in the film, this Sabor isn’t moving-so you have nothing to worry about. Your first stop is the room where Sabor is ready to pounce on you. Enjoy the views of Adventureland and the banks of Rivers of America as you peer through the branches and green leaves. You cross the bridge.Īfter you cross the bridge, there are a lot more stairs. That’s how the film begins, and that’s also the story of Tarzan’s Treehouse in Yesterland.ĭo you like climbing stairs? Your first set of stairs takes you from ground level up a tree stump to a bridge. The leopard, who is named Sabor, tries to strike again, but Kala escapes with baby Tarzan. The gorilla mother, who is named Kala, finds the human baby, whom she later names Tarzan. The film doesn’t actually show anyone getting killed, but there’s no doubt what transpired. A leopard kills the baby gorilla and goes on to kill the human parents in the treehouse.

Nearby, there’s a gorilla family with a baby gorilla.

The parents use unburned pieces from the ship that have washed ashore to build a treehouse in a particularly imposing tree. Perhaps you remember the first few minutes of Disney’s 1999 animated film Tarzan.Ī British father and mother make a harrowing escape with their baby from a sailing ship on fire off the coast of Africa. Tarzan’s Treehouse The legendary vine-swinger’s jungle home

Half tarzan half gorilla drawing