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Credit: DisneyWalt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort closed their versions of Splash Mountain in 2023, making way for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. The Princess and the Frog (2009) retheme was primarily spurred by growing discomfort with the log flume ride’s ties to Song of the South (1946), which Disney stopped distributing due to its whitewashed depiction of post-Civil War life in the United States. But not many people know that another active Magic Kingdom Park attraction was inspired by one of Disney’s other controversial films, Swiss Family Robinson (1960).
The Swiss Family Treehouse is a walk-through experience in Adventureland. It opened alongside Walt Disney World Resort in 1971, following a similar attraction at Disneyland Resort that opened in 1962. Though Disneyland Park rethemed its treehouse after Tarzan (1999), Magic Kingdom has never updated its version. It later inspired others at Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris.
“Tour the island abode the Swiss Family Robinson built after they were shipwrecked on a deserted island,” the official Disney attraction description reads. “Cross a bridge at the foot of a large leafy tree and climb handcrafted wooden stairs. Explore the living quarters of the famous adventurers and discover open-air rooms brimming with a bevy of 19th-century articles salvaged from the wreck. At the base of the tree, a large wooden wheel gathers water from a stream and a series of ingenious contraptions carry it up to the rooms inside the treehouse.”
Walt Disney World Resort fails to mention the sordid history of Swiss Family Robinson. Based on the 1812 novel “The Swiss Family Robinson” by Johann David Wyss, the live-action movie tells the story of a father, mother, and three sons attacked by pirates while fleeing from the Napoleonic Wars to New Guinea. Their ship washes up on a deserted island, where they must learn to survive and eventually build their treehouse.
Like many mid-20th-century films, Swiss Family Robinson contains some cultural sensitivities. It’s one of many movies preceded by the following warning on Disney+:
“This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.
Disney is committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience around the globe.”
Swiss Family Robinson, Peter Pan (1953), and Aristocats (1970) were among many films studied by third-party cultural experts for Disney’s “Stories Matter” campaign. After identifying offensive aspects of its media library, The Walt Disney Company announced the above Disney+ warning and gave examples of its problematic content.
“The pirates who antagonize the Robinson family are portrayed as a stereotypical foreign menace,” Disney wrote of Swiss Family Robinson. “Many appear in ‘yellow face’ or ‘brown face’ and are costumed in an exaggerated and inaccurate manner with top knot hairstyles, queues, robes and overdone facial make-up and jewelry, reinforcing their barbarism and ‘otherness.’ They speak in an indecipherable language, presenting a singular and racist representation of Asian and Middle Eastern peoples.”
Despite its controversial source material, the Swiss Family Treehouse stands at Magic Kingdom Park. Walt Disney World Resort hasn’t announced plans to retheme the attraction.
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