Adventureland, Tomorrowland, and Fantasyland

by Christopher Smith

  The Library

  As guests begin their descent down the steps of the treehouse, they pass by the Robinson family library that is located to the right-hand side of the walkway. A plaque hanging above the library reads:

  Library

  These good books—the recording

  of man’s ideas & achievements

  were salvaged from our ship.

  We shall never hunger of

  food for the mind nor the soul.

  A wooden table serves as the visual centerpiece for the library. A vintage map of the Atlantic Ocean sits in the middle of the table, with a book labeled “SHIPS LOG” sitting close beside. A lantern provides dim lighting for the table, while a handmade bamboo chair provides seating.

  A wooden desk is located close beside the table, and numerous vintage books sit thereon, along with a bronze candlestick holder and a telescope. A portion of the sail from the Swallow provides a tent-like canopy for the library.

  The Kitchen

  Once guests reach the bottom of the Swiss Family Treehouse, they will see the largest room of the Robinson home: a large kitchen. A plaque for the kitchen reads:

  Our Kitchen

  and dining room complete with

  running water volcanic stone

  hearth & oven utensils of our own

  making & salvage from the wrecked

  “SWALLOW” plus nature’s bounty & my

  good wife’s cooking amply fulfill

  our wants.

  An impressive oven made of volcanic stone is located at the back of the kitchen, with pots, pans and a kettle sitting on top of it. A large wooden table near the walkway appears to have been constructed using wooden doors from the Swallow, and is adorned with plates, cups, eating utensils, and a bowl of fruit. A large clamshell sink provides the modern convenience of running water. As was the case with the library, pieces of the Swallow’s sail provide cover for the kitchen.

  The Exit Path

  After passing the kitchen, to the left of the walkway, observant guests will notice an area that includes a few hidden storytelling gems. Several striped poles that are topped with flags surround a large bamboo chair that looks almost like a throne. These simple props actually pay homage to the Swiss Family Robinson film. One scene from the film depicts the Robinson family declaring the first national holiday for their new island home. As part of the holiday celebration, the Robinson’s hold a race where they ride atop a variety of exotic animals, including zebras, elephants, and ostriches. Although the race in the film is never completed (thanks to the arrival of invading pirates), the chair and the decorated poles are reproductions from the film. The bamboo chair was decorated by Fritz and sat in by Mother during the race, and the striped poles and flags were used to mark the starting line for that race.

  Guests exit the Swiss Family Treehouse on a walkway lined with a rustic fence composed of wood logs and bamboo.

  More Magical Secrets of The Swiss Family Treehouse

  In total, the Swiss Family Treehouse has 116 steps.

  The Swiss Family Treehouse was one of three Adventureland attractions operational on the Magic Kingdom’s opening day in 1971, along with the Jungle Cruise and the Tropical Serenade.

  The Swiss flag that flies over the Swiss Family Treehouse is the only non-U.S. flag permanently flown over an attraction in the Magic Kingdom.

  In addition to the Swiss Family Treehouse and Tarzan’s Treehouse in Disneyland (see below), there are other Swiss Family Treehouses in Disney parks in Tokyo and Paris and another Tarzan’s Treehouse in Hong Kong Disneyland.

  The swimming scene in the Swiss Family Robinson film presented a logistical headache for filmmakers, as the pool used to film that scene only received about three hours of sunlight a day due to the lush foliage around it.

  Real History

  The original version of the Swiss Family Treehouse opened in Disneyland in 1962, only two years following the release of the Swiss Family Robinson film. In 2000, Disneyland’s treehouse underwent a massive refurbishment that included the replacement of many of the man-made leaves, a new entrance bridge, and, most significantly, a theme change to “Tarzan’s Treehouse.”

  The Florida version opened with the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971. The attraction was originally called the “Swiss Family Island Treehouse.” In 1989, the name of the attraction was slightly modified to the “Swiss Family Treehouse.” The attraction that guests experience today is much the same as the one that guests enjoyed on opening day almost fifty years ago.

  chapter four

  Jungle Cruise / Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen

  Charlie Allnut: “What are you being so mean for, Miss? A man takes a drop too much once in a while, it’s only human nature.”

  Rose Sayer: “Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above.”

  —The African Queen (1951)

  The Jungle Cruise is an open-air boat tour that takes guests down four mighty rivers and across three different continents. Riding aboard 1930s-era tramp steamers, guests travel through an Amazon rainforest, the Nile River Valley, an African savannah, and a southeast Asian jungle, passing mechanical elephants, lions, hippos, and spear-shaking headhunters in the process.

  The Jungle Cruise remains one of the Magic Kingdom’s most beloved attractions even after almost 50 years in operation. It inspired the creation of a Jungle Cruise-themed restaurant, the Jungle Navigation Co. LTD Skipper Canteen, which opened in Adventureland in 2015. While thousands of guests “sign aboard” the Jungle Cruise each day, many are unaware of the many details hidden in both the attraction and the Skipper Canteen restaurant that combine to tell the story of the Jungle Cruise and the Jungle Navigation Company. It is a story of secret explorers and exotic rivers, crumbling temples and corny skippers, snapping crocodiles, and trapped safaris. But the beginning of that story dates back over six decades to Walt Disney’s dream of giving guests a true-life adventure.

  Backstory

  A True-Life Adventure

  Walt’s original idea for the Jungle Cruise, like Adventureland as a whole, was inspired by Disney’s True-Life Adventures film series. Walt wanted to provide guests with the same “real-world” look at exotic locations and wildlife that were depicted in those films. Walt even wanted to use real animals in the attraction in order to gives guests an authentic safari-style adventure:

  Walt’s early plans for the Jungle Cruise included real live animals. Inspired by the success of his True-Life Adventure films, he was determined to bring these wonders of nature to a place where Guests could see them up close and share his admiration. Upon consultation with animal-care specialists, Walt was convinced that although the domesticated mules and horses in Frontierland could generally be counted on to perform their roles, live exotic animals would never provide the consistent show he wanted. They couldn’t be trusted to stay in areas in which they’d remain visible, they’d sleep most of the day, and they’d surely be irritated by the constant boatloads of gawkers and the special effects required to tell the story.

  —The Imagineers, The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, An Imagineer’s-Eye Tour (2005), p. 40.

  Because of these concerns and the substantial costs associated with the care and upkeep of live animals, Walt decided that the Jungle Cruise would instead use mechanical representations of animals in lieu of the real thing.

  Walt assigned the task of designing the Jungle Cruise to Imagineer Harper Goff. Goff famously served as art director for the 1954 Disney live-action film, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason. Goff also contributed many early sketches for what would become known as Disneyland.

  In designing the Jungle Cruise, Goff drew inspiration from two vastly different (although similar-sounding) films: The African Lion (1955) and The African Queen (1951). The African Lion was included in the True-Life Adventures series and was a documentary about plant and animal life in Africa, with particular emphasis on
the lion. The production crew spent three years in Africa filming for the project, which emphasized the harsh realties of survival in the African ecosystem.

  The African Queen is a live-action feature film set deep in the jungles of Africa during World War I. The film tells a dramatic love story centered on the characters Charlie Allnut and Rose Sayer. Allnut is the gruff captain of a steamer ship called the African Queen. Sayer is the elegant and proper sister of a British missionary. When Sayer’s brother is killed during a German attack, Allnut agrees to take her back to civilization. During their journey, the mismatched pair encounters numerous dangers from both the jungle and their German adversaries. Despite their many differences, Allnut and Sayer eventually fall in love.

  The African Queen included a star-studded cast. Humphrey Bogart played the role of Charlie Allnut, while Katharine Hepburn played the role of Rose Sayer. The film was shot on location in the Belgian Congo in Africa rather than on a studio film set as was customary during the 1950s. The film was a huge box office success, and received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, Best Actress, Director and Screenplay. Humphrey Bogart notably won the Academy Award for Best Actor, his only Academy Award win.

  The original version of the Jungle Cruise that opened in Disneyland on July 17, 1955, largely reflected Walt’s original vision of a “real-world” look at exotic locations around the globe, and was primarily an educational experience. An early attraction poster created by artist Bjorn Aronson in 1955 reflected this original backstory and advertised, “For true life adventure, ride the JUNGLE RIVER.”

  Let’s Have Some Fun

  Although the Jungle Cruise initially opened to rave reviews and long lines, the attraction’s popularity waned in later years. Legend has it that, while walking through Disneyland, Walt Disney overhead a guest say “We don’t need to go on [the Jungle Cruise], we’ve already seen it.” Walt was frustrated by this comment and decided that the Jungle Cruise needed a change. He tasked one of his most trusted Imagineers, Marc Davis, with the project of updating the Jungle Cruise:

  When Marc moved from Feature Animation to Imagineering in the early 1960s, his initial assignment from Walt was to “go to Disneyland and report his thoughts.” Marc’s suggestion: the Park needed more humor! For example, Adventureland’s Jungle River Cruise, even with its sassy and sometimes irreverent boat pilots, was inspired by the realism of Disney’s True-Life Adventures film series and was interpreted documentary-style when Disneyland opened. It needed what Disney animators had brought to Walt’s films for decades: laughter. “He [Walt] knew what was funny and what would hold an audience,” wrote Disney animation legends Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston in their 1987 book Too Funny for Words. “Grab the audience’s interest first, and the best way to do that is with laughter.”

  —Marc Davis, Walt Disney’s Renaissance Man (2014), p. 109.

  Davis incorporated a signature blend of slap-stick humor into the Jungle Cruise that he would later incorporate into other attractions like the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. Davis’ hilarious sketches for the Jungle Cruise, many of which were incorporated into the re-imagined attraction, depicted boats full of tourists “interrupting bathing elephants in their sacred pool and a group of explorers chased up a pole by the point of a rhinoceros’s horn.” The script for the attraction was also revised to provide the boat “skippers” with more opportunities to use corny jokes to entertain guests. With these Davis-inspired modifications, the Jungle Cruise’s backstory changed from an educational experience to a tongue-in-cheek comedy. That comedic backstory and theme was also incorporated into the Magic Kingdom’s version of the Jungle Cruise that opened on October 1, 1971.

  A Definitive Jungle Cruise Backstory…for Disneyland

  On February 18, 2014, Disney released a definitive and extremely detailed backstory for the Disneyland version of the Jungle Cruise:

  History tells that a Victorian house was built in this remote area of the jungle in 1911 to serve as the last outpost of civilization for explorers venturing into the jungle. The owner of the building saw the potential for a successful business and created the Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd.—a place for locals to post and receive mail, enjoy a civilized pot of tea and read the (usually three-week-old) newspaper.

  Unfortunately, in the late 1920s the owner had to leave due to illness and the building remained vacant for several years. Then one day, a group of enterprising adventurers purchased the house to use as a base for their new jungle transportation company. The business did well enough that they were able to add on a second story and invest in the latest technologies, like shortwave radio.

  But the Great Depression significantly impacted their business and they were barely able to stay…afloat. While other businesses throughout the jungle packed it in, these adventurers remained, delivering mail and freight to the few remaining outposts. Their luck soon turned around when a well-known Hollywood film director found their outpost and asked them to escort him down the river while he filmed the local wildlife. After he paid generous wage for their services, the owners realized they had a profitable tourism business on their hands—or rather, their docks. New skippers were hired, and new steamers purchased, to lead well-to-do travelers who would enjoy (and hopefully survive) these tours departing daily into the jungle.

  Today the Jungle Cruise still welcomes tourists who are daring enough to brave the piranha-infested waters, head-hunting natives, twelve-inch (in some cases even one-foot) butterflies and (if they’re lucky) the backside of water.

  —Erin Glover, The Magic of Disney Parks Storytelling: Jungle Cruise at Disneyland Park, February 18, 2014. https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2014/02/the-magic-of-disney-parks-storytelling-jungle-cruise-at-disneyland-park

  A New Restaurant and a

  Definitive Backstory for the

  Magic’s Kingdom’s Jungle Cruise

  The Magic Kingdom’s Jungle Cruise also received a definitive backstory when the Jungle Navigation Co. LTD Skipper Canteen opened in Adventureland in 2015. The Skipper Canteen greatly contributes to the overarching story of the Jungle Cruise, with hundreds of props and details spread throughout the restaurant (more on that below). Included amongst these treasures is a letter printed on the “backside” of the Skipper Canteen menu that provides guests with a complete backstory for both the restaurant and the Jungle Cruise attraction:

  Welcome to the Jungle Skipper Canteen!

  My name is Alberta and I’ll be your owner, manager, bookkeeper, interior decorator, and sous chef for the next 3 courses (or as far as you get). My grandfather, Dr. Albert Falls, established the Jungle Navigation Company in 1911. His goal was to improve the way in which cargo moved up and down the jungle rivers for his fellow explorers and adventures. When I was eight years old my parents sent me here to live with my grandfather and the jungle boat skippers. I call the jungle my home and the crew members are my family.

  That’s why I turned to them when business began to decline soon after I inherited the company. Fewer and fewer full-fledged expeditions were seen in the jungle and Adventureland became more of a destination for greenhorn globetrotters. Simply put, our cargo shipping business was dry docked. Then one of the skippers came to me with an idea. He suggested we use our vessels to offer guided tours to the visitors.

  The rest is history! We have been offering Jungle Cruises for several years now and business has never been better. We’ve been so successful that I decided to open up our home offices to hungry travelers. The crew’s mess hall, our old family room and even my grandfather’s old secret meeting room are now open to our diners!

  We enjoy having you and we hope you enjoy being had. Please relax and enjoy your meal, then get out.

  Yours truly,

  -Alberta Falls

  P.S. I’m sorry, that was rude. Please, get out.

  Storytelling Elements

  The Jungle Cruise

  The Queue

  A sign for the Jungle Cruise stands along the main Adventu
reland walkway near the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. The sign consists of two weathered pieces of wood, one that appears to be an old boat rudder and the other a broken oar. The signs read “Jungle Cruise Expedition” and “EXOTIC,” respectively. A spear is stuck in the wooden pole upon which those signs hang.

  The queue for the Jungle Cruise is themed as the headquarters of the Jungle Navigation Company, a weathered outpost on the Amazon River during the 1930s. The headquarters includes several open-air structures composed of rustic wooden frames and weathered tin roofs. If guests look closely, they will see that several pieces of loose tin appear to be misplaced on the roof, which further adds to the authenticity of a rustic, unkempt jungle outpost.

  As guests proceed through the queue, they will see backpacks, hats, lanterns, canteens, rope and a wide variety of other expedition gear hanging on the walls and lining the rafters of the buildings. A poster reading, “REWARD For Remains of Missing Search Party” hangs inside a display case just inside the attraction’s queue. The poster includes pictures of that search party: six skulls!

  Guests will also see a large cage in the queue walkway. A sign on that cage reads:

  JUNGLE NAVIGATION COMPANY

  LIVE CARGO HOLDING AREA

  KINDLY KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF

  (IF YOU WANT TO KEEP THEM, THAT IS!)

  A large claw mark tears through the lower section of the sign. Another sign hanging on the interior of the cage reads, “Danger! Please contact Wathel Rogers, animal handler, to enter live cargo holding area.” Imagineer Wathel Rogers was known as the father of audio-animatronics. His credits include work on Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, Carousel of Progress, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Jungle Cruise.