It was at an American amusement park in Tokyo that we couldn’t stop talking about the Swiss.
Disneyland has that effect: Disorienting, in a jolly sort of way. Three of us were exhausted at the end of a long and happy day trying all the big rides, but our girls, though deep into teenage life, insisted we climb up the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse and look around.
At 14 and nearly 17, the girls are nostalgic already for one of their childhood favorite Disney movies. At about ages 7 and 10, they would replay “Swiss Family Robinson” on a snowy afternoon, squealing at the pirates and giggling over the ridiculous animal race.
And the treehouse did indeed turn out to be magical that humid June day in Japan, with its carefully crafted re-creation of the family’s ingenious survival strategies. We climbed up and up with our 5-year-old boy, admiring the hammocks and the salvaged ship furniture and the hardworking water wheel. The girls vowed to show their little brother the movie upon return to the States.
Then another moment of serendipity guaranteed “Swiss” would be this week’s movie recommendation: Oblivious to what we’d been talking about, my dad sent me a beautiful copy of the “Swiss Family Robinson” novel that my late grandmother had given me when I was 14. He was emptying shelves, had found her inscription and wanted to pass it on.
The spirit of exhilarating adventure that’s not really dangerous permeates the Disney version of “Swiss,” as it did so many of the studio’s family movies in the 1960s. Since then things have gotten smarter, but also gloomier, and kids often long for the simple silliness of castaways outwitting buccaneers. Leave it to the words of Robert Cushman Murphy in the introduction to my grandmother’s gift copy:
“The Swiss Family Robinson should be read [or seen] at least twice — the first time when one is so young as to want to believe it all, the second in much later years when its heart beats more loudly than the nonsense on the surface.”
“Swiss Family Robinson”
Rated: G, with thrills and minor violence that will seem tame to modern children.
Best suited for: 6- to 10-year-olds who like escapist adventure; parents who like escapist nostalgia.
