As we previously told you, our sometimes correspondent Blake Devillers had the chance to tour Harry Potter: The Exhibition at the Discovery Times Square in NYC this weekend and did a write-up of everything she could possibly write about. Her report also includes the 21 must-see items at the exhibit.
Here’s her report. Make sure to also see the photos she took and scans from the booklet in our gallery starting here.
Harry Potter: The Exhibition
‘The Keepers of Wands and Movie Magic….’
It is evident from the detailed set pieces, props and costumes in this exhibit that the artisans and crew members of the Harry Potter movies have a great sense of dedication and love for their work. They are the ones who have taken great care to create a world that can awe and inspire, protecting and preserving it for everyone to enjoy. One of my friends who accompanied me (Dede Hildreth) put it best when she said after her 100th exclamation of awe, ‘They are the caretakers of this magical world and of JK’s vision of it’.
The first thing you notice as you walk up to the Discovery Times Square exhibition is the flying Ford Anglia above the entryway. It is one of the originals from Chamber of Secrets and since there were 16 different cars from which parts were pulled, it is quite an achievement in and of itself. This is just the beginning of the journey you are about to take through the Harry Potter movie magic that has been a part of our lives for the past 10 years.
The exhibition is chock full of props, set pieces and costumes from ALL of the Harry Potter movies and is laid out in various settings and rooms, movie moments and course topics. Some of the exhibits offer interactivity, but overall this is a ‘look but don’t touch’ exhibit….perhaps my only criticism.
Once you’ve got your ticket, you can get a group picture taken in front of a green screen (that ultimately places you in front of a view of the turrets of Hogwarts) which you pick up at the end of the exhibit. You then fully enter the exhibit and are sorted into your house! There is a small set with a stool and an exhibit attendant dressed in wizard’s robes, holding a sorting hat. You are invited to sit on the stool where the hat is placed on your head and an audio recording from Sorcerer’s Stone tells you in which house you belong. Afterwards, you are led into a circular room with eight vertical screens, laid out as a diorama and a pre-show with clips from all the movies (except DHP2) is shown. As the pre-show winds down, the wall next to it rises and a replica of the Hogwarts Express with steam and light’s a-blazing appears. You are ushered along this platform and into the Portrait Gallery, complete with moving artworks, paintings and a life-size version of the Fat Lady from Prisoner of Azkaban, who proceeds to serenade you, impressed with her own ability to break glass ‘…just with my voice.’
The exhibit tour continues, taking you through various rooms and settings accompanied by your own personal handheld audio tour device. The audio snippets are commentaries from the costume and props designers, producers, special effects team and other crew members. What comes across the most in these audio tracks is the amount of care each crew member put into their work, their complete love of the Harry Potter films they contributed to, and their overall dedication to the art of filmmaking.
The settings you travel through include the Gryffindor Common Room and Boy’s Dormitory, the Potions Classroom, Divination Area, DADA Classroom (watch out for the Boggart in the cupboard!), Herbology (complete with screaming mandrakes), Quidditch through the Movies, Hagrid’s Hut (with a dragon’s egg that might hatch at any moment), the Forbidden Forest, the Dark Forces, and The Great Hall.
The details on all the items are quite extraordinary. For example, the bed hangings in the Boy’s Dormitory of Gryffindor are lined with astrological symbols, stars and moons all in gilt thread. Some of these details, along with those on the costumes (such as the three-headed snake belt on Lucius Malfoy’s robes from Chamber of Secrets), don’t show up on the screen due to lighting or camera angles, and yet here they are, meticulously crafted by film artisans. The level of detail in books, paper products, and items in school trunks that are never brought to light is simply amazing.
There is so much to see, and so much that I loved about this exhibit that there’s not enough screen space to do it justice in this review, so the top 21 items/artifacts (yes, they are the real ones from the movie) and settings you might want to see are:
- The Time-Turner
- DA sign-up sheet
- Katie Bell’s cursed necklace
- Harry Potter’s Glasses: Dan was allergic to the first pair and the props department had to find different material.
- The Marauder’s Map
- Harry Potter’s School Uniforms: it was interesting to see how much Dan has grown up by viewing the varied sizes of his costumes.
- The Invisibility Cloak
- The Golden Egg
- Ron’s Howler: The Howler was inspired by the Japanese art of paper-folding, origami.
- The Grim Teacup: From the Divination Class. The figure of the Grim in tea leaves is glued into place within the interior of the cup.
- The Vial used for the Felix Felicis potion in Half-Blood Prince
- The Half-Blood Prince’s copy of Advance Potion-Making: With lots of scribbles and open to the page for making Polyjuice Potion.
- Buckbeak and the Hungarian Horntail: Although they were mostly CGI in the movies, there were a few physical models made. For Buckbeak, each feather was hand painted and placed one-by-one.
- Harry’s Nimbus 2000 & Draco’s Nimbus 2001
- The Golden Snitch
- The Angel of Death Graveyard Statue from Goblet of Fire
- Lord Voldemort’s Robes: From Goblet of Fire’s Graveyard Scene. They appear black and gray on film, but are actually hand-dyed silk and in shades of green and beige.
- Horcruxes: Tom Riddle’s Diary and Slytherin’s Locket are there. As well as Helga Hufflepuff’s cup from the upcoming Deathly Hallows Part 2. It is small and gold with two handles, a two-tiered bowl with the top tier being smooth and the bottom tier looking like closely layered & overlapping leaves. The stem is narrow and the base is reminiscent of webbed feet.
- The Triwizard Cup
- Headmaster Dumbledore’s Robes: The costumes for both Richard Harris and Michael Gambon are exhibited. The audio track states that they learned from Richard Harris’s robes that they were too heavy, so ever since Prisoner of Azkaban (in which Michael Gambon replaced Richard Harris) they have been made of lighter material.
- Character Wands: Nearly every character wand is scattered throughout the exhibit. Six wands were made for EACH character, three being of harder material for set use and three of softer material for ‘waving about for spellwork’. The interesting things about the wands are the details. Many of us have seen the ones in catalogues, so you may already know what the main character wands look like, but did you know that Gilderoy Lockhart’s is very long, thin, pale blonde in color with curlicues on the end? Or that Fred and George Weasley’s wands are entirely different from one another?
As with each of JK Rowling’s novels that demonstrate such craftsmanship in storytelling, I came away from the exhibit with a sense of awe at the artistry and craftsmanship the technical designers and crew members brought to the world of Harry Potter.
The exhibit opens at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 5, 2011, and runs through Monday, September 5, 2011. You are encouraged to purchase your tickets early to ensure the best date and time. Tickets for the exhibition can be purchased at the Discovery Times Square box office, through the website www.DiscoveryTSX.com or by phone at (866) 9.TSXNYC (866) 987-9692. General public admission to Harry Potter: The Exhibition is $25 for adults; $22.50 for seniors (65 and over) and $19.50 for children (4-12); children under 4 years of age are free.
Thank you very much to Blake for this!
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