withsomejam

Back in November, we went to the Disney100 exhibition at the ExCel London. We decided to make a day of it, driving to the O2 and then making our way over the Thames to the ExCel centre. A pretty painless journey, we made it with plenty of time to spare and we were able to enjoy a quick Costa before heading into the exhibition space.

The exhibition of Disney100 reminded me a lot of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour: the making of Harry Potter, in that visitors are led into a space where you see a video presentation in a group before going off into the exhibition space at your own pace.

I should say the entirety of the exhibit was very wheelchair friendly, being on smooth floors with no inclines or bumps. There were also seats and benches around the space for anyone who needs a rest and most importantly, there was no sense of urgency or rushing you through the space. It’s important to note that the exhibition space itself has no toilet facilities or refreshments, but the ExCel itself has that.

The exhibition was a complete compendium of Disney, how it began and what the company has looked like throughout the decades. I really enjoyed all of the various elements of the exhibit but I especially enjoyed the original art work and sketches. I love seeing the origins of an idea and behind the scenes against the end result, so that was great.

After the initial timeline at the beginning through the decades of Disney, the exhibition was then divided into different spaces such as Music, Disney Parks, Marvel, Illustrations, etc. At the end of the exhibit there was a gift shop where you could buy poster versions of these space dividers which of course, I had to buy one.

The use of technology in this exhibit was really cool too. They had the storybook from Sleeping Beauty there which was projected on a screen so that as you turned the page, the projected page also changed. I also loved the music section. Growing up listening to Disney tunes and seeing the parades at the parks meant that listening to some of the music there brought up all those nostalgic feels. It was also nostalgic in the sense that they had machines with headphones like those that used to be in HMV where you could choose a tune and listen along.

I thoroughly enjoyed. the Cruella section. Being that it is a recent remake, they of course had that iconic red dress but also quite a lot of pieces from Glenn Close’s Cruella too. I loved 101 Dalmatians so much when it came out on VHS and was obsessed with the fashion in that film. Just -iconic. That was lovely to see all those references that they probably had to pull up for Emma’s Stones depiction of her.

The less known elements of Disney such as National Treasure or Enchanted were also highlights for me. I think a lot of people forget about these Disney films that are a bit off the beaten path of the princess’ or the classics like Winnie the Pooh or Peter Pan. They also had props from so many films, including Pirates of the Caribbean which was cool. And of course, newer additions to Disney like Pixar, Marvel and even the Star Wars franchise were also highlighted but I must admit, I’m not the biggest fan of those so I don’t have a bunch of photos from that section.

The original artwork of the creation of the parks and their various lands was something I loved. My favourite park in Florida is Epcot so seeing the artwork of Soarin’ was kinda cool.

I’d definitely recommend the exhibit to any Disney fan however, I think adults and teens would get more from it than small children. There is a lot of reading info and watching short clips around the space rather than character meet n greet or play areas. I say this more from seeing small children looking bored while their parents read each info-plaque.

Overall, it was an amazing exhibit. Both my parents and James’ parents also went to the exhibit over the festive period and enjoyed it. My parents in particular, loved it -and the gift shop, judging by the bags they came home with.

Cheerio for now!