Harry Potter Exhibition!

Today I was completely "Wow"-ed by the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry. The Exhibition displays props from the Harry Potter movies and runs through September 27th in Chicago. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside the special exhibit, which is in front of the museum under a big, white, tent-like structure. It's hard to believe so much can fit into that space, but I was quite pleased with the magnitude of items, as well as the additional information available the audio tour (an extra $5 above the ticket price). What did they have? Well, what didn't they have?? It will be nearly impossible to list everything I saw, but I'll give it a try. :)

We started out by getting a few youngsters sorted by the sorting hat. Then, we entered a darkened room with a lit image of each movie poster from each of the 6 movies. It felt like we were new students being herded to our dormitories after the sorting. A man holding a lantern directed our way. The images then changed to a short "movie" of sorts, playing Harry Potter music and going through different images from several of the films (with at least one glimpse of young Tom Riddle from the newest Harry Potter movie, Half-Blood Prince, which comes out this July 15th). That ended into a neat opening of door, welcoming us into the exhibition (I think it rolled upwards, but can't remember for sure). I spent a little over 2 hours in it, reading every sign, reviewing everything there and listening to each audio clip. I could have spent more time, but perhaps I will get to go back again for another look before the exhibit ends!

Walking into the first hallway yielded a display of several paintings, several of which "moved," which was a nice touch. The fat lady was projected on a porthole/doorway looking item and she tried to break glass with her voice. All around, there were bits of the films being played in several "frames" throughout the exhibit, so you could hear music from the movies and the voices of Harry, Ron, Hermoine, Dumbledore, Snape, etc.

There was so much to see: Harry's glasses and wand, Ron's Chudley Cannons books and the Howler he received in Chamber of Secrets and Ron's broken wand with spell-o-tape, their dormitory beds (which seemed so small ;). Ron's "R" sweater he wore in Sorcerer's Stone, and the hat he wore near the Shrieking Shack in Prisoner of Azkaban. There was the Gryffindor common room notice board, and a case full of random items- a Quibbler, an Evening Prophet and some Galleons, Sickles and Knuts.

They did several sections on the different teachers, most if not all included their wands, including Slughorn, and so we were treated to a few Half-Blood Prince movie items as well! It was nice to see a few items in advance of the movie coming out. Slughorn's section had his robes, his potion cauldron, a few potions tubes and jars, along with the Felix Felicis bottle.

We saw sections on Trelawney: her crystal ball (or perhaps the version made of rubber- since it was in a glass case, we can't tell for sure!), her glasses and "Unfogging the Future", Lupin: his clothes, some of his records and the boggart cabinet, Snape: his robes and wand, Umbridge: her office complete with pink wall, kitten plates, desk with pens, cat statue, perfume bottle, pink chairs, and the evil blood quill with Harry's parchment reading "I must not tell lies" written over and over (in red), Defensive Magical Theory: Basics for Beginners book, The Dumbledore's Army parchment with everyone's names written down, Professor Lockart: Many pictures of him, his entire set of published works, and a blue cornish pixie, Professor Sprout: her clothes and earmuffs and several Mandrakes.

There were also sections with Neville: his black shoes he wore to the dance, his Mimbulus Mimbletonia and his robes, Colin Creevey: his camera and an extremely lifelike replica of Colin, in his petrified state, which was used in the movie when he was petrified that took 2 1/2 months to make! The sorcerer's stone, the red sweater outfit Harry wore during the ending of Sorcerer's Stone (he was so tiny then!), the flying key that Harry used to open the door and life-sized chess pawn and rook pieces.

Most of the exhibit was marked "Please Do Not Touch," but a few things were not off-limits. There was an interactive potting section next to Sprout's exhibit where you could pull up a mandrake and hear its squeals. A worker asked patrons questions about what potion mandrakes were used for and what part of the mandrake was used (Curious? For unpetrifying people and the roots :).

Another thing you could do was sit in the chair in Hagrid's Hut. Also in Hagrid's Hut: the huge outfit that Hagrid wears, some Monster Book of Monsters, the table with a dragon's egg on it that shook every few seconds, and a fireplace with a cauldron in it. Somewhere else there was actually the electronic, life-sized Buckbeak, too! However, it was stationary.

Into the Quidditch Tent, there was a Quidditch game to throw quaffles through the hoops (I scored 30 points for Gryffindor)! Quidditch robes and brooms (Nimbus 2000 & 2001 along with others from the world cup) were shown, along with Harry and Ron's new Quidditch outfits in Half-Blood Prince. There were so many things (of which I'm sure I am not remembering all now), including Krum's robes, the Quidditch world cup program, and Omnioculurs Ron used at the world cup.

Before coming to the Great Hall, a stone-looking wall held many of the educational decrees that Umbridge had put into place. On the sides hung the 4 banners of the Hogwarts Houses. Also before entering, there was a small display with the clothes of the Bloody Baron. Inside, there were candles suspended above the room, a huge stained-glass looking window like that in the back of the Great Hall, and lots of food items used on the set for various dinner and dessert items. Other display cases showed many of the different candies and foods of the world: chocolate frogs, puking pastils, pumpkin juice, Fizzing Whizbeys and more. Fred and George outfit's were featured near the candy that included the Weasley's joke candies and skiving snackboxes.

Part of the Great Hall was devoted to the Yule ball, including the dresses and "dress robes" of Ron, Harry, Cho, Cedric, Krum and Hermoine. The invitations to the Yule Ball looked like silver bags with the words Yule Ball cut into the front, with tissue paper behind and were next to the dishes used for the place settings. Dumbledore's robe, along with McGonnagal's robes were on display as well as THE Deathstick, the Elder wand... Dumbledore's wand. A replica of a pint-sized Dobby hovered behind Dumbledore's robes as well and along one of the walls was the big display that held the Tri-Wizard cup and we saw the Tri-Wizard cup itself (or perhaps the rubberized version). Earlier in the display also was the Golden egg from the Tri-Wizard tournament.

In the "Dark Arts" section, we saw Death eater masks, Voldemort's robes when he first came back to life, made of a very thin silk that nearly looked silver and transparent, Dementors, Malfoy's robes (Draco and Lucius), a Kreacher replica and the "Death Angel" that was in the graveyard scene of the Goblet of Fire. Outside Hagrid's Hut, there was a Dark Forest section that showed two of the centaur replicas from Order of the Phoenix (Bane and Magorian), Aragog and a baby Thestral. There was also a life-sized replica of the head of the Hungarian Horntail that Harry had to fight in Goblet of Fire.

On the way out of the Great Hall, the end of the exhibit, there were more paintings, with some painting inhabitants clapping. This lead into the gift shop. I had hoped to find some unique items in the gift shop, but everything was SO expensive. Most things were $50 or above and there was even a chess set mimicking the life-sized one Harry played on in Sorcerer's Stone for $499. I was disappointed that there were not some reasonably priced unique items... something useful like pens or stationary (oh yeah, Umbridge had pink stationary on her desk- will have to look for it in the movie! ;). I was also on the lookout for some wizard money, but couldn't find any (if you know any wizards that would like to trade for some muggle money, let me know! :).

Overall, I had a grand time (make sure the check out the Flying Ford Anglia in the regular museum before getting to the exhibit- another item that seemed so small compared to what you imagine from the movies) and I hope to check it out again before the exhibit leaves Chicago at the end of September. You do have to buy tickets for a certain time slot, but the slots are about every 7-8 minutes before they let another group through. I have also heard that you can go JUST for the Harry Potter Exhibit after museum hours, so you don't have to pay for a full ticket to the museum as well. It was not as crowded as I expected it to be for the opening weekend, so perhaps since the exhibit will be here a while, people haven't felt the need to storm the exhibit right away.... however, don't wait too late! This is definitely something to see if you are a Harry Potter fan!