This past weekend our family went to the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) to view the Disney Exhibit before it leaves in 3 weeks!
The exhibit came about due to the filming of The Princess and the Frog, which was based in New Orleans. It opened in November of last year and ends March 14th! Disney wanted to do something special for the city of New Orleans and together with NOMA, they came up with a super way to bring Disney to Louisiana! Disney animators led the way in the 20th century toward establishing animation as a serious art form, so it's no surprise that the exhibit is a big hit!
Visitors to the Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio exhibition will first see a 8 minute video short giving some history of the Walt Disney Studios and their innovative techniques, prior to entering the exhibit rooms. At the exhibit rooms they will encounter themed rooms showcasing
600 original artworks that shaped legendary animated
features. Arranged chronologically by year of release,
the rooms will
feature, in order: Silly Symphonies, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Walt's all time favorite! I had no idea!),
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little
Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and the Frog.
Film clips will
accompany the artwork to demonstrate how individual sketches and
paintings lead to a
finished celluloid masterpiece. A free audio tour is provided and is narrated by New Orleans resident actor John Goodman.
An adjacent Education Area will highlight Disney's long association with music and also will serve as a mini library for animation research and storytelling programs.
This was a wonderful exhibit! I wish they would have allowed picture taking (pix on left was closest you could get with a camera-sorry for flash!), as the quotes from Walt Disney that were up on the walls in vinyl letters were gorgeous and very true and quotable! The art was very intriquing and wonderful! It was interesting to see how an artist's rendition for a storybook plan of the story adaptation of a fairy tale turned into the actual cels for the movie and how the interpretation of the main characters changed! With the exception of Snow White (and Tinkerbell), all the characters changed from storybook to production!
The narration brought out new and interesting tidbits about Disney. For example, when the Little Mermaid premiered in Copenhagen, one of the writers apologized to the Queen of Denmark for changing Hans Christian Andersen's ending of the story. She laughed and told him "it was time Hans had a happy ending, as he wasn't good at those!". You have to smile at that and know that Walt was beaming down from heaven and laughing! It really made you pause though and think, did Walt ever REALLY envision his empire being this universal and far reaching? As my mom said, maybe one day technology will advance and they'll unfreeze him and we'll find out! LOL
It was really very interesting to see the evolution of an idea to the storyboard to beginning layouts of multiple layers to the finished product. If you've loved Disney movies, it was like being backstage while they were being filmed! If anyone thinks the animators weren't artists they are sorely mistaken. As the exhibit showed, a museum is the perfect place for their artwork!
Overall I would say this was an excellent exhibit! It really is aimed more at older kids and adults though. While my daughter enjoyed seeing the pictures and clips, she did get somewhat bored during the middle. She perked up at the end when she got to play all the songs from The Princess and The Frog at the display area!
The museum shop featured LOTS of Disney items at reasonable prices, so be prepared for the 'I wants"! Be sure to pick up an exhibit catalog- it contains wonderful pictures of the art from the exhibit and info on all the animation artists included in the exhibit! (you can also buy it online here) There are TWO exhibition posters for only $8.00- a really good buy- a Picture of Princes Tiana and Prince Naveen in frog form, or the background animation of Sleeping Beauty's castle (which my daughter chose for her room!). She also snagged some swag in the form of a full size The Princess and the Frog premiere poster/activity page!
Don't forget to check out the rest of the museum too! Including upstairs, modern art wing- it appeals more to kids it seems! Course our daughter was more fascinated by the sculpture outside the cafe (note the forlorn look- that x-ray sense of toddlers told her there was CUPCAKE around and I was taking TOO long taking pictures!)
Ralph Brennan's cafe is now open starting at lunch and they have delectable snacks and salads! The glass encased cafe is light and airy and looks out on a couple of the sculptures at the side entrance and the lake by NOMA. You can see pictures of the aforementioned correctly sensed cupcake on my Wordless Wednesday from earlier today!
You need to hurry if you want to see the exhibit, as there are only THREE weeks left!
Admission
Louisiana residents with valid photo identification (Audio Guide included in cost of admission): Adults, $8; Seniors (65 and up), $7.50; Children 3-17, $5; Children under 3, Free. Out-of-state visitors: Adults, $16; Seniors (65 and up), $15; Children 3-17, $10; Children under 3, Free. Discounted admission for Louisiana residents is made possible through the generosity of The Helis Foundation.
Members
Free admission for NOMA members. Audio Guide $3. Memberships are available at the NOMA membership desk during regular Museum hours or online at noma.org/membership.
Disclosure: I was not given any compensation by NOMA or Disney for this review. This was an activity that my family enjoyed and we wished to share with all of you!
Check out Fodor's for more info on NOMA on Uptake Travel gems as well!
The exhibit came about due to the filming of The Princess and the Frog, which was based in New Orleans. It opened in November of last year and ends March 14th! Disney wanted to do something special for the city of New Orleans and together with NOMA, they came up with a super way to bring Disney to Louisiana! Disney animators led the way in the 20th century toward establishing animation as a serious art form, so it's no surprise that the exhibit is a big hit!
An adjacent Education Area will highlight Disney's long association with music and also will serve as a mini library for animation research and storytelling programs.
This was a wonderful exhibit! I wish they would have allowed picture taking (pix on left was closest you could get with a camera-sorry for flash!), as the quotes from Walt Disney that were up on the walls in vinyl letters were gorgeous and very true and quotable! The art was very intriquing and wonderful! It was interesting to see how an artist's rendition for a storybook plan of the story adaptation of a fairy tale turned into the actual cels for the movie and how the interpretation of the main characters changed! With the exception of Snow White (and Tinkerbell), all the characters changed from storybook to production!
The narration brought out new and interesting tidbits about Disney. For example, when the Little Mermaid premiered in Copenhagen, one of the writers apologized to the Queen of Denmark for changing Hans Christian Andersen's ending of the story. She laughed and told him "it was time Hans had a happy ending, as he wasn't good at those!". You have to smile at that and know that Walt was beaming down from heaven and laughing! It really made you pause though and think, did Walt ever REALLY envision his empire being this universal and far reaching? As my mom said, maybe one day technology will advance and they'll unfreeze him and we'll find out! LOL
It was really very interesting to see the evolution of an idea to the storyboard to beginning layouts of multiple layers to the finished product. If you've loved Disney movies, it was like being backstage while they were being filmed! If anyone thinks the animators weren't artists they are sorely mistaken. As the exhibit showed, a museum is the perfect place for their artwork!
Overall I would say this was an excellent exhibit! It really is aimed more at older kids and adults though. While my daughter enjoyed seeing the pictures and clips, she did get somewhat bored during the middle. She perked up at the end when she got to play all the songs from The Princess and The Frog at the display area!
The museum shop featured LOTS of Disney items at reasonable prices, so be prepared for the 'I wants"! Be sure to pick up an exhibit catalog- it contains wonderful pictures of the art from the exhibit and info on all the animation artists included in the exhibit! (you can also buy it online here) There are TWO exhibition posters for only $8.00- a really good buy- a Picture of Princes Tiana and Prince Naveen in frog form, or the background animation of Sleeping Beauty's castle (which my daughter chose for her room!). She also snagged some swag in the form of a full size The Princess and the Frog premiere poster/activity page!
Don't forget to check out the rest of the museum too! Including upstairs, modern art wing- it appeals more to kids it seems! Course our daughter was more fascinated by the sculpture outside the cafe (note the forlorn look- that x-ray sense of toddlers told her there was CUPCAKE around and I was taking TOO long taking pictures!)
Ralph Brennan's cafe is now open starting at lunch and they have delectable snacks and salads! The glass encased cafe is light and airy and looks out on a couple of the sculptures at the side entrance and the lake by NOMA. You can see pictures of the aforementioned correctly sensed cupcake on my Wordless Wednesday from earlier today!
You need to hurry if you want to see the exhibit, as there are only THREE weeks left!
Admission
Louisiana residents with valid photo identification (Audio Guide included in cost of admission): Adults, $8; Seniors (65 and up), $7.50; Children 3-17, $5; Children under 3, Free. Out-of-state visitors: Adults, $16; Seniors (65 and up), $15; Children 3-17, $10; Children under 3, Free. Discounted admission for Louisiana residents is made possible through the generosity of The Helis Foundation.
Members
Free admission for NOMA members. Audio Guide $3. Memberships are available at the NOMA membership desk during regular Museum hours or online at noma.org/membership.
Disclosure: I was not given any compensation by NOMA or Disney for this review. This was an activity that my family enjoyed and we wished to share with all of you!
Check out Fodor's for more info on NOMA on Uptake Travel gems as well!
