In the end all turned out well...except for one small detail, the kids were too young to go in unaccompanied by an adult (oops). We had planned (and paid) for them to go in on their own (after all, Emily is now 15). I think they (at least Ivan did) relish the idea of being parent-free for this event. However, we were stopped in our tracks because one of us needed to go with them. Quick change of plans (sadly). Parenthood does have these kind of reality checks occasionally.
The lucky person turned out to be me. They kindly sold me a ticket. I say kindly, but they sure benefited from our "generous donation." Technically they were sold-out. They must have a small stash of just-in-case tickets for parents that don't read the fine print.
Surprisingly, I thoroughly enjoyed myself because it was fascinating learning how the movie was filmed, but, even more fascinating (to me), was the art that was involved in making Harry Potter. It was truly amazing. I had no idea that visual artists could be so involved in this movie making process. I don't know if this is the case with movies in general, but I'm guessing there must be a nitch market for this. Bryan and Britney, are you reading this?
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| Let the amazement begin! |
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| Let's start at the very beginning. |
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| Hold your horses, drum roll, please.... |
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| "The hills are alive with the sound of music"...harps are playing, angels are singing ;o) |
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| It is THE GREAT HALL! |
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| Do you recognize these costumes? |
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| and this one... |
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| ...and this? |
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| The Great Chocolate Feast. |
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| Most of these are resin, but some are actual chocolate. I think the Phoenix cake is real chocolate. |
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| Here we are still just getting started. |
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| Some of the actors and actresses wigs...but...believe me...there were many, many more wigs to be looked at. |
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| Honestly, this picture is just irresistable...aren't their expressions priceless? |
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| bigger than life |
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| Quick! jump in and let's get your photo before somebody else jumps in (we stood in line for this pic...and it was tricky to get a turn...these Harry Potter fans are...all over the place!) |
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| Don't worry...fake fire. |
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| Getting warm by the hearth. |
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| You can see it is pretty much a warehouse stuffed with Harry Potter movie props and sets. You could say that it is a Harry Potter Museum. Some day I'll bet they call it that. |
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| Emily took her time and really soaked it all in. We stayed together and she "educated" me about what a lot of the "stuff" was. I haven't seen all the Harry Potter movies or read the books (well, I read the first book and I tried to read the sixth book with Emily, but it gave me nightmares...sorry JKR). |
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| The Commons Room...this was another "tricky" pic...there is a rabid HP fan standing on the other side of Emily. It was tough to get only her in the photo. |
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| OK, I already knew what this mirror was because I did see the movie that had this scene in it. |
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| and here is Ivan...I have few pictures of him in this part of the tour because he preferred to do his own touring of the place at his own tempo (which was full throttle). In the end, Ivan was finished looking at everything and Emily and I were still taking our sweet time. In retrospect of this, it was a good thing a parent (me) was with him. |
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| A friend told me about this set. She found this particularly interesting because there are a few hundred glass bottles and all filled with "authentic" items as described on the bottle (ie: spiders - yep, real dead spiders, etc...). |
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| more potion-y, chemical-y, and mysterious-ly mood-setting "stuff" |
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| Would you like to know what are in these bottles? |
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| This must be Snape...the very self-reserved and diabolically mysterious man himself. |
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| Let's move on to the real creativity...props! Oh, yeah. |
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| Emily tells me this is from a scene in which Harry Potter sees Snape dressed in this costume. If I remember right....correct me if I'm wrong. |
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| Talking pictures...the password holder. |
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| There are more wands than you can shake a stick at...well, they are sticks aren't they? |
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| They take their props seriously. |
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| Ya gotta love this prop...umm..not the man, the books. |
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| I'm watching you.....be paranoid. |
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| The set builders are hard working and very ingenious-type people...an interesting lot. |
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| Ha! I've "captured" him...not the bird-creature, Ivan! |
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| Emily is easy to capture (thankfully) and what a door this is, eh? |
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| Dumbledore's lair...I liked this set! |
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| Forgive me Harry Potter fans....this sword must be special...Emily went out of her way to make sure we got a picture of it, but the significance escapes me. |
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| Here is some more interesting movie magic. |
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| Would you like to live in a Hagrid's hut? |
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| It seems awful small for a giant, doesn't it? |
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| Don't mind me, I'm just spying on you. |
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| I'd feel right at home in this dusty, chaotic environment. |
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| "Off with your head!" |
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| Let me tell you, he is smiling and I am grimacing. It was like pulling teeth to make him hold still long enough to get this pic. |
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| On the other hand.... |
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| he happily posed in front of the vault door. I guess it caught his imagination :o) |
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| Here is more fascinating movie magic. Some of the snow is shredded paper, plastic and I can't remember all of it (sorry). |
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| The art portion...now we come to Mom's favorite bits. |
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| All of these paintings you see are actual oil paintings done by an artist specifically for the Harry Potter movies. There really exists artists that do paintings for movies....wow, I never would have guessed. |
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| It doesn't take much imagination to realize that some of the people in some of these paintings are also people (some directors, etc..) working on the movie...you have to have fun once in awhile...come on guys! |
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| What's with the green paintings? You are right, the paintings that moved in the movie were done with a green background so things could be superimposed. |
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| This is where I get lost. I did not see the movies with these sets in them. The red building is the Ministry of Magic and the green is....????? |
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| This gives you a better idea of the layout. |
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| More fun! |
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| Pictures weren't allowed, but Emily and Ivan went into a room partitioned into smaller rooms were they could ride on a mechanical broom with a green background. Their image was photographed and also videoed (how do you spell that word? I've never thought about it before.). We saw their picture and video afterwards. It was fun, but, no thanks. It was a bit expensive (sorry). You can see that all of the "flying" scenes in the movie were done with the green background. |
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| The flying car...where's the car? |
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| Here is "he who will not be named's" special meeting with the "death eaters." |
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| This is probably one of a gazillion snake models used in the movie. |
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| Butter beer...creamy and sweet. My guess is they mixed Vanilla Cream Soda with ice cream and some kind of butterscotch flavoring. We liked it! of course, we love sugary sweet things. |
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| They are snooping around Privet Drive. Nobody is home. |
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| If Calgon won't take me away...maybe this bus will! |
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| Whoa!!!! bring my children back! |
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| The "fated" cottage of Harry Potter's childhood. |
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| "There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile", |
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| and the "crooked-y" theme continues onto Hagrid's bridge. |
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| Thankfully, in this outside exhibit we all stay together and have a little fun times 3. |
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| Boy would this make her dad jealous! |
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| "Charge!" |
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| A damsel in distress... |
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| or does she have something up her sleeve?" |
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| Do you recognize this car? No? |
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| How about this actor and actress? Yes? |
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| Alls I can say is...the butter beer is taking effect....look out! |
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| Come on kids...you know better than to drink and drive! |
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| Now this is what I'm talking about...here is where the "magic" really happens! |
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| Emily is listening to...I don't know...but it may still be the butter beer talking to her. |
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| They look so real...it's creepy! |
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| This is where the imagination really does come to life. |
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| ...but I'm glad these two creatures (meaning the dragons, of course) are not going anywhere right now. |
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| This is room one of two rooms full of movie "stuff" and "secrets." |
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| My heart goes out to this...sometimes you just can't help eating the whole bag. |
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| Now this is funny! Some of the items in this glass case move. I looked at that ugly book and walked on. Emily stopped and the book literally leaped at her from inside the glass! |
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| So funny and...by the way...the owl moves it's head, too. |
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| Here is Mr. Grumpy pants waiting to pounce on his next prey. |
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| The book pounced at Ivan, too. We tried to figure out what "triggered" it's motion. It is probably light or movement sensitive. |
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| Here is another fun mechanical creature from the movie. |
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| Can this be....???? |
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| It is! It's.... |
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| Diagon Alley! |
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| I admit this was fun to walk around and look at. |
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| more crooked-y-ish stuff about |
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| If I put every picture on this blog that we took, you might as well read all 7 Harry Potter books and watch all the movies, too. I got a picture of Emily in front of every single shop on this "street." |
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| ...but I didn't mind taking all those photos...we will never come back and it was all very fascinating anyway :o) |
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| This is my personal favorite. |
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| We are on our way out of Diagon Alley...so long! |
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| We have just spent about 3 hours looking at everything and at the end of the tour you come to this...time to ramp-up the engines again. |
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| This is amazing...no, it's Dobby...but the idea is great. It is an artist's concept painting. |
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| See? I told you it was an artist's concept painting. |
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| Now it's my turn to take a bazillion photographs (and I did), but I'll just put a few here for your enjoyment. |
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| Here is a scaled model of Hogwarts made from paper and here is the grand finale...... |
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| a scaled model of Hogwarts in flesh and blood (so to speak). The detail is really unbelievable it is so good. |
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| Here is where we end. We exited from this room (oh...I must also describe how they had perfumed the air with autumn scents - it was a nice touch) into ...can you believe it....a Harry Potter "stuff" and souvenir store. I must admit they had us right where they wanted us. There was no avoiding what came next and we just barely escaped intact!! |
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