Disney Dreams Come True ACMI Australia The Dreams Come True, Art of Disney’s Classic Fairy Tales is on display at ACMI
(The Australian Centre for the Moving Image)
ACMI is located at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia.
The exhibit is open daily 10-6 PM and is $16 for adults.
You can also get an audio guide for $5
The last day for the exhibit is Tuesday April 26, 2011
First, Federation Square is an amazing location in Melbourne. It is covered with restaurants, bars, shops, and museums. There is a large jumbo tron screen that broadcasts sporting events and special events in the outside square and this is a local and tourist hot spot to sit and watch events, street performers and just to relax and people watch. The square is also on the Yarra River which is a perfect place to take a walk, bike ride, or to catch a boat tour.
Disney’s Dream Come True Exhibit is in Gallery 1, a long narrow gallery on the ground level. When you enter the exhibit at the base of the escalator you are dropped into a time line of Walt Disney’s History from 1901 to the present. The wall details each major achievement and takes you along from 3 little pigs to the silly symphony. Next is the Pied Piper and Mickey and the Bean Stalk. There are original concept art sketches, and a few monitors playing these short films. The artwork, props, and sculptures, that you will see though out the exhibit are from Walt Disney’s Animation Research Library. There are old European fairy tale books on display that were purchased by Disney to research classic fairy tales.
The main exhibit areas are:
Intro to Disney’s short films
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Cinderella
Sleeping Beauty
Animation Effects
The Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
The Princess and the Frog
Tangled
Each section has concept art, background paintings, resin models, character studies, storyboards and animated cells. The amount of artwork and different media types are astounding. You really get to see and understand how much work goes into making an animated film. There are studies done on movement, facial expressions, and many different concepts done on the characters to come up with just the right one. There are pencil drawings that lead all the way to the final inked cells. The backgrounds are beautiful, from Castles, to the dimly lit streets in New Orleans. The background scenery are true works of art that you probably take for granted in the films.
The Tangled exhibit gets into 3D animation and shows how characters are created and how facial expressions are tested. The amount of work that just went into Rapunzel’s hair to get it to flow correctly when she moved is interesting. I am sure 3D animators think about that kind of stuff all the time when they watch films and see them on a whole different level than the rest of us.
The exhibit overall makes any Disney geek wish they could have just one of these pieces on their walls. I personally am not much for reading museum cards under paintings and think the $5 for the audio tour would have been worth it. I did listen to some of the audio tour prior to going but without the visuals in the museum it’s not very interesting. If you like museums and Disney you could spend probably two hours, maybe a little more here.
If you decided to sit and watch one of the movies from beginning to end that could fill some time also.
I would say the exhibit is more for adults than kids. There were kids at the exhibit and there are several Disney films showcased and playing at the exhibit but the majority of the exhibit is artwork and information about each piece that is displayed. Also the films are playing in the exhibit itself, projected on maybe 4 x 6 foot screens and the audio is very low. There is seating for maybe four people by each movie and the kids that were there were normally sitting on the floor. The audio level is too low on most of the films to hear them.
The movies playing in the exhibit are:
Beauty and the Beast
Princess and the Frog
The Little Mermaid
Sleeping Beauty
Cinderella
Snow White
The ACMI gift shop has some very cool books if you are interested in learning about Disney and or animation. There are all sorts of animation books from drawing to 3D graphics. If you have a teen or friend interested in this field there is defiantly a book here that would make a great gift, although the books are not cheap.
I purchased the exhibit guide book for $40 Aus for a paperback book.
I will be posting photos on the WDWVacations Facebook page the week of Jan 24th so please come back to see some of these amazing pieces.
You can also listen to the audio tour here for Free.
– Steve
Pixie Vacations – Disney Vacation Specialist
www.PixieVacations.com
