**a Te Papa exhibition**
I received a surprise email two weeks ago from Bryn, over at Te Papa, inviting me to a tourism industry night at the Dreamworks: Journey from Sketch to Screen exhibition. I eagerly responded with the affirmative and counted down the days.
{visitors read the character description}
I love animated movies. Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, Toy Story, Shrek, Frozen. these are a few of my favourite things. Also, my pseudo-art background draws me (bad pun) to creative individuals and events. I’d already been thinking of going to see the exhibition, and this opportunity sounded too good to pass up.
LastWwednesday, my friend Jonathan picked me up and we headed down into the city. I told him what this was, but since I didn’t really know what it entailed, I couldn’t be specific. We were greeted at the main entrance to Te Papa by a staff member requesting the invitation. I connected to the wifi and downloaded the invite. We were waved through.
The exhibition is on the fourth floor, so there were two options: an elevator to the fourth floor, or the stairs. We opted for the stairs and circled upward. The rest of the museum was shut and red barriers blocked access to everything but the Dreamworks Exhibition.
At the entrance, Po (Kung Fu Panda), was meeting and greeting guests. Jonathan took a photo of me with him and then we got in line. Bryn met us at the head of the line and oriented us a bit. There are four main themes: character, story, world, and creative works. The exhibition is laid out from initial conception through to full animation, with pockets of space for concept drawings, character and plot development, sound integration, graphics, modelling, and animation.
Visitors begin at the character development drawings. Almost every inch of eye level wall space is taken up by framed drawings, from pencil sketches to final character analysis. Props are designed to match the look and feel of each movie (for example: the Madagascar characters are made into African-style masks). Much of the drawings and sketches are Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and Madagascar characters. Across the room, more drawings and video show off the collaborations between the Dreamworks and Aardman Claymation Studios: Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, to name a couple.
I overheard an older woman tell her friend that Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots) should have come. I laughed out loud at that, and she grinned widely at me. A guest showing by Antonio? Yeah, this event would be much more crowded! (Later on, I heard her talking about Jack Black. Bryn, take note: guest speakers!)
{Jonathan says this one made him yawn. I do apologise in advance ;)}
{cards that display the artwork along the walls}
We walked through slowly, looking at everything and trying our hands at the many interactive displays. In the centre of the floor are the models for various characters. These are called maquettes and they give the animators a tangible thing to look at while they are building the character on the computer. There’s Shrek, in both ogre and “handsome Shrek” forms, characters from the Prince of Egypt, Over the Hedge, Shark Tales, and many others. These maquettes form a continuous theme through much of the rest of the exhibition.
Around the corner, we came to story. In the centre of the first room is a large wall. Images are tacked up, forming a story board. In the middle, a blank white space turns into the story board with the artist pitching the scene. We watched the gingerbread man torture scene (Shrek) pitch and the plane crash (Madagascar) pitch.
Just beyond that is a table. Projections from overhead light the table and we watched an invisible story teller at work: story boards pile up, the phone rings, the pages of the book turn. It’s all very impressive.
{story boards for various animations}
In the next room, world, we walked past land and cityscapes. Here, visitors begin to learn more about the imaginary places that the animators create: Far Far Away (Shrek), the hallucinatory circus (Madagascar), and the land of Berk (How to Train Your Dragon). Brightly coloured posters advertise the circus Zaragoza. We meet the Croods here too, a Neanderthal family with an overbearing patriarch.
and then there’s the dragon flight simulator.
{kids watch the start of the dragon flight simulator}
I want to go back to this exhibit literally just to hang out in here. Go in, sit on one of the beanbags, and let the dragon take you away on his back. I imagine this is a lot like what Harry Potter felt like on his broomstick: swooping and swirling, flying and falling, over rocky cliffs and cold blue water. Oohs and aahs from the crowd (about fifty people) penetrated the music that accompanies the showing. The short is about three to five minutes and they highly recommend that viewers sit down due to potential motion sickness. I don’t want to spoil the experience for anyone, so I won’t tell you what happens, but I will say that it’s amazing.
Reactions that I overheard afterward were, “That was so cool!” (a ten year old boy); “Can we do it again?” (a young girl); “Wow!” (pretty much everyone else); “Oh my god, I want to do it again” (that might have been me).
Jonathan and I left that and crossed the room. We played with the animation software, changing colours of fireworks, flames, skies and shadows. There were models of some of the castles that appear in various movies: the king and queen’s castle from Shrek, the fortress from How to Train Your Dragon, and Shrek’s swamp hut. There are more drawings, architectural this time, that describe how to build the structures and how to allow for cameras.
The exhibit ends across the bridge, in the creative zone, where visitors can create their own animations, drawings and flipcards. We tried our hand at the animating, making a cat being chased by a dog, and at the flipcards, making a cat whose tail moves as the card spins.
We left after that, leaving the remaining children (and adults) to their creating. Down the empty elevator, across the empty foyer, and out into the grey evening. I’m hugely indebted to Bryn for inviting me to the exhibition: it was absolutely incredible and once again I am blown away by how well the Te Papa exhibition designers put together something so cohesive and comprehensive. I can’t recommend this highly enough.
more information:
Adult admission is $15 and child admission is $6. there are some family packages as well, and students/seniors do get a concession. The exhibit only runs until the 28th of march. for more information, visit the exhibition website.