The magical world of Disney

This past weekend I was up in San Francisco enjoying delicious turkey and plenty of upsidedown chocolate pear cake, as well as the new Walt Disney Family Museum.  The museum is the newest edition to the Presidio; with the same gorgeous view of the Golden Gate that ILM'ers experience while eating lunch. ;)

I was quite impressed by this exhibit (unfortunately photography inside was not allowed). Even though it's a museum dedicated to the life of Walt Disney I did half expect it to continue on past his death into the Disney of today. But good thing it didn't because  the amount of information on his life alone could of easily kept us there all day. We spent 3 hours in the museum and probably came out with 60% of the information about such a remarkable man. There was so much to read, watch and take part in. The museum began with "puppet style" animation which explained Disney's early years growing up in Kansas. We then entered an elevator that was designed to emulate the train car to Hollywood and the beginning of Disney's career. After the creation of Mickey Mouse and the Silly Symphonies we were brought through his films, the war, television, the worlds fair and all of his discoveries and processes along the way. The exhibit progressed in a timeline fashion with videos, sound bites, animations, drawings, sculptures, early tests, sounds and even a few racey pin up drawings by Disney animators to be sent to soldiers overseas. O.o

Aside from all the drawings and animations, I loved seeing the cameras. On site was a Optical Printer where a virtual Dick Van Dyke explained how it worked for movies such as Mary Poppins. Even more impressive was the Multiplane Camera. Which is HUGE and sat on the 1st floor in the gift shop but was as tall as the museum level one floor up. The multiplane camera also had actual Disney glass plates from Bambi on each level. :) Then, there is Disneyland; the ideas, creation and a full scale model of the park. The last time I was at a Disney theme park was in Florida when I was very young. And I cried. I cried at Disneyworld! Needless to say after experiencing Walts life through this museum I definitely want to go to Disneyland--if for nothing else just to see his genius.

All in all I highly recommend visiting this museum. It's in a relatively non-descript building in the Presidio, but there is pure magic inside. A big plus was the gift shop which did not include your typical Disneyland stuffed animals and cheesy souvenirs. Instead they chose his key films and had an artist create all sorts of really awesome art and gifts as well as just random items; such as this giant keyhole. Maybe one day I'll be small enough for Wonderland. ;)