Anyone who knows Emilee, knows she loves anything Harry potter. She is convinced somehwere in her muggle body she is part wizard. She has a Harry potter wand and is always casting spells that only she can she the results of. She has seen every Harry Potter movie- over and over and over again. And we have even read the first book together. ( I must admit im a closet Potter fan also) When she heard that The Times square Expo was hosting a Happy Potter exhibit she couldnt be more excited to go and check it out.
Emilee was not dissapointed
After you get your ticket to go in, they admit you to the sorting hat room, where a caped Hogwarts staffer asks for volunteers. To Emilees great suprise she was chosen and jumped right up to the chair to be sorted.As the sorting hat is held over the volunteer’s head a voice announced which Hogwart’s house she would be sorted into. To her great suprize she was chosen to go to Gryffindor. uckily thats her favorite house.
You’re then ushered into another room with maybe a dozen television screens, flashing scenes from the movies, and ending with train windows whizzing by. The doors are dramatically opened, with smoke pouring out, through which you can see the Hogwart’s Express train. That was my favorite part of the whole exhibition – it was very well done, and you walked through by there, feeling like you were on the train platform. After going through some authentic-looking archways, you end up in the hallway to Gryffindor. Some of the paintings there “move” and come alive, but it’s pretty obvious that it’s like a television screen. Kind of disappointing. The fat lady at the end, however, was very amusing as she tried to break a crystal glass with her voice. If your going I won’t spoil it for you, but do take the time to watch her whole performance.
As you move through the exhibition, you’ll go into several scenes from the movies, starting with the Gryffindor areas, like the common room, and Harry and Ron’s dorm room. How I would love to have lived in a dorm room like that! It amazed me the most was how small the beds were and how small Daniel Radcliff was when he started filming the first harry potter.
In each area, you’ll see scenes from the movies on a television screen. One of Emilee favorite setting was the Forbidden Forest, with its creatures (the giant Buckbeak with hand-painted feathers), and models of the Acromantula, centaur and a Thestral. Hagrid’s Hut shows his giant clothing, a dragon egg about to hatch (you can watch it shake) and a Hagrid-size chair you can sit in. Boy was he big. Unfortunately they don’t allow photos in there
Emilee also really liked the Quidditch area, where they had Ron Weasley’s costume in addition to some from the International championship. They had a Quidditch set and the rules posted (along with a movie scene). And then you could try your hand at throwing a Quaffle into the hoop, which was much the same as throwing basketballs through a hoop at a carnival game (only easier). It was fun to see Harry’s Nimus 2000 broomstick,
Another favorite of emilees was the interactive setting was the mandrake exhibit ,where you could pull the mandrakes out of their pots and hear them scream. There were other fun settings, including the Yule Ball with the fancy costumes worn, the Triwizard cup, some of the candy confections, an area about the Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort, plus wands for all the major characters. I liked seeing the Maruader’s Map, of which 30 had been made up for the movies (because they were sometimes shoved in pockets or got worn out). We bought one in the gift shop.
The exhibition was really well done. They had a lot of fun things to look at, and movie fans will be excited to see the items, from clothing to wands to animals, in person. The exhibit organizer did a great job with the ambiance, and the effort didn’t wasn’t wasted. I appreciated the interactive elements, which made it more fun for the kids since you can’t touch most of the items there.
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