Slideshow: Inside Hogwarts
Hagrid’s hut! Buckbeak! Fans of the Harry Potter books and films will love the new exhibit at Pac Sci Center.
Posted by: Laura Dannen on Oct 28, 2010 at 10:00AM
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The talking Sorting Hat puts you in your house at the start of the exhibit. Lots of Gryffindors out there. Photo: courtesy Pacific Science Center.
View Slideshow » Illustration:Ron and Harry’s Gryffindor dorm recreated, complete with four-post beds, nightstands with Chudley Cannon paraphernalia, and costumes worn by Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe, and Emma Watson. I’m about Hermoine’s size, apparently. Photo: courtesy Pacific Science Center.
View Slideshow » Illustration:An audio tour gives a bit of back story on the making of the Marauder’s Map (pictured). Just a bit. The replica copy in the gift store is more interesting. Photo: courtesy Pacific Science Center.
View Slideshow » Illustration:How do you know if the mandrakes are fully grown? They’re throwing parties and hopping in each others’ pots. Genius, JK Rowling. They screech here, and it’s hilarious. Photo: courtesy Pacific Science Center.
View Slideshow » Illustration:Quidditch costumes for the characters (l-r) Madam Hooch, an Irish national player, Harry Potter as Seeker, a Bulgarian national player, and Ron Weasley as Keeper. Photo: courtesy Pacific Science Center.
View Slideshow » Illustration:This assortment of Quidditch props is behind glass, but one of the exhibit highlight’s is actually tossing a Quaffle ball through one of three rings. I would have been an excellent Chaser, if I do say so. Photo: courtesy Pacific Science Center.
View Slideshow » Illustration:Inside Hagrid’s hut stands Robbie Coltrane’s costume, a dinosaur egg about to hatch (watch it wiggle on the table, left), and Hagrid’s oversized chair to test out. Photo: courtesy Pacific Science Center.
I don’t know who was more excited to toss a Quaffle at the Harry Potter: the Exhibition opening last week: me or the 7-year-old boy I accidentally cut off. But there’s something invigorating about being able to play with props from a beloved film series, or examine the minute detail of things we’ve only dully imagined. Want to know what a Skiving Snackbox actually looks like up close? Or how big Buckbeak the hippogriff is? (Answer: About 6 feet.) It’s all there—over 200 props and costumes laid out in fine Disneyfied form, complete with a Sorting Hat ceremony to start and a smoke-filled entrance chamber with a replica Hogwarts Express. There are even props from the yet-to-be-released seventh film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1), due out November 19 (tickets are on sale now for Pac Sci’s IMAX theater).
Be forewarned: This isn’t for little tykes. It’s basically a Harry Potter museum, with just a few interactive elements (view the slideshow to get an idea). It can also get a touch creepy inside the Forbidden Forest and the cemetery, where a dementor makes an appearance. But if the preteen girl cooing over Hermoine’s Triwizard Ball gown was any indication (“Look at her earrings!”), this exhibit is a wonderland for Harry Potter fans.
Harry Potter: the Exhibition is at Pacific Science Center through January 30. (Extended through February 13!) This is its only West Coast stop.
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