Harry Potter Exhibition @ Art Science Museum

Gelle and I are avid Harry Potter fans. (Incidentally, it brings to mind one of the more memorable moments of our friendship, when we stayed overnight at a 24-hour KFC to read Harry Potter 7. One of us was heartbroken that time, so the other decided to keep her company so she wouldn’t have to go home alone to an empty apartment.) So when we found out that they were holding a Harry Potter exhibition in Singapore, of course we booked tickets, bringing Joey along.

What is the Harry Potter exhibition, you ask? Their website explains:

In this amazing exhibition, guests will get an up close and personal look at the artistry and craftsmanship that went into creating the iconic props and costumes that appeared throughout the Harry Potter™ films. These authentic artifacts will be displayed in elaborate settings inspired by locations from Hogwarts™ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry including the Gryffindor™ common room, Hagrid’s hut and the Great Hall.

This is your chance to step inside the famous wizard’s magical world with Harry Potter: The Exhibition. Experience dramatic displays inspired by the Hogwarts film sets and see the amazing craftsmanship behind authentic costumes and props from the Harry Potter films. In partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products, Global Experience Specialists, Inc. (GES) created the 15,000-square-foot exhibition (1,400-square-metre) which includes artifacts and costumes from all eight Harry Potter films.

Harry Potter: The Exhibition made its world premiere in Chicago in April 2009 before traveling on to Boston, Toronto, Seattle, New York City, Sydney and Singapore. After Singapore the tour will continue on to additional international cultural and entertainment venues, museums and institutions.

The first thing we saw upon getting to the venue was the flying Ford Anglia that Harry and Ron used to drive to Hogwarts in book 2. Gelle said, “Didn’t that get ruined in the whomping willow?” She has a point. Maybe they fixed it with magic. You forget these wizards can do a lot with them wands.

Flying Ford Anglia

Gryffindors James and Sirius (as we called ourselves before LOL)

The hall of movie posters

At the end of the hall there was an entrance where the name of the exhibition was spelled out on wisps of air. Okay, I am not entirely sure if I am describing it right. But the effect of crossing this “magic wall” is like that of disappearing into platform 9 and 3/4, which is pretty cool. It was also the last moment when we were legally allowed to take photographs. Hmph.

Joey stands before the magical shimmering wall

We were ushered into a room where a guide said, “Welcome first years!” By sheer luck we happened to be at the very front of the room so that when the guide asked for volunteers to use the sorting hat, I was quickly able to raise my hand and say, “I volunteer as tribute!”

No wait, that’s from a different book.

Glad I didn’t say it out loud then.

She acknowledged my raised hand and said, “Come up and sit on this chair, young lady,” to which Gelle, Joey and I snickered. I stopped being a young lady ages ago.

The guide interviewed me for a bit. Asked me where I came from. I said Philippines. “Did you get here by broom?” she asked.

“Yes,” I acknowledged.

“Oh, was it the Nimbus 2000?” she followed up.

“No, it’s the Nimbus 2012 now, actually,” I replied, to which I got an appreciative laugh from the audience.

She then asked me what house I wanted to be sorted into, and of course I replied with Gryffindor, though in reality (wait… reality?) I probably wouldn’t have been sorted there as I am not that brave, and would probably have been a Ravenclaw or a Hufflepuff (for loyalty… really, people look down on the Hufflepuffs for the wrong reasons).

She then put the sorting hat over my head and a voice overhead said… “Better be Gryffindor!”

I’m glad I volunteered at once, because they only had time to sort one more, and a guy from India said he wanted to be a Gryffindor but when the girl asked him if he minded Slytherin, he said he was okay with that and sure enough, that was where he was sorted.

After that, we walked out of the room and were free to roam all over the museum of movie paraphernalia. As I said, photography was not allowed, so I can’t show you what I saw in there, but it was pretty cool.

They recreated several sets from the movie like Hagrid’s hut, Harry’s dorm room, the forbidden forest, and the Great Hall. My favorite was the last one, it felt wonderful to walk through those giant doors and see those candles floating on the ceiling.

The forbidden forest scared me, with the giant spider Aragog and the death eaters floating about eerily. I quickly marched through it because it gave me the chills, even though I knew it wasn’t real. I can’t believe Harry and his pals spent so much time in there. Oh yeah, they’re Gryffindors, that’s why. This obviously proves that I’m not, despite what that sorting hat just said.

I also liked that I was able to play quidditch. Well, except the flying part, anyway, which was the coolest part of it. It was like one of those popular basketball machines, except that the hoops look like quidditch ones and the balls look like quaffles.

And ooh, we got a chance to unpot some mandrakes. They give off high pitched screams when you unearth them. But it was tolerable, not as terrible as mentioned in the book.

I was amazed when I saw Hermione’s yule ball gown because it had such a teeny tiny waist. She was so thin! We then snickered at poor Ron’s old dress robes, which looked obviously ancient next to Harry’s sleek black one. I got hungry from looking at the feast. Gelle pointed out Dobby to me. “What big eyes he has!” observed Joey.

The last stop was the souvenir shop, where they sold all sorts of Harry Potter merchandise from wooden wands to muggle mugs to shirts to toy broomsticks to spectacles to sweets. Gelle and I wanted to buy wands but they were crazy expensive at S$75 each, so I just settled on a pair of plastic chopsticks designed to look like Hermione’s wand. At least I could actually use them (which I did, the very next day) and don’t feel as guilty, plus they’re cheaper too, at 25 bucks.

We also bought some chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, the famous candies mentioned in the books. They cost 6 bucks a pop.

“Wingardium leviosa!”

So here’s what the chocolate frog looked like. It tasted good. I was hoping to get a Dumbledore card, like Harry did, but unfortunately I got Gilderoy Lockhart instead. Great. My least favorite teacher.

The card is in 3D, by the way. It’s pretty cool, actually. If I were a child now I would probably try to collect them, the way I did in my childhood when I collected first, X-Men cards, then later, Sailormoon.

Chocolate frog

My collectible card – Gilderoy Lockhart

The more interesting one was Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans. There was a guide at the back to show what color beans represents what flavour. I though it was just a jokey guide till Gelle bit into a vomit-flavoured one which actually tasted like vomit! I went through my box and tasted each one, and I ended up spitting out these flavours – booger, dirt, earthworm, earwax, rotten egg, soap and vomit. Yes, they actually tasted as described! Blech.

Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans. And when they say “every flavour” they actually mean it.

It was a fun experience to relive the magic, though I wish they would have allowed us to take pictures. The exhibit is from June 2 to September 30, 2012, so if you’re a fan, apparate over there! 😀