This week I went to the Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives Reagan Library exhibit with my friend Annie.
The Walt Disney Archives Reagan Library exhibit runs until April. If you’re able to go, I definitely recommend it. There’s a large varied collection of stuff on display from an awesome old animation desk, animation maquettes, the original Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella books, Mary Blair paintings and old drawings by Disney himself to a giant Pirates of the Caribbean filming model, Annie Leibovitz Disney Dream Portraits, the original and the new TRON costumes, an Iron Man suit and more. I wasn’t able to spend too much time since I had the twins with me, but it was pretty fabulous!
If you’d like to see more photos from this exhibit try Hollywood Movie Costume’s series of posts about it.
I loved seeing this old 2D animation desk, it’s a particularly nice one, look at all those perfect shelves and pegboards that fold out…! It made me a bit sad to see it though, as they’re so seldom used nowadays. I have a pretty nice one cobbled together from when FOX in Arizona went down, but a lot of even 2D animation is done on the computer now (with cintiqs, so it’s still drawn…)
The prop book from the beginning of Sleeping Beauty. This book was actually really huge! Larger than the other two storybooks. Really stunning, definitely a highlight of the exhibit for me. When you see these books in the movie they seem so magical!
The prop book from the beginning of Cinderella.
The book from Snow White.
Annie with the Iron Man suit and stark’s car. You can see the sails of one of the huge Pirates of the Caribbean filming models behind her.
The smaller of the two Pirates of the Caribbean filming models! These were gorgeous!
My twin girls at FLYNN’s Arcade. It was a small section of the arcade and then they had both the original old TRON suits as well as some costumes and props from the new TRON movie.
Gisele’s white gown from Enchanted!
Detail on the Enchanted gown sleeve
Detail on the Enchanted gown skirt.
The Prince’s outfit from Enchanted (detail)
Detail on the Annie Leibovitz Disney Dream Portrait Snow White costume.
Detail on the fabric “leaves” on the Annie Leibovitz Disney Dream Portrait Tinkerbelle costume.
Annie Leibovitz Disney Dream Portrait Cinderella Gown worn by Scarlett Johansson.
Cruella de Vil costume worn by Glenn Close
Beauty and the Beast on Broadway Belle yellow ballgown worn by Toni Braxton! This is one of the gowns that I based my own broadway Belle yellow ballgown costume on!
Elizabeth Swann’s costume from Pirates of the Caribbean.
One of the filming models from Pirates of the Caribbean. This ship was HUGE!
The Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
They also had these awesome pins in the gift shop of the prop storybooks!
Giselle is in Enchanted…
oh, and the lace on the Cinderella dress … wow thats neat!
Wonder why that wasn’t in the actual promo photos tho.. was it ‘shooped out or something?
Anna, thanks! I guess I was really tired when I was labeling these! Fixed! yes, the ribbon roses on the Cinderella dress, they were down the train, too, and they were shopped out! I don’t know why, they were lovely in person.
Wow! This just tantalizes me more. I live maybe 25 minutes away, go to the Reagan library at least once a year but have still yet to see this exhibit. What is wrong with me?!?! And I work for Disney!!!! (Answer: Something serious – obviously).
Did you pick up a family membership pass? I think you can bring a family of four in for free anytime and after two visits it pretty much pays for itself.
This looks like such a great exhibit – I love looking at costume details up close. But it feels like they could of hooked the top part of the Belle dress onto the skirt better.
Some of the items seem a little similar to the displays at D23 and I’m a teeny bit dissapointed by the weight of the contemporary items vs classic. But I will go to see the opening story books alone. Those are gorgeous and I WANT.
You really should go! They had a fair amount of older stuff too, like Mary Poppins’ default outfit some stuff from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Babes in Toyland, etc. I just didn’t post it all. Though I enjoyed it, it’s so hard to get the girls out that I doubt we’ll be back this year!
We haven’t been to D23 before! So it might be partially the same. We were thinking about trying to go to that this year.
You should get some various viewpoints on D23 and if it would be too overwhelming for your girls. Maybe it could be a great day out for just you and Mitch. They completely oversold the show last year – IMO – and it was PACKED. I don’t have any anxiety disorders, but it was so noisy and crowded that it became uncomfortable. The exhibits were good and if there were less people visiting the booths would of been more fun. We waited 3 hours to see Michael Giacchino (lovelovelove) but that’s ALL I saw in regards to panels. I was there two hours early and the rooms for the big morning presentation were full before I could even walk in the door. I really hope they figure things out this year because it was just an unhappy mess. I remember there was a HUGE line just to see the Lion King in 3D. I swear I heard that it had barely died down by the time the expo was closing on Sunday. If I had paid full price I would of been mad because the value just wasn’t there.