Once upon a time

If you're currently in Korea or expect to be within the next few weeks, I highly recommend checking out the "Dreams Come True: The Art of Disney's Classic Fairy Tales" exhibit running at the Seoul Arts Center.

Mike and I managed to get there during one of my afternoons off and I'm glad we did. I'd never been to the Seoul Arts Center before but I absolutely plan to go back. It looks as though they generally have a handful of different exhibits running as well as concerts or shows. We took the bus from Yeonsu into Gangnam and then picked up a shuttle bus from one of the subway stations to the Arts Center, which was convenient.

I was expecting we could squeeze in at least two of the exhibits while we were there but the Disney exhibit is amazing and took us four hours. I really cannot recommend it enough if you are someone who is a Disney fan or interested in animation (or both!). It's very thorough and includes tons of film clips, concept art, and models. It's set up chronologically so it begins with Disney's earliest animations like The Three Little Pigs and The Ugly Duckling and in one section there are three screens showing some of these Silly Symphony shorts. This was the first time I saw Disney's The Pied Piper and it is seriously the creepiest thing ever.

Then it takes you through the big fairy tale flicks- Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and also includes the newer The Princess and the Frog and Tangled (still called Rapunzel in Korea though). There's lots of character sketches and storyboards and bits of background information about the various artists who worked on respective projects. We got those little headsets for the audio tour but it pretty much just reiterated information that you could already read during the exhibit so unless you're super lazy I'd say just pass on that.

The concept art for some of the movies is amazing and Tangled especially is well represented. There's a huge copy of the work below (this doesn't do it justice) and I don't think I've ever wanted a piece of art hanging on my wall so badly. If they'd been selling enormous posters of this I'd have snatched one up in a heartbeat. So so beautiful.

The exhibit runs through the end of September so I figured better to mention it sooner than later. And if you love it as much as we did then the gift shop sells art books with a lot of the same concept art pieces included. You can find more information on the Seoul Arts Center website here and at the exhibition website here. 

And if you're not in Korea then keep an eye out for the exhibition's next stop. It was first in the US and then went on to Australia so I haven't a clue where it will be heading to after Seoul but if it comes your way be sure to catch it!

Trivia of the Day: Disney Channel Korea (디즈니 채널) is a television channel which is a local version of the Disney Channel for South Korea. It launched on July 1, 2011, replacing Disney Channel Asia (the Southeast Asian franchise), following an agreement between Korean company SK Telecom and The Walt Disney Company to form a joint venture for operating all future Disney-branded channels. SK will own the majority 51% of the new company.