Museum in the City - The Walt Disney Family Museum

This is a late post but I felt like my creativity got energized when I visited the Disney Family Museum. This is like visiting a very modest but very smart and innovative neighbor or friend.

I definitely recommend this museum to learn more about one of the most innovative and creative Americans who touched lots of lives through his Disney brand.

Actually, this is a late post. We went to the Walt Disney Family Museum  right after we checked out the Mark di Suvero sculptures at the Marina Green.

[read my blog about the Mark di Suvero sculptures here]

The museum is located on Montgomery St. in the Presidio and is housed in two historic brick buildings. It opened in 2009 but it was only this year that Mijo and I visited. The museum has reciprocal membership with the Asian Art Museum so we got in for free.

The museum is a family museum so I had originally imagined the museum like reading through Walt Disney's biography. I was right. It sure felt like Walt Disney's biography but in 3D and in color.
Since I immensely enjoy reading biographical books, I was not surprised at the I had enjoyed our visit to the museum. 

Here are my favorite parts of the museum visit. Taking pictures is perfectly okay without flash.

As soon as you walk past the ticketing and lobby, you'll get to the section where all medals, plaques, trophies awarded to Walt Disney.

Here is an Academy Award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 1938.

The next section is called the Beginnings. This section has all the photographs of Walt Disney and the Disney family. This felt like visiting a friend's house and getting to know the family through photographs. This section also contains an area that resembles Walt Disney's apartment at Disneyland complete with the original furnitures and fixtures.

This is a replica of the ambulance that Walt Disney drove as a driver for Red Cross in World War I.

Here are some of his early works.

This is called The Universal which is a motion picture camera he bought for $300 back then. He also mentioned 

I do not know who discovered animation but Walt Disney immersed himself in it while the technology was still in its early stages. This wall contains 348  frame enlargements from Steamboat Willie, which translates to roughly 15 seconds of motion picture.

Before Mickey Mouse, there was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Mickey Mouse is probably the most recognizable among Disney characters. Here are early Mickey Mouse memorabilias. I noticed the design was a little different, Mickey was looking more like a real mouse and colors were a little muted.

My favorite is Donald Duck! Here is an earlier frame.

And then Minnie Mouse. I like their looks now compared to the earlier works. I think they look cuter now.

 

And, of course, who doesn't like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves? Do you see the notes on the sketches? I enjoyed this part of the museum. As a computer programmer, we work in the background and users only see the finished product of our code. So seeing parts of how things unfold in the background gets my full attention.

 

I also learned that Disney pioneered the use of three-strip Technicolor in cartoons. This technique produces a full color projection print

Here's Goofy. I couldn't help but remember the first time I went to Disneyland in Southern California. Young kids get terrified when they see the life sized Goofy mascot at Disneyland. I thin because the characters look cute on TV but a giant Goofy looks terrifying in real life and seen upclose.

Another favorite of mine. The Three Little Pigs. This is the part where Disney added what they call personality animation by conveying the character's personality by the way they move.

 

HEre is a multi-plane camera. This is how they could pan over rooftops and turn on street corners in cartoons. Amazing, no?

Walt Disney is well travelled. There is a section where his travel memorabilia is showcased.

I absolutely enjoyed The Hyperion Studio where you get to try out a lot of stuff using your hands. This one is an interactive game where it gave me an idea how a cartoon is constructed from animation to background music.

Here is a device where you crank the handle and the sketch of Bambi moves. The sketches have notes in them.

After we left the main galleries, we passed through a hallway with this view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

That lead us to this 14 foot diameter model of Disneyland.  I've only been there once but if you haven't been to Disneyland, it pretty much looks like this.

Here's Main Street.

Here's a model of Fantasy Land castle.

Here are some of the characters in the Small World. I remember I smiled when I saw a representation of Filipinos in the Small World in Disneyland and the representation looked like Imelda Marcos.

I discovered that Disney was very innovative. I would put him up there with great inventors like Michaelangelo, Steve Jobs, etc. 

I will definitely visit this museum again. Before I do that, I'll read his autobiography or a biographical book written about him. 

~rl