GOLO or Gabby Adventure Time Now: Seoul Ghibli Exhibit

Hey again! Gabby here, writing at school~
I'll try to write one more short post next week to wrap up this semester and share some fun school/student stories~
Now Today is DAY 378

I usually try to avoid a step-by-step format on my blog since it's kinda boring... But I think it'll be necessary here since I really want to give you a tour of the exhibit in Seoul called "스튜디오 지브리 입체조형전" aka Studio Ghibli 3-D model exhibit!

Not sure what Studio Ghibli is?

Well, here's an extremely brief introduction:
It's basically the greatest feature-length animation studio from Japan. The majority of their work is directed by the amazing Hayao Miyazaki and never computer animated. You might recognize one or two of their movies:

Now don't ask me why an exhibit about Studio Ghibli came to Seoul, South Korea. ...But if you did ask me, I'd guess that it's just a genius money-making venture by the studio.

This exhibit was on a random floor in the giant mall complex/train station Yongsan I'Park from September of last year until this last April. It was very popular and successful and I heard from others that it could be really crowded. I went when I guess the interest had faded a bit, at the end of my winter vacation in February. Thankfully there weren't too many people there!

Like any museum exhibit you start walking through and before each section is a big information panel:

There were 6 different sections dedicated to six movies, Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, Pom Poko, My Neighbor Totoro, Porco Rosso, and Spirited Away.

As you start walking through the exhibits you are first greeted with the beautiful original soundtracks of the films, instantly transporting you into the world of the film. Then large recreations of scenes in the movie surround you. Some are even life size! There were parts you could interact with and take picture with, and others that were more dioramas and meant to just be looked at.

**I apologize for the kinda terrible photos to follow. It was dark and each diorama had special lighting, which just like in theater, looks kinda crappy when you try to capture it with a cell phone.

First was Howl's Moving Castle

This was mechanized to move slightly and stumble along like the real moving castle.

Then, as if you're inside of the castle you walk into a big wooden room.

Cooking with Calcifer

Quite possibly the creepiest looking Howl I've ever seen.

Also occasionally along the walls (in all the sections) there were miniature dioramas like this:

There was also a room you could peek your head into with the magic field of flowers printed brightly on the floor and one wall, with a bright blue ceiling, and mirrors on the two opposing walls, creating a "strawberry fields forever" feeling~

Next was Princess Mononoke

There was some really cool projection used in this part. The projector you can see above Mononoke's head showed some scenes from the climax of the movie onto a scrim...

And when the projector faded out occasionally, some up-lighting goes on behind the scrim and you could see another life-size figure! The forest spirit was really big! ... and you can't even tell in this photo. Darn it.

After that was Pom Poko, but that's the only Ghibli film I've never heard of much less seen... there were kinda cute raccoon figures in aprons... but it was kinda boring otherwise, so I zipped through without taking any pictures.

After that is the famous and beloved, My Neighbor Totoro.

Right when you walk in there is this long diorama of the girls running in a field. It looked really cool and I tried posing to make it look like I was running with them... but that turned out even worse than the normal photo below.

Then you walk through a corridor covered in vines and are greeted with a giant Green mound that you peek into to see sleeping Totoro. The kids loved this and were all piled around yelling at their parents that they found Totoro~ (The pictures I took of that are worse... you won't get to see it) So the first two photos here are ones I have stolen from the Interwebs...

Ah! One more thing~ on the walls through each section of the exhibit there were lines from the movie. It was really cute~ especially since I've never seen/heard the Korean version, it was fun to read these line.

And after that was the infamous pig, Porco Rosso

Sorry I actually didn't take many photos. His section was pretty small like Pom Poko's, just one big room. There was him lounging and his airplane. That's all :(

And last but not least was Spirited Away (my on and off favorite... along with Nausicaä, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle... okay all of them)

Right away you're greeting with a very angry young lady..

So many life-size thingssssss~

One more fun use of lighting/projection! This whole inlet wall full of trash and junk. The dark shadow body of カオナシ or No-Face shook and moved slightly over it all, just like his translucent form in the film.

Once No-Face cooled down, we hung out together on the water train. Since this was at the end of the exhibit I was pretty tired, so I napped a bit too...

Finally as you exit the exhibit there were a few tables with black pens. Here children and adult fans alike all drew their favorite (or just the easiest to draw) characters from the films. Thus there were lots of dust balls, 가오나시... and one rebel colored Ponyo.