Family was coming from Dallas so Cute and I thought they might like to stroll over to Union Station to see “Disney 100: The Exhibition.” So there we were on Saturday afternoon (NOT a recommended time btw) – two Boomers, two Gen-Xers, and one Gen Zer. It’s a ticketed, timed entry event and from what we saw, very popular.
In Kansas City, probably everyone knows Walt Disney’s connection to our town though he was born in Chicago (1901), raised in Marceline, Missouri and lived in Kansas City from 1911 until he became a Red Cross Driver in WWI (too young to enlist), returning here in1919. He left for Hollywood and brother-collabrator Roy in 1923, who had already stepped into the world of cartoons. His entire life, and the creativity and vision that filled it, are well documented in this exhibition. Plus Mickey.
Not sure I could make that sound anymore boring. (It’s a gift, you know.) I assure you, it was not dull at all and our two hours there were really not long enough. More benches and less crowding would have easily turned this escapade into three hours.
There was lots of on-the-wall-reading but with facts none of us knew. There were also artifacts from glass slippers to story book props to the film costumes from many more than just Cruella, Captain Barbossa, and Ariel. There were some interactives and a book that when you turned the two-foot page, it showed up in real time on a large screen – it was fun to watch when people realized they were making the pages turn. There are works of arts, drawings, models, and many photo ops, now mandatory to any experience apparently. It’s all done with a sense of fun and surprise and magic. Well, maybe not the gift shop -- although you get the sense there that there could be, and is, lots more.
After you see it all, and of course this is not all, you are convinced in the truth of what Disney said. “Somehow I can’t believe there are many heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C’s. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy and the greatest of these is Confidence. When you believe a thing, believe it all over, implicitly and unquestioningly.”
Walt always urged folks to “keep moving forward” and we think you should take him at his word. Do go. But go on a week day if you can.
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