Dayton's Harry Potter Show - Part one

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 5296

Okay, here's the first part of my report.  I'll also post in the Files
section I describe in this email.

For those of you who just joined us, I live in Minneapolis, where the
Dayton's department store got exclusive world rights to do a figurine
"show" of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  Dayton's is owned by
the same company (Target) that owns Marshall Fields in Chicago, who is
doing the store display windows that someone had commented on.  I
suspect that the same people worked on designing both displays, or that
the figures themselves may be the same.

I believe that several hundred thousand people will view the Dayton's
display.  I went to see it this past Saturday, and I tried to take
pictures with my digital camera.  I regret to say that the pictures are
not the best.  First of all, the auditorium is painted black and the
lighting is rather dim, which is not particularly condusive to picture
taking.  In addition, many of the figures are moving figures, which
makes focusing difficult.  There were crowds, which made it difficult to
snap pictures without heads getting in the way.  Also, the aisles were a
bit narrow, so it was sometimes difficult to step back far enough to
compose the picture (esp. without heads getting in the way).  And if you
stepped really far back, the dimness of the lighting became more of a
problem.

Anyway, I did my best.

Visitors are handed a paper flyer introducing the show and then directed
to the entrance hallway.  I browsed through the flyer quickly; it was a
quick thumbnail sketch of the plot, with information about the gift shop
and other Dayton's events on the back.  I was at first amused and then a
little weirded out to note that most character and place names in the
flyer had the little "TM" (trademark) after them: "On the Hogwarts
Express, Harry Potter(TM) meets two of his schoolmates and soon-to-be
best friends, Ron Weasley(TM) and Hermione Granger(TM)."  I can
understand why they did this, but it certainly emphasized the impression
that WB views these characters we love so much as products.

While walking down a long hallway to the auditorium, visitors see many
things are painted on this entrance hallway, but I only took pictures of
five:

Picture1:
Owl Post Insignia

Picture 2:
Slytherin Shield

Picture 3:
Hufflepuff Shield

Picture 4:
Gryffindor Shield

Picture 5:
Ravenclaw Shield

At this point, the visitor enters the auditorium.  To call it an
"auditorium" is rather misleading, however: you walk along a path which
wanders back and forth, and on each side of you, you see scenes from
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in order.  Scenes pop out at you
from unexpected angles, and later on, you also have to look above
yourself, to see figures suspended on invisible wires on broomsticks
"flying" overhead.

The atmosphere was set by two things: one was a delicious smell.  It
made me think of Halloween/Christmas.  Pumpkin juice, I thought.  Are
they serving pumpkin juice?  I found out the source at the end of the
display: they were baking gingerbread cookies on-site for people to buy,
and the aroma seemed perfect for the occasion.

The other thing was the music.  It was not so loud so as to be
obtrusive, but it also added pleasantly to the experience.  It was
something stirring, exciting, something that would make a terrific
accompaniment to a really good quidditch game.  Although I had never
heard the melody before, I could swear it was John Williams--it had that
brass-and-strings Boston Pops sound.  I believe that he is going to be
doing the soundtrack to the movie--perhaps he has already composed some
of it and they used it here?  I know that this show was done in
conjunction with Warner Brother's input.

The design of the show is clearly based on the conception displayed in
the merchandise coming out from Andrews McMeel Publishing, that you see
in the calendars, posters, etc.

Okay, so you go through the first archway, where the show starts, and
you start to see the figures, which are about oh, I'd say 1/2 to 3/4
human size (well, except for Hagrid, of course)

Picture 6 and 7:
Hagrid and Dumbledore meet in front of Number 4 Privet Drive (Prof.
McGonnagall is there as a cat).  Hagrid is astride the flying motorcyle,
and holds baby Harry.

Picture 8:
Petunia Dursley finds baby Harry on her front doorstep (you may not be
able to tell with this picture's resolution, but she's wearing bunny
slippers).  My daughter reached forward and parted the blankets to see
baby Harry, and reported that the scar was there on his forehead.

Picture 9 (NOT POSTED, TOO DARK):
Harry in his under the stairs cupboard.  There is a spider suspended
above his outstretched hand, which raises and lowers itself.

Picture 10:
In the Dursley's living room, on the occasion of Dudley's birthday.  I
managed to cut off most of Petunia's head, alas.  Dudley is having a
tantrum on the floor.  The front door is to the left (out of the frame
of the picture), where a flood of letters are pouring through the letter
slot (I attempted a picture, but it turned out to be too dark.

Picture 11:
Harry, Hagrid and Dudley, rather blurry, in the shack by the sea.  It
was difficult to frame this one because Hagrid was so big.  Dudley is
spinning around on the floor (with a pig's tail sticking out of his
trousers).  Sausages hang out of Hagrid's pockets.  Harry stands to one
side, finally reading his Hogwarts letter, with an amazed look on his
face.

I'm going to stop here for the night.

[Jim (or Penny), the pictures I have posted so far have taken up a fair
amount of memory. Are we really limited to that stated 20480KB limit, or
can our limit be upped?  I don't want to take all the available space.
Please clarify, so I can know whether I can post more later.]

Peg