Yesterday I met up with my sister and my nephew for a lovely day out in London. We started off with a return visit to the animatroic T Rex at the Natural History Museum (please note 'cuddly' Pterodactyl toy tucked under DN's arm). We arrived shortly after the museum opened thereby having the dinosaur exhibition almost to ourselves. DN spent ages carefully studying the huge moving T Rex and then whispered to me 'Is he real?' I had to admit that he wasn't real but merely a large and very impressive robot-type thingy. DN then wanted to know how it worked - well, I had to admit defeat here and say I had no idea, but it was very clever. That seemed to satisfy his curiosity and he was still mightily impressed with T Rex. After a trip to the Earth Zone and a go in the moving mock-up of a Japanese supermarket during an earthquake it was on to the Science Museum for the Wallace and Gromit exhibition. I can highly recommend it.
The whole thing was incredibly interactive and appealed not only to the six-year-old of the party but also to the two forty-somethings with him. You could design your own wallpaper, and project it on to the wall.
DN's was much better than mine - with a rather Andy Warhol'ish effect.
Mine ended up too plain - more is obviously better for this particular game.
There was a large area where you could make your own plasticene models, my dinosaur head was laughed at uproariously!! A huge bath through which children (and some Mummys) could slide down the plug hole. A karaoke shower where you couldn't see yourself but everyone else could via a TV screen. A throw the balls through the hole game, get three hits and light up the space-ships in Wallace and Gromit's living room, then get a fourth ball through and get to move the TV about by remote control. It was all jolly good fun.
They also had some of the original sets from 'Curse of the Wererabbit', and they were so small and so detailed, the work that must go into them is just amazing.
Finally, just to prove that Nick Parks and Aardman Animation are also Bristol-based, I took a photo of a rather amusing poster at the start of the exhibition.
For anyone outside of the UK, us lot from the West Country are supposed to say 'Ooh Arrrr' A LOT!
"For anyone outside of the UK, us lot from the West Country are supposed to say 'Ooh Arrrr' A LOT!" and Bristol is pronounced Brizzle!
Looks like you had such good fun!
Posted by: Sandie | 06/23/2009 at 05:41 PM