You can easily spend a whole day at LACMA, which holds the title of the largest art museum in the western United States. Last weekend we headed over to this twenty acre stretch of Wilshire to take a peek into the twisted, demented world of Tim Burton. LACMA is currently hosting an exhibit featuring over 700 of Burton's drawings, films, props and costumes, many never-before-seen by the public. The exhibit just opened a couple of weeks ago and lasts until October 31.
Tim Burton grew up in Burbank and studied at CalArts. He worked as an animator for Disney Studios before striking off to pursue his own creative ventures. With its power trio of Tim Burton, Danny Elfman and Johnny Depp, Edward Scissorhands still remains my favorite Tim Burton film, but there are so many other great films of his:The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Batman, Big Fish, Beetle Juice... The list goes on.
Fair warning: this just might be the hottest ticket this summer, as we soon realized when we saw the long line to enter. After waiting in line for half an hour, we were herded inside only to be stuck in a traffic jam of people. Elbow-to-elbow, we uncomfortably shuffled from piece to piece.
Brad got upset at how LACMA seemed to oversell the event, and whispered "Don't blog about this!" and "I'm gonna write an angry letter when I get home!" In ten minutes, however, the crowd thinned and he quickly changed his mind. I think it helped that we came right before closing time. Highlights included Edward Scissorhand's costume, the heads from Batman's costumes, storyboards for Stain Boy, and concept art showcasing Burton's wickedly bizarre sense of humor. We spent a good hour wandering around the exhibit.
Tickets can be purchased at the box office ($20) or online ($22) and includes entry to all the other exhibits at LACMA. Entry times are every hour. If you are going on a weekend, I suggest buying tickets for the last show time (either 6 or 7 pm) like we did. Show up about 15-30 minutes after the entry time so that you can be the last ones to enter and are not stuck doing the line-shuffle.
Have you been to LACMA and the Tim Burton Exhibit? What did you think of it? Leave me a comment below!
Can't wait to go. Even more eager to see it now that I saw your pictures.
ReplyDeleteSweet! Too bad I could only take pics of the outside--No cell phones or cameras inside :( I saw some people trying to sneak some with their cells though :P
ReplyDeleteI have been and it was pretty cool! My favorite part was seeing his animation test from school. Realized Tim Burton is a pretty good animator as well...
ReplyDeleteYeah that was really neat!
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