What to Know
- "Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts"
- The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
- Through March 27, 2023; admission is required (and reservations on weekends and holidays)
Coming across a wishing well while hiking? You might be prompted to hum a few bars of "I'm Wishing" from the Walt Disney animated film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
A stone tower might summon memories of "Tangled," it's true. And catching a glimpse of the ocean? For sure, we're going to warmly recall "The Little Mermaid."
But encountering artifacts from centuries long past, the flourish-y finds and gilded gewgaws that are synonymous with the French decorative arts, will prompt many people to think about "Cinderella" and "Beauty and the Beast" and the other fanciful Disney classics that drew their iconic looks from the flair and fashion that reigned centuries ago.
Get Southern California news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC LA newsletters.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens is paying tribute to this imaginative marriage of style and story through March 27, 2023.
"Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts" is now on view at the San Marino destination, giving fans of film history and devotees of the opulent era an in-depth look at how vintage l'objets added l'élégance to some of the best-known animated works ever made.
"Approximately 50 works of 18th-century European decorative art and design, many of which are drawn from The Huntington's significant collection, are featured" in the globetrotting exhibition.
The Huntington pieces are on view "... alongside hand-drawn production artworks and works on paper from the Walt Disney Animation Research Library, Walt Disney Archives, Walt Disney Imagineering Collection, and The Walt Disney Family Museum."
Porcelain figures are part of the presentation, as are centuries-old vases, and a host of delightful Disney gems, from the drawings of Mary Blair to a "bird's-eye view illustration" of Disneyland park, famously created by artist Herb Ryman over a single weekend in 1953.
Artist Eyvind Earle's ethereal work in "Sleeping Beauty" is deeply woven through with medieval imagery, like so many magical vines. And fans of the 1959 fantasy will want to check out a number of pages from the Walt Disney Archives' "Sleeping Beauty" prop book, which is part of the show.
The conservation team at The Huntington restored the timeless tome over a decade ago, a gift to future generations interested in how the iconic visuals in the film came to be.
Admission to The Huntington is required to view this exquisite exhibit and reservations on weekends and holidays.
