The Bowers Museum presents Inside the Walt Disney Archives: 50 Years of Preserving the Magic

Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, CA

Today’s update is over a year in the making. That’s because we’re heading down to Santa Ana to check out an exhibit at the Bowers Museum that premiered last spring… and promptly closed when the world was put on pause because of the Coronavirus shutdowns. And then reopened during the summer… only to be shut down again when cases surged. And then reopened in the fall—but then the winter surge happened.

The persistence is key, though, and a couple of weekends ago, I finally made it over to the Bowers Museum to check out their special exhibit, Inside the Walt Disney Archives: 50 Years of Preserving the Magic, on display and extended now through June 20.

Approaching the Bowers Museum entrance from the north.

The Bowers Museum is one of Orange County’s longstanding art and cultural institutions, but despite living in the area for nearly eight years, I had never visited before. Fortunately, earlier this month, with Orange County finally and stably in the Orange tier, I had the chance to finally stop by and see what this institution has to offer. Besides the the Walt Disney Archives special exhibit, the Bowers also currently has a temporary exhibit on a fascinating and unique type of jade and gold sculpture-making, and a pretty solid permanent collection as well. All of this is housed within a beautiful Mission Revival style hacienda that has been open as a museum since 1936—making it one of Southern California’s older cultural institutions!

The entrance to the Bowers Museum, off Main Street, just south of the I-5 freeway in Santa Ana.

We’ll get around to the Bowers’ other features in a separate update, but it’s worth mentioning that the museum does have a pretty fantastic and fascinating variety of traveling special exhibits. Past features have focused on famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, fabled Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton and his ill-fated but miraculous expedition to the South Pole, photographer Frida Khalo, the Tet Festival, president John F. Kennedy, and more. But it’s the glimpse into the Walt Disney Archives that piques our attention today, and this update takes us throughout into the exhibit that has served as an intermittent bridge to Disney while the parks have been closed.

Inside the Walt Disney Archives: 50 Years of Preserving the Magic

The Walt Disney Archives was founded in 1970 by archivist Dave Smith, who sought to preserve materials and artifacts related to the Walt Disney Company, from movie and animation relics to artwork and presentation materials related to theme parks to props and prototypes. For over fifty years, the Archives has accumulated a wonderful collection of set pieces, artwork, wardrobe, figures, mock-ups, and all sorts of artifacts related to Disney movies, TV shows, theme parks, and general history. And as Disney has expanded and incorporated other properties and franchises, so too has the Walt Disney Archives grown with these additional mementos.

When there are lines, guests waiting can see videos from Prop Culture, which can also be seen on Disney+. — When there are lines, guests waiting can see videos from *Prop Culture*, which can also be seen on Disney+.

The exhibit at the Bowers Museum is but a small taste of what is held within the Archives. Here, the history of the establishment is traced, which in turn documents the growth of Walt Disney’s company itself, starting with its early days focusing on animation and ranging all the way to the present, with Disney merged with 20th Century Fox and functioning as arguably the world’s biggest entertainment conglomerate.

Disney is probably most synonymous with theme parks, at least to this audience, but this exhibit is more than just a story of the Disneylands of the world. It’s also not quite a history of Walt Disney and his family—the Walt Disney Family Museum up in San Francisco covers that wonderfully. But does feature a broad stroke of all things generally Disney, with a nice mix of nostaglia and Disney kitsch to entertain general fans and dedicated enthusiasts.

This is a nifty set that offers glimpses at the type of pieces to come.

The exhibit starts with a relatively quick recap of the company’s early decades, running through its success in animation and transitioning into the ground-breaking foray into theme park enterprise. Guests can see a recreation of Walt’s desk (as portrayed in the film Saving Mr. Banks) and a sample animation workstation from the Golden Age of Disney animation. This transitions into a wide open hall with a collection of items of note from mid-century Disney—storyboards and scripts from Mickey and the Beanstalk, the first ticket to Disneyland from 1955, a fountain pen and eye glasses that Walt used. Everything is a testament to the history laden reach of the company.

A wide hall shows pieces from a variety of mid-century Disney items.

From there, the exhibit transitions into categories of relics from the Archives, starting with merchandise and props. Although there is a rough chronological order to things, the organization of the features is really intended to offer a dip into the wealth of historical items that are within the Walt Disney Archives. Old Mickey and Minnie dolls (the kind that weren’t quite sophisticated initially and felt a little bit horrifying and out of a fever dream when they first came out), a literal carpet bag from Mary Poppins, a bare animatronic head of Mr. Lincoln. These tidbits from various facets of Disney lore and history weave a diverse story of commercialization and story making that have always gone hand-in-hand when it comes to all things Disney.

The Merchandise section features collectibles and figures.

After a jaunt through a space featuring a variety of two dimensional art including movie and TV show posters, concept art, and ambiance paintings—including pieces from recently acquired but long-beloved Fox franchises like the 1960s Batman series—the exhibit turns to what I feel is the most attractive and appealing portion of the Archive, the dimensional collections.

This is the main attraction of the exhibit and the most sprawling. It’s the closest that the special exhibit gets to recreating the magic of Disneyland itself, but there are some pretty awesome part to behold. A diorama from Snow White revealing the Evil Queen her Magic Mirror, and her secret chamber recalls the aesthetic of Snow White’s Scary Adventure (which itself is now relegated to Yesterland, having been transformed into a lighter-hearted iteration during the time Disneyland has been closed). A little further beyond is a little display dedicated to the Haunted Mansion, featuring some familiar hitchhiking ghosts, prints of a few recognizable Stretching Room portraits, and some intricate carved tombstones to some of the 999 Happy Haunts who reside within one of Disney’s most cherished and adored attractions.

This Snow White scene is pretty rich and detailed.

The Haunted Mansion set-up is pretty fantastic too.

The dimensional collections also contains an excellent wardrobe series that fashion fans will really enjoy. Drawing from diverse properties including Frozen, TRON, Dick Tracy, Rocketman, and more, this row allows guests to admire the detail and craft that goes into dressing characters in movie and play. Opposite this are figures from both Disney and Fox intellectual properties, including Captain R-3X from Star Tours and a xenomorph from the Alien series.

It’s interesting to see how this exhibit has so seamlessly incorporated the Fox acquisitions into the Walt Disney repository. It’s still a little unusual to think of Fox properties as Disney, but that’s exactly what this exhibition showcases, and if one wasn’t aware of the separate media histories of the two companies, one might think that the Fox characters had always been a part of Disney. There is no attempt to differentiate or distinguish between the two.

Wardrobe from an assortment of Disney and Fox films is on display.

Further on, the exhibit delves more into the props components, with items like Snow White’s poison apple, Wilson from Castaway, a lifesize Winnie the Pooh doll from the 2018 Christopher Robin film, and Davey Jones beating heart chest, and even some figures from Fox Searchlight’s Isle of Dogs on display. One of the more prominent miniatures is a model of Pride Rock, from The Lion King. A fully detailed scale model of the iconic home of Simba and his family, it shows the animals of the African veldt gathered before their feline king. Models like this are used to provide different angles and outlines for the animation, and seeing the intricacy of this one honestly pretty awesome.

Simba (or Mufasa) at the head of Pride Rock.

The final portion of the dimensional collection focuses on the vehicles of various Disney and Fox films. From Herbie the Love Bug to the Ford MK-40 from Ford V Ferrari, this section combines the joint treasures of the Walt Disney Archives and the Fox Archives to provide some great sights for fans of al that is moving and motorized in Disney and Fox films.

Recent Fox acquisitions also prove to fruitful, as they supply a nice chunk of the exhibit too.

The exhibit ends with a little walk through a segment of the Walt Disney Legends hall of fame, as well as a cute set of the Walt Disney Studios building by Michael Graves. And as guests move to the exit of the Inside the Walt Disney Archives special exhibit, they’re reminded of a familiar refrain. Much like Disneyland will never be completed, as the Walt Disney Company continues to move forward, so too will the collections of its Archives, to catalog and preserve the rich and ever-expanding history of the company and the stories that it tells—on film and in real life!

One final wistful message before concluding the tour.

Overall, the exhibit takes no more than an hour to explore, even for focused, keen-eyed, attentive guests. One could easily go through in half the time too. And although the displays focus on Disney and Fox entities, there are no Pixar, Marvel, or Star Wars features on display (save the Star Tours figure of R-3X). This is intentional, as the exhibit seeks to focus more on the artifacts themselves than the inspirations behind them. This may explain the broad and somewhat superficial spread of what’s offered. It’s a “best hits” collection from the Walt Disney Archives, and a fuller display could easily fill a space ten or fifty times as large!

Regardless, for Disney fans, this exhibit is a wonderful jaunt through Disneyana, quickly covering a sampling of Disney history from the beginning to the present day. Fans of the craft will certainly appreciate the attention and artistry that goes into every little item, and fans of Disney history in general will appreciate the general effort that has gone into preserving so many different elements of Disney past.

The Gift Shop

Naturally, in true Disney fashion, guests exiting the exhibit will find themselves funneled back toward the museum gift shop. Although this is normally where a bit of extra cash might be milked from guests, I think it’s worth a stop through to check out what is actually a pretty nice variety of Disney merchandise that isn’t just readily available at any Disney Store or even Disney theme park shops.

One of the things that really appealed to me was the nice collection of Disney literature and coffee table books available. These aren’t rare books to say the least, but they’re not items found on other Disney properties either. From Disney parks to facets of Walt Disney Studios and the sub-groups of people who worked in them to seasonal features and even an anthology of Marc Davis’ life, there is a pretty rich cachet of mementos that many guests might never otherwise encounter.

Some fantastic Disney coffee table books are available for sale.

In addition to books, there is a wide variety of other knickknacks, from stylish bags to mugs to ornament pieces and even decorative tableware sets. The souvenirs at the museum gift shop definitely traverse a nice mix of fine collectibles that rise above the typical regularity of regular toys and gifts.

And some unique gifts and home goods too.

The rest of the book store has items related to other exhibits and general cultural goods as well. There are plenty of books, a selection of cultural garb and jewelry, and other decorative display items too. For a museum store, the Bowers definitely offers a pretty nice selection of goods!

Tangata Restaurant

The Bowers Museum also has an in-house restaurant that serves light entrees, refreshments, and snacks. Salads, sandwiches, desserts, and drinks abound. There’s even a “Dole Whip” and alcoholic “Dole Whip” offering on the menu—though this is less a genuine Dole Whip soft serve or float like one finds at the Enchanted Tiki Room and more a shake or smoothie that contains pineapple concentrate. Still, after a year without the real thing (and the option for an adult boozy version), it’s a nice treat to indulge in. And if you’d like, try a souvenir tiki mug with it too.

With Orange County in the orange tier for Coronavirus infections, indoor dining is allowed and widely social distanced. The interiors is drenched with natural light from the bountiful skylights overhead, adn the ribbony, flowery hanging light fixtures are pretty interesting too. There is also plenty of outdoor seating for guests who prefer fresh air.

No one was dining indoors when i went, but then again, it was Easter Sunday, and the museum was sparsely crowded overall.

Around the Bowers Museum

The museum has 24,000 square feet of gallery space, but I’d argue it’s the exterior that is even more attractive and scenic. The beautiful Spanish architecture—a condition of the use and style of the property when it was donated to the city by original owners Ada Elvira and Charles W. Bowers—is quintessential Southern California. The wide lawn in the large courtyard space is fantastic for special events, and the landscaping features a mix of palms, cacti and succulents, and towering oak that mixes into a verdant cornucopia.

The outdoor area of the Bowers is absolutely gorgeous.

The original building of the museum is a part of the historic registrar itself.

Even if one was not too intent on the rest of the exhibits, just spending time enjoying the scenery, taking in the warmth of the sunlight, and relaxing in the serenity of the historical environment is an attraction in and of itself. Despite the age of the property, the grounds have been kept in fantastic condition. There’s no other way to explain it, other than the Bowers is just a really nice place to spend an hour or two. Bring a sketchbook or indulge in a bit of reading. It’s a wonderful space to simply enjoy.

There is a lot of great atmosphere and ambiance here!

We’ll be back with a look at the rest of the exhibits at the Bowers, from other traveling displays to the permanent galleries that focus on pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, Native American art, the art of Asia, Africa, and Oceania, and California plein-air painting.

Those who are interested in visiting the Inside the Walt Disney Archives: 50 Years of Preserving the Magic should make reservations and purchase tickets online. Advanced reservations are still highly recommended in order to adhere to capacity limits. Guests can technically buy tickets on sight, but if a desired time slot is unavailable, then they will have to wait.

That said, when I visited, the crowds were quite low, and I was able to buy tickets on site and take advantage of their local resident discount, which affords free admission on Sundays and reduced fare for the Walt Disney Archives exhibit from the regular $25 adult price to $10. As I mentioned at the top of the update, the Walt Disney Archives exhibit runs now through Sunday (and Father’s Day), June 20, 2021.

NOTRE DAME AT A GLANCE

Name: Bowers Museum
Address: 2002 N. Main St, Santa Ana, California
Web Site: https://www.bowers.org/
Admission: $15 for adults weekends, $13 for adults weekdays, $12 for seniors 62+ weekends, $10 for seniors 62+ weekdays, $10 for students, FREE for children 12 & under
Hours: 10:00am - 4:00pm Tuesdays - Sundays, closed Mondays & major holidays
Transit Stop(s): Main-Buffalo (serves bus lines 53 & 83), ARTIC (serves Metrolink Orange County Line and Amtrak Pacific Surfliner)