Credit: D23Disney100: The Exhibition opened this month at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and last week it had two very famous visitors.
D23 Gold Members got a sneak peek at the exhibition on February 15, which features dazzling displays of Disney’s past, present, and future. Over 250 objects and artifacts are displayed at the traveling exhibition, spanning across 100 years of Disney history. The exhibition also features a never-before-seen AI hologram of Walt Disney to welcome visitors. Mickey and Minnie Mouse joined the Gold Members at the exhibition’s sneak preview, dressed in their platinum attire, and took a look at the history for themselves.
Mickey and Minnie were photographed exploring the exhibition, starting with the “Where It All Began” gallery. This portion of the exhibit is dedicated to Walt Disney’s earliest works, including the Alice Comedies and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, both of which predate Mickey and Minnie.
They also visited the “Where Do Stories Come From?” gallery, which contains an interactive display of the prop storybook from Sleeping Beauty. While Guests cannot open the book itself, a digital display allows them to look through the pages, which feature beautiful art by Disney Legend Eyvind Earle. The gallery also features inspiration sources for Disney films like fairy tales, books, and comics. Here, you can view several props from Mary Poppins (1964), including Mary’s famous carousel horse.
Of course, the famous duo had to stop by the “Your Disney World” gallery, which features Disney Parks artifacts from the Walt Disney Archives. Here, visitors can admire an original Matterhorn Bobsleds attraction vehicle and a Red Demon figure from Walt Disney World’s version of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
Mickey and Minnie were in for a surprise themselves, however – a visit inside the exhibition from Imagineer and Disney Legend Bob Gurr, who worked on and spearheaded over 100 attraction designs for the Parks. They just had to give their old pal a hug as they admired a beautiful model of Walt Disney World’s Cinderella Castle.
Disney100: The Exhibition runs for the next six months at the Franklin Institute, and you can purchase tickets to visit on their website.