Mickey: The True Original Exhibition

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone at this point that Mickey Mouse is getting some love this year because he’s turning 90! He sure looks good for his age, doesn’t he?! Along with all the Mickey style collabs that have happened, an exhibition celebrating 90 years of Mickey Mouse and his influence on art, fashion, and pop culture opened in NYC last week. I was lucky enough to be able to visit opening weekend with my husband, two best friends (aka my #DisneySquad), and the woman I owe all my custom Disney outfit pieces to. Here’s my take on the exhibition — spoiler alert: it’s pretty effin’ awesome.

A couple things to note before we dive in:

• The exhibition is a timed ticketed event. You need to purchase your tickets in advance — you cannot buy tickets at the door. Click here for the ticket link.

• The exhibition’s store does not require a ticket and the entrance is on W 14th Street.

• The entrance to the exhibition is actually closer to W 15th Street — there’s not signage but it’s two yellow doors almost right at the corner of W 15th and 10th.

• If you bought the ear hats with your ticket, be sure to ask at the entrance to the exhibition when you get your ticket scanned!

Without further blabbing and bullet points… here we go!

THE STORE & THE COSMIC CAVERN

As mentioned above, the store doesn’t require a ticket. A nice surprise here is that The Cosmic Cavern is actually in the store! You can experience a really cool and famous part of the exhibit by just visiting the store!

We met Jess from Ena’s Bazaar in the store area because we all mistakenly thought the entrance to the exhibit was through the store. But good thing we did — we had some time in The Cosmic Cavern before the crowds got crazy.

One thing to note, if there’s something special you have your eyes on, you should get there early. I know that the BE@RBRICKS went pretty quickly. The line was wrapping the store when we were there!

Pins and Funko Pop Vinyls are also going to be released throughout the next couple months. There’s a glass case as you enter the store and each set of goodies has a release date so if there’s something you know you want, be sure to check when it’ll be released.

THE EXHIBITION

Once you find your way to the exhibition entrance and you’re all checked in, you’ll wait in the lobby for a bit after getting your ticket scanned. In the Welcome Room, you’ll get to watch a video with the history of the Big Cheese, paired with some sick music. I won’t spoil anything for ya!

The order of the rooms are:

1. Welcome Room

2. Hello Mickey!

3. Iconic Design

4. It’s Black & White

5. Ink & Paint

6. Burst Into Color!

7. Sorcerer’s Way

8. Mickey Mouse Club

9. 1928: Original Muse

10. The Collection

To say that stepping into the first room is one of those “oh my gosh, where do I look moments?” is an understatement. As soon as you walk in, you’re greeted with the Oscar that Walt Disney won and then a wall of neonified illustrations by Jeff Shelly. There’s an interactive Steamboat Willie photo op — make sure not to miss it!

The Cast Members will tell you it’s a forward moving exhibit but there’s no pressure and they don’t rush you at all in each room. Take your time but also be aware that there’s people coming in behind you. The timed entrance groups aren’t gigantic so you’ll have some time alone in each room with the less-than-a-dozen people that you’ll enter with.

There’s two optical illusion style installations in the “It’s Black & White” room — there’s little Mickey footprints to guide you to where you need to stand to see the piece! This is also one of the rooms where you can actually interact with some of the installations (not the optical illusion style ones though!)

It’s hard to pick a favorite room but the Sorcerer’s Way is DEFINITELY up high on the list.

There’s never-before-seen archival footage, an infinity mirror of the broomsticks, an actual glowing Sorcerer’s Apprentice hat you can take a photo under, and this amazing silhouette wall. Don’t miss this photo op! Everyone in my group LOVED this spot.

The Mickey Mouse Club room is SO adorable — don’t miss the old school footage of Britney and Justin singing on the MMC! This is the room where you can also get a little taste of the Mickey Mouse x Ample Hills collab. The last room, The Collection, is where you’ll be able to see lots of vintage Mickey swag and modern artwork.

Whew — this was a lot of text and lots of photos (I hope you were on WiFi loading all these images!) Will you be going to the exhibit? Do you have any questions about it? If you’ve been already, what’s your favorite part?

I won’t share all my photos here because I would hate to spoil the entire exhibit for anybody. I will say that I’m so happy we actually got a second set of tickets for next month because I definitely need to see everything again!

If you’re on the fence about it and have the opportunity to, I would highly recommend this experience — even if there’s not a Disney fan in your traveling group! But let’s be honest, who can resist Mickey Mouse?