Guest Post: Fantastic Beasts - The Wonders of Nature - an honest review by AsphodelRose.

 So...

 

Since last week, a new exhibition started at the National History Museum here in London. I obviously was there on the first day this thing opened to the public (because I can!), and I decided to make a guest post here that might be of interest to those who are thinking of going and those who cannot go. It will contain spoilers about the exhibition though, so if you believe this will ruin the visit for you, just skip to the last paragraph where I give my final thoughts. I did not plan to write this while I was visiting, therefore, I did not take notes for this specific purpose. So, my apologies in advance if I get some details wrong, as all I have is my pictures and my not-so-good memory

The exhibition aimed to make a comparative parallel between our real-life fantastic beasts and the Wizarding World magical creatures that they could have been based on. It also brings some historical accounts of how creatures like dragons, mermaids, and unicorns were believed to be real until recent times.

There are also a few props from the movies that you can see there, and if you have seen the MinaLima books that have some details about some props they made for the movie, you will probably recognise most of them. I particularly loved to see Newt’s world map that has some notes about creatures around the world. This could be a hell of a cool prompt for someone writing a Newt based fanfiction.

Another cool display was the mermaid from the prefect's bathroom and the Golden Egg. They had placed some interactive draws where you could listen to real-life animals (I think they were a humpback whale and a grey seal), and see how similar they were with the sounds made by the merpeople. You could also listen to the full mer-song of the Second Task clue in English.

 Some other random HP-ish facts were thrown around the exhibition, such as: did you know that Ron, Draco, and Remus all have unicorn hair based wands? Hell yeah!

There were also lots of displays and reconstructions of the magical creatures that had obviously been done with the sole purpose of being in that exhibition. It is a splendid effort on their part. Many of these are interactive as well, such as the nifflers, the Erumpent, which is great for the little ones.

      

Alongside the magical creatures, they display some real-life ones that they believed could have inspired or had some properties similar to their magical friends. It was also nice to see them making a link between rare magical creatures that are on the verge of extinction in the movie (Graphorns) and the Mexican “Vaquita Porpoise”. It is nice to raise awareness about endangered animals!

However, in my humble opinion, the best interactive activity for the kids was a bit at the end where you could use some cardboard printed phrases to make your own creative sign about fantastic creatures. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to play with it, as my friend seemed to be in a sort of hush, and a family was playing with them at the time – which also brings the question that might not be the most COVID friendly part of the exhibition, and they could likely do placing some alcohol gel just next to it for those who want to play.

   

The shop also lacks unique props that make me consider spending my hard-earned money. I thought that some postcards with those unique sign messages would make the cut – or some cardboard where you could make your own creature message at home. Unfortunately, those were only in my mind, and not on display in their shop.

My overall thoughts of the Fantastic Beasts - The Wonders of Nature exhibition is that it is good, but it is a bit overpriced for what it is. When comparing it to the Exhibition done by the British Library a few years ago, that of the Museum of Natural History certainly comes up short. Just as a comparison, when I went to the British Library, I spent a full four hours reading every single piece of information. This one I stayed for just over half an hour, and I read everything and took my sweet time there. If you want more reviews about real-life Harry Potter stuff like this, just, let us know in the comments below.