“From Sketch To Screen” – The DreamWorks Animation Exhibit in Seoul

Are you familiar with Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, How to Train your Dragon, and Shrek? I am sure even if you live in the cave, you definitely heard of them. Yes, they are the animated movies created by DreamWorks. If you have watched one of the animated movies I mentioned, I bet you were entertained by the moving sketches. Who could resist the charm of Shrek? Or Po? Or even Toothless? But do you ever wonder how they were transformed from Sketches to moving characters in the movie?

Now, this is the purpose of DreamWorks Animation Exhibit in The Seoul Museum of Art or SEMA, to show to the people the process of making an animated movie. I for one is a fan of an animated movie. For those of you who are thinking that this kind of movie is just for kids, I dare you to think again. Maybe you haven’t watched one yet. There are good lessons we can get from it, lessons that are applicable not only for kids but also for adults. I am also curious about how they made this kind of movies. That’s why I was so interested to check out this exhibit, let alone it’s an exhibit of DreamWorks Animation.

The exhibit is at the first floor of the Seoul Museum of Art.  Tickets can be bought outside the museum, it costs 13,000 won for adults, 10,000 won for the teenagers and 8,000 won for children.

When you enter the exhibit, Melman’s butt from Madagascar will welcome you, and it’s funny how people take it as a photo opportunity.

A welcome scenario to DreamWorks Exhibit

When you look up, you will see Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon flying motionless below the ceiling. Don’t worry, as silly as it may seem, they are not the main star of the exhibit.

Tootless hanging from the celing


What you can really see inside the exhibit are sketches, sketches and sketches. Yes, a lot of sketches there is. Apparently, it’s entertaining how an artist develop one character in the movie. One second you see them sketching on a pad paper, and then booommm… the birth of a new character.

How to sketch a character in an animated movie the DreamWorks way


Aside from the sketches, I also spotted some masks used in some of the movies of DreamWorks. There are also 3D characters and models which they secured dearly in an aquarium. Visitors are not even allowed to touch the glass…. Boohoo… The 3D versions of the characters I used to watch in an animate movie are so cute and adorable. Toy collectors will surely love them, but it’s not for sale though. The 3D models are just for display and for the eyes only.

The small caricatures of our favorite animated characters


The colored paintings on display are also the stars of the exhibit. It’s just like a photo frame of some of our favorite characters in DreamWorks movie, except that it’s a painting and not a photograph.



Some old movie posters of some old movies are also on display. To be honest, I was not sure if I’ve seen some of them, all I know is that, I am not familiar about some movies. I like it though to see some stuff from the past. It’s good they were able to preserve some of these movie posters.




What calls my attention though was this pile of booklets. Upon closer inspection, these were not booklets but the actual storyboards of movies like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and among others. One pile is equivalent to one movie. Just imagine how many pages of storyboard it takes to create one complete movie.




Another thing I like about the exhibit is they allow visitors to try the software used to animate, sketch and create an animation. It’s kind of a hands on and I somehow enjoyed that one.



For me, I think the whole concept of this exhibit is to stir the interest of not only the kids but also the adults in the animation industry. Who knows, you have the talent to sketch or make a story out of fictional characters. This exhibit can actually make you realize if you have the passion for this kind of film making. If you are not into this, the whole exhibit may bore you though, but it’s quite educational, so no time and money will be wasted for this event.

The DreamWorks Animation Exhibit runs from April 2016 up to August 15, 2016 only. The museum is just near the City Hall Station.

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