9/24/13 News Story: Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour Visit

In the mystical universe of Harry Potter, the series from the mind of author J.K. Rowling, all the magic and wonder of the world can be found in a faraway castle that's only a train ride away. The only difference about the new "Making of Harry Potter" in London, England, is that you ride a bus and it takes you to a movie production studio. "The Making of Harry Potter" is a Warner Brothers studio tour that takes you through many of the real sets, costumes, and props from the iconic movies. Around 5000 people go to this enchanting exhibit everyday, so I decided to check it out on June 18th at around the end of the day. Right as you walk in, you are already greeted by the flying car from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. After a short wait and a quick preview of the gift shop, our tour group asked to proceed into a rather cramped room where they showed us the history of Harry Potter as a whole. We then proceeded into a more comfortable theatre room where a video of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson greeted us standing in front of the doors to the Great Hall. When the curtain came up, those very same doors awaited us. The Great Hall was full of actual costumes of teachers in Hogwarts such as Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall. The next room was titled "The Big Room" and the name told no lies. It was an absolutely enormous room filled with enough sets and props to make you think that this was the only exhibit. From Dumbledore's office, to the wall offices of the Ministry of Magic, and even the Potions Classroom. There was even a place where you could have your video taken on  green screen flying a broom! It also included enough prop and costumes to make any Harry Potter collector faint on the scene! After leaving the enormous room, we found ourselves at an outdoor portion and were told we could disband from the group and do what we want. I went and bought myself some fabulous Butter beer, which was so worth £1.95 ($3.12). I found myself in front of the famous night bus and Privet Drive. I continued into the next room which was the creatures and effects. There were many fascinating things like molded action doubles of the actors/actresses, a life size Aragog puppet (if you don't know, that would be Hagrid's giant spider and it scared the heck out of me), and even a fully animated Buckbeak.  After a walk through the real Diagon Alley, we reached the next room which was full of all the original designs and art that was created way back in the beginning of the franchise. But, out of all of the rooms, the most unexpected of them all was the 1:24 scale model of Hogwarts crafted by over 50 different artists. It was a massive and amazing piece of art and it made me really want to pick up those books and watch those movies a million more times just to appreciate all the hard work that went into it. However, the real mystery is how I managed to spend £75 ($120) on Harry Potter merchandise. This is Michael Mosser reporting for Burnsville TV.