>The Show is in the Back

>As you walk into the Magic Kingdom, there is an Unknown Magic that goes overlooked everyday by thousands of people. This is because there doesn’t seem to be a reason to go and see it. But for some peace and quiet, maybe some down time without leaving the park, and for a Magical Experience, this Unknown Magic can’t be beat.

The area I’m talking about is immediately inside the Magic Kingdom, after you walk under the Main Street Train Station and into the Magic Kingdom, you are standing at Town Square’s Municipal Park. As you gaze at the Castle and see all the people flowing toward it and the rest of the Magic Kingdom, look to your right. You will see Exposition Hall connected to Tony’s Town Square Restaurant (mentioned in the post Eat Like a Star of 5/14). If you walk into Exposition Hall, you will be in a camera shop. This is where you can buy camera equipment and also where you can view your PhotoPass pictures (mentioned on 6/5 in the post Say Cheese). But as you are in

Exposition Hall, the Unknown Magic lurks behind this Camera Shop. As you walk through the camera shop, and look around, there are large rooms to the back. These rooms are the Unknown Magic I am talking about.

As you enter the back room area, there are a few small display areas, some in glass enclosed showcases, and there are even some tables and chairs to sit at. At the very back of this room, there are doors that used to lead to The Walt Disney Story which has since been moved to Disney Hollywood Studios.

As you walk in to the next room, there is a 25 or 30 seats movie theatre on the one side of the room that plays old Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons. This small

 sitting area is framed by a stand-up cut-out of Steam Boat Willie, which the kids or you, can stand on and have a picture taken. On the other side of the Theatre area, there is another cut out picture area that has a scene from 101 Dalmatians; it is the scene when they are all watching TV. There are more of these cut outs in this room also, from Toy Story (that features the little green aliens from the “Claw”.) and also a scene from Snow White. Walking through this room and getting pictures in the scenes is a pretty neat magical experience.

The other neat thing in this room is the mural that covers the whole one wall. It starts on the left with an early Walt Disney pictures and the beginning of Mickey Mouse and then goes through the years of the Disney Studios, up to Monster’s Inc. This whole room though is set up as an old time movie theatre with many railings and walkways and special little areas. In one of these little areas, there is also a car from the now defunct Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride attraction, which you can sit in.

Sometimes when it is real hot or the weather is bad, some of the Characters hang out in here. Pluto is one that I have seen in here a few times. This brings me to a reason to see this Unknown Magic as soon as possible. With the new Fantasyland Expansion Project, they are going to be shutting down Mickey’s Toon Town. This will mean that the character meet and greets in the Judges tent will not be available anymore. One of the rumors is that they will be moving Mickey and Minnie and the other characters from the Toon Town Judges Tent to Exposition Hall. This would definitely bring more visitors to this wonderful building, but it may lose some of its quiet charm, but it would make this more of an area for Magical Experiences.

So, now that you know, stop in Exposition Hall and enjoy some quiet time, a few animated shorts and take some silly pictures with your family to create that Magical Experience, while it’s still an Unknown Magic.