On November 2nd I was lucky enough to be able to go to The Two Towers exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. I went with my dad and my friend, Mallory. We got there at 12:30, a half hour later than we had planned (you had to buy tickets for a cetain entry time). Honestly, you think you plan for Toronto traffic but I don't think it's really possible to do that. Anyway, we had no problems getting into the exhibit, thankfully. After waiting in the line for about fiteen minutes and looking at the two glass display cases near where we were waiting, we got to go in. Right when we went through the main doors, there was a display case with the hobbits' and Gandalf's pipes and a few swords. Once you went up the stairs, you enetered Fangorn Forest. Just outisde that was a light projected image of the ring inscription spinning on the floor. Oi, it was a bad idea on my part to look down at it while walk over it. Dizzy! I'd heard about Billy making a comment about Fangorn smelling mossy and I'd have to agree. It smelled like a real forest and it was easy to imagine that you were really there. The Dead Marches were very creepy but still very cool at the same time. My friend, who has not read the books, commented, "Whoa, there are people in there!" as she jumped back slightly (funny thing to see). The Glittering Caves were, well, glittery and pretty cool. The only thing was that the props displayed there were set further back and you couldn't get as close a look as some of the other displays. The Orthanc Chamber was my favourite. It was incredibly detailed and looked like it took ages to set everything up just right. I was slightly disappointed with Helm's Deep as it was basically a large screen with a picture of the Uruk-Hai army on it, and displayed as though you were looking over the walls at them. Arwen's bedroom was just beautiful. Throughout the exhibit they had screens playing the full trailer, though with the sound turned down pretty low, so I've finally seen it!

I don't remember specifics about which props were in what area, but I remember seeing the Shards of Narsil (very cool looking), the four hobbit costumes, Legolas's costume, Aragorn's costume, two of Arwen's dresses (you can appreciate the time that went into these more when seeing the details up close, and both are incredibly gorgeous), costumes and the thrones from Edoras, the Witchking's glove, the Ringwraith's footwear, several Elven scrolls (once again, the detail is amazing to see up close), the Uruk-Hai bow that was used to kill Boromir, Legolas's bow and arrows, Orc helmets and armour, Rohan helmets and armour (Eomer's with the horse head was beautiful), an axe from Rohan (also with a horse head on it), Elven brooches, Sting, the One Ring (not sure if it was THE one, as Elijah was apparently given that, although I'm not sure he had it at the time of the exhibit), several of the Fellowship's knives and swords, Sam's pack and cooking stuff, Gandalf's white costume and staff and a few of Wormtongue's things. There was just so much stuff there to see that I would have had to take notes to remember it all. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed (though I heard some people were able to sneak them in) and they were very strict about this when we went.

Afterthoughts: All-in-all, an exhibit that was definitely worth going to see and if I lived closer to Toronto, I would have liked to go again and look at some more things in detail. When seeing The Two Towers, it was neat to be able to pick things out and think, "Wow, I was standing two feet away from that", or "That looks just like the way they set it up in the exhibit." I definitely have a greater appreciation for all the time and effort that went into making each prop and costume for the movie. The detail on every piece was just fabulous, and a lot of them are details you might not notice otherwise in the movie.


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