Of all the attractions I visited in Seattle – the Space Needle, the Chihuly Gardens, the Zoo, the Great Wheel – my favorite is the Museum of Pop Culture. Their collection of music, sci-fi, and movie memorabilia just warmed all the cockles of my nerdy heart. I cover the current collection, including the temporary exhibit from Laika’s stop-motion studios, below.
Museum of Pop Culture
The Museum of Pop Culture, or MoPop for short, sits right next to the Space Needle in the park that once held the 1962 World’s Fair. I visited the wavy Frank Gehry-designed building many years ago when it was the Experience Music Project, or EMP. (I think the design is supposed to be reminiscent of a smashed guitar.) As such, it’s always held a Seattle-scene punk/grunge rock heart at its core. Though even when I visited so long ago, there was the Sci-Fi Hall of Fame aspect to it then too. Now, it’s expanded into all realms of Pop culture, including movies and games, and is a delight to visit, both for the architecture and the fun collection it holds.
I’ll go through all the exhibits, starting with the top floor, since that’s how it was suggested I tour the museum. I recommend it, especially if you get there early. That way, it might be less crowded in the popular Laika exhibit.
Hidden Worlds: The Films of Laika
If you love movies, you’re hopefully familiar with Laika Studios, makers of stop-motion films like Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. This top-floor exhibit space, shows how the films are made, with real props and models and huge to-scale sets. See the actual figures used in the movies and some of the most impressive set pieces.
Each room features a different movie, with sets, props & figures, and decor fitting to each film. And every room has a video about how that movie was made, with a bench in front for watching. Teri Hatcher, who voiced the mother in Coraline, narrates each video, made specially for this exhibit.
Coraline
The first room features Coraline, with the house as a huge set piece in the middle of the room. Once you’re done looking around, you exit to the next film through a gauzy tunnel, like Coraline’s portal to the button-eyed Other World.
ParaNorman
Through the portal is Laika’s second film, ParaNorman. The “trees” around the video viewing area make the whole room feel as spooky as the movie.
The Boxtrolls
Next, is The Boxtrolls, about a human kid raised by sewer-dwelling, box-wearing trolls. The level of attention given to the Victorian-era street scenes is just astounding. And it might have been around here that there is a small room where you can use stop-motion animation techniques on your own face.
Kubo and the Two Strings
The next room is my favorite Laika movie, Kubo and the Two Strings. Besides the detailed characters and flowing robes and hair, the set and effects design rely heavily on papercraft and origami methods. I love the large, complete room sets.
Missing Link
The last completed Laika film is Missing Link, with more large room sets and figures. I like the temple/torch seating area. There’s even a long, ornate hall with a camera inside it that you can move to frame different shots. The evolving technology and methods are so impressive!
The last room offers some hints and pre-visual work for Laika’s current film in progress, Wildwood. Plus, there is a video about the new movie and Laika overall, including some “exploded” head models so you can see just how involved they are.
Hidden Worlds: The Films of Laika is an extra fee on top of regular MoPop admission. As such, it’s a closed one-way loop through the exhibit space. There’s a ticket taker at the entrance, and a gate at the exit, so you can’t reenter once you leave. So make sure to wander around before you exit for good.
But there’s one more Laika model outside of the exhibit space that you can see. The largest stop-motion puppet ever built is a 16-foot tall skeleton used in Kubo and the Two Strings. You can find it in the grand staircase through the three floors of the MoPop.
Sound Lab
One of the most prominent leftovers from the Experience Music Project days of the museum is the Sound Lab. In this two-story space are individual soundproof studio rooms where you can practice playing drums, the guitar, or singing. It’s like intro to rock music 101.
This is also one of the few spaces where you can really see how the exterior architecture informs the interior. It’s also the only place that makes it look somewhat like the inside of a guitar. It’s a fun room, but it was mostly filled with kids running around trying to bang on everything they could.
Spanning the top two floors is the towering guitar sculpture, If VI was IX. The name comes from a Jimi Hendrix song, “If 6 was 9.” Apparently, it plays music – not from speakers but from actual mechanisms plucking the strings. If it still does that, I couldn’t hear it passing by. It might take a closer listen.
Contact High: A Visual History of Hip Hop
The second floor of the Museum of Pop Culture holds most of the museum’s collection. The first gallery we’ll head into is Contact High, a collection of photographs from the early days of Hip Hop.
A lot of the photos are raw, unedited, and informal. But there are studio and formal portraits too, for album covers and magazine shoots. It’s a fascinating look into those big personalities.
Hendrix Abroad
The curving Contact High gallery feeds you straight into the Hendrix gallery. The current display features Jimi Hendrix’s years abroad, from the time he arrived in London in 1966 to his death in 1970. The displays include guitars, clothes, and handwritten notes. It features his one and only passport, and a travel diary he kept.
Guitar Gallery
Working back towards the entrance to Contact High, we come to the small guitar gallery. This room is a permanent feature of the MoPop, and while small, it crams a LOT of history into the space. I noticed guitars from Buddy Holly and Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell.
Fender, Taylor, and Gibson guitars feature strongly, and you’ll recognize almost all the names of the musicians to which they used to belong, even if you aren’t a hardcore music fan. It’s a wonder that so many of them have ended up in this collection and not enshrined at home.
Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses
I think there will always be a home at MoPop for the bands that started in Seattle, like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Jimi Hendrix. Currently, there’s a Nirvana gallery featuring over 200 artifacts including Kurt Cobain’s guitar and Dave Grohl’s drum kit. Clothes, promotional items, and more history are on display.
Indie Game Revolution
Across the floor is a very interactive room called Indie Game Revolution. The pixelated room features stories from a new generation of game designers, coders, and composers. But mainly it’s a chance to play any one of 20 new independently-produced games at consoles around the room.
When I visited, this room was packed with players and observers. I get the feeling that if you really want to play anything, you need to head there early or plan to wait a while.
If you head to the end of the hall away from the stairs, you come to a huge screen they call the Sky Church. The name is taken from an idea by Jimi Hendrix of a place where people of all backgrounds could unite under the power of music. The space feels like a perpetual rock concert, with a massive 33-foot by 60-foot LED HD screen, superior sound design, and even special effects lighting. The open space is a good place to sit down and rest for a while, and I think they rent it out for events.
To the right is the MoPop Shop, which I think I must have missed entirely! You can exit the building from here, but you can also exit out the front, which is what I did. So walk through for a short break or make sure to visit before leaving. But also know the MoPop is a big enough place that you can miss a whole section and not even know it!
Fantasy: Worlds of Myth & Magic
If you go to the left of the Sky Church, you enter a portion that looks suspiciously like an airport terminal. It’s not, there’s great stuff back here, it’s just tucked away. Down a broad corridor is access to three genres – Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.
First up is Fantasy, only because it’s technically still on this floor. The door to it is actually between the entrances to the other two options. And what a door! It’s a beautifully heavy wooden door, perfectly befitting the start of a fantasy adventure.
Inside is a primer on the fantasy archetypes and even a quiz to match you to one of them. Then using that framework, you explore the rest of the space with a forest, a magic metal tree, and even some little corridors, like a gem-filled mine. And there are movie props galore! Real items from the Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, the Dark Crystal, and more. The video for this section is projected on the eyes of a huge dragonfly.
Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film
The next two galleries are actually downstairs, though the only entrances are on this floor. The Science Fiction gallery is the first door on this hall, but it makes more sense touring-wise to start with the Horror gallery, which is on the far side of the Fantasy door. If you head down the stairs here (plus it’s the only spot with an elevator) and walk through Horror, it connects right into the entrance to Sci-Fi. If you start with Sci-Fi, you end up entering the Horror gallery from the back.
Descending into the horror gallery is like walking into a haunted house! The light is red and menacing, and there are rows of hanging prop bodies that obscure your sightlines. I get a little wigged out by horror and I got pretty spooked at first. But then I realized that so many of the props were familiar to me, like a dress from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video and heads in tanks from The Walking Dead. There’s even a little churchy space that covers vampire lore. So in the end, it’s not quite as scary as I thought it would be.
Infinite Worlds of Science Fiction
Walking down into the Science Fiction gallery (or entering from the Horror gallery), you thematically board the Space Ark, a space cruiser with a collection of Sci-Fi artifacts from around the galaxy. You’ll recognize props from Star Trek, Star Wars, War of the Worlds, Blade Runner, X-Men, Ghostbusters, and on and on and on. And I love that nothing in the MoPop is a reproduction. They’re the real props and costumes from the movies and shows. It’s like a Smithsonian just for nerdy stuff.
On one wall is a huge interactive globe, you can change the display via a Star Trek-style touch panel. Tucked in a corner is a video area with seating. Almost all the galleries have a video area. If you have the time, they are worth watching. Plus, often there’s a chance to sit down for a few minutes. I set aside this whole day for the MoPop and watched everything I could, and really enjoyed taking my time.
Science Fiction & Fantasy Hall of Fame
There’s even more Science Fiction on the first floor, near the ticket counters, in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Hall of Fame. I honestly am not sure how this works – I think all the nominees for the year are put on display, then you can vote online and the winners are inducted into the official Hall of Fame. Regardless, there are a LOT of amazing props in here! I saw Leonard Nimoy’s Spock shirt from Star Trek, Luke’s severed hand and lightsaber from Star Wars, costumes, swords, and more. It’s so cool. There’s also a great series of videos that play on a loop – I highly recommend watching some, or all, of them.
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Hall of Fame is right when you walk in, so it’s most people’s first stop and can get mobbed in the mornings. You might find lighter crowds at the end of your touring day. Or, hit it as soon as the MoPop opens. I could see doing that – visit the Hall of Fame right at opening – then start at the top with Laika, work your way through the 2nd floor, and exit near the gift shop. (And don’t miss it, like me.)
Theater & Cafe
On the bottom floor is also a large theater, which shows short films throughout the day. I ended up parking myself here at the end of my day, just to sit down for a while in the air conditioning before tackling the afternoon heat outside. I didn’t see anything life-changing, and to be honest, the screen was blank most of the time.
There’s also a museum cafe on the ground floor with seating there and upstairs. I ate here and I can’t recommend it. You order via a touch screen, but there were drinks I couldn’t order there, so I had to make two separate orders – one for food, one for drinks. I don’t remember waiting long, but I do remember the ketchup dispenser being almost empty. My fries were pretty good, but my tomato sandwich was soggy. So overall, good concept but very poor execution. I recommend walking up the hill to the Armor food hall instead. Or anywhere else.
There’s also a fairly big playground behind the MoPop. I’m not sure if it’s affiliated, but it’s sort of in the same style. It’s free to visit anytime, no admission needed.
Admission
The Museum of Pop Culture is open from 10 am-5 pm daily, but closed on Wednesdays. Ticket price can vary from $25.75-32, depending on the day, how far out you buy online, and even what time of day you visit. Later in the day is slightly cheaper, and they stop selling tickets 2 hours before closing. (For reference, I spent about 6 hours here.) There are discounts for seniors 65+, students, military, and youth aged 5-12. Adding the Laika exhibit is about $7 more, though again, it varies by date and time.
I bought admission as part of the Seattle City Pass, which takes nearly half off regular admission, then purchased the Laika separately, which worked out fine for me.
A note about parking: I used the KOMO parking garage, right across the street from the Space Needle. The first time I used it, I used Spot Hero to reserve 12 hours for under $20. When visiting MoPop, I winged it, and still got about 8 hours for just over $20. There may be better deals, but there’s no dedicated parking garage just for the MoPop. It’s whatever you can find on the street and lots surrounding.
Conclusion
If you can’t tell by all the gushing, I really love the Museum of Pop Culture! I love music, movies, and especially Sci-Fi and Fantasy, so this really hits me in the very center of my heart. I’d totally be a member if I lived near Seattle.
And they have events too, like full-length movies in the theater, homeschooler days, and on Halloween, they’ll hold a “Fashionably Undead Monsters Ball” which sounds like a hoot. If you like movies or music, I can’t recommend the MoPop enough!
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