It's the Great Charlie Brown EXHIBIT!

Weeeeeell, it's not THAT great; IE, great in size...or greatness in the sense of it being anywhere near the "WOW" factor. I was slightly disappointed, let me tell you.

So, along with a patient of mine we went on the last free day of the 2012 year to the Museum of Science and Industry and made our way to the Charlie Brown Exhibit.

With a small $5 fee for the exhibit you get access to a small yet somewhat interesting view of the inside world of Sparky, aka Charles Schultz.

And I'm not kidding; this exhibit is reeeally, really small.

There's a bit of a bio on Sparky along with letters and other notes from the creator of Snoopy along with images of Sparky as a child. There are also notes of when certain characters came to be (Like Schroeder, who was introduced as a baby in 1951) along with a view of the original strip some of the characters came to be. There's a good sized step piano reminiscent of the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks but this piano is no where near the size of the one F.A.O Scwartz had from the movie "Big," there are life-sized plastic characters of Charlie Brown and Snoopy snoozing on his dog house for photo ops, a lot of interaction kiddie activities like an art area and a dress up area. There are cartoon cells of most of the TV specials, a bit of a wall with an homage to "Joe Cool" which I never liked personally....sorry; but I DO love Snoopy!

It seemed like it was geared more for kids. Little kids, but big kids all over who adore Snoopy and Charlie Brown can dig this exhibit. I just didn't think the $5 charge was necessary IMO and don't be surprised if you're slightly disappointed. There was a bit of a teaser for this "great" exhibit before the main hall where the Christmas trees from around the world are displayed; a huge Charlie Brown themed decorated tree that was quite impressive.

This goes along with the deal of products being smaller and servings, service, etc...being shorter and smaller but the price remains the same. Lots of the usual exhibits were not as big as they used to be even a few years ago.

Like the Christmas trees from around the world wasn't as extensive as it usually is and IMO I think some of the countries who decorated their respective trees could have put a bit more "UMPF" in their tree decorating skills. I mean, come on; after all, thousands and thousands of people from all over the world would be looking at these and you'd think they'd put more thought and creativity in their trees. Like the tree from England? Loads of ornaments with the image of Queen Elizabeth and replicas of her crown with a few other doo-dads on it. I don't recall seeing more than one Union Jack flag. The tree from Colombia looked more like it was from Mexico than the tree from Mexico. Very disappointing as well.

The highlight of our trip was the fact that we can purchase a "Big Bang Theory" t-shirt for the kids with the ubiquitous saying of Dr. Sheldon Cooper.

BAZINGA.

The exhibit runs until February 18th, 2013. Want more info on the Charlie Brown exhibit or the Museum of Science/Industry just click HERE