Page 11 of Dreams Come True at the Fairytale Museu
‘I don’t give a monkey’s what Cinderella wore. Her budget was in magical pumpkins and bibby-bobby-something…’
‘Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo,’ I say, wishing I could wave a wand and magichimaway.
‘Yes, that.’ He sounds like his patience is wearing thin. ‘Whereasourbudget is limited by the pesky confines of reality and cold, hard cash. You cannot let children run around in something so expensive. So I’ll take these and put them somewhere safe, and you put those on display for all to play with.’
Warren lifts the glass slippers from the plinth again, and gestures for me to put the pink plastic ones back in their place, but I have a much better idea.
I take my glass slippers from his hands and push his plastic pair back into them. ‘You like them so much,youwear them. A colour-blind orang-utan with really low standards wouldn’t be seen dead in them, never mind a child. Cinderella’s glass slippers willneverbe pink plastic rubbish. Take them away and never eventhinksuch a thought again. The recycling bins are out the back.’
He laughs. Again, I get the impression that he thinks I’m joking, and I think we’d best move on before I give in to the temptation to pick up Rapunzel’s frying pan and threaten him with it. I’m a bit annoyed because I know he’s got a point about the shoes. Theyaretoo expensive to let little ones run wild in them, and maybe theywouldbe better in a display case, but doing that goes against everything I’ve always wanted for this museum.
‘And then, to get to the next room, we have to walk through Ariel’s grotto of treasures.’ I push open the door at the end of the Princess Suite and hold my hand towards it, encouraging him to step through. ‘The previous owner used it as a storage closet, but it connects the two main halls on this side of the building, and I saw an opportunity to turn it into something much more special.’
He turns around a couple of times, looking at everything, but of course, he decides to comment on something practical. ‘Have you taken theceilingout?’
‘Not me personally, but a builder has, yes. It’s just a small corner of the room, away from any joists or structural necessities, and it now looks right up to the third floor – to give the impression of being underwater and looking up to the surface like Ariel does.’
There are models of Flounder and Sebastian, and Ariel’s orange bag is hanging on a hook, and the walls are lined with shelves right up to the ceiling and they’re filled with all sorts of oddities that Ariel may have discovered on her undersea adventures, from dinglehoppers to smoking pipes to seashells, paintings, costume jewellery, and treasure chests, and thepièce de résistanceis a life-size replica of the statue of Prince Eric that Ariel recovers after the shipwreck in the film.
‘I’ve never seen anywhere like it.’ His tone doesn’t give away whether that’s a bad thing or a good thing.
‘I believe in making the most of every space. And listen to the sound of lapping waves.’
He puts a hand behind his ear, tilting his head, but his face remains blank, obviously not impressed with what I thought was a nice immersive touch. ‘And then, we open this door and we come to the Prince Suite.’ I invite him to go in first and he has to duck through the small-ish door.
‘There’s Aladdin, with the Magic Carpet, and the Genie’s lamp.’
He goes over, takes the golden lamp from the podium and rubs it, and actually looks disappointed when no genie pops out. ‘Aren’t kids going to be disillusioned when a genie doesn’t appear?’
‘Genie’s got his hands full with the wishing well.’
Warren laughs loudly and puts it back. ‘Something tells me you’ve been asked that many times before.’
‘Yep, usually by people a lot younger than you though.’
He wanders around the dressed-up mannequins, from Prince Charming in his cream and red suit, to Prince Philip fromSleeping Beauty, Prince Florian fromSnow White, Flynn Rider fromTangled, a model frog which doubles as Naveen fromThe Princess and the Frog, and the Beast in a costume given to me by Darcy who runs The Enchanted Rose Garden flower shop. I haven’t found much inspiration for the Disney princes lately. It feels like this part of the museum needs a rethink, and judging by the apathetic look on his face, Warren agrees. I just have no ideahowto inject some more life into it. He obviously recognises almost nothing in this room either, so I hurry us back out into the wood-panelled lobby because no one’s manning the front desk, although there are so few visitors today that no one’s needed to.
‘Through there is the dressing-up room, and the Fairytale Homes hall.’ I gesture to both doors opposite us, and then turn towards the far end of the lobby. ‘And you’ve seen the enchanted rose and the painting of Prince Adam.’
The panelled walls throughout the elongated lobby gives the room an elegant, old-fashioned feel, almost like walking into the finest castle, and the walls are full of nooks and crannies that are the perfect size to display smaller things, like my statues of Lumière and Cogsworth, but Warren heads towards the fairylight-filled table at the end where the enchanted rose stands, and above it, the Beast’s painting from when he was still human, just like the one Belle finds in the forbidden West Wing, complete with torn claw marks.
Warren reaches out and lifts one of the tears, unwittingly copying Belle in the film. ‘Someone’s ripped this.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake. WatchBeauty and the Beast. It’s supposed to be torn. The Beast has swiped at it in anger because he doesn’t look like this any more.’
He ignores me. ‘And you just have this openly on display? Anyone can touch it? Pull it? Yank it? Tear it?’
‘That’s exactly the point. It’s a significant scene from the movie. People love being able to recreate it.’
‘It’s going to get damaged with so many hands playing with it.’
‘What do you think someone’s going to do? Come in and throw a can of soup over it? I would rather it get damaged than my customers have to look at it through an acrylic box. This is not some stuffy, hands-off museum where you’re terrified of touching anything. I pride myself on being the opposite of that.’
‘You’re not protecting your investment.’
When he puts it like that, it sounds like a reasonable point, but the last thing I want to do is let him know that. At least people are mostly gentle with the painting and the photo opportunity it provides. ‘My investment is in people being able to pick up and hold things. If a child wants to try on Pocahontas’s necklace or walk around with Princess Jasmine’s headband in their hair then Iwantthem to be able to do that – and adults too, for that matter. You never truly grow out of your Disney phase. This museum started out really small and I’ve added things to it whenever I’ve been able to afford to or been able to make things or find things. This is ten years’ worth of work and love and help from my friends that’s built up gradually. It’s here for people to enjoy it, and that’s how it’s going stay.’
‘No, it isn’t. Your museumcan’tstay as it is. Your finances must be barely ticking over at best, and although I can’t fault your passion, it seems to eschew your business-sense. Rent cannot be paid with wishes and magic, and no building in the Berrington Developments group can continue in this way.’
