"There's Fun to Be Done!" | Exhibit review

The Museum of Science and Industry has always been a good time for families—but it actually became even more fun Thursday with the arrival of a whimsical traveling exhibit, aptly named “There’s Fun to Be Done! Dr. Seuss and the Art of Invention.” An overview of the acclaimed author-illustrator's career, it introduces interesting facts (“Seuss,” which was Theodor Geisel's mother's maiden name, was given to baby Theodor as his middle name) along with plenty of amazing artwork including Seuss-inspired sculptures and costumes, in addition to the expected 2-D sketches and prints. There’s also a tremendous interactive station, about two-thirds of the way in, featuring plenty of opportunities for discovery and play. This exhibit practically defines “all ages” fun.

A perfect quote from the good doctor opens the exhibit, setting the tone: “I like nonsense,” he once wrote. “It wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do. And that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.”

For those of us old enough to be curious about Geisel’s childhood, we learn that the Massachusetts native was born in 1904 to a zookeeper father (If I Ran the Zoo suddenly takes on new meaning) and a baker mother (their family ran a bakery). In fact, he credited mom with his love of rhyme and rhythm: At bedtime, she used to softly croon impromptu rhymes inspired by the litany of pie flavors she regularly rattled off for customers. (There’s a great framed doodle, boasting his distinctive script, listing some of the flavors.)

Before becoming famous for his children’s books (which contain themes and lessons that many adults could still learn), Geisel had a career as a magazine humorist and illustrator. This led to a stint in advertising—just one of the several parallels between this exhibit and last year’s Jim Henson extravaganza. (MSI has a clever penchant for mining our childhood loves. There’s not really much science to it, but when the exhibits are this much fun, about artists who’ve had such a profoundly positive impact on our culture, who’s complaining?) Though the young ones will breeze right past this section of the exhibit, it’s pretty fascinating.

Naturally, Geisel came to advertising in an unconventional way: In 1928, he twice poked fun at Flit insecticide in one-panel cartoons; an ad man (spurred by his wife) was wise enough to co-opt Geisel, who eventually crafted a campaign (“Quick Henry, the Flit!”) that promoted the poison for years. The highlight here is the 1947 subway advertisement for Flit, which clearly showcases Seuss’s distinctive illustration style even as it trumpets, “Improved with DDT.” The ad provides an fascinating, ironic back story to the life of a man whose legacy includes The Lorax, the 1971 fable about environmental degradation that disturbed and galvanized a generation of youngsters at the dawn of America’s eco-consciousness era. (As it turns out, The Lorax was Geisel’s favorite among his own books, and it’s heading to the big screen next year in an animated adaptation, which thankfully spares us any more of Jim Carrey in creepy Seuss makeup.)

If you’re an especially modest parent, you might want a heads-up that the exhibit contains mild nudity in the form of drawings from a 1939 book, The Seven Lady Godivas, that Geisel wrote for adults. It features nude (but nipple-less) women in absurd situations. But kids will likely buzz right past those pictures, then squeal with delight upon reaching the nifty interactive station (although we spied more than one adult playing with the toys too). One station offers Dr. Seuss/Mr. Potato Head-mashup fun, allowing kids to build their own fantasy creature, while the "Horton Sees a Who" table has four nice digital microscopes so you look at slides of specimens as tiny as the fabled Whos that Horton heard.

Best of all is the crazy oobleck experiement. Friendly and patient MSI staffers discuss weather with the young ones as a way to introduce them to the notion of “oobleck,” the green substance that a bored king’s wizards invented in his 1949 cautionary tale, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, about messing around with Mother Nature. The museum's version, plain white instead of green, is really just a concoction of water and corn starch—but boy was it ooey-gooey. One lucky volunteer gets to put on gloves and touch the oobleck; when we were there Thursday morning, it was five-year-old David, looking adorable in Grinch-face makeup, who twice exclaimed, “It’s really icky!”

The facilitator uses the occasion to explain the difference between Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquids. As it turns out, oobleck is the latter. If your kids are old enough, they’ll probably grok it, though to be honest, it’s a pretty advanced concept (none of the adults I talked to that day had ever heard of it before, so we all learned a lesson).

It’s hard to imagine anyone going to “There’s Fun to Be Done!” and not finding something to enjoy. After all, even a grumpy Grinch would discover that Seuss shared some similarities with his famously bitter green protagonist. As he once pointed out, while lamenting some people’s misinterpretation of his most iconic story: “The Grinch in my story is the Hero of Christmas. Sure, he starts out as a villain, but it’s not how you start out that counts. It’s what you are at the finish.”

“There’s Fun to Be Done! Dr. Seuss and the Art of Invention” runs at the Museum of Science and Industry through January 8, 2012. In addition to general admission, the exhibit requires an extra ticket ($5, kids 3–11 $2).