Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Experience

RAWRRR!!! I was actually excited like a kid at this exhibit. I would happily have paid just to see them wheel out a giant T-​Rex and have it roar at me. So, that’s something to consider about where my bar is set.
With that said I think that the narrator was a little too talky which make parts of the show boring and most of his jokes fell flat. Perhaps if they had someone with an English accent it would have worked better. But, who cares? Every time that door opened in the back and I knew a new dino was on its way out I got all squirmy and excited like a kindergarten that has to use the restroom, but doesn’t want to miss a minute of excitement.
Sure, the dinosaurs had things between their feet the helped them move around. Again, who cares? They were 36 feet tall and mobile and had kind of scary eyes and really loud roars. And now I know I never want to see a real dinosaur in life. (Even though I thought I might have wanted to after seeing Jurassic Park.)
The show itself told the story of the different dinosaur eras and I thought they did a good job at making sure all sides of the crowd could see the different dinosaurs. All in all I think it’s a great event to take kids and kids-​at-​heart to.

DINOSAURS ROCK THE WORLD!
The real-​life sizes, the enormous roars, the cute antics of the baby T-​Rex, the narration of the paleontologist, the film & lighting…all this and more brought this experience as close as possible to making you believe you were in pre-​historic times. .. . in a sports arena. If you really paid attention, there were underlying time and geography lessons too. All while we sat in our seats above the action and ate popcorn and drank beer.
Maybe I just like to cut creators a little slack, but I thought this experience was fantastic. Yes, there were some obvious logistical hiccups that I noticed; but not a kid (old & young) in the arena was put off by any of these. I am sure it is difficult, at best, to make this event come off without a few hitches when it is being moved from one city to another.
In the next few weeks it will be in London, Montréal, Ottawa, Atlantic City, Washington DC, Duluth, GA, Pensacola, FL, etc. The World Tour has been touring since 2007 and will continue into 2010 with shows around the world.
Sit back and enjoy the roar of a 6-​meter high Tyrannosaurus rex from the Cretaceous Period, or a 10-​meter high Brachiosaurus from the Jurassic Period.
If you have a 13 year-​old, or a 4 year-​old, or even a 45 year-​old kid you can take to this spectacular. .. DO IT!

Maybe I expected too much from this show. Maybe I should have realized this is probably geared towards kids. But wait! The media kit tells me that I fall right into their target demographic of «three to 93»! If that’s the case, here comes my unbiased review with no holds barred.
Everything I know about dinosaurs I have learned from Michael Crichton, which makes sense since he’s the man who invented dinosaurs. His incredible documentary, Jurassic Park, explores the process he created to make these mythical creatures come to life. The sequel and books written about the movies provide even further insight into this fascinating accomplishment of science. I strongly recommend you seek these out, as they are the best source of information out there when it comes to dinosaurs. I will probably never see actual dinosaurs since Jurassic Park has since been shut down and all (?) of the terrible lizards destroyed, so Walking with Dinosaurs is the next best thing, right?
Wrong. Huxley, the paleontologist (read: actor) hosting the show, was hard to hear at best and completely incomprehensible at worst. His monologue was constantly being drowned out by grandiose music that never seemed to get quiet. The oval shape of the arena should have allowed us to have a view of the dinosaurs at all times, but the set was dominated by 3 large rocks that sat in the very middle for half of the show. Yes, they wised up after the intermission, but you’d think they’d have wised up before they started touring. The large screen projecting scenery of each prehistoric era was rendered unobservable from my seat thanks to an ill-​placed giant plastic tooth. The giant inflatable plant life was the real eyesore of the show however. I felt like I was at a birthday party, not an «arena spectacular».
While the dinosaurs were aesthetically stunning, their movements weren’t very believable. Interactions between the different creatures made me think that we weren’t actually walking with dinosaurs. It was more like participating in some interpretive dance number with them. The larger dinos like T-​Rex or Stegosaurus moved around on remote control wheels while their legs moved up and down to simulate moving. The Pterodactyl was rather unimpressive as well. After being lowered from the ceiling by some giant tow cables (I think I counted about 10 in all), we were treated to the winged beast hanging there as his marionette like movements simulated flying in front of the obstructed screen I mentioned before.
The only dinos the show got right were the smaller ones, like the raptors. Basically, these were people running around with dinosaur suits on, but they ran around convincingly! They were able to interact with each other instead of just wheeling about in circles roaring. It was quite fun to watch the raptors feed on a carcass, or watch an allosaurus eat baby dinosaurs that just hatched. In fact, that was probably the most entertaining part, narrowly beating out when one of the larger dinos «pooped» (Huxley’s word, not mine). Now, I realize there are limitations to what you can make a puppet/​model/​whatever do, but I don’t need the producers of the show to remind me of these limitations with not so clever workarounds.
If you’re over the age of 12 and don’t have kids, there’s no reason for you to go to this show. It’s boring. It’s hokey. It’s what you’d expect from a restaurant called Rex-E-Cheese’s. You’re better off just renting that completely factual, engaging, and classic documentary that will give you all the info you’ll ever need about dinosaurs. Bless you, Michael Crichton. You’re an inspiration to mad scientists everywhere. I just hope Walking with Dinosaurs hasn’t ruined all your hard work.

First off, dinosaurs are awesome. I wish I had been alive when they were because then I could have seen one in real life. But I probably would have gotten eaten pretty quickly, so I’m glad I live in the age of blackberries and, you know, wheels and stuff.
This show is fantastic because in a way, it brings the dinosaurs to life in this century. Yes, half the dinos are animatronic and some of the movements are influid, but the awe and the spectacle are there to be certain. Nothing beats seeing a Brachiosaurus «walk» (they are wheeled out actually but the legs move as though they are walking) out on to the floor and having it’s head almost hit the lights at the top of the stadium.
The mixture of costumed actors dress as smaller dinosaurs and the mechanical giants was wonderful and, although the set left a little to be desired, the «blooming» vegetation on the sidelines added an aspect surrealism to things. The actor who played what was essentially the narrator was ok. My date and I agreed that he would have been more believable if he had used a British accent. I’m not entirely sure why, but it’s totally true.
The other wonderful thing about this show is that you will be almost entirely surrounded by children as you watch. I know. In ANY other situation this would actually make me bring up bile, but their absolute awe and enthusiasm for the production is hard not to catch the fever.
If you go to this show, remember that these animals are robots, not CGI, so you are not going to see perfection. I’m pretty convinced that until there are holodecks (get on top of that, nerds), we will never get to experience dinosaurs in their truly natural form. Try and watch the show with the eyes of a child and you will have an amazing time.
Also, I don’t care if it was a robot or not. When a three story T-​rex roared at me, I still peed in my pants a little.