All of sudden you stop breathing and your heart beats faster. There is a full sized Tyrannosaurus Rex staring right at you and it’s obviously pissed off. It lets out a huge roar showing its dominance and grunts, slowly walking away toward its next potential prey. You know there’s no reason for it be in front of you yet there it is, Welcome to “Walking With Dinosaurs-The Arena Spectacular.”
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Walking With Dinosaurs |
Allstate Arena
Chicago, IL
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The tour, a live action journey through the time of the dinosaurs, is nothing short of breathtaking. With 17 dinosaurs in the show, ranging from tiny raptors to the 36 foot tall Brachiosaurus the audience gets a truly unique perspective of this fascinating period in history.
The Allstate Arena is the ideal spot for such a show. With large ceilings but seats close to the stage there isn’t a bad spot in the house. Of course it doesn’t hurt that most of the stars are at least 10 feet tall and green.
Although the audience was expectantly mostly children with parents the show doesn’t try and speak down to the audience. Instead Huxley, an actor playing a paleontologist, seems to naturally and casually spout out facts about the dinosaurs on stage sometimes going into great detail. This has to be admired in not only the field of entertainment but education as well. To often it is thought that science should be dumbed down for the masses, here there is just enough humor and science for everyone.
It is impossible not to be in awe. The moment the Plateosaurus came on stage and started interacting with audience I became eight years old again fascinated and enthralled by the great creature. Each new dinosaur received a large “wow” from the crowd; it was like the circus on steroids.
No matter how old you are it is impossible not to feel a sense of wonderment at the spectacle going on around you during the event. At one point a full sized T-Rex, a Torosaurus and a Ankylosaursus are fighting it out in the center of the arena. The entire audience stopped breathing. To actually see such a thing in front of you will blow your mind in ways you never thought possible.
Each of the dinosaurs is a technological marvel. It takes nearly 24 microprocessors to control the movement of the large dinosaurs along with six hydraulic motors inside of them. It takes a team of three people (two in the audience and one actually inside the dinosaur) to make sure the movements are fluid and lifelike each show. It took a team of 50-including engineers, fabricators, skin makers, artists, painters and animatronics experts- a year to build the original production.
Their efforts have not gone unnoticed. The show’s two companies have played to over 6.2 million people and continue to win awards such as the Billboard Touring Award for Creative Content and the ILMC Arthur Award for Best in Show.
Whether you have small children or are still a kid at heart this show will amaze you in ways you never knew possible.
* Photos shot at Sprint Center in Kansas City, MO
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