Walking With Dinosaurs Arena Spectacular

This was the arena tour based upon the BBC television series of the same name. The show was an impressive display of puppetry, animatronics and theatrics and was both entertaining and educational. Though I've heard the show to be called "kids stuff" I found it to be a fun evening out.

Whether or not the show is appropriate for all children, most reviews I've read say yes, but I would have to say no. Many of the younger kids that were sitting around me were actually hiding under their seats towards the end of the show when the T-Rex came around and began roaring at the audience, many of them even screaming. I can imagine them going home and having nightmares about it. For the rest of the show, however, they did seem to have a good time.

The adults for the most part seemed intrigued how they managed to pull the whole thing off. The smaller dinosaurs were clearly puppeted with two sets of legs plain to see, the dinosaur's and the person's inside it. The larger dinos, especially Brachiosaurus, were definitely more impressive and a sight to behold. They obviously put a lot of work to make all the dinos seem as lifelike as possible. The narrator, meant to be a paleontologist that guided the audience through each time period and the dinos that lived in that era, for me was more of a bit of comic relief while we waited on the next dino to come out.

The Tyrannasaurus Rex was of course saved for the grand finale, as much for being the largest of the carnivores as being the last of the great meat eaters, since the show was done in chronilogical order. But I felt a group of smaller dinos overshadowed it a bit. Though featured halfway through, the Utahraptors definitely stole the show and had a much more elaborate light show.

To wrap this up, I will admit this show is not for everyone. For those of you uninterested, unwilling to pay the somewhat steep ticket prices or simply unable to attend the tour show, just check out the BBC series for a more in depth description of each era with more of the dinosaurs that lived during them. But in my opinion the series and the tour show are both worth checking out if you get the chance.