UNIQUE UNUSUAL OR INTERESTING: Walking With Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs Live is theatrical/educational event of "Walking With Dinosaurs" is in conjunction with the BBC television show of the same name and if you get the opportunity to go, I highly recommend it.
We went in 2008 when it was in town and purchased the most inexpensive seats that were available, which were $29 each. A lot more than the cost of an admission to a movie, but less than price of most concert tickets, but cheap compared to the cost it must take to produce the show.

The website indicated it takes 27 semi trucks and 65 people for the U.S. performances. Each large dinosaur weighs as much as a standard sized car and takes a 3 people to operate it - a driver, one puppeteer to operate the head and tail and another operator for the fine motor skills such as blinking, chewing and roaring. The narrator is on the floor the entire time and tells of the evolution of dinosaurs, along with the climate and the techtonic changes that took place which may have lead to their demise.

All of the dinosaurs are life-sized scaled and all but the Utahraptors are motorized. You can see the actors the actors legs in the Utahraptors costume if you look closely, but from a distance in the dark it is not quite as obvious.

My son and I both tensed a bit when the life-sized T-Rex came out and let out a roar.

To hear the Tyrannosaurus Rex Roar click here - but at the Coliseum with concert quality sound it is much more intimidating!

This is was my son's favorite dinosaur when he was young - it is an Ankylosaurus. It is sort and like a giant reptilian armadillo with a club for a tail.

A Utahraptor, T-Rex and a Taurosaurs

I always thought Tyrannosaurus Rex fit the bill for Henry David Thoreau's quote "If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment." because it has such tiny little arms but such a huge jaws.

Photos by Kathryn Sprowl

To find out when the show will be in your area click here.

If you wanted to plan this as part of an educational experience, at the website, they also have dino bios and facts, and a few free downloads here and they also have an educational kit that you can download here.

They also have three different game that you can play online: Pile of Bones, Design A Dinosaur, and Dig for Dinosaurs.

I decided to go a little bit Salvador Dali-ish with my T-Rex, Rexy that I made using Design A Dinosaur. At the site you can also add up to five different animations: blink, claw, roar, walk and wag tail.