Walking With Dinosaurs Family Tour Information

Walking with Dinosaurs touring show is based upon the popular BBC program of the same name. The touring show features a humongous cast of 15 giant creatures which represent ten different species of dinosaur as well as a human type “paleontologist” that knowledgeably leads spectators through a couple of evolutionary eras of the dinosaurs while unfolding the various changes which are taking place upon Earth at that time. A few of the more gigantic dinosaurs like the T-Rex or the brachiosaurs travel on small electric powered vehicles and driven by three puppeteers. The smaller of the dinosaurs such as liliensternus and the baby T-Rex represent the suited up dinosaurs featuring a puppeteer that is wearing the dinosaur suit on a harness and working the head, sounds and the eyes from within the suit. The animated creatures activities are somewhat based upon the dinosaurs featured in the popular BBC TV series of the same name and the observations of live elephants at the Melbourne Zoo. These dinosaurs begin their life as miniature 1/20-scale models made by sculptor Belinda Villani. When everyone was content with how the dinosaurs looked the next step was to scan them with a 3-D scanner in order to get a virtual dinosaur. Designed to be as light as possible the creatures are designed to be as weightless as possible although their hydraulic motors and steel skeletons add up to considerable weight making some dinosaurs weigh between one-and-a-half up to two tons. Prior to arriving in the United States the dinosaurs production completed an extensive tour of Australia and developed their share of initialization problems. The major problem they were encountering was broken dinosaurs so now to combat all the bumpy rides the creatures are shipped in specially padded trucks, and use common off the shelf parts for their construction. There were 60 people involved in the construction of the dinosaurs and the complete process took about 10 months to complete. It was necessary for the surface of the stage to support the massive weight of the dinosaurs plus it had to also be sufficiently flat for the dinosaurs to safely maneuver on it. Lighting for the stage and for the creatures were a major undertaking. Using a multitude of lights to complete the project. The tallness of the animated creatures were one of the chief challenges facing the lighting designer. The designer stated that it was difficult to direct the light to the head as the creature was constantly moving. All in all the Walking with Dinosaurs is not only an engineering marvel but also an enjoyable means of spending an exciting evening reliving a part of history unseen by humanity. It is truly one of those fun activities for not only the children but also for adults.