Walking with Dinosaurs

WOW, was that ever a fun show! My inner child was delighted, and my theatre tech groupie was fascinated. It was Shown in the same place where the basketball games are held. The first bank of seats closest to the floor were blocked off, so we were well seperated from the action. The stage was set with three structures that symbolized rocks or mountains or continents as required. We got there early enough to watch the guys who run the follow-spots winch themselves waaaay up into the flys and clamber precariously into their seats, suspended dozens of feet above the floor. Then peole in black clothes began wandering out onto the floor and quietly slipping inside the rock structures. Cloud shadow lights began playing across the audience. Finally, the show began. A guy appeared on the floor and told us he was a palentologist. Since the show is geared for kids, he explained what that meant, then took us on a slide back through time to the Creataceous. Hot red lights made the stage look desert-like. and that odd accretion at the end of one of them became a nest with eggs. Then, a guy in a fabulous two-legged dinosaur costume came out and he had the movements down to an art! The head of the critter was a good ten feet off the floor, and most of the weight of the costume had to be resting on his shoulders. The narrator had to run and hide from it, peering around the side of the "boulders" The head was animated, the tail was fully articulated. I was completely prepared to believe he was a predatory dino. He snuck up to the nest just as the eggs were hatching, and grabbed one of the hatchlings in his mouth and ate it!! And then, when he was getting ready to go for the other hatchling, there was a roar, and the mother dino arrived. She was twelve feet to the shoulder and roaring with fury. Wow, that was exciting! She chased the carnivore away and nuzzled her surviving little one. Really awesome technology. The critter was supported on a narrow little car that was camoflaged so you just forgot it was there, untill you looked and could just see the silhouette of the guy who was driving it. The legs walked. The feet flexed. The head and neck and tail all moved. It must have taken about fifteen rempte controls to make it all work, and they were seamlessly integrated. I was SO impressed.
Next time line, Jurassic, the Bracheosaurs arrived and seeing the narrator next to their fourty foot height was zastounding!! Big, ponderous guys, walking slowly around, nibbling on the inflatable horsetails and tree ferns. And then, then, they started looking out at the audience. Little kids all over were waving at them. I was one of those little kids. A big carnivore raptor tried to get one of the bracheosaurs, but the other came to help it, and they chased the bad guy away. Then they rubbed their long necks together in a dino hug. Next timeline took us to the time of tauranosaurous and ankylosaurus and the king of the dinos, T.Rex. One bull Tauranosaurus got in a fight with another, and the winnner celebrated by dropping a big ball of dino poop. The kids just squealed with glee! Potty humor is always a winner. The baby Tyranosaurus Rex was played by a guy in costume, and he was brilliant. He thought he would be so big and tough and go attack the tauranosaur, but it was heavily armored and big and it backed him into a corner till he had to yell for help. Then his mommy appeared. Wow, oh wow, oh wow! Angry momma Tyranasaurous Rex. Whee hoo! No bloodshed, but it was so exciting! At the end of the show, the announcer and the baby T. Rex both took bows, and the baby T. Rex kept trying to go back out for more applause. Gosh it was fun!!