Considering the interest that a few of our members have in animatronics and dinosaurs, I thought I'd make this topic.

Remember the TV series? Man, did I love that. Quite realistic looking dinosaurs, too.

What's intresting is that they're making a live show out of the series. It'll tour Australia before embarking on a global tour.

Thoughts? Personally, I can't wait. ^_^

Vaguely. The real question is does anyone remember "Dinosaurs", the dinosaur sitcom? Now that was a good show.

You mean Jim Henson production? I remember that. It was quite good, wasn't it. I really liked their brand of satire. The first two seasons are even out on DVD now. :)

I haven't seen the Walking with Dinosaurs series. I'll have to see if they re-run it sometime (or maybe I'll rent it sometime since it's out on DVD now). Though I did get to see some life sized animatronic dinosaurs at one of the local amusement parks. They used to have a dinosaur themed attraction (one of those motion simulator rides) and they had animatronic dinos out along the queue line to keep you entertained while you were waiting. It was kind of fun to watch them. :)

If it's the same show I'm thinking of, Walking with Dinosaurs came on the Discovery channel and it was computer generated dinosaurs, not animatronics.

Yep, Furox. I also remember that the same guy who voiced Lupin of Lupin the III (still one of my favorite shows) was the director, or something like that. :D "Not the mama!"

Update: They're selling tickets for the first two cities of their US tour. Check the website.

I'd definitely recommend it. I went and it was freaking AMAZING.

*has the soundtrack*

The video on their site looks kind of cool! There's also some interesting information in their Job Opportunities flyer that's worth reading.

How long is the show?

I can't remember exactly, but it was about a hour or two. They divided it into two parts, with the Triassic and Jurassic making up the first half, and the Cretaceous making up the second half.

It looks like a fun show. I'll have to watch and see if it comes anywhere near San Francisco.

I saw that! Well, I saw the three or four hour TV show special. That was cool! I have walking with Dinosaurs, Allosaurus, and walking with Prehistoric Beasts on Video - go me! :dance:

I saw swimming with Prehistoric creatuares... I would like to get the dvd

Many more US tour dates are now listed on their web site for anyone who's interested in this show. In particular, the dinos are coming to my area at the end of December in San Jose, California. I saw a behind-the-scenes "making of" special for this show on TV recently and it looked pretty cool.

Tickets for the San Jose shows just went on sale a week ago and I've got mine already! :dance:

When I was little, I would've been so pysched to go see that! (I wasn't the biggest dino fan in my family and school! :rolleyes: No wonder they called me the weird girl :( )

I'd love to go see it, but I am in Ireland. A bit too far from the US

The show is produced in association with the BBC which did the TV show, so I would expect the show to tour Europe and UK next. The show has already toured Australia, so they clearly intend to have it travel around a lot. Keep checking their web site for new tour dates. :)

[It's been three months since my last posting, so I believe a double-post is allowed in this case.]

I went to see the Walking with Dinosaurs live show over this past weekend and I liked it. I think they did a really good job with it and didn't just make something cheesy. The show sticks to the basic format of the TV series where it's a "docu-drama" (bascially a dramatized documentary). There's a live actor that plays a paleontologist who serves as the narrator. While he walks around and tells you what's going on, he's removed from the action taking place and the dinosaurs don't "know" he's there. :) It works well and it's fun to watch.

For the show, they stick pretty much to what they believe are the natural behaviors dinosaurs would have done (like the TV series itself). They didn't Disney-fy the behaviors of the dinos by doing silly things which is the way I prefer it. The only exception was the baby T-rex that appears at the end. This character had a rather spunky personality and was a real scene stealer. He was like a little kid looking for attention. :) It was just the right amount of comic relief without getting too silly.

The dinos themselves were really impressive. All the large ones are animatronic rigs that have really detailed movement and a really good walk pattern. The small dinos like the raptors and baby T-rex are actors in elaborate costumes. The costumes must be pretty light since they can run around the arena pretty fast. The large rigs are really impressive to look at, which in some way is the point of the show. There's tons of detail in them, including things like moist eyes and mouths, and even some nasal discharge. With the theatrical lighting, it was all very impressive.

I found a few pictures on photobucket that are pretty good. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my own camera since it said "No Cameras" on the ticket. But when I got to the door, the sign said "No Video Cameras" and it turns out still cameras are allowed. That was a bummer since it was too far to go home to fetch my camera at that point. Sigh.

Anyway, here's the baby T-rex done by a live actor:



and big mommy T-rex:





and a group of raptors approaching a kill:



(The complete album this guy shot is here)

The show is done in two 40 minute segments with a 20 minute intermission. I was enjoying it and would have liked it to go on for a bit longer myself. In particular, I would have liked it if all the dinos had done a curtain call at the very end. As it is, only the paleontologist and baby T-rex come out for a bow. While all the dinos are out long enough for you to get a good look at them, I still would have liked to see them all parade around the arena one final time. Oh well. As they say in show business: always leave the audience wanting more. :)

I highly recommend the show if you like this sort of stuff. It's sort of part theme park experience and part like the TV show itself, and I was quite satisfied. Check their web site for upcoming tour dates.

I'd recommend getting the soundtrack to it if you enjoyed the show. The music is really good. The Main Theme, 'Allosaurus Attacks', and 'Ornithocheirus Flies' are my favourite pieces.

That looks sooooooooo cool! :D

What's even cooler is that they can now build robots with balance systems that allow them to walk freely. That means that at some point in the not too distant future, this technology will be cheap enough that they could incorporate it into animatronic creatures like this. Imagine how much cooler the show could be if all the large animatronic dinos could walk for real instead of being attached to the sled units as they did here. Now that's a show I'd really like to see. :)

That's even cooler!