"Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience" - spoiler show review

A couple months ago, the husband and I had a conversation that went something like this:

him: Do you want to go see dinosaurs?
me: Dinosaurs? Real dinosaurs?
him: Yeah, sort of.
me:

He then explained that he'd seen some show on PBS about a live dinosaur show where they use what are basically human-controlled giant puppets with animatronic features, and the show was touring and would be coming around L.A. Hmmm, ok, I like dinosaurs, not really sure what to expect, but it sounded cool.

So last night, we saw "Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience" at the Staples Center. (BTW, on the website, if you move the cursor around, the eye will follow you. Cool and disturbing at the same time.)

Oh.my.goodness. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.


The husband and I arrived at about the same time after work, and we made our way to our level. We had about half an hour until the show started, and neither of us had stopped for food, so we decided to get something from one of the concession stands. I decided on the deluxe nachos, and the husband got the California Pizza Kitchen BBQ chicken salad. They have a number of restaurants and other concession stands at the Staples Center. Later in the evening, I ran across another concession stand that had some pretty good sounding sandwiches. I wish I'd seen that first. Among other things, they had a reuben sandwich, but they spelled it wrong.

After getting our food, we made our way to our section, and someone helped us to our seats. As we were walking, I was looking at some particular seats and thought to myself how cool it would be to sit there. Well, our seats ended up in the same row, just a section over. The seats were just perfect. Given the scope of the show, you don't have to be very close, and if you're higher up, you'd actually get a better view of the dinosaurs. We were just about in the middle. This page has the seating chart for the Staples Center. The fourth chart down has the end stage concert seating, which is about how the show was set up. We were at the very top of section 5, in what is actually disabled seating. It had a perfect view since there was no one in front of us, and even if we were to stand up, we wouldn't be blocking anyone's view behind us since we were just in front of the walkway. Also, we had individual fold-up chairs as opposed to the connected seating in the normal seats, so we had a lot more room and range of motion. Our seats were $36 at face value, but the husband got them through a broker because they didn't have good seats left that he wanted, so he ended up paying about $58 each for them. Since Ticketmaster charges exhorbitant "convenience fees", the amount he paid for the tickets wasn't much more than that anyway, and the price was completely worth it. We sat one section over from where one of the show cameras was situated. The husband said that he'd read on the website that there was a concerted attempt to have some relatively inexpensive seats available since they figured families would want to come.

We sat down to have our dinner, and the husband really liked his salad, and I liked my nachos, although I mostly ended up eating the chicken and other toppings and not as much of the chips because the show started before I finished, and I didn't feel like eating anymore. We also spent a little bit of time talking to the people sitting next to us.

The show has a narrator of sorts, a paleontologist who basically takes us on a time-travel journey back to the time of dinosaurs. He talks about the different periods that dinosaurs existed, and dinosaurs from those time periods come out. Some just kind of march around, and some actually interact with each other. There are also representations of plants and flowers and trees which are pretty cool, and some of the dinosaurs "graze" among them. There is a lot of use of lighting and fog to create different effects as well. They also had two side screens so that show cameras situated throughout the arena could get close-ups of things, making it easier for everyone to see. They also had a screen in the middle where images were projected, and for some of the animals, it made a terrific backdrop. The paleontologist has some pretty funny lines, and he's got lots of useful information as well, but I'll admit that there were times I barely listened to him because I was just in awe of the creatures I was seeing. At first, I was a little distracted because the dinosaurs have a support under them, and they walk with a sort of "T" underneath them, but once I got over that they were needed to make the dinosaurs move, I didn't really notice them anymore.

It was seriously an incredible show. It was amazing to see the movements of the creatures and to hear their "voices". Mom and child brachiosauruses (the ones I still think of as brontasauruses) were amazing to see together - I know this sounds stupid, but they about brought me to tears. From our vantage point, we were about eye-to-eye with them - which gives you some idea of how huge they were. You don't actually really appreciate their size until you see them with the paleontologist - and you realize just how much they tower over him.


This picture from the website shows the brachs, and you can also see some of what the set looks like.


The flying bird (not a pteradactyl) was a little disappointing, I thought, but then, I just wanted it to really fly. I didn't think it was quite as impressive because you could actually see that it was being suspended by wires, so the illusion that it was real was harder to believe. It was pretty cool, though, because the backdrop had images of soaring over water and cliffs and stuff, and when the front camera captured the bird in front of the backdrop, the images shown on the side screens gave the illusion of the soaring bird. I did think this segment went on a bit too long though.


The flying reptile as pictured on the website.


Loved, loved, *loved* the three-pack of raptors. They've been my favorite dinosaur since I saw "Jurassic Park". They were just awesome. (Because you can see the human legs that operate the raptor legs, the illusion of their reality is a little harder to maintain.) They had a segment where they were looking out into the audience and planning their coordinated attack! They also had a segment that was kind of icky, even though I knew it was entirely not real. They had a dead dinosaur on stage that the raptors were eating. Ewwww. But raptors are still cool.


Two raptors and their meal.


But of course, the star of the show was the T-Rex. Baby T-Rex got caught and cornered by two other dinosaurs, and mom T-Rex came to the rescue. Her roar was incredible, and as she was staring out into the audience, it was terrifying. And amazing. There was also one bit that was really funny that involved mama T-rex and the paleontologist, but it was scary too. And there was a wonderful moment with mom and baby.


From the website, this is mama T-rex. Yep, she really does have a big head and tiny little arms.


Here's a promotional video of the show where you can see the dinosaurs in action.




And here's another that shows a bit more footage.




They asked that people not take video of the show, but you know they have no real control over that. Here's video of the mama T-rex section of the show.




Baby T-rex made an appearance on the Regis and Kelly show.




The show runs for about 45 minutes, then there's a 20 minute intermission, then it runs for about another 45 minutes.

There were *tons* of kids there, and they seemed to love it. You could hear their reactions when the different dinosaurs came out. But I think adults were just as blown away by the show. I know this one was. They had an earlier start time to the show than most shows - 7pm - and I expect that was partly because they knew kids would be attending and didn't want to keep them out too late.


I HIGHLY recommend going to the show - it's still touring the U.S.