Ever since the day I attended the press call to get an up close and personal encounter with the life-sized baby tyrannosaurus-rex (see previous post here), I had been anticipating this opening night performance of Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience. The whole family had also been talking about it and especially to my girl as I was worried that she would feel intimidated by the huge dinosaurs.
After work that day, I rushed back home to pick my girl and left for the Singapore Indoor Stadium where the opening night would be held. As my girl was below the age of 3, she did not need a ticket and she could just sit on my lap.
Unlike the usual static exhibitions, Walking With Dinosaurs - The Live Experience was a theatrical story hosted and narrated by Huxley who was the paleontologist in the show. This role was shared by actors Dominic Rickhards and Andrew Lewis. Like those BBC documentary shown on the TV, we were taken along on a journey into the lives of these amazing creatures. The show which lasted for 1 hour and 40 minutes long with a 20 minutes interval featured the evolution of the dinosaurs.
The history of the world was played out through a series of events and scenes. First was the splitting of the earth's continents, followed by the transition from the arid desert of the Triassic period to the lush green prairies and forces of the later Jurassic. Oceans formed, volcanoes erupted, a forest caught fire, all these leading to the impact of the massive comet, which struck the earth and forced the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Expect to see 18 life sized dinosaurs that roared and moved just like the real thing. Combined with colourful background projection and amazing lighting effect, it was as though the dinosaurs had came alive. Each dinosaur was operated by world class performers using a series of animatronics and physical puppetry. It took a team of 50 manpower, including engineers, fabricators, skin makers, artists, painters and animatronic experts almost a year to build this production.
Catch the Plateosaurus and Liliensternus from the Triassic period, the Stegosaurus and Allosaurus from the Jurassic period and Torosaurus and Utahraptor from the Cretaceous period. Watched how the two torosaurus fought in a fierce battle and the long-necked Brachiosaurus which stood at 11 metres tall and 17 meters from nose to tail. Those sitting at the VIP front area had a chance to get the gigantic dinosaurs cruised over their head!
My favourite scene had got to be the last part where the mother T-Rex tried to protect the baby t-rex from other dinosaurs. This is similar to how a protective mother will always be around when our kids get into trouble. When the coast was clear, the baby t-rex try to mimic the sound of his mummy but what came out was a squeak instead of a roar.
I'm glad that my girl was brave and watched in awe throughout the whole performance without any fear. Good job, brave girl.
During the 20 minutes break interval, we managed to take this group photo together. Thanks Tracy for sending this photo over. As the show ended its stop in Singapore, it would go on to conquer the rest of the world with record breaking audiences.
The aftermath of the dinosaurs fever continues as she played with the dinosaurs toys that was given to her during one of the RC's event some days back. It was received just in time to prepare her for today. Big thanks to Sliding Door Entertainment for the complimentary tickets!
XOXO
