Thanks to a connection through A Friend of Ours, we had a choice view from about 15 rows up from the floor of the Sprint Center. We had just found our seats as the lights went down and the narrator began.
It was an impressive production. The narrator described, in upper grade-school level terms (which is good news for those of you in Arizona), the geographic and environmental forces that influenced the evolution of dinosaurs from Pangaea in the Triassic to the dino-killing meteor strike that hit Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous.
Not that a five-year-old cares about the scientific mumbo jumbo. We were there to see the dinosaurs. Or, as my five-year-old corrects me, the robots made up to look like dinosaurs.
The dinos lived up to their billing. Through a combination of clever puppetry and sophisticated animatronics, the production company brought out life-sized versions of all the characters made famous in your childhood reading: Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Raptor, Brontosaurus (well, in this case Brachiosaurus) and, of course, Tyrannosaurus Rex.
It was great entertainment and included a 20-minute intermission that allowed me to grab a lemonade and M&Ms for the kid and a Bud Light for myself (all for the low, low price of $15).
The show proper was appropriate for the elementary-age target audience.
That's not to say it was boring to adults. The dinos were indeed impressive... and loud.It's just to say that it was light on the blood and guts factor during the staged fights between carnivore and herbivore. So it wasn't scary as far as that goes.
In fact, the scariest dinosaur of the night was the Grandmasaurus we ran into after the show while standing on line for a souvenir. The great beast roared angrily at the harried booth-tender as he showed her t-shirt after t-shirt until she finally, after what seemed like 20 minutes, chose one for her grandkid.
Anyway, they don't allow professional quality or flash photography at the show, but here are some craptacular pics I got with the camera on my phone.
tagged: Kansas City, Walking With The Dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triassic , Pangaea, Cretaceous, meteor, animatronics, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Brachiosaurus, meteor
Am I the only one that wishes we still had trees like that? Those things look awesome!
ReplyDeleteYour phone takes significantly better pictures than my phone does. I'm thinking I need to look into a new one, stat.