Seen by more than nine million people in 250 cities worldwide, Walking With Dinosaurs – The Live Experience is a S$20-million production featuring state-of-the-art technology and 18 realistic, life-sized dinosaurs. 

The source material from the show comes from the award-winning BBC television documentary series and the show is touted as being the best and biggest dinosaur show in the world.

Now In Singapore For A Limited Time

Walking With Dinosaurs – The Live Experience is currently in Singapore, now until Sunday the 8th of September. 

And I had the opportunity to watch the production on the opening night, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Walking With Dinosaurs – The Live Experience, begins at 7pm in the evening, but there was unfortunately a 10-minute delay on opening night when I went.

Told Through The Eyes Of A Palaeontologist

The show is told through the eyes of a fictional palaeontologist, Huxley, who time-travels, taking the audience back in time, 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs freely roamed the Earth.

Huxley’s role throughout the show is to provide commentary about the events that are transpiring during the course of the show, as we were taken through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods in the history of the dinosaurs, with Huxley introducing each dinosaur species as it appeared on stage.

Dinosaurs Featured In The Show

Some of the species that were featured, had included the Stegosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Allosaurus and of course, not forgetting the infamous T-Rex.

I felt that the dinosaurs themselves were huge and mostly realistic in their appearance, in terms of their three-dimensional nature, size, hide and skin texture, as well as how they feed and the sounds that they made too. 

To put the size of these massive creatures into perspective, the largest dinosaur in the production – the Brachiosaurus – is 11 meters tall and measures 17 meters from nose to tail.

So I would say that it had definitely been a great job done, on the part of the show’s producers.

And occasionally during the show, the dinosaurs also came up to the front rows of the audience, as though they were allowing themselves to be petted by the show spectators. I thought that this was an interesting idea, and reminded me of a petting zoo.

Familial Bonds And Fight Scenes

As well, I also liked the way that the dinosaurs were humanised, in terms of how the show depicted their familial bonds, for example, between mother and child. This had made the dinosaurs feel like real animals, rather than merely appearing like inanimate puppets.

And the way that the show depicted fight scenes between attacking predators and their preys was also good, and in fact, on many occasions, I found myself instinctively rooting for my favourite dinosaurs during each of these episodes – though I soon realised that had been no bloodshed or violence throughout the show, probably in order to make it suitable for kids.

A Gripping Show

All of these factors helped to made the show gripping, and fleshed it out, turning it into so much more than being a mere history lesson.

So as such, I felt that I learnt so much more about dinosaurs from this show, than I would ever have learnt from reading history books.

My Only Gripe

My only gripe with the dinosaur puppets had been the large coaster at the base, that was used to help them to move around.

And I thought that this put a dampener on their realism and it had reminded me that I was watching costumed actors, instead of real animals. And once I had spotted this coaster within the first few acts, I found myself unable to un-see it for the remainder of the production.

True To Life

Other than this though, I thought that the movements of the dinosaurs had felt pretty realistic to me, such as how they moved their heads and their tails.

As such, the 1 hour and 40 minutes of production time passed by in a blur and before I knew it, the show was over and it was time to leave the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Great For All To Learn About Dinosaurs

I feel that this show is a must-watch for anyone who wants to find out more about the history of the world and the dinosaurs and how these majestic and fearsome creatures used to live and thrive during their heyday.