Hey, it146;s a dinosaur!

THE lights go down, the smoke rises and the star of the show lumbers in. She is 36 feet tall and 49 feet long, and she has a score to settle.

THE lights go down, the smoke rises and the star of the show lumbers in. She is 36 feet tall and 49 feet long, and she has a score to settle. The preschoolers of Washington8217;s Tacoma Dome grab their mothers and older siblings clutch the sides of their seats. The angry T. rex is out to save her baby, a mini-rex who, despite being 15 feet long herself, is cornered by two brave herbivores. The giant predator spots her baby, charges at the offending dinosaurs and lets out a roar surely heard as far as Vancouver. At which point a 7-year-old seated about 20 feet away sheepishly turns to her dad. 8220;Um, I8217;m not scared,8221; the girl whispers, 8220;but she8217;s not coming up here, is she?8221;

Walking With Dinosaurs 8212; The Live Experience is designed to thrill, educate and terrify a little. It8217;s derived from the T. rex-size BBC series that attracted a whopping 770 million viewers from the time it first aired in 1999 and, later, on the Discovery Channel. The stage version is every bit as ambitious, and realistic. The tour features 15 eerily lifelike dinosaurs in a 90-minute stage production that cost 20 million to create.

What makes Dinosaurs different is that it8217;s derived from a non-children8217;s television show. 8220;I know it would have been easier and safer to put together a more-traditional type of show,8221; says the show8217;s creator, Bruce Mactaggart. 8220;But I thought, 8216;Why not take a risk and aim for something totally new and different?8217; Besides, what could be more fascinating to work with than a 45-foot-tall brachiosaur?8221; Take that, Barney.

The show begins with a 8220;paleontologist8221; clad in safari gear, who hosts the proceedings from the stage. The creators weave all 163 million years of the dinosaur8217;s reign 8212; from plate tectonics to the genesis of the dung beetle 8212; into one colourful narrative. 8220;I wanted to offer something that was entertaining and informative,8221; says Mactaggart.

It takes a crew of more than 150 humans to bring the giant lizards to life. Each of the dinosaurs is operated by three controllers 8212; one who drives the dino from its base and two who remotely operate its motion. The gargantuan dinos are made of lightweight steel and crinkly latex skin, but it8217;s not just their size that matters. The smaller details 8212; the brachiosaur8217;s inquisitive cock of the head, the predatory glint in the raptor8217;s eyes 8212; are just as impressive.

Just about everyone in the kids8217; entertainment business is watching to see if the dinosaurs can expand their audiences to older kids and, ultimately, parents. The dinosaurs are already stars in Australia, where Mactaggart an Aussie 038; Co. conceived them. But will American kids, who8217;ve long nursed a dino fixation in movies and museums, embrace these coldblooded entertainers? The opening-night audience of 7,000 in Tacoma was certainly dazzled by the spectacle, but the kids got restless during the factoid-heavy interludes. Funny, no one complained that the T.rex was too short, or too loud. Newsweek