We Have a T-Rex!
January 10, 2007 12:24 PM   Subscribe

Behind-the-scenes at the dinosaur factory. Creations for "Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience," saurian puppetry (and animatronics) on a 1:1 scale. Who needs CGI? Check out Torosaur vs. Utahraptor.
posted by steef (16 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
I would have crapped myself over this kind of thing about twenty years ago. In fact...yup, I just did. Dino-TASTIC!

Also, I really wanted to see the Utahraptor bite one of those kids.
posted by Pecinpah at 12:40 PM on January 10, 2007


I've only watched the last link, so this could be explained already in the others. But this appears to be a combination of independent animatronics as well as human acting.

Aha. Yeah, upon watching the first link, the raptor was a large costume worn by an actor. But damn. This is pretty good stuff. Awesome post!

I can't wait until autonomous animatronics are able to roam around, with completely self contained workings. Disney is close, but it's raptor needs to carry its guts around in a cart.

I read something once in Popular Science (or was it Discover?) about a creation that was the world's largest free roaming robot, originally created for Disney's Animal Kingdom. For whatever reason, Disney scrapped the project. Anyone know anything else about this?
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 12:41 PM on January 10, 2007


OK, that was just too cool.

But when will the "On Ice!" version be out?

Or would that be "Skating with Dinosaurs?"
posted by cptnrandy at 12:42 PM on January 10, 2007


What a wonderful time to be alive pretend to be in the Cretaceous period!
posted by hydrophonic at 12:44 PM on January 10, 2007


I think the best way to go with this post is to watch the last link first and the first link afterwards. Knowing how a magic trick is done before seeing it performed just ruins it, for me anyway.
posted by JT at 12:50 PM on January 10, 2007


My son will love this! He's watched Walking With Dinosaurs at least a 100 times now.
posted by turbanhead at 1:24 PM on January 10, 2007


Loved the kids' reactions in the DinoFight video — need one of those raptor suits to open the front door next Halloween. BTW, the Creature Designer for WWD:TLE is Sonny Tilders.

The American Museum of Natural History has a unique dual fossil of a Velociraptor vs. a Protoceratops: The Fighting Dinosaurs [QT videos].
posted by cenoxo at 1:32 PM on January 10, 2007


That's good puppetry.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:35 PM on January 10, 2007


This is great! I saved the links so I can show them to my son.
posted by amyms at 1:39 PM on January 10, 2007


I find the utahraptor's lack of a cloaca... disturbing.
posted by ursus_comiter at 1:42 PM on January 10, 2007


I can't find any information on tour dates outside Australia, other than a vague mention in Variety of west-coast USA in September and the possibility of a cloned show touring Europe. Thats all conditional on the success of the Australian tour, though.

But how can it fail? Every kid in the world is going to want to see this, and then they're going to want to see it again.
posted by Hogshead at 2:24 PM on January 10, 2007


Cheapest tickets $80! Much better to watch it on the internets.
posted by wilful at 2:24 PM on January 10, 2007


I read something once in Popular Science (or was it Discover?) about a creation that was the world's largest free roaming robot, originally created for Disney's Animal Kingdom. For whatever reason, Disney scrapped the project. Anyone know anything else about this?

That would be Lucky the Dinosaur. He wasn't entirely free roaming, in that he was controlled via the cart that he pulled behind him. Even so, he was pretty dang impressive. The last I heard, he was over at the Hong Kong Disneyland.
posted by Lokheed at 3:15 PM on January 10, 2007


Oooh. cenoxo's slideshow link has more carnivores. Thanks, cenoxo!
posted by steef at 3:25 PM on January 10, 2007


*squeals with glee*
posted by brundlefly at 3:57 PM on January 10, 2007


I find Ursuses notice of the raptor's cloaca or it's absense a little disturbing.

I find the live video to be amazing, the behind the scenes video really great, and the shots of a trex in the slideshow to be a dream come true.
posted by Brainy at 10:20 PM on January 10, 2007


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