Based on the award-winning BBC TV series “Walking With Dinosaurs”, The Arena Spectacular has won widespread acclaim during two sell-out tours in Australia and America and promises to be one of the biggest shows ever seen in New Zealand.
Walking With Dinosaurs, The Arena Spectacular
Vector
June 29 – July 3
Based on the award-winning BBC TV series “Walking With Dinosaurs”, The Arena Spectacular has won widespread acclaim during two sell-out tours in Australia and America and promises to be one of the biggest shows ever seen in New Zealand.
Featuring 15 realistic, snarling and roaring animatronic dinosaurs, the show will take over the Vector Arena for fifteen show of which four have already been sold out
The cast includes an allosaurus, a torosaurus and a utahraptor. The largest, the brachiosaurus, is 12 metres feet tall and nearly 20 metres from nose to tail. Top billing goes to a 7 metre tyrannosaurus rex which, in a dramatic climax, tries to protect her baby from predators.
Tim Haines, creator and producer of the original BBC series, worked on the live show as a consultant. He said: “At its core, the spectacular manages to do what the TV series did so successfully, which is to make people imagine they are looking at real dinosaurs.” The beasts are operated by “voodoo puppetry” which involves a backstage team manipulating miniature versions with the same range of movements as the life-sized counterparts. Movements of the puppets are replicated on stage.
In its four year journey, Walking With Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular has broken worldwide box office records; been awarded numerous accolades and has been seen by some 7 Million people around the world and has generated in excess of NZD$500 million dollars in ticket sales worldwide becoming the biggest arena touring show in history.
Newsweek hailed it as “that rare entertainment beast that parents and kids can enjoy together”. Variety said the dinosaurs are “stunning and faultlessly nimble”.
