The 4 year old I borrowed for the day was fascinated by the Underground ride to get to Greenwich and the waterfalls as you walk up to the Dome. He also spent a fair amount of time watching numerous kids splash about in the fountains gushing out of the pavement areas – well, it was one of those rare warm days. He was absorbed by all the crowds milling around and enjoyed passing through the security screen. Then we struggled to walk along Entertainment Avenue where all the restaurants were doing a swift trade. We paused a while to watch the antics at the RollerDisco and continued our long walk to the arena. We talked dinosaurs all the way and admired everyone’s dino tee-shirts although my young man was more impressed with all the escalators. We chatted a bit with the extremely friendly ticket and security staff – great customer service.
We waited patiently for the show to start and this is hard when you are a highly excited four year old. Finally, the lights went down and our palaeontologist strolled into the arena accompanied by some thunderous music and a video of the earth. The anticipation was palpable. As was there “Where are the dinosaurs?” squeaks from all around – my four year old included. We heard about Pangea and then watched – in some distress I must advise – as some dino eggs hatched and a mean old predator ate one of the hatchlings. Luckily, a mummy dinosaur rushed out to save the others with some artful tail swishing.
Then we watched green ferns appear and followed, with our palaeontologist, some huge dino footprints. My favourite dinosaur, a stegosaurus, appeared although there was a bit of an emotional moment when a large allosaurus started to stalk. A baby brachiosaurus (but still impressively big) took to the stage and the dino noises were just fantastic - transported back to the best bits of the Jurassic Park films. Then there was a 20 minute interval.
The second half started with an impressive flying sequence. I thought that they were all called pteranadons or pterodactyls but was advised that this one was called something like orinthochirous. Loved the movie backdrop which included stormy seas. Then came the comical, but dangerous, raptors before the fernlike vegetation changed into colourful flowers. There was some explanation about the co-evolution of insects and flowers but my four year old was wiggling quite a bit here. But he was enraptured once more during a dual between some taurosauruses (the young upstart won) and the entry of a plodding armoured ankolysaurus. Then a cute baby T Rex came on to strut his stuff and just before he was taught a lesson, his mum – a suitably massive T Rex, arrived on the scene to the delight of all the youngsters in the arena.
The models were great – even if the platforms on which the largest dinosaurs moved looked a bit odd. If I had known a little more about the show in advance then I would have booked tickets much nearer the arena – rather than up in the Gods as I am sure the whole thing would have been much more impressive if we had been up close and personal with the dinosaurs. Furthermore, I couldn’t help feel that things got a little too anthromorphic – did dinosaurs really hug? And whilst I loved the whole experience, my four year old did get a bit restless during some of the commentaries – after all, he was there to see the dinosaurs!
