dinosaur

Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience

Posted by hil

Small_eye

The Sydney Morning Herald today has the first glimpse on video that I have seen of a mighty puppet production that is going on in Melbourne at the moment: Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience. The creative team, with Sonny Tilders as Head of Creature Design, is making 12 life-size animatronic/puppet dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus-Rex, Brachiosaurus and the Flying Ornithoceirus ‘the largest creature to ever take wing… with a maximum wing-span of 12 metres (40 feet) and up to 3 metres tall
when standing on all fours’. The creatures will come to life at the world premiere on 10 Jan 2007 at the Acer Arena in Sydney, and will tour nationally before taking off around the world.

One of the producers, Malcolm C Cooke, has previously been involved with other puppetry productions including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the second production of The Hobbit in 2000.

Judging by the video, the puppets are simply amazing, and I hope I get to see them. I do wonder though, if there will be more to the production than sheer spectacle. I’ve wondered this about dinosaurs and realism before! Sometimes I start to crave subtlety and symbol and story.

Dinosaur

Update
Here are some newspaper reports today. The reports are similar, but different photos.
The Age: ‘We touched a dinosaur! Doyouthinkhesaurus’?
Sydney Morning Herald: OK, which of you kids called me fossil features?
The Australian:Kids get chance to walk back in time – best description of how the puppets are made and move
Courier Mail: For a stomping good time
Daily Telegraph: Dinosaurs roar back to life in arena – 3 photos

Update (8 Aug 06):
WireImage has a two-page listing of thumbnail images from the promotion the other day.

Update (22 Mar 07):
Workshop footage,
Walking with Dinosaurs: the Live Experience: new slideshow
Walking with Dinosaurs – The Live Experience: a review, and more links

PuppetVision: photos of Sau’rus

Posted by hil

As I hoped out loud, Andrew at PuppetVision took some great photos of Sau’rus when they were in Toronto.There are some cool preparation shots there, as well as ones of the performance. Thanks, Andrew. I particularly like this one as a picture, because the letters on the shop suggest “Sau’rus”. Its a bit like that meme about being able to read jumbled letters as long as the first and last letters are right. Although they say that was a hoax, it makes sense to me.

Close-Act: Sau’rus

Posted by hil

Saurus

(photo by digitaldust)

A few weeks ago I was impressed by a number of photos at Flickr showing some fabulous big dinousaur walkabout puppets at the Paradise Gardens festival in London. This was Sau’rus, an act by the Dutch theatre group, Close-Act Street Theatre. Close-Act was formed in 1991 and ‘has since grown to a professional community of actors, musicians, stilt-walkers, dancers,
fire-throwers and acrobats’. Along with technical details and the story, they also have a cool video of the dinoaurs, which shows them as quite agile and menacing, especially with the noises they make and tails whipping around as they stalk along. Looks like they have some other cool acts in their repertoire, too.

Flyingbut_hodman

The festival also had the pod puppet Flying Buttresses, a tiny elderly couple called Hodman Dodmanott and Sally Forth who ‘venture out in search of fame, fortune and friendship with all their possesions strapped to their backs. After living alone for hundreds of years they have lost touch with the realities of modern life.’ They look fun.

Update: Andrew at PuppetVision reports that Sau’rus is performing in Toronto in the The Celebrate Toronto Street Festival, July 8th and 9th. Maybe he will take some photos :-)? Yes, here they are! Thanks, Andrew.