To Sun. Thu-Sat pm; Sat-Sun 11am, 3pm. $20-$85. Air Canada Centre, 40
Bay. 416-870-8000. www.ticketmaster.ca.
Upon entering the crowded Air Canada Centre auditorium, my first thought was, "How come people in this town only visit the theatre in large numbers when it involves Abba songs or 30-foot-high animatronic dinosaurs?" My second thought was, "Awesome! Thirty-foot high animatronic dinosaurs!" My third thought was, "Thank God Skye Gilbert can't get his hands on a budget this size."
Although it's basically just Robot Wars with dinosaurs — not that a seven-year-old child might find much to argue with in that that proposition – there's plenty to enjoy and admire about this touring production of Walking with Dinosaurs. Sure, there's a dull narrator — a male model-ish palaeontologist decked in Indiana Jones garb — but he doesn't get in the way of the action too much. (It's impossible to even find the actor's name on show's website.)
"Come, let us take us take our first steps through this lush terrain together," the narrator begins, in his finest Troy McClure, detailing the various stages of the dinosaurs' evolution, while interjecting with various gross-out biological tidbits. ("To conserve liquid, this dinosaur doesn't sweat or even pee!") Personally, I would have been happier if Troy had been dealt with in a more economical way — snacked upon by a raptor, perhaps, or stomped on by an brachiosaurus — but whatever.
What the kids really want is the dinosaurs: big ones, loud ones, scary ones — and lots of 'em. And this is where the show succeeds in spades. The dinosaur puppets — from the stegosaurus, to the allosaurus, to the predictable final scene T-Rex — are absolutely stunning inventions.
Controlled by what looks like a go-kart at the base of the puppet, they're as nimble and expressive as many actors you could mention — an even more impressive achievement, given their size. This might be a goofy, square-as-hell show. But it delivers.