Walking with Dinosaurs − The Arena Spectacular was created by Australian live entertainment company
Global Creatures, with puppet design by The Creature Technology Company. Artistic director
William May is credited as the live show's creator. The production cost $20 million to stage and used
puppetry,
suits, and
animatronics to create 16
Mesozoic era creatures representing 10 species. Each large dinosaur weighs several tons, and is operated by two "voodoo puppeteers" and a driver beneath the dinosaur who also monitors the hydraulics and batteries. The smaller dinosaurs (marked by an *) are suits operated by the person in it, each weighing from 20–30 kg (44-66 lbs). There are six puppeteers for these suits, which only have side views. The nine prehistoric creatures featured are: •
Allosaurus •
Ankylosaurus •
Brachiosaurus (1 adult, 1 adolescent) •
Liliensternus* •
Ornithocheirus also appeared as an animatronic in earlier versions of the tour, before being replaced with a CGI video sequence •
Plateosaurus (1 adult, 3 hatchlings) •
Stegosaurus •
Torosaurus (2x) •
Tyrannosaurus (1 adult, 1 juvenile*) •
Utahraptor (3x)* There was also the carcass of an ornithopod and a video sequence about the
Ornithocheirus. Some of the dinosaurs initially did not have feathers, but they were later added after new research showed dinosaurs possessed plumage. This also necessitated rewrites of the script, which were added to later iterations of the show as well as improvements in the animatronics, making them more responsive to puppeteers and giving them the ability to "eat" food and spray water vapor as "breath". ==Tours==