Walking With Dinosaurs, MetroRadio Arena, Newcastle (From The Northern Echo)

Walking With Dinosaurs, MetroRadio Arena, Newcastle

11:11am Wednesday 8th July 2009

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WILL it be Jurassic Park, or the fake Lizards of the Lost World? The opening moments bode well, from the darkness behind an ice rink-sized chunk of pre-human landscape came a mournful cry like the steampowered Tornado with bellyache – and one small child promptly fled. Those not running from dinosaurs settled down excitedly as Huxley, the palaeontologist (Rob Carroll) took us back 220 million years.

Our descendants were like something between a lizard and a mongoose. “Which probably explains our politicians,” jokes Huxley.

We are taken from the first egg of a dinosaur in the first half to a massive plateosaurus, which apparently “doesn’t sweat or pee,” says Huxley excitedly, forgetting the merits of the Atkins diet.

A predator kills, but the surviving babies raise a smile.

The killer allosaurus is seen off by a brachiosaurus to a ripple of faint applause. The dinosaurs move sedately and menace each other, but at a cost of £10m we are never going to see a t-rex do more than posture like Marc Bolan.

Since 2007, this Australian descendant of the BBC TV series has pulled in crowds by the millions. The dialogue is the province of parents. All the majority of kids want to do is get too close to a t-rex for comfort.

In fact, it’s the incredible flying ornithotheirus swooping above a raptor kill at the start of the second half. Then a torosaurus fights, snapping an expensive horn, before doing something to defeat the biggest pooper scooper. Finally, the monster we all came to see appears.

Fittingly, it’s a female and can’t resist having the last word.

Dinosaurs may be dead, but they’ll never stay buried.

The show runs until Sunday.

Starting times: today, tomorrow and Friday, 7pm. Saturday – 11am, 3pm and 7pm. Sunday – 11am and 3pm. Tickets £20 from 0844-875-9000 or dinosaurlive.com

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