Reviewed: Walking With Dinosaurs, SECC

One of my very earliest memories is of my four-year old self cowering behind cinema seats in the vain hope the plush upholstery would provide some manner of defence against the terrifying velociraptors of Jurassic Park.

I managed to walk away from this first foray into the wonders (and horrors) of cinema with little obvious signs of psychological trauma, apart from an irrational fondness for dinosaurs. And a healthy respect for giant asteroid impacts.

No doubt aided by this childlike nostalgia, the Walking With Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular, held in the SECC, provided a giddy spectacle worthy of Spielberg’s classic movie. Merging the cutting-edge with the gloriously quaint, the show recreates the age of the dinosaurs utilising a mixture of state-of-the-art animatronics and good old-fashioned people-in-rubber-suits. Initially, the latter technique was unintentionally hilarious-especially when viewed from the front-but hey, maybe dinosaurs really did look that dumb when they ran about. Best ask a paleontologist.

Quickly adjusting to the idiosyncrasies of the technology, we were swept up in the high drama of life on Earth millions of years ago. There was a perfect balance of education and entertainment, with smatterings of genuinely Interesting Information dispersed in between thrilling dino-brawls. The show is well-paced throughout, beginning modestly with B-list herbivores from the Triassic and building up to the heavy hitters of the Jurassic and Cretaceous, like Stegosaurus and Brachiosaurus.

And yes, of course, there was a T-Rex. Before the reveal of everyone’s favourite giant bi-pedal predator, there was a palpable sense of anticipation rivalling Spielberg himself. There can be little doubt she steals the show, even if she is nearly upstaged by her own adorable baby, whose futile attempts at mimicking her mother’s blood-curdling roars managed to raise a chuckle from the rapt audience.

Even those with no latent love for all things theropod would be able to appreciate the impressive technical achievement of the show. The animatronic models are stunningly lifelike and probably as close as we’ll ever get to the real thing. Which may be for the best. And while the SECC has never been the greatest of venues for live music, it fits the bill brilliantly for this kind of grand visual and audio feast.

Ultimately, sometimes we just want to see massive dinosaurs stomping around. I like living in a world where this is possible.

As long as they’re not real dinosaurs obviously. That’d be much too scary.