'Walking With Dinosaurs The Arena Spectacular'' comes to Auburn Hills

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – "Walking With Dinosaurs The Arena Spectacular" is coming to The Palace of Auburn Hills for eight shows from Aug. 6-10.

The show, which is based on the award-winning BBC television series, has been seen by more than 8 million people in 243 cities.

The production showcases changes to what we know of dinosaurs based on latest scientific researching, including the likely feathering of some species. Showgoers will see a depiction of the dinosaurs' evolution with cinematic realism -- an interaction between dinosaurs, how carnivorous dinosaurs evolved to walk on two legs and how the herbivores fended off their more agile predators.

"We take the audience on a journey back in time and show them how the dinosaurs might have actually looked in their prime -- huge, sometimes frightening, sometimes comical monsters -- that fought for survival every day of their lives," said director Scott Faris. "Our dinosaurs move exactly like they are real, with all the roars, snorts and excitement that go with it. The realism is mind-blowing."

Some of the species represented from the entire 200 million-year reign of the dinosaurs are the tyrannosaurus rex, the plateosaurus and liliensternus, from the Triassic period; the stegosaurus and allosaurus, from the Jurassic period; and torosaurus and utahraptor, from the awesome Cretaceous period.

"Many of the technologies we are using on 'Walking With Dinosaurs The Arena Spectacular' are borrowed from film," said Sonny Tilders, the head of creature design at Creature Technology Company, who "hatched" all of the dinosaurs. "The computer software and hardware we have developed is based on the systems used to control animatronic creatures in feature films."

The brachiosaurus, which is the largest of them all, stands 36 feet tall and extends 56 feet from nose to tail.

The production took a team of 50 -- including engineers, fabricators, skin makers, artists and painters, and animatronic experts -- a year to build.

The performances will take place:

  • Aug. 6: 7 p.m.
  • Aug. 7: 7 p.m.
  • Aug. 8: 7 p.m.
  • Aug. 9: 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m.
  • Aug. 10: 1 p.m., 5 p.m.

Tickets are on sale now for $59.50, $49.40, $39.50 and $19.50. They can be purchased at Palacenet.com, The Palace Ticket Store and all Ticketmaster locations.