Designer proud of work on ‘Walking With Dinosaurs’
By John Benson
Sonny Tilders has been working on animatronic puppetry for film and TV for 10 years.
Dinosaurs on a diet.
That was the mantra employed by animatronics designer Sonny Tilders when he began creating the gigantic prehistoric creatures for the touring arena show “Walking With Dinosaurs — The Live Experience,” which makes its Northeast Ohio debut Wednesday through June 29 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
“The size was a real challenge; the bigger they get, the harder they fall,” said Tilders during a phone call from his Melbourne, Australia, home.
“The Brachiosaurus was really challenging, having such a long neck. But we had this battle with all of them, which is keeping the weight down.
“It started with the skin, being such a large surface area. If we got the skin wrong and it was heavy, it would be a challenge.”
Among the 15 dinosaurs included in the show are 10 large animals that on average required 433 feet of hydraulic hose, 971 feet of fabric, 433 feet of foam, 53 gallons of paint, seven kilowatts of power from 12 truck batteries, 1,094 yards of cabling and more.
At a weight of roughly 1.6 tons each, Tilders said the roaming, roaring robots are quite an achievement. In terms of dinosaur research, the Creature Technology Company owner didn’t have to look far considering this national touring production is based on the BBC Television award-winning series “Walking With Dinosaurs.”
Tilders is accustomed to using his imagination. For the past decade, the designer-builder has been a major creative force in the high-tech world of animatronic puppetry for film and television. He was one of the lead animatronic engineers for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop on the “Farscape” series, followed by work on “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” “Peter Pan,” “Ghost Rider” and “The Chronicles of Narnia.”
Despite his impressive resume, Tilders said “Walking With Dinosaurs – The Live Experience” is truly a mark of achievement.
“I’ve worked on big-named projects, but the way animatronics has been going the last 20 years, we’re only a bit player,” Tilders said. “So much now is computer generated, and it’s not nearly as satisfying as having to make something like this, that’s live on stage and won’t end up on the editor’s floor.”
Considering we’ve yet to create a time machine, “Walking With Dinosaurs – The Live Experience” allows audiences the opportunity to experience what it would have been like meeting a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Plateosaurus and more face to face without the danger of becoming a meal.
“It’s a theatrical show,” Tilders said. “It has a beginning, middle and end, and has a structure to it. It’s absolutely informative. We’ve done our best to make it accurate and educational.
“And, in the end, I think for a lot of people it’s just a jaw-dropping experience because we imagined how these creatures lived, died and ran about. So, in the end, it’s pure entertainment.”