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'Walking With Dinosaurs' show comes to Tampa this week

Staff photo by PAT BRAMMELL

The show's smaller dinosaurs are portrayed by actors in costumes that weigh 80 to 100 pounds each.

By CURTIS ROSS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 13, 2009

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A 40-foot-tall brachiosaurus isn't what normally comes to mind when puppets are mentioned.

But that enormous creature, the largest of the beasts in the "Walking With Dinosaurs" live presentation, is indeed a puppet, one that's manipulated by remote control rather than strings.

Kari Klein, a puppeteer who has worked with the smaller string and hand rod varieties at Disney World, currently is on tour working a different kind of magic with prehistoric reptiles.

"My official title is voodoo puppeteer, which is one of the coolest job titles out there," Klein, 35, says with a laugh by telephone from the show's pre-Tampa stop in Columbia, S.C.

"Voodoo" refers to the voodoo rig, an electronic device that fits to the puppeteer's arm, allowing her to give the creature lifelike motion. Each large dinosaur requires a team of three puppeteers. One handles the large movements, making the dinosaur hit its marks, so to speak. The second controls smaller movements such as eye blinks and mouth movements. The third is stationed in a chassis directly below the creature in a contraption similar to a go-cart.

It's all part of the elaborate production that brings the BBC series "Walking With Dinosaurs" to life.

A human narrator provides focus and scale, showing just how large the dinosaurs were. The show is a series of scenes from the series, portraying the daily lives of different dinosaur species -- hunting, being hunted, protecting the young and fighting for their lives.

Smaller dinosaurs are portrayed by actors in costumes that weigh 80 to 100 pounds each.

For all the complexities involved, Klein says working a life-size dinosaur has similarities with working a hand puppet.

"Obviously, the technique is entirely different," Klein says. "But there are similar ideas involving performance, character and timing, and in bringing an inanimate object to life.

"If I was given a paper cup, I could bring that to life," Klein says. "If I'm given a 40-foot dinosaur, I can bring it to life. It's the manner of how you do it."