It’s the closest thing yet to Jurassic
Park, except without those carnivorous Velocirpators.
Walking down the ramp within the oval, metal tunnel in the Brooklyn
Children’s Museum that leads to their new exhibit "Dinosaurs!"
is, at first, an innocuous experience, like passing through an
underground airport tunnel.
There’s the same, rounded shape, and neon lights along the wall.
But instead of people movers, there’s a man-made stream running
through the middle. Instead of people running for flights, children
run to the sights. And instead of a voice announcing that the
horizontal escalator ride is over, there’s a distinctive roar
that says this ride is just about to begin.
When the mechanical dinosaurs shrieked on Tuesday afternoon,
so did the kids.
"I like meeting dinosaurs," said Kyle, 5, who attends
PS 203 in the Flatlands neighborhood. Within minutes of entering
the museum, the energetic Kyle, wearing a cast on his right arm
("I fell off a pole," he explained) lost his chaperone,
his grandmother Antonia.
When she found him again, she told him, "I’m too old for
you today." His response was that he wanted to go see the
dinosaurs.
After seeing the exhibit for the third time since it opened in
May, Kyle concluded, "They’re not even real. If they were
real they would destroy the entire place."
Then he ran away.
Asked if Kyle’s affection for dinosaurs was a new thing, Antonia
said, "Are you kidding? He’s got dinosaur puzzles, dinosaurs
that he painted. He says, ’Wouldn’t it be nice if one of them
was alive?’"
The dinosaurs are, in fact, incredibly lifelike, with eyes, heads
and tails that move, and mouths that open when they growl. The
12-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus Rex has orange eyes that move with
the head, a mouthful of sharp teeth that are each about five
inches long, and little hands and a big tail that move as if
with the breath of life.
The nearby mother and father Protoceratops look like two horn-less,
beaked rhinos, standing around a nest of 12 eggs in various states
of hatching. Some of the newborns flail around, while some of
them still reside in half-broken shells. The sporadic roar emitted
by the couple sounds something like a loud, evil belch. It even
startled a few adults.
Other dinosaurs include a Stegosaurus, whose name means "plated
lizard," a flying Pteranodon, and a parent and baby Chasmosaurus,
again with a resemblance to rhinos, and all of which are the
creation of Kokoro Dinosaurs of Tokyo. They are in Brooklyn as
a traveling exhibit that will run through Aug. 31.
"Opening weekend we saw 3,000 people come through,"
said Bahia Ramos, director of government and community affairs
for the museum. She said the exhibit has helped people discover
some of the other ongoing exhibits, like the live reptile area
around the corner from the dinosaurs, with its 17-foot boa constrictor,
Fantasia.
Although the dinosaurs were produced elsewhere, Ramos said that
the museum constructed the dioramas that house them. A volcano
serves as the backdrop for the T-Rex, along with green plants
and mesh plastic, which, when combined with the shadowy, jungle
lighting, creates an eerie ambience.
"Some of the younger kids can be very scared," said
Ramos, as can some of the older, supposedly bolder children,
she added.
And without fail, the eyes and mouths of child after child expanded
in either fear or wonder as they came out from the tunnel and
first laid eyes on the 34-foot Apatosaurus (formerly known as
a Brontosaurus), which serves as the centerpiece of the exhibit.
The older kids would often spot the monster and open their eyes
wide and smile and try to touch it (it’s not allowed), while
the younger kids opened their mouths in fear and took a step
or two backward.
Breani, 7, was of the latter group, and she ran quite readily
in order to hold her aunt’s hand.
"It’s scary," she said, to the point that she didn’t
care to linger for too long in the dimly lit 2,500-square-foot
room. For kids who have finished with the main exhibit, there
is also a paleontology area where they can search for fossils
in the "dig box," create a dinosaur picture at the
rubbing station, and operate the movements and growls of a robotic
T-rex skeleton at the push of some red buttons. But on Tuesday,
the kids seemed enchanted enough with the dinosaurs themselves.
Mikhell Dunn, 10, of Long Island, circled around the Apatosaurus
with excitement and said, "It looked at me and started roaring."
His friend was prodding him to pet the younger, smaller Apatosaurus
on the head, and Mikhell kept hesitating when his hand neared
the moving head and, especially, the closing mouth.
Kiera Dewar, 4, wearing a yellow dress and a matching bandana
over her hair, on a whim decided to name the young Apatosaurus
after herself. She was waving, smiling, and roaring back at her
namesake, as well as at several other dinosaurs. She didn’t stop
smiling the entire time she was in the room.
"Dinosaurs!" will be on display
at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 145 Brooklyn Ave. at the corner
of St. Mark’s Avenue, through Aug. 31. Admission is $4. For more
information, call (718) 735-4400 or visit www.brooklynkids.org.
