Dinosaurs May Be a Monster Hit Beyond the Box Office

Most children are fascinated by dinosaurs anyway. So after seeing the new Disney film “Dinosaur,” they may be clamoring to learn more about the prehistoric creatures.

Count on Disney itself to have come up with a way to cater to that audience hunger. And several Southland museums are also prepared to meet the demand for more details about dinosaurs.

Disney’s contribution is a splashy dinosaur entertainment-education center next door to the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, where “Dinosaur” is being shown. But there’s a catch: “The Dinosaur Experience” is open only to those who see “Dinosaur” at that location.

Immediately following each screening of the 84-minute film, moviegoers are allowed to spend up to two hours experiencing the three floors of exhibits and interactive attractions at the El Capitan Entertainment Center.

“When we saw ‘Dinosaur’ for the first time many months ago, we were knocked out by it,” says Lylle Breier, senior vice president of worldwide special events for Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. “We knew that when people saw the film they would also want to live it and learn about it afterward. So the idea for ‘The Dinosaur Experience’ just came naturally.”

Though “Dinosaur” has a strong kid-orientation, Breier believes the film and entertainment exhibit appeals to people of all ages.

Indeed, “The Dinosaur Experience” seems to have something for everybody, including a Krispy Kreme concession area for doughnut connoisseurs. The top floor contains computer, video and wall exhibits, which explain how various aspects of the elaborately constructed film were put together. (“Dinosaur” employs both dazzling computer-generated characters and live-action backgrounds.) Visitors can mix a portion of the film’s soundtrack on a mixing machine and create very basic sound effects for certain scenes in the movie.

The lower lounge area is specifically geared toward kids, with dinosaur-oriented art projects and educational displays. There’s also a fossil dig area, which Breier says is a favorite of those ages 6 and under. Older kids can play “Dinosaur”-themed video games.

The main floor contains a host of animatronic dinosaurs. These creatures are cast in striking settings featuring foliage and scenic backdrops. The placards describing the exhibit items were written by Luis Chiappe, associate curator of the department of vertebrae paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

The Natural History Museum also provided replicas of dinosaur skulls, bones, skins and footprints for Disney’s main floor exhibit. While some visitors might be disappointed to find that the artifacts on display are not authentic, Chiappe says even museums display replicas.

“Most dinosaur specimens you’re going to see mounted in a museum are going to be casts,” he says. “Most likely the museum isn’t going to say it’s a cast or a replica. The real specimens are usually used for research.”

Christiana Hills, vice president of marketing and communications at the Natural History Museum, hopes “Dinosaur” will increase interest in her museum’s dinosaur hall. She says the museum is advertising its exhibit at about five local movie theaters where “Dinosaur” is screening. It’s also offering discount coupons and museum literature at these locations.

“We would like to capitalize on the movie as much as possible,” Hills says. “We would like to show the contrast between the fantasy of Hollywood and the reality of the museum and its educational programs.”

Highlights of the Natural History Museum dinosaur exhibit include a triceratops skull and a dual skeleton display featuring a Tyrannosaurus rex attacking a triceratops. The museum also has a full mount of a carnotaur, which Chiappe says is rarely found on display in the United States. The meat-eating carnotaur plays a key villainous role in “Dinosaur.”

Beginning Nov. 18, the museum will display a replica of Sue, the T. rex skeleton that recently debuted amid much fanfare at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Sue is the largest, most complete and best-preserved T. rex ever discovered.

Kidspace Children’s Museum in Pasadena is also getting into the dinosaur act with its “We Dig Dinos!” exhibit. Next Saturday, it will unveil a 30-foot-long, life-size triceratops sculpture made out of real dinosaur bone and steel. Kidspace will offer dinosaur-related art and science workshops for kids, and young visitors also will be invited to dig through sandbox “dig sites” where they can find and take home a real dinosaur bone fragment.

Paleontologist Marcus Eriksen is heading up this exhibit, which closes Aug. 31. He is providing the dinosaur bone fragments, which he discovered while on digging expeditions around Wyoming and South Dakota.

“My sense while talking to Marcus is that some dinosaur artifacts are easily found,” says Roy Mueller, director of education for Kidspace Museum. “What’s rare is to find something intact with all the bones in one place.”

* “Dinosaur” screens daily beginning at 9:30 a.m. through July 4 at the El Capitan Theatre, 6838 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Admission to the movie and the “Dinosaur Experience” exhibit: $12; ages 3-11, and 60 and over, $10; groups of eight or more, $8 per ticket. Advance tickets are available by calling (800) DISNEY-6.

* Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles. Weekdays, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; weekends, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. $8; students and seniors, $5.50; ages 5-12, $2. (213) 763-DINO.

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* “We Dig Dinos!” will run from June 3 to Aug. 31 at Kidspace Children’s Museum, 390 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena. Tuesday, 1:30-5 p.m.; Wednesday-Friday and Sunday, 1-5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. $5; seniors, $3.50; ages 1-2, $2.50; under age 1, free. (626) 449-9144.