A childhood classic for many college students, Jurassic Park featured vicious dinosaurs who sought man as their prey.

This weekend, on the floor of the Bryce Jordan Center (BJC), man will instead be controlling these enormous creatures. In some cases, three people may be needed to tame them.

With the live theatrical arena show Walking With Dinosaurs: The Live Experience, creator Bruce MacTaggart will transport audiences at the BJC into prehistoric times when dinosaurs ruled the Earth using new, animatronic technology to bring mechanized dinosaurs to life.

The show is based off the BBC series of the same title, also created by MacTaggart. The series aired in 1999 and combined scientific renderings with computer graphics and animatronic effects to portray the prehistoric animals.

A total of 15 dinosaurs from 10 species are represented in the show, encompassing the entire 200 million year reign of the dinosaurs, and all the creatures use animatronic technology to appear lifelike.

David Barber, publicist for the tour, which has a seven-show run at the BJC, said animatronics means that they animate a robot with electronics using remote control.

"But to say they are robots is to diminish what is happening. Many of our dinosaurs have 25 hydraulic motors just in their heads. So this is new technology that has not been used before for live audiences," Barber said.

Cameron Wenn, resident director of the tour, said the immense scale of the production has been the biggest obstacle.

"The production is obviously very big to produce. And the entire cast is animatronic; [they're] not just actors. If one gets 'sick,' it has to be welded back to health because they are robots," Wenn said.

Five of the dinosaurs are of a smaller species. Barber said these dinosaurs are "rod puppets," meaning an actor wears the dinosaur as a sort of suit or backpack and uses internal rods to control the dinosaur's motions.

The rest of the dinosaurs featured in the show are larger species and require three people to operate them, Barber said. One actor is inside a cart underneath the dinosaur in order to drive and steer the robot. Two other actors, called "voodoo puppeteers," stand on a balcony below the sound stage to control the fine motions of the dinosaurs. These controls go to a computer, which then directs the dinosaur to move.

"They are called voodoo puppeteers because, like voodoo dolls, the dinosaurs will move left when the puppeteer tells it to," Barber said.

The show, like the BBC series, depicts the dinosaurs' evolution, complete with the climatic and tectonic changes that took place which are hypothesized to have led to the extinction of many species. The audience is guided through the time of the dinosaurs by a narration from a paleontologist. He also appears on stage to show the scale of the dinosaurs, Barber said.

Bernie Punt, director of sales and marketing for the BJC, said this show is "unlike any other that anyone has seen."

"It is not your ordinary event," Punt said. "This show took six years to make because the dinosaurs are so detailed. It is only going to major cities so we are very, very fortunate to have it."

The robot structures consist of aluminum frames held together by bungee cords and surrounded by foam. Then they are covered with lycra and latex, which are stretchy and give the skin texture, Barber said. Finally, they are painted with watercolors.

"This is a one-of-a-kind set, which took $20 million to make. So, when you see it, it's like the Mona Lisa, in that this is the only show like this," Barber said.

Walking With Dinosaurs features interactions among the dinosaurs, which MacTaggart said will show the audience how carnivorous dinosaurs evolved to walk on two legs and how herbivores fended off their predators. If you come for the prehistoric spectacle, he said, there isn't a bad seat in the house.

"Audiences seated in the lower seats are all but overwhelmed by the dinosaurs, while those seated in higher seats can view the entire spectacle and panorama of the production," MacTaggart said.

Barber said the show is choreographed, so there isn't much variation in the production. However, because the show uses live puppeteers, they can react to how the audience is reacting around them.

"Having live puppeteers is a great thing because they can turn the dinosaurs head to the left instead of the right if there is a little girl in the audience. They will purposely go to audience members they can interact with, and that creates a little variation from night to night," Barber said.

Barber said the show uses a lot of scenery as it moves through the phases of the dinosaurs' existence on Earth. The show features an inflatable dinosaur mouth from which the dinosaurs emerge and a Pangea single-continent backdrop, which breaks into three parts during the second act, he said.

As the resident director, Wenn worked with MacTaggart in rehearsals and now travels with the tour to direct the show. Barber said Wenn got his start in theater and eventually got on board with this project to help create the script and see it to the stage.

"Wenn has extensive experience in all mediums of the performing arts as a director, writer, singer and actor. His involvement with Dinosaurs began in early 2006 at script development stage and he is delighted to be still 'walking with dinosaurs,' " Barber said.

Wenn said this show is unprecedented.

"Dinosaurs is pretty much like a great action show. The dinos chase and kill each other -- the whole blockbuster element," he said. "And it's 3D right in front of you. People are blown away by the realism."

Punt said he is excited to bring the show to campus and expects the audience to learn and have fun.

"I call it 'edutainment': people are taught and entertained at the same time. I cannot wait to show people who have not seen the show just to see their reaction," Punt said.

Punt said there are tickets still available in every price level.

"It doesn't matter where you're sitting. The dinosaurs are so huge; they are right in front of you. So tell students the $29.50 tickets are still gonna be fine," Punt said.

For those paleontologists-at-heart who still marvel at the possibilities explored in the Spielberg flick about the fantastic beasts, MacTaggart had this plug.

"It is the closest you'll ever get to experiencing what it was like when they walked and ruled the earth," he said.