Last night I took Kian and Isaac to see the Hollywood Special Effects Show at Lighthouse Poole.
The show promised an interactive and explosive family show that takes you behind the scenes of your favourite films to discover the science and secrets of creating movie magic.
With Bond music playing as we arrived in the theatre it really set the scene for what was to come. As it begun we were introduced to two presenters Adam and Jamie. Adam looked a bit like Adam Garcia, which isn’t a bad thing and Jamie was the class clown who arrived late whilst munching popcorn – food was a continued theme for him as he had a hidden stash around the set.
We were then introduced to Emma who was the resident expert and took us through how special effects are created, well when trying to fend off the walking disaster that was Jamie that is. He provided light relief and a real comedic element which kept younger children like Isaac entertained and interested.
The show is recommended for children age 6 and over and I would certainly agree with that rating as it included stunt effects like shoot-outs and fight sequences, fireballs, explosions, sound effects and the make-up prosthetics used to create a Cyclops.
The team on stage did pick some very brave audience members to take part in some of the action, including poor Duncan who got shot, made up like a clown and generally made a fool of on stage and a lady asked to do sound effects who went on to say “ET phone home” when asked to talk like an alien – brilliant!!
All these elements were demonstrated live on stage and then the science and secrets behind them were revealed – did you know that movie blood used to be made from chocolate syrup in the days of the black and white movie, but is now more commonly corn starch, water and red food colouring.
The show is high-energy and action packed with loud bangs, flashing effects and some brief moments of darkness. There was one moment where they created a Jurassic Park like dinosaur charge in the dark just with sound effects and then a huge dinosaur appeared from the stage. Isaac didn’t like this bit as it was very real looking!
The finale was a spectacular show of pyrotechnics and fireworks on stage and the boys came away buzzing with enthusiasm from everything they saw. Kian wants to be a scientist when he leaves school and is now contemplating going into to doing special effects in film – what is it with boys and making things go bang?
For more information about the show and their tour around the country, check out their facebook page.
It is a show we highly recommend you seeing!
The Hollywood Special Effects Show – Live Trailer from Hollywood Special Effects Show on Vimeo.
Disclaimer: We were guests of Lighthouse Poole to see the show and all opinions are our own!
This looks great, i think my little man would really enjoy it
I love to learn about this kind of behind the scenes stuff… My kids would enjoy it too.
Wow my boys would just love this – and we are very big on dinosaurs lately because of Jurassic World.
Oh wow what a great sounding show, seems like it would be such a fun packed thing to watch! x
We went to see a show that had pyrotechnics and science all mixed up together and it was a lot of fun. This sounds really interesting.
The show was sooooo good! The best bit was when they shot Duncan! Although I’d have quite liked a cyclops eye!
oooh this looks great, so interesting!
Would this show be suitable for a couple? One of which is a film buff. I have read one review which said it was a bit juvenile in places?
Hi
I would say it is more of a family show and wouldn’t go into enough depth for an adult, however I enjoyed it as much as the kids