Three-story lizards will soon be stalking downtown Reading.

No, it's not the next "Godzilla" sequel, and the reptiles in question won't be emerging from the Schuylkill River. Even if Reading does have a Japanese pagoda.

"Walking With Dinosaurs" will stomp its way into the Sovereign Center on Wednesday, July 7, and raise dino-style havoc through Sunday, July 11.

To say this show is big is an understatement.

"Everything about this show is epic!" said Matthew Rimmer, a spokesman for the national touring production.

Indeed. Thanks to 17 jaw-dropping, life-size replicas of 10 dinosaur species brought to life by multimillion-dollar special effects, the show travels back to a time before humans ruled the planet.

Children, who generally flock to "Walking With Dinosaurs," have been raised on a generation of "Jurassic Park" films and are no strangers to the big guys. But what's coming to the Sovereign Center is no movie, not even an IMAX one. The dinosaurs that give the show its title literally walk into the arena, where they growl, snarl, bare teeth and even show a little motherly love when baby dinos accompany Mama Lizard onstage.

"A lot of people think these dinosaurs are 'on track,'" like an amusement park attraction, Rimmer said. Not so.

The Triassic and Jurassic periods meet 21st-century technology in "Walking With Dinosaurs." Mesh, fabric and polystyrene seem unlikely elements for animating "living" creatures, but with the help of computers and old-fashioned puppeteering, it all comes together.

Out-of-sight puppeteers manipulate miniature versions of the larger dinosaurs seen by the audience; computers then translate those movements and transmit instructions to the "real" dinos.

"It takes three people to operate the big dinosaurs," Rimmer said.

The show originated in Australia in 2007 and is based on an acclaimed BBC television series. It has since lumbered its way around the world.

The world, in fact, plays a big role in "Walking With Dinosaurs." Continents split, oceans form and deserts turn into lush green paradises — all to be wiped out (dinosaurs, too) by a massive comet that ended the prehistoric realm.

But that doesn't happen before audience members get their fill of creatures such as the plateosaurus (from the Triassic Period), stegosaurus (the familiar armor-plated star of the Jurassic Period) and the formidable Utahraptor, which did its thing during the Cretaceous Period. Of course, no dino-based extravaganza would be complete without the baddest of them all, the fearsome tyrannosaurus rex.

Bad doesn't always supersede big, however. The more docile brachiosaurus topped out at 36 feet and stretched 56 feet from nose to tail. "It's a couple of buses and three stories," Rimmer said.

"He took up an entire truck himself," said Zane Collings, Sovereign Center's regional general manager. And the brachiosaurus was hardly traveling solo.

"You're talking about 22 semi trucks," Collings said, describing the convoy that brought the show to Reading.

Sovereign Center crews had to build a special temporary dock just to unload, as well as rent a 14,000 pound forklift.

All done in the name of ferocious family fun that is simultaneously educational.

It's "history the kids will love to see," said Collings, a bit green with envy.

"We didn't have life-size dinosaurs when we grew up."

"Walking With Dinosaurs" opens Wednesday, July 7, at the Sovereign Center, 700 N. Penn St., in Reading, and runs through Sunday, July 11. For ticket information, call 800-745-3000 or visit sovereigncenter.com.