From spring 2027, families at Kristiansand's Dyreparken will be able to shrink down and step inside the mouth of a Norwegian schoolboy — complete with six-metre-tall wooden teeth and an oversized toothbrush.

The park is spending more than NOK 65 million on the indoor attraction, its biggest single investment ever. It's based on Karius og Baktus, the classic 1949 children's book by Thorbjørn Egner about two tooth trolls (their names riff on "caries" and "bacteria") who live happily in the cavities of a sweet-toothed boy named Jens — until a toothache and a dentist visit ruin everything. Familiar to virtually every Norwegian child, the story was also adapted into a puppet film by Ivo Caprino in 1955 and has long doubled as the country's most charming public dental health message.

The scale here is the point. The attraction will cover around 1,500 square metres, stage live theatre alongside interactive technology, and handle up to 5,000 visitors a day. The ten giant teeth aren't just scenery: they're being carved from local timber using 3D design and robotic milling, with Oslo-based Oslotre leading production alongside workshops in Lillesand and Marnardal. The idea is that guests genuinely feel bug-sized, seeing the world as the trolls do. Construction began in September 2025 with — naturally — a ceremony the park called a "tooth stone laying", tartar sample and time capsule included.

It slots neatly into Dyreparken's existing identity. Founded in 1966 as a zoo, the park has become Norway's showcase for children's storytelling, home to Cardamom Town and the Huckybucky Forest (both Egner creations) plus the wildly popular Captain Sabertooth pirate shows. The new build will sit right beside the two Egner areas, forming a dedicated zone for his work, with the author's family involved in planning. The timing fits a strong run for the park: a record 1,128,829 visitors in 2025 and its 60th anniversary in 2026.

For international travellers, the appeal is less about knowing the characters and more about a rare, immersive peek into Norwegian childhood culture — the stories that generations of Norwegians grew up on, presented at surreal scale. If you're heading to southern Norway with kids in 2027 or beyond, this gives you one more reason to make Kristiansand a stop rather than just a ferry gateway.

Story via Life in Norway.