Life of Pi the movie is an amazing 3-D spectacle, and the exciting story of a teenage boy’s survival on the high seas with only a hungry tiger for companionship.
When a French-Canadian author needs inspiration for his next great novel, he is advised to visit with the Indian storyteller, Pi Patel. Life of Pi is the story he tells. As a boy, Pi, the son of a zoo proprietor, journeyed with his family when his father gave up the failing family business. On their way to Canada to sell off the remaining animals and start a new life, the Japanese cargo ship in which they traveled was besieged by a terrible storm, causing it to shipwreck. All was lost except Pi and a few animals. He secured a lifeboat and found himself alone with an injured zebra, hyena, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
It didn’t take long for the tiger to kill and eat the other animals or for Pi to plan his own survival. First he built himself a raft, tethering it to the boat so he could sleep without Richard attacking him. Then he began the precarious task of training Richard. Although Pi was a vegetarian, he learned to fish to keep himself and the tiger fed. One night, though, a huge whale breached the placid ocean, destroying Pi’s raft as it slammed back to the water’s surface. Now the two voyagers were forced to deal with each other in the same boat.
Over the next seven months, Pi and Richard battled storms, withering heat, hallucination-inducing hunger, and acid-producing carnivorous islands, as they struggled to survive. Eventually a mutual, if cautious, respect for one another developed.