We love movies. Whether we’re heading off to the movie theater or popping fluffy white corn at home, one of our favorite things to do together is to sit and watch a good flick. When The Greatest Kid On The Planet sees a movie he likes, he’ll watch it again and again (and again). This summer, he’s been hooked on a story he saw for the first time during spring break. It’s a movie that came out some years ago about a boy and a Bengal tiger called Life of Pi.
Life of Pi was written by Yann Martel and published in 2001. The movie, released in 2012, received both Golden Globes and Academy Awards, but I had never seen it until earlier this year.
The movie tells the story of a young boy named Pi growing up in Pondicherry, India, where his family owns a zoo. Raised as a Hindu, Pi takes a special interest in Christianity and Islam, and in his father’s zoo animals, most especially, a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
When Pi is sixteen, his father announces that he is moving the family to Canada, so they make the long voyage across the Pacific on a Japanese freighter that is transporting their zoo animals. A bad storm and a twist of fate leave Pi stranded in the middle of the ocean on a life boat along with some of the animals, including Richard Parker.