Life of Pi (2012)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2013	Won	Oscar	Best Achievement in Cinematography Claudio Miranda
			Best Achievement in Directing Ang Lee
			Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score Mychael Danna
			Best Achievement in Visual Effects Bill Westenhofer Guillaume Rocheron Erik De Boer Donald Elliott
	Nominated	Oscar	Best Achievement in Editing Tim Squyres
			Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song Bombay Jayashri (lyrics) Mychael Danna (music) For the song "Pi's Lullaby".
			Best Achievement in Production Design David Gropman (production designer) Anna Pinnock (set decorator)
			Best Achievement in Sound Editing Eugene Gearty Philip Stockton
			Best Achievement in Sound Mixing Ron Bartlett Doug Hemphill Drew Kunin
			Best Motion Picture of the Year Gil Netter Ang Lee David Womark
			Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published David Magee

Fox 2000 Pictures
Directed by Ang Lee
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray 3D, Fox)

The story of an Indian boy and his family who sell their zoo and undertake a journey across the Pacific Ocean to relocate in Canada. The ship sinks in a storm and the only survivors are the boy and some of the animals. They end up together on a lifeboat, but a hyena makes a quick meal of the zebra and orangutan, who himself is eaten by the tiger, leaving boy and tiger alone. Luckily he's got a survival manual and canned food and water for weeks if not months, and solves the problem of feeding the tiger by fishing. They survive at sea for almost a year, with diversions for storms and a stay on a carnivorous island inhabited by meerkats, until finding land in Mexico. But wait... an alternative explanation for the whole story is given by the adult Pi in which no animals or other mysteries are involved, but a rather routine story about people stranded on a lifeboat trying to survive. The competing stories supposedly represent lives spent believing in God or without. The film clearly comes down on the side of God, the more interesting of the two stories and the one that was filmed. Although I was not so easily convinced, I did appreciate the philosophical exercise. According to the Humane Society stamp of approval, no animals were harmed in the making of this film, most are digital anyway, but it is still difficult to watch the tiger suffer through the ordeal at sea, not to mention feeling bad about the goat, zebra, orangutan and hyena which die.