Movie that engages you from beginning to end

Rating: 8/10 (30 December 2012)

This movie shows the journey of a young Indian boy who moved with his family and all the animals from their zoo to Canada on a large Japanese ship. The ship sinks during a big storm. He survives on a rescue vessel along with a zebra, hyena, orangutan and a Bengal tiger, named Richard Parker. Eventually he is left only with the tiger. The movie mainly focuses on the way he builds a relation ship with the tiger along with the dangers of trying to do that. The story is told as he is talking to an American friend who will write a book about his adventure. You really get into the skin of his boy, like you feel the frustration of being on a vessel for months with a tiger and surviving on crackers and no food for the tiger, which forces the boy to be creative and catch fish to keep the tiger alive and away from him. Eventually he is able to train the tiger and enables him to be around the tiger without being eaten. The end of the movie is awesome when the story becomes a metaphor for the loss of his family. The movie has some very touching moments where you can just imagine being in the precarious position the boy is in. I didn't see it in 3D but still found the effects amazing. It's not really a movie for smaller children < 12, because of the deepness of certain parts of the movie. Definitely a movie I could see again sometimes.