Ten Random Thoughts: Life of Pi (2012)

From the creators of Air Bud

1.
So who doesn't love 3D? Come one, you look at the screen and things just pop out at you! In Life of Pi, it was like the message was right there in my face!

2.
I don't like 3D. Does that make me the most boring person ever? Good! Now let me finish my soup.

3.
I really thought that was a real tiger. I told my wife, "Man I can't believe that tiger." She said, "I know." I said,"I would have never gotten in that boat with a tiger!" She said,"With a cartoon tiger?" I said, "whatthahuh?"

4.
Richard Servello worked on the VFX and did a freaking crazy great job. Who's he you ask? Well he was one of the awesome dudes that swung in out of a digital tree and saved my ass back in 06 when I was finishing my ode to chicken movie and had no visual effects. Seriously, it was ridiculous: people running around playing guns, going pew pew pew. He was in Fort Lauderdale, I was in Atlanta, this is pre Facebook, so it was all a series of emails that ended with a reel of rad effect shots that I cut into the flick. And as thanks for all his hard work Richard has been taking the flack for all the crappy effects that I did myself and cut into the movie as an after thought. Life of Pi may have had some cool effects, but it was the Servello Factor that gave it the edge needed to bring home Oscar. That's the truth, Ruth.

5.
Ang Lee makes a family film and fills it with crazy LSD imagery  It's like that drunk elephant scene in Dumbo. You never know what that Ang Lee is going to do. He's pretty tricky that Ang Lee. Though this is perfect for Ang. He likes to make movies where people sit and stare and think about stuff. A big kung fu movie? Sure, as long as the warriors can sit down and sip tea for half the movie. Hulk? Can we show him meditate in the desert, admiring the way the sediment creates designs in the rocks? Sure Ang, whatever you want to do. Here is his ultimate movie because it's just some guy on a boat thinking about deep important spiritual questions. Ya know, for kids!

6.
And they advertised as a family film? I wouldn't know what to call it myself. Had I taken my kids though they would have rioted and started eating the other families in the theater.

7.
Spirituality. Religion. The big tapestry of life. Is there a great plan in the universe? Why are we here? Why do we believe what we do? Truth? Is there such a thing? I think the movie is trying to say... Look! A CG Monkey!

8.
But seriously folks, the movie gives every side a voice so what could have been shameless soap boxing came out even headed and thoughtful. And they even through in some bumper sticker platitudes that you can rattle of at your next dinner party.

9.
I can see why James Cameron was all over this. A boat sinks and there is a lot of day-glow raver sea life everywhere.

10.
Being stranded at sea is the most terrifying thing I can think of. That and being trapped in a coal mine. Oh, and being tortured in a prison. Oh, and being in one of those rooms that fill up with water. Eaten by a shark? Not so much. I think the whole time you'd be so surprised that it was happening it'd be over before you could rap your head around it. Underneath all the screaming and flailing my mind would be going,"So this is it? I'm getting eaten by a shark. Never saw that coming."

Showstopper! - That lotus flour on the island. What? It's Ang Lee! What were you expecting?