life of pi book and movie comparison essay

9 Big Differences Between The Life Of Pi Movie And Book

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi follows the lengthy journey of a young man and a Bengal tiger as they traipse across the ocean in a lifeboat. Before director Ang Lee took up the mantle, many considered the book to be beautiful, but virtually unfilmable. If there is a will, there is a way, and Lee discerned very adeptly how Life of Pi needed to be told onscreen.

Lee’s version works because it gives us the chance to hear Pi’s story told from the mouth of an older, wiser version of the young religious believer, who plays a smaller role in the books. It works because it takes all of the visions readers have created in their heads while reading Life and Pi and makes those visions bigger, bolder, and brighter. It works because it streamlines a lengthy tale without making us feel as we are missing anything key to the narrative. As a film, Life of Pi is a visual masterpiece, but it isn’t better than the book.

Following are the 9 biggest changes I noticed in my screening of Life of Pi . Feel free to remark on any I may have missed.

There are many spoilers in the Life of Pi book to movie comparison. Do not jump in if you have not seen the film.

Most of the lengthy intro in Martel’s book is shortened in the film. The tale Pi gives of his childhood is still one of changing his nickname, living in a zoo, and finding religion. However, many of his teachers and mentors (and even some of his zoo knowledge) are cut out of the narrative for the sake of maintaining the love and lessons Pi learns from his family.

Pi is old enough in the movie to have a love interest. In the film, Pi is too busy thinking about the girl he met in a dance class to even notice the troubles his father is facing with the zoo. This makes Pi’s travels away from his home and India far more of a painful separation.

The film shows Pi first coming to an understanding of religion from his mother, who is portrayed as far more religious in the film . She supports his quest to learn about different religions and seems to have a special place in her heart for her younger son. The closer relationship the two share in the film gives more meaning to the second tale Pi utters to the Japanese men who come to see him after he washes ashore.

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Pi never really manages to tame Richard Parker. In Martel’s book, Pi uses his zoo knowledge and understanding of circus practices to mostly train the large adult Bengal tiger. In the movie, while the boy and the tiger maintain a wary distrust of one another, Pi never truly feels in control. The biggest moment that defines Richard Parker and Pi’s relationship is the tiger’s prusten noise—which signals non-aggression--and that moment is completely gone in the film.

There is a lot of suffering in Life of Pi and merely a few moments of beauty and glory--like in the lightning storm that appears in both the book and the film . However, Ang Lee’s vision of Pi’s journey is breathtaking, supplemented by moments of true beauty that—almost—make Pi’s journey worth it. The best example of a scene standing out far more for it’s beauty in the movie than the book is probably Pi’s introduction to the whale.

Turtles are never an easy catch in the film. Life of Pi earned a PG rating, and this means a good percentage of the suffering Pi endures is cut down or made to seem somewhat more tame. We aren’t forced to see as much of the hyenas antics when Pi first finds himself on the lifeboat. Later, while he and Richard Parker take down some fish, Pi doesn’t take down turtles to use their shells as shields or to dry their meat in the sun. There’s enough suffering on Pi’s end of the film that we don’t need to hear him daydream about sucking the marrow out of bones.

Pi does not meet another blind sailor along the journey. In fact, Pi never even goes blind. Instead, when Pi attempts to ‘talk’ with Richard Parker, Ang Lee uses the narrative space to show us Pi staring into the deep, black ocean in order to show us a philosophical journey reaching the depths of the universe, and showing the audience the relationship between fish and mammals, and even a memory of the sinking Tsimtsum.

Pi and Richard Parker only spend a day on the carnivorous island. In the book, Pi and Richard Parker linger on the island for a while longer. The horror factor is still there when Pi finds the human teeth embedded in the plant. However, for the sake of narrative flow, the boy and tiger do not spend so much time on the island and are not able to fully replenish themselves.

Pi relates the second tale to our author, and Lee uses that as a springboard to show the scene between the castaway and the two Japanese men who come to determine why the Tsimtsum sank. Ending with Pi and the author in Pi’s living room helps to bring the tale full circle. Pi and the author begin rehashing the journey together and they end the story together. It’s far more comfortable than simply tacking on Pi’s more earthly tale, as the book does.

Most of the changes made in the Life of Pi movie were put into practice in order to cut down on time and help the narrative to flow better (and maybe also to keep the rating at a family friendly PG). While most of the changes work within the confines of the film, viewers are missing the intimacy of the book. One of the greatest privileges of reading is being privy to Pi’s thoughts as a thinker, and there would have been no way to forge that communion onscreen. Instead, we get beautiful cinematography. It’s lovely, but it isn’t intimate.

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways. 

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Comparing “Life of Pi” the Movie to “Life of Pi” the Novel: Adapting Book to Screen

I’d imagine the toughest feat for a writer would be that of adapting a novel into a screenplay. The two are such distinctly different animals in development, and yet in execution both must convey the same essence. In writing a screenplay based on a book, you are writing for two different kinds of audiences – those who have read the book and those who have never read the book – and to top it all off, the heart of the story must be captured in a very short amount of time.

I’ve seen a lot of books made into movies but none pulled off as almost-flawlessly (we’ll get to the “almost” part in a bit) as Life of Pi . Based on the amazing novel by Yann Martel, Ang Lee’s film (screenplay by David Magee) retells Pi’s story not only in visually stunning fashion but with the same witty candor and heartbreak as the original. But what makes the film an instant standout among adaptations is not its stunning visuals or its excellent script but its ability to tell the same story without sacrificing what makes it both a superb novel and a superb film.

Too many movies have made the mistake of falling into the category of a visual book . Having learned how to do both, I know that writing a screenplay and writing a novel is as different as night and day. A novel’s strengths could be a film’s biggest weakness, and what makes a killer movie makes no difference in how a book will stick with you even years after you’ve read it. Then again, film adaptations always run the risk of lacking the substance that made the original story such a winner in the first place – to the point where you’re thinking, Hey, where’d my book go?

So why exactly does Pi pull off this feat so flawlessly? Let’s take a look.

The structure of the story remains the same. Fans of books made into movies are usually preoccupied with the details when it comes to critiquing the film. I was like this with the Harry Potter movies when I was younger, especially when The Sorcerer’s Stone came out and I was all butt-hurt that my favorite line in the book didn’t really make it fully into the movie. But what really matters in film adaptations is not the details, it’s the essential structure of the story.

Life of Pi the novel was written in three parts – Part 1 exploring Pi’s background that lays the foundation for the story (hey, it isn’t called Life of Pi for nothing) – leaving Part 2 to relay the unfolding action for the story between Pi and Richard Parker – and Part 3 to conclude with the ending of the story as Pi washes up on shore. Life of Pi the movie followed the very same structure, right down to the Japanese men interviewing Pi at the end. The movie could just as easily have chopped out the first part and cut straight to the action and embellished – disappointing fans of the book – or it could have decided to get clever and put the Japanese men interviewing Pi at the beginning, instead putting the entire movie into “flashback mode” – disappointing movie-goers. But it didn’t. If a screenplay is faithful to the original structure of the novel, then the right details that are crucial to telling the story as a script, and as a movie, will fall into place (assuming, of course, you also have the best screenwriter for the project!).

The strongest elements are highlighted. Reflecting on Life of Pi the novel and Life of Pi the movie were ultimately the same experience for me, and you can’t often say that about a book made into a movie. The origin of Pi’s name – and Richard Parker’s, the name of the ship (Tsimtsum), Pi weeping over killing a fish for food, Pi’s “survival guide” narration, Pi commenting on Richard Parker unceremoniously abandoning him…. All those seemingly little moments are what give the story its heart and soul, and the movie included all of those essential moments without feeling like it was uncomfortably crammed into two whole hours.

The right moments are visually stunning. Okay, so I’ve said Life of Pi is visually stunning – but take into account it matters what is visually stunning, and Pi the movie gets the right what . A novel relies solely on the imagery the reader is able to conjure in their mind, but a lot more is at stake with a movie and even more so with a movie based on a book. The film not only has to be visually appealing for a film’s expectations, now it must be visually appealing on a level predetermined by the expectations of those who have read the book.

It can be a tough act to follow, and Life of Pi the movie follows beautifully in Life of Pi the novel’s footsteps. Before seeing the movie, I read that Life of Pi was director, Ang Lee’s first film incorporating 3D – and I have a huge beef with 3D special effects, they have to be done a certain way for me to warm up to them – and I have to say the balance was perfect. Effects are sometimes overdone to the point of the movie feeling unrealistic, and this was definitely not the case with Pi. Just like the book, it felt both fantastical and real – and from the fierce storm on the ship to the simplicity of shooting in India, the right moments for this story to be visually stunning as a film could not have been chosen more perfectly.

I didn’t even mention how incredible the casting was for young Pi. Gotta give it to Suraj Sharma for his dedication to the role, he gave one heck of a performance.

Okay, so why do I give Life of Pi the movie an “almost-flawless” rating? I do have a couple complaints with the film version, and I want to dissect not only why I have the complaints (what I feel went wrong) but why I believe writer, David Magee and director, Ang Lee made the choices they did in writing and executing the screenplay.

a) In the forward to Life of Pi the novel, author Yann Martel talks about how he came to hear the story in the first place – from the real Pi himself, while Martel was visiting India to write for a different novel set in Portugal. (This was also included as a separate narration in the actual book, scattered across various chapters throughout Pi’s story.) This same scenario is presented in Life of Pi the movie as well, with Rafe Spall playing the writer who comes to adult Pi to hear his miraculous story. But while for the book it did a wonderful job of acting as a set-up for, and accompaniment to Pi’s story, somehow in using it as a device in the film, it falls flat. Automatically the ending is given away, since we obviously know Pi survives his ordeal – which served the novel just fine, but a film with that intense of a storyline needs that suspense to really make it good . Do I think the film would have been better off without incorporating the writer (based on Yann Martel himself) coming to talk to adult Pi? Not necessarily. Those scenes spliced between the telling of Pi’s story served as a nice breather from the action, and like I mentioned earlier, it instilled a lot of that same heart that’s present in the book.

b) In the novel, the alternate, more “believable” story Pi offers up to the Japanese men that interview him in the end is just heartbreaking. It’s communicated mostly through dialogue, which again, worked for the book so I can see why it would be translated that way into the film version as well. But for the film, I would have liked to see the idea shown in a visual way, rather than just Pi fabricating this story solely through dialogue from a hospital bed. The scene just loses something and definitely fell short of my expectations. Even if just shown as a short, narrated scene, I feel something more like that would have made for a more powerful ending for the film.

I would guess that both of these choices were made for mostly creative reasons, and I applaud David Magee and Ang Lee for being as faithful to the book as possible. But unfortunately I feel the movie ended up lacking a bit because of them.

What did you think about Life of Pi the movie – as either a reader of the original book or as just a movie-goer – and what would you say makes a dynamite film adaptation?

Image credits: Film: Twentieth Century Fox Film Book: The Blist

Tanya Marcy is a writer, storyteller, and avid reader who loves advising writers and mentoring young creatives.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Life of Pi — Comparative Study of The Films “Life of Pi” and “The Great Gatsby”

Comparative Study of The Films "Life of Pi" and "The Great Gatsby"

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This Is How The Life Of Pi Book Differs From The Movie

When Yann Martel's novel "Life of Pi" hit bookstores in 2001, it instantly generated buzz among readerly types, picking up accolades including the Man Booker Prize and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature (via The Canadian Encyclopedia ). President Barack Obama later wrote the author a note to personally praise the book.

It was exactly the sort of publicity that would normally lead to a glossy Hollywood adaptation. Except that at the same time, everyone in Hollywood was certain that this book was "unfilmable" (via  NOLA.com ).

In case it's still in your to-read pile (or never even got that far), the novel version of "Life of Pi" takes a long time contemplating philosophy and religion before it even gets to the boy-and-tiger-on-boat scenario. A completely literal adaptation would mean many scenes of grown Pi (Irrfan Khan) pondering his theories on life to the reporter (Rafe Spall, who was actually a last-minute actor replacement .) Which some people probably would've enjoyed: Irrfan Khan, who died in 2020 , was widely praised for his performance. But they wouldn't have outnumbered those who wanted to see the boy and tiger facing off on a boat.

However, not everyone was scared. Eventually, director Ang Lee — of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Brokeback Mountain" fame — teamed up with screenwriter David Magee (via IMDb ), who had written the screenplays for another tricky book adaptation ("Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day") and "Finding Neverland." It took 170 attempts over three-and-a-half years for Magee to come up with a draft Lee was satisfied with, per The Atlantic . Here's how the final movie differed from the book.

Richard Parker is a big reveal in the book

Towards the beginning of the book, when Pi refers to Richard Parker (King the tiger, per The Guardian ), we don't initially know that he's a tiger. Which makes us wonder why Pi is so wary of him. It also foreshadows the alternative story Pi offers the insurance company agents, in which the various animals are actually different people.

In the movie, we meet Richard Parker while he's still in the zoo when Pi's father (Adil Hussain) feeds him a live goat to teach Pi that animals are not just furry humans. This happens in the book, but with a different tiger. Obviously, this choice was made to condense the story to fit into a movie timeframe, and it doesn't exactly ruin the surprise: we all came to see the movie about the boy and tiger surviving on a boat, so guessing that Richard Parker is the name of a tiger isn't that hard.

Speaking of the other animals, in the book, Pi spends at least several days trapped on the boat with the injured zebra, the pacing hyena, and the sad orangutan, Orange Juice, as well as Richard Parker. This is all condensed into about a day in the movie, again to save time.

Pi is more methodical in the book

As the previous mention of philosophy and religion indicate, the Pi in the book is a deep guy. His inquisitive spirit is more academic than the slightly mischievous character played wonderfully by Suraj Sharma. (In case you were wondering what happened to the actor who played Pi , Sharma has gone on to other roles.) Book Pi actively investigates and adopts three different religions — Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity — at the same time, defying the expectations of his parents and local religious leaders. The Pi of the movie also does this, but in a shorter timeframe, and he stumbles into them rather than seeking them out. Book Pi also doesn't have time for such lighthearted things as romance, whereas Pi in the movie falls in love with a dancer named Anandi (Shravanthi Sainath).

Book Pi's scholarly nature is also sidelined when it comes to his movie self's approach to Richard Parker. In the movie, Pi's attempts to tame Richard Parker are not particularly successful and seem to come out of nowhere. In the book, Pi is much more methodical, basing his attempts to assert dominance by drawing on his experiences growing up in his family's zoo. He also devotes a sizeable chunk of time to thinking of ways he might be able to kill the large, hungry predator he's sharing a lifeboat with.

Despite reservations that "Life of Pi" could never be made into a movie, the adaptation translated the beautiful, haunting story in a way that brought certain aspects to life that were muted on the page, even as it had to sacrifice others. You might prefer the movie's stunning visuals to the novel's philosophical discussions, or vice versa, but it's also fair to say they were both successful in their own respective ways.