The Tiger Rising had a one-year Covid bump, which serendipitously puts it precisely in the Asian zodiac Year of the Tiger for its release. Based on Kate DiCamillo’s award-winning 2001 children’s book of the same title, the film was ten years in the making. DiCamillo is famous for four other book-to-film adaptations, The Tale of Despereaux (about a mouse) to name one and Because of Winn Dixie (about a dog) to mention another. This time, the story revolves around a big cat and what this animal represents through the eyes of young children.

The film is written and directed by Ray Giarratana, and is his first feature film. Giarratana works in a husband and wife team with producer Deborah Giarratana, and together they co-produced The Tiger Rising with Queen Latifah and Ryan Smith. Giarratana began writing the screenplay a decade ago after reading the book on a flight. His agent, a pro at bringing books to film, had told him the story was about a young boy who just lost his mother, and somehow it clicked, despite Giarratana's affinity for writing comedy scripts prior to that. Queen Latifah told Giarratana the story resonated with her because she saw herself in the protagonist, Rob.

"It speaks to me," Giarratana recalls her saying. "I connect with Rob; I remember myself at that age."

The story is about two precocious kids brought together by circumstance: One who lost his mom to cancer, one who had to move back to Florida with her mom after her parents split. Each one has something to overcome, and they do it together.

Giarratana explains that the weight of the story rests upon the shoulders of those two children: Rob Horton, portrayed by Christian Convery, and his best friend Sistine “like the chapel”, played by Madalen Mills (Jingle Jangle). Giarratana says he looked at four hundred kids for the two roles. Christian and Madalen stood out and he knew when they Skyped (not Zoomed!) that they were right for the roles of Rob and Sistine because they were so responsive to direction. The big-name stars that round out the cast are just the icing on the cake.

You’ll probably also recognize Rob Sr. as Sam Trammell from True Blood, while Dennis Quaid gets to play the villain Beauchamp, who wins the titular tiger in a bet and has the poor animal caged up in the woods; a departure for Quaid from playing the good guy in his recent trail of family-friendly films. Queen Latifah’s character is Willie May, who works as a maid at the hotel and is the main set piece for the whole story. We see Katharine McPhee as Rob Jr.’s mother, Caroline Horton, in flashbacks.

Giarratana virtually manifested Queen Latifah. “She was my first thought for Willie May when I was writing the script ten years ago!” he admits. Turns out dreams do come true.

Both Giarratana and DiCamillo grew up in Florida. She grew up near Orlando and he’s from the Southern part of the state, which gives the story its regional authenticity. Giarratana, now a Los Angeleno, got a kick out of how “un-cooperative” his hair was being back in the Southern humidity while on location for the film.

DiCamillo detailed her time as a child in 1970s Florida when “rural amusement parks” with wild animals (big cats, alligators and crocodiles) pre-dated Walt Disneyland. There was a real-life tiger who escaped one such park, which later inspired her book. DiCamillo comments that the screenplay adaptation is very faithful to her vision and that being on set was like “walking through your own dream.”

In the story, Beauchamp hires young Rob to feed this caged tiger. Sistine is the new girl in school who gets bullied and Rob stands up for her; though she’s kind of mean to him at first, the two become fast friends. Sistine is in the midst of processing her parents’ divorce and thinks that her father will come and rescue her from her new surroundings. So Rob decides to show Sistine the tiger and she insists that he free this beast, which becomes the main conflict in the story. 

Both kids are beginning new chapters in their lives and dealing with different kinds of loss. The Tiger Rising is some parts The Florida Project, some parts Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael, with a smattering of the series Station Eleven. 

For Giarratana, the story is a universal one that just happens to feature ten-year-olds. He did not set out to make “a kids’ movie,” but rather one with a takeaway for everyone of every age to remember that each of us is going through something, and that loss is a theme we will all experience and learn to handle in our own ways.

The Tiger Rising is now in theaters. The Avenue will release the family/adventure film on demand and digital February 8, 2022.