You're going to need a bigger boat in this trailer for KON TIKI

Much fuss will clearly be made over the next few days about the winners at the Oscars, while the runners-up will be relegated to funny animated gifs showing off their “I want to die inside, but I’ll smile anyway” faces.

It’s easy to forget that to just be nominated meant that you did something right, despite being overshadowed a bit. For example, Norwegian biographical adventure flick Kon Tiki which may have  been dwarfed by old people love story Amour in the Best Foreign Film category (at the Oscars and the Golden Globes), but judging by this trailer, looks it could be pretty exciting.

Max Manus co-directors Espen Sanberg and Joachim Ronning re-team for this sweeping adventure detailing Thor Heyerdahl’s daring 1947 attempt to prove that early settlers from South America once populated Polynesia by sailing across the Pacific on a simple balsa wood raft named the “Kon Tiki”. Rejected by every publisher he approaches to print his unusual thesis, Heyerdahl (Pål Sverre Hagen) eventually decides that the only way to prove it, is to make the journey himself as the entire world watches.

While the Life of Pi comparisons will probably be made instantly, despite the fact that the only things the two films have in common is a raft and a whole lot of really big CGI fish, this is clearly a totally different story, showing the triumph of the human spirit in the face of adversity. Also, really big CGI fish!

And luckily, along with the trailer, this 9.5 minute long VFX breakdown reel has also been released showing just how all that CGI trickery was pulled off.

Kon Tiki already opened in Europe in August 2012 and opens in the US on April 19, 2013. No word yet on a local release.

Last Updated: February 26, 2013