Jumanji

The hauntingly beautiful illustrations of the children's book are animated in this unique adventure for the entire family. Artistic at each turn this movie is probably not meant for those who have spent more time watching Star Wars than at the library. At least one reviewer could not understand why the computer images were not as "realistic" as in other computer generated animated films. That would be like asking why Roger Rabbit does not look like a real rabbit. They are not supposed to be real. The characters of Jumanji have literally popped out of the children's illustrations full of life and imagination. Similar to Roger Rabbit it meshes two different worlds together. Have fun. Read the book. Watch the movie. Play the game.

I just used to love "Jumanji" as a kid. This was what was Oscar worthy to me, because I loved the special effects and Robin Williams. Even though I think I over did it with the Oscar worthy thoughts, still to this day I enjoy "Jumanji". It's a great family film that will make you feel good and have fun with.

Robin Williams plays Alan, a boy who when he was little and had a horrible fight with his father plays a game with his friend, Sarah, and the game happens to be cursed causing Alan to get sucked into the game until someone else plays it. Sarah freaking out by just what happened runs home and no one believes her leaving Alan behind for decades in the game. When a new family moves in, Judy and Peter and their Aunt Nora, they find the game and start playing and release Alan who has just survived decades in a jungle. When they realize that they must finish the game to make the horrible curses it brings go away, they find Sarah who is now the town loony, and must play it 'til they finish. But can they do that with all the spiders, elephants, lions, tsunami, vines, stampedes, and an angry hunter? You'll just have to wait and see.

This is a great movie for the family and I'd highly recommend it for a good watch. It's just a fun fill adventure with great effects and some fun performances by Robin and Bonnie and a very young Kirsten Dunst. So sit back, grab the popcorn, and enjoy "Jumanji"! 8/10

In 1969, in a small town in New Hampshire, a twelve-year-old boy named Alan Parrish finds a Victorian-era board game called "Jumanji", and starts to play it with his friend Sarah. What the children do not realise, however, is that the game has strange, mysterious powers, and when Alan's token lands on a particular square he is suddenly sucked into the game. Unsurprisingly traumatised by the disappearance of her friend, Sarah runs out of the house shrieking, leaving the game unfinished.

Twenty-six years later two more children, Peter and Judy, orphaned by the death of their parents in a car crash, move into the former Parrish family home with their Aunt Nora. They find the old Jumanji set and start playing the game; when Peter rolls a five Alan suddenly reappears, now a grown man. He explains to them that he has been trapped inside the game for the last twenty-six years and that they must now finish the game which he and Sarah started. This, however, is easier said than done. Not only must the children find Sarah and persuade her to take part, they must also cope with the magical effects of the game. Each roll of the dice results in strange happenings in keeping with the game's jungle adventure theme; animals such as lions, monkeys, elephants and rhinoceroses suddenly materialise and proceed to wreak havoc in the town. Just as deadly is a white hunter named Van Pelt who will take pot-shots at anything that moves, animal or human.

The big-name star in this film is Robin Williams, although it also features a young Kirsten Dunst, later to become a big name herself. This isn't Williams' best role- I generally prefer him in his more serious films like "Dead Poet's Society" or "Good Morning, Vietnam"- but it's a lot better than many of his comedies, which can descend into either silliness or sentimentality.

This is the sort of family film that offers something to entertain the adults as well as the children, and has some underlying serious themes. The main theme is that of courage and of confronting one's fears; the horrors unleashed by the game can (if one is in a particularly serious, analytic frame of mind) be seen as symbolic of the problems that the characters need to overcome. Although (or perhaps because) he is from a wealthy, privileged family, the young Alan is a shy, lonely boy who finds it difficult to make friends and who is neglected by his cold, distant parents. Nevertheless, he does win his father's approval when he finds the courage to stand up to a gang of bullies who have been tormenting him. There is doubtless some Freudian significance in the fact that Alan's father and the murderous Van Pelt are played by the same actor.

Children, of course, could not care less about Freudian symbolism and are generally allergic to underlying serious themes. When I was a child the one thing that would kill a book or a film stone dead for me was the suspicion that it was being used by the adult world to preach some morally improving message to me. (C.S. Lewis was a particular bête noire of mine after an intellectually precocious classmate, who even at the age of nine cherished the long-term ambition to become Archbishop of Canterbury, pointed out to me the Christian allegory behind the "Narnia" stories).

Fortunately, any moralising in "Jumanji" is fairly light, and I suspect that children will simply see it as an exciting adventure story, even if the final twist in the tale involves the intellectually difficult concept of "alternative timelines". The special effects used to create the scenes of the rampaging animals seem to have aroused some excitement when the film first came out, although thirteen years on they have a rather retro, nineties feel to them. (And from the point of view of today's techno-literate youngsters the 1990s probably seem only slightly less technologically backward than the 1890s). 7/10

I decided to watch this movie with my 7 year old boys and absolutely loved it!! The movie is perfect for that age - suspense, thriller, kids, humor, and Robin Williams. I grew up watching him and miss him so much. He is amazing in the movie, and my boys really enjoyed watching it. I had purchased the game so surprised them with it after the movie and we had a fun game night. I highly recommend it for that age. The new Jumanji is geared more towards teenagers and adults with cheesy dialogues just to generate cheap laughs; this one is a classic. I wish they continued making these for kids, because the new ones are definitely not geared towards kids.

I have not seen this movie in more then a decade perhaps even more so it was pretty new to me again. Sure I remembered a few things here and there but I didn't remember the amount of CGI for a movie made in 1995 or how well the story was.

The CGI is of course very dated compared to now but for its time this movie was amazing! The story for a movie that revolves around a board game is a very interesting concept and very well told. The acting by a young Kirsten Dunst and comedic Robin Williams and the rest of the cast is very well done.

This is a great movie and if you have children between the ages of 7 to 13 I would bet they'd like it too.