jumanji essay

My Comfort Movie: How 'Jumanji' Reminds Me Adventure Is Still Possible

If you're in need of a thrill in less than two hours, look no further. 'Jumanji' has you covered.

I can't quite remember the first time I saw Jumanji , but I knew I was going to love it forever after I saw it on VHS a year or two after its December 1995 release. For me, Jumanji is the ultimate comfort movie. It's a movie which never fails to thrill, no matter how outdated the special effects or pop culture references get. Jumanji has impacted my understanding of movies in the broader sense, helping me to understand that they can be escapist, pleasurable, meaningful, and if you're lucky, all three at once. Even though time has hurried onward, with 25 years passing in the blink of an eye and two flashy sequels expanding the world of Jumanji even more, nothing can be the original.

"Jumanji: A game for those who see to find a way to leave their world behind."

Based on the 1981 Chris Van Allsburg children's book of the same name and directed by Joe Johnston , Jumanji tells the story of four people — adults Alan Parrish ( Robin Williams ) and Sarah Whittle ( Bonnie Hunt ) and young siblings Judy ( Kirsten Dunst ) and Peter Shepherd ( Bradley Pierce ) — who must finish a game begun 26 years earlier which sees different animals, plants, bugs, weather patterns, and one particularly nasty poacher emerge from the game to wreak havoc on their small New England town. Jumanji made over $100 million domestic during its time in theaters and is part of the respective epic, early runs for both Williams and Dunst, two of the '90s biggest stars.

When I first pitched the idea of writing about Jumanji , it didn't occur to me just how eerily appropriate a choice it would be to talk about at this moment in time. I was excited to talk about Jumanji because it's a movie that made me fall in love with Williams as an on-screen tour de force, with Dunst as a fearless and skilled actor, and with movies as an escapist outlet. But now, in our bleak mid-quarantine(ish), re-visiting Jumanji has illuminated just how inviting the idea of bringing the wild world crashing into one's own home sounds right now — even if that means having a stampede run through your living room.

Jumanji is, to me, the epitome of a comfort movie. For my money, with the exception of the special effects, everything holds up. The performances are still killer (this might be a top five Williams performance for me, and no, I am not kidding), Johnston's direction is still firing on all cylinders, James Horner 's score is the perfect extra character who works overtime to electrify every scene with excitement, and the script written by Jonathan Hensleigh ( Armageddon ), Greg Taylor ( Prancer ), and Jim Strain is still airtight but with enough room for it to appeal to viewers of all ages. But the ultimate marker of Jumanji 's greatness as a comfort movie, in my opinion, is that it never fails to thrill regardless of how many times I've watched it. Need proof? Well, let's going inside the movie and experience arguably the best scene in Jumanji 's 104-minute runtime together.

"Don't be fooled, it isn't thunder. Staying put would be a blunder."

It starts with a fight about Billy Jessup. Billy, the boy who used bully Alan when they were kids back in 1969. After 26 years, Alan, now an adult, is still a bit ticked about the way Billy treated him and the only way to exorcise those feelings is to get into a childish fight with Sarah, Billy's childhood girlfriend and Alan's childhood friend. But as Alan and Sarah fight about the lasting impact of Billy's torment on Alan's psyche, he interrupts himself and asks the room, "Do you feel that?"

Unfortunately, Alan, Sarah, Judy, and Peter, a stampede is about to happen. Judy has just taken her turn while the adults bicker, quietly reading, "Don't be fooled, it isn't thunder. Staying put would be a blunder." As the string section of James Horner's immaculate score quickens, Alan moves to the bookcase and watches a small figurine jostle off a shelf and break. Books clatter to the ground and the steady beat of hooves rumble closer. Seconds before disaster strikes, Alan whips around and yells: "Run. It's a stampede!"

The Jumanji stampede sequence is one of two high-stakes stampedes '90s kids like myself had to try and process as young movie goers (can't forget The Lion King ...). But the tension of that moment, watching it steadily build as it moves from a standard bit of bickering between Alan and Sarah before ratcheting up as Alan once again puts his hard-earned know-how from years spent living in the jungles of Jumanji to good use, was and still is fantastic. It also highlights just how good all of the action throughout Jumanji is to this day, with the consequences of every roll of the dice turning into one slow build into an explosion of action after another, each creature or natural disaster the game spits forth — be it monkeys or mosquitoes or a hungry lion or a house-ripping earthquake — cleverly revealed to astonishing and rewarding effect every time you watch.

"In the jungle you must wait, until the dice read five or eight."

Jumanji isn't Jumanji without Williams. 1995 was a more relaxed year for Williams in terms of output, with a supporting role in Nine Month s , a small uncredited role in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar , and his lead turn in Jumanji making up the bulk of his output. While Nine Months and To Wong Foo are solid flicks, we don't necessarily remember them for Williams. Jumanji is the real winner here and, as I've mentioned, it's really an all-timer of a performance. Williams gets to showcase his range in Jumanji , moving from his mile-a-minute quippy sensibilities to exercising his skills as an Errol Flynn -esque adventuring lead man, swinging from vines and fighting crocs during a monsoon, to bringing some depth to Alan's fraught relationship with his father ( Jonathan Hyde ), the scars of which he carries into adulthood. Williams, already a deeply important person in the lives on many people in my generation because of his body of work in the '80s and '90s, elevates Jumanji out of being a mere kid's movie and into the stuff of greatness.

"Adventurers beware: Do not begin unless you intend to finish."

At the end of the day, Jumanji is my ultimate comfort movie because it never fails to remind me adventure is still possible. No matter how old I get or whatever bullshit life throws at me, Jumanji guarantees a comforting optimism in under two hours. The very nature of its premise guarantees I'll be transported, heartened, and changed. Jumanji reminds me it's okay to hold firm to the vast and all-encompassing sense of wonder about the world I used to have as a kid. Life feels a little more manageable when you're trying to channel adventuring Alan Parrish; if he can survive 26 years in the jungle, I can survive this. And while there are some things life puts in our path we simply cannot reduce down so it better connects to a 1995 kid's movie, at least there is the promise of being able to pause life for a short while and dive headlong into Jumanji to leave the worries of your world behind.

For more My Comfort Movie essays from the Collider staff, check out Vinnie Mancuso on The Princess Bride and Tom Reimann on Hot Rod .

The Entire Jumanji Story Explained

No one guessed in the '90s that the original Jumanji would eventually spawn a successful franchise of films that would still be going strong several decades later, but here we are. Jumanji 's simple "magic board game" premise has significantly evolved since the first film's premiere in 1995, with the introduction of new characters, new rules, and the suggestion that the game itself is at least slightly sentient.

What started as the tale of two kids, two adults, and one very immersive game has now grown into a much more complex saga — especially when you start considering the multiple alternate realities spawned by various rounds of Jumanji — and we wouldn't blame you if you're not entirely sure how it's all supposed to fit together. Read on as we go all the way back to the very beginning of the story, walking through and tying together all the winding branches of adventure and friendship in the fractured realities of the Jumanji films.

Jumanji's first victims

The original Jumanji opens with a scene set in 1869, showing two brothers named Caleb and Benjamin burying a large wooden box in the woods of Brantford, New Hampshire in the dead of night. As they begin to fill in the hole around the box, Benjamin falls in, and tribal drums begin to pound, seemingly coming from the box itself. "It's after me!" Benjamin screams in terror, clawing his way out of the hole. He tries to run, but Caleb stops him, insisting that they must finish burying the box before they can leave. When Benjamin worries about what will happen if someone someday digs it up, Caleb says ominously, "May God have mercy on his soul."

This is the earliest glimpse we ever get of the Jumanji board game. We never learn anything more about where it may have come from, although based on the way the brothers are acting, it seems unlikely that they created it. It seems more probable that, like the other characters later in the movie, Caleb and Benjamin happened upon the game by chance, and only learned about its magical powers and lethal stakes once they started to play. As for who created Jumanji and why, the films never tell us.

Jumanji finds some new players

In 1969, a century after Caleb and Benjamin bury the drumming box in the woods, a young boy named Alan Parrish hears the drums while wandering through a construction site in Brantford. Rather than get freaked out by the thumping of mysterious drums, Alan seems drawn by them, suggesting that the drums of the game have some sort of siren-like properties, luring would-be players to their unwitting doom. Alan finds a game called "Jumanji" buried at the site, brings it home, and convinces his friend Sarah Whittle to play.

After Sarah takes her turn, they decide to stop playing, unsettled by the strange words and noises emanating from the game. But before they can put the board away, Alan drops the dice, and is alarmed to realize that "the game thinks [he] rolled." No sooner has a baffled Sarah repeated, "The game thinks ?" than Alan gets sucked into the game, where he must wait until a player rolls a five or eight. This is the first suggestion that the game may have a mind of its own — an idea that is always hinted at, but never fully explored. However, rather than continuing to play until she can roll to get Alan out of the game, a terrified Sarah flees the Parrish house, chased away by the bats that were released on her turn.

The game is paused

During the years between 1969 and 1995, Alan grows up inside the jungles of Jumanji, where he is relentlessly hunted by big game hunter Van Pelt. Against all odds, Alan manages to survive, weaving his clothes out of leaves and vines and learning the tricks to evading Jumanji's most dangerous creatures. He ages into a man, but never really mentally develops past adolescence, thanks to his lack of contact with other humans.

Back in Brantford, Sarah is left in 1969 as the sole witness to Alan's disappearance, which she tries to explain, but finds that no one believes her. As she reaches adulthood, she starts going to therapy to help her process what she experienced as a child, which she becomes convinced were hallucinations. Eventually, Sarah starts running a business out of her house as a psychic named Madam Serena, embracing her new persona and trying to leave behind the memory of who she was.

Meanwhile, Judy and Peter Shepherd are born in the mid '80s. Their parents die in a car crash during a ski trip in Canada in early 1995, after which Peter stops talking and Judy copes by telling elaborate lies. They subsequently move in with their Aunt Nora, who buys the old Parrish mansion in New Hampshire.

Jumanji gains two more players

Two days after moving into the Parrish house, Judy and Peter find the Jumanji board game in the attic and begin to play, ignoring the two pieces already on the board after finding they can't move them. However, when Peter rolls a five, Alan is finally released from the game, returning to his childhood home as a grown man. After Alan understands that Judy and Peter have restarted the game that he and Sarah abandoned in 1969, he realizes they can't continue the game without Sarah.

Alan, Judy, and Peter go to Sarah's childhood home, where they find her posing as "Madam Serena" and doing her best to convince herself that their 1969 game of Jumanji never happened. Once Sarah realizes who Alan is, she refuses to take her turn, insisting that she can't handle the trauma of that experience again. But Alan, determined to finish the game and set things back to normal following his years trapped in the jungle, tricks Sarah into taking her turn. The four players continue taking turns, which become increasingly more difficult as Jumanji unleashes all manner of creatures and hazards into the Parrish home.

Beating the game

After finally reaching the end of Jumanji and saying its name, the "exciting consequences of the game" vanish as the instructions promised. Since the game started in 1969 and everything that followed was an "exciting consequence," Alan and Sarah return to when they started playing, becoming children once again, although their memories of adulthood still remain. Judy and Peter, on the other hand, don't exist at all in the reset version of the game, since it reverted back to before they were born.

The young 1969 versions of Alan and Sarah throw the game in a river, weighed down with bricks so that no one else will find it. They then grow up and get married, and are expecting their first child by Christmas of 1994. By then, Alan has taken over his father's company, and hires Judy and Peter's father, Jim, to come work for him. Alan and Sarah are overwhelmed to finally see Judy and Peter again at their Christmas party, although of course the children have no memory of the two of them, since in this reality, they never played the game together. During the party, Jim mentions that he and his wife are considering a ski vacation in Canada, but Alan and Sarah insist that he starts immediately, preventing the accident that would've resulted in their deaths.

There are other games out there

Although they are never mentioned in any of the Jumanji movies, 2005's Zathura: A Space Adventure confirms that there are in fact other semi-sentient, startlingly immersive games out there. The marketing for Zathura advertised it as a Jumanji spin-off ( the trailer proclaimed it "a new adventure from the world of Jumanji"), although the film itself never makes any references to its predecessor , despite supposedly taking place in the same universe (and both being based on children's books by the same author, Chris Van Allsburg). Zathura also features a group of kids playing a game which draws them into its bizarre world, this time transporting a trio of siblings (including a young Josh Hutcherson and Kristen Stewart) to outer space, where they encounter a helpful astronaut.

As in Jumanji , the kids and the astronaut have to fight their way through increasingly challenging obstacles as they attempt to finish the game, although this time the dangers include aliens, robots, and other sci-fi perils rather than jungle creatures. Like Jumanji , everything returns to normal once the kids complete the game, although this time there's no decades-long alternate reality to deal with. However, Jumanji is never explicitly mentioned within Zathura , and Zathura is never mentioned within Jumanji , so although the film implies there could be more Jumanji-like games in existence, the films themselves have never taken the opportunity to tie them all together.

Jumanji evolves

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle opens with a man finding a board game on a New Hampshire beach in 1996 and bringing it home — which we see is the old Parrish house — to his teenage son, Alex. It took 30 years, but like Benjamin and Caleb's attempt to hide the game in 1869, apparently Alan and Sarah's solution of tying bricks to the game and throwing it into the river wasn't good enough to keep it permanently out of reach. Jumanji is a game that, it would seem, will always find a way to be played.

However, Alex is uninterested in a board game and would rather play video games. Unwilling to be thwarted by evolving teenage tastes, as Alex sleeps, the game transforms into a video game console and cartridge. When he wakes up, instead of being wary of a game that can change forms independently, Alex plays the game, and gets pulled inside. As we find out later, this happens immediately after choosing a character, not after an unlucky in-game decision as in the first movie. This makes it seem as though Jumanji has grown more even eager over time to claim victims, and has changed the rules to suit its purposes.

Alex spends the next 20 years inside the game, and as with Alan's disappearance before him, the town suspects foul play. At some point, Alex's family donates some of Alex's belongings to the high school, and the game winds up in the school basement.

The modern Jumanji

20 years after Alex disappears into Jumanji, four Brantford teens named Spencer, Martha, Fridge, and Bethany get pulled into the video game while serving detention in the high school basement in 2016. Inside the game, the kids no longer look like themselves, but like the video game avatars they've selected to represent them. They have to play through and ultimately beat the game as these avatars in order to return to the real world. Quickly, it becomes evident that the rules of Jumanji have significantly changed since the first movie, with the simple dice rolls that Judy, Peter, Alan, and Sarah navigated having been replaced by a limited life count, individualized strengths and weaknesses, and an entire narrative storyline that the game is now following.

While in the game, the teens meet up with Alex (as his own avatar), who has been living in the jungle house that Alan Parish built during his years trapped inside the game. Alex thinks only four months have passed since he got sucked into the game in 1996. The five of them work together to ascend through the game's increasingly challenging levels, which still resemble the board game version in their jungle setting and in the villainous non-player character of Van Pelt. After beating the game and shouting out "Jumanji," the five players are each returned to the points where they entered the game, Alex to 1996 and the other four back to detention in 2016.

Life after Jumanji

Fridge, Bethany, Spencer, and Martha remembering their time in Jumanji is a significant change from the way the board game worked in the original movie, which reset the entire thing back to 1969, when its first players began their game. While Judy and Peter grew up with no knowledge of the game (since they were born after the reset), Spencer, Martha, Fridge, and Bethany remember everything, despite Alex emerging from the game before they were born and thus changing the world around them. There's never any explanation given for such a major change in Jumanji's mechanics, so we're left to assume it's just yet another example of the changing nature of the game.

After Alex is returned to 1996, he grows up with his memories of the game intact, gets married, and has children. He names his oldest daughter Bethany, after the girl who saved his life in the game, and his parents continue to live in the former Parrish house. After exiting the game in 2016 , the teens meet an adult Alex, who is excited to finally see their real (non-avatar) faces. They later destroy the game by smashing it with a bowling ball.

However, sometime after his friends have left, Spencer retrieves the broken pieces of the game and holds on to it, just in case. The teens remain close throughout the rest of high school and head off to college, but Spencer begins to experience significant self-doubt and withdraw from the group. Before going to meet his friends for brunch during a break from college in 2019, Spencer attempts to fix the game so he can play again as his avatar from the first movie, hoping that this will help restore his self-confidence. Unfortunately, the game is broken, and Spencer gets trapped inside. His friends go to his house searching for him, and get sucked into the game, too — except for Bethany, who goes to find the adult Alex and seek out his help.

The history of Milo and Eddie

While the four teens at least understand what they're getting into in Jumanji: The Next Level , having already played through and beaten the game three years prior, Spencer's grandfather Eddie and his former best friend Milo Walker are inadvertently pulled in along with them, with no idea of the world they've just entered. Eddie and Milo owned a diner together for several decades before Milo sold it without Eddie's consent, sparking a rift between the two. Milo shows up at Eddie's house, determined to make amends, on the same morning that Spencer's friends arrive at his house looking for him.

Initially, Eddie wants nothing to do with Milo, and at first, they just bicker constantly. Eventually, though, the two are forced to speak honestly to one another about their feud and about Milo's motivation for showing up on Eddie's doorstep that morning. Milo reveals that he recently received a terminal medical diagnosis, and he wants to heal his fractured relationship with Eddie before he dies. Ultimately deciding that their friendship is more important than their disagreement over the diner, Eddie forgives Milo for pushing him into retirement, and the two former business partners finish the game on good terms.

Beating Jumanji again

Trapped inside a version of Jumanji that's been drastically altered — either due to it being broken and then rebuilt, or simply due to the ever-changing nature of the game — the four teens, along with Alex, Milo, and Eddie, all have to work together to complete the video game again. This time, the only characters who are able to play as their avatars from the first movie are Martha and Alex, with the rest of them winding up in either different or brand new bodies (including that of a winged horse). However, this time they discover a game mechanic that allows them to swap avatars, which they use to their advantage in order to beat the game. It's unclear if that mechanic existed the first time they played through the game and they just never found it, or whether it's further evidence that the game continues to evolve.

While in the game, the characters talk honestly about the various rifts that have formed between them, including Spencer's depression and anxiety over how he fits into the group, and begin to heal. Milo and Eddie reconcile, but Milo (who completes the game as the horse avatar) decides to remain inside the game rather than return to his life outside where he is dying. Now that the game has been completed, Milo should be able to live peacefully and indefinitely inside of the game, with time potentially moving differently than it does in the real world, as it did for Alex when he was trapped inside the game.

The rules of Jumanji change one more time

After beating the game again and returning to the real world at the end of Jumanji: The Next Level , Spencer, Martha, Bethany, and Fridge finally go get their long-awaited meal together at Milo and Eddie's old diner, now called Nora's Diner. While they're there, Eddie arrives to ask for a job as a manager, having finally moved on from his bitterness enough to admit that he loved owning the diner and wants to return to that world. The new owner turns out to be Peter and Judy's Aunt Nora from the first film (in which she had wanted to turn the Parrish house into a bed and breakfast), who hires Eddie on the spot.

Meanwhile, while the teens are away, a mechanic shows up at Spencer's house and hears the drums of Jumanji. We never see what happens when he encounters the still-partially-broken video game in Spencer's basement, but the last thing we see in The Next Level is a group of ostriches running down the street outside Nora's Diner. While we don't know — yet — what happened that led to the animals of Jumanji being able to exit the game and emerge into the real world, each movie has established that the rules of Jumanji are ever-evolving to suit its own mysterious purposes. With wild animals once more charging down the streets of Brantford, it's clear that the rules of Jumanji have changed yet again.

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It’s hard to say whether “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” about a group of teenagers who turn into videogame characters, is a sequel to the 1995 Robin Williams hit “ Jumanji ,” a remake, a reboot, or something else. But it’s definitely the kind of movie that works the name of a classic rock song into its title and makes sure to blast it during the end credits, so that people who were in their twenties during the 1990s and now have kids of their own (and probably took them to this film) can feel that Pavlovian tingle.

That description makes the new “Jumanji” sound like a cash-grab, and in lot of ways it is—studios are so enamored with the notion that pre-existing intellectual properties are box office insurance that they’re far more likely to greenlight this than something genuinely new, even though exactly no one has spent the last two decades saying, “I wish somebody would make another ‘Jumanji.’” At the same time, though, this is a likable, funny diversion, and sometimes more than that. It has enough twists and surprises to pull viewers along, despite the fact that writer-director Jake Kasdan ’s story (co-written with four people) is ultimately not much meatier than the one from a 1990s videogame that the characters end up inhabiting after getting sentenced to a “Breakfast Club”-type detention at school. (In the original film, the titular diversion is an old-fashioned board game, just like in the source material, Chris van Allsburg’s popular children’s book.)

The protagonists here are Spencer ( Alex Wolff ), an earnest nerd; Spencer’s onetime best friend Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), a football star who ends up grounded after authorities realize Alex wrote a homework assignment for him; Bethany ( Madison Iseman ), a classic snotty Heather-type who’s addicted to her smartphone and takes selfies constantly; and the bookish, socially anxious Martha ( Morgan Turner ). They all have insecurities and issues. Once they end up inside the Jumanji videogame, these same characters are played by Dwayne Johnson (as Spencer the nerd); Kevin Hart (as Fridge the jock); Karen Gillan (as the super-fit avatar of Martha), and Jack Black , of all people, as Bethany. There are supposed to be five characters in the game-space, though, and we meet the fifth in due time: Alex Vreeke ( Nick Jonas ), who is introduced as an energetic teenager in the film’s 1996 prologue, only to get sucked into the game and become The Local Missing Boy whose endlessly grieving family still lives in their now-decrepit house.

The body-switching gag threatens to wear out its welcome quickly ( hah ha, the scrawny nerd looks like Dwayne Johnson now, and the awkward girl has washboard abs! ), but the actors take their assignments to play teenagers so seriously that the film surfs along on a wave of poker-faced earnestness, mixing moments of pathos in with its super-broad slapstick. (Except for Dan Castellaneta ’s Homer Simpson, nobody screams in pain more hilariously than Kevin Hart.) At certain points you might feel as though you’re watching the longest, most lavishly produced “ Saturday Night Live” sketch ever, complete with lush jungle scenery (the film was shot partly on location in Hawaii) and attacks by CGI hippos, rhinos, monkeys, crocodiles and the like. But since the entire thing plays like a 10-year old’s Disney Channel fantasy of what adolescence will be like, it works well enough, especially when coupled with intense discussions of the game’s rules (how many lives you get, how many levels there are, how to lift the curse from the land, etc).

Both the videogame’s construction and its gender politics are very ‘90s. The movie is aware of this and makes fun of it, though there’s a bit of an eat-your-cake-and-have-it-too aspect to the way it puts Johnson and Gillan's bodies on display. There are occasional jolts of mayhem, thanks mainly to the motorcycle-riding ninjas who do the bidding of the movie’s villain John Van Pelt ( Bobby Cannavale ), a demonic figure who wants to control the Jaguar’s Eye and claim dominion over the land. The action scenes are constructed with a bit of panache and manage to be exciting though you’re never seriously worried that any major character is going to lose all of their lives. Kasdan, a veteran filmmaker who happens to be the son of “ Raiders of the Lost Ark ” and “ The Empire Strikes Back ” screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan , has an old-school sense of how to build those kinds of sequences. The shots are thoughtfully composed, for the most part, and you always know where you are and what's at stake from moment to moment.

The script’s scenarios allow for charming, often faintly surreal funny character moments, as when Black’s round yet flouncy Bethany instructs Gillan’s super-fit but still physically awkward Martha on how to be sexy. Black’s "hey, sailor" walk evokes Bugs Bunny in drag, and Gillan’s subsequent “seductive” dance to distract some guards looks as if she’s trying to shake sand out of her shorts while simultaneously dealing with a bad case of swimmer’s ear. The film doesn’t have the nerve to follow some of its more subversive ideas (such as Bethany lusting after Alex) to their logical conclusions, probably because this is an expensive project that’s terrified of alienating a certain sector of the public (imagine the walkouts if Jack Black lip-locked with Nick Jonas in something other than a CPR situation). But it’s still more surprising in more ways than it had to be, and the performers are clearly having such fun playing insecure teenagers that you stay involved even when the thinness of the enterprise becomes undeniable. This is a two-and-a-half star movie, honestly, bumped up a notch because the actors are likable, the film doesn’t have a cruel thought in its head, and the sentimental finale feels earned.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle movie poster

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

Rated PG-13

119 minutes

Dwayne Johnson as Dr. Smolder Bravestone

Jack Black as Professor Shelly Oberon

Kevin Hart as Moose Finbar

Karen Gillan as Ruby Roundhouse

Nick Jonas as Alex

Rhys Darby as Nigel

Alex Wolff as Spencer

Madison Iseman as Bethany

Marc Evan Jackson as Principal Bentley

Jake Kasdan
Chris McKenna
Scott Rosenberg
Jeff Pinkner

Cinematography

Gyula Pados

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‘Jumanji: The Next Level’: Film Review

The jungle game grows ever more elaborate now that this action-comedy franchise has found its footing, mixing and matching players with their avatars.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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When Sony dusted off its 22-year-old “Jumanji” movie for a distant sequel in 2017, it looked to some as though Hollywood had hit rock bottom in terms of pillaging its own properties. In fact, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” proved to be that rare reboot that built upon its initial high concept — a jungle-themed board game that takes over a family’s living room — with a clever new riff in which four mismatched teens, thrust together in detention, are sucked into an old-school video game console, assigned to avatars who are nothing like their real-world personalities.

It was like “The Breakfast Club” with a 21st-century twist, where the nerd becomes Dwayne Johnson ’s brawny hero, the popular girl winds up stuck in Jack Black ’s body, and so on. More often than not, effects-driven blockbusters get dumber as the series go along, but “ Jumanji: The Next Level ” invents some fun ideas to keep things fresh, suggesting that Columbia Pictures is committed to treating the property as a proper franchise — right down to the final scene, which teases an even wilder direction for the story to go from here.

That movie looks like a blast. In the meantime, however, director Jake Kasdan had to make a choice: Either he could conjure a new mix of characters to go on virtual safari, or he could bring back the original players and switch up the alter egos with whom they’re paired in the video game world. Kasdan decides to do both. Collaborating with returning co-writers Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg on the script, the helmer reassembles the four unlikely friends, back home for the holidays. Rather than stop there, the script also introduces a couple newbies in the form of Danny DeVito and Danny Glover, playing crotchety ex-business partners Eddie and Milo, estranged for 15 years, who happen to be in the house when that cursed cartridge zaps everyone into its perilous parallel reality.

Just before that happens, we learn that the romance between awkward, asthmatic Spencer (Alex Wolff) — the one who got to be “The Rock” last time around — and shy girl Madison (Morgan Turner) didn’t survive freshman year of college, whereas football player Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain) and social media-obsessed Bethany (Madison Iseman) seem to be thriving in their respective post-high-school pursuits. The filmmakers had to come up with some reason for them to reenter the game, settling on the notion that Spencer, feeling like a worthless weakling, wanted to spend some more time as the strong, fast, and fearless Dr. Smolder Bravestone.

The game has other plans, which are better left unspoiled here, although it might have been nice for “The Next Level” to explore Spencer’s underlying psychology a bit more. The last two “Jumanji” outings appeal to a collective cultural nostalgia for ’90s-era video games, poking fun at the technical limitations and clichéd aspects of that experience (bad exposition, underwritten supporting characters, silly situations). What they ignore is the near-addictive way such games’ more sophisticated successors have come to dominate the lives of those who play them.

What if Spencer, instead of just firing up the dangerous old game on a whim, had been playing it by himself all this time, to the extent that the others had to stage an intervention — by going in after him? There’s no room for anything so serious in “The Next Level,” which instead wants to amuse us with the possibility that its characters might be assigned to different avatars, providing the movie stars who play them an opportunity to channel different (and in some cases, multiple) personalities.

The best thing about “Welcome to the Jungle” was watching Johnson poke fun at his own persona by pretending to be a meek kid suddenly blessed with a movie-star bod and the allure (or “smoldering intensity”) to match. Here, through a fluke of the system that bypasses the character-selection stage, it’s Spencer’s grandpa Eddie (DeVito) who lands in Bravestone’s shoes, while slow-talking fellow oldster Milo (Glover) gets to be Franklin “Mouse” Finbar ( Kevin Hart ).

Johnson’s easily the most bankable action star in Hollywood right now, but he’s got an incredibly narrow range, and asking him to do a Danny DeVito impersonation has unintentionally hilarious results. At times, he seems to be doing a British accent; at others, he sounds like a cross between Barbra Streisand and Elaine Stritch. It boggles the mind: Did Johnson actually spend any time with DeVito developing the character? Was his entire performance based on another actor, who was then recast after Johnson’s part was in the can?

Hart does a better job of convincing us that his know-it-all zoologist has been possessed by a rambling old fogey, who parcels out key facts too slowly to be of any use, while Black (whose default setting is “overacting”) exaggerates the frustration that a black athlete like Fridge would feel trapped in the position of an out-of-shape white guy such as Shelly Oberon, the group’s map-reading (but otherwise useless) comic relief. Somehow, Madison managed to return to the same avatar she had before, Lara Croft-like teammate — and “killer of men” — Ruby Roundhouse, although another twist slightly later in the story will allow players to swap avatars. The sequel also gets a couple new characters, including a cat burglar named Ming, played by Awkwafina, who proves the most entertaining in her multiple-personality reinterpretations of the role.

Clearly, “The Next Level” could be confusing for anyone who hasn’t seen the original (references to cake as one of Mouse’s weaknesses serve as an inside joke to returning viewers), although it helps that Milo and Eddie don’t understand what’s happening to them, allowing the others to shout the rules as they go along. If you’ve ever tried to play a video game with someone of your grandparents’ generation, you’ll appreciate the exasperation the repeat players feel toward these absurd exchanges — which mirror how any catch-up conversation would go in which “Jumanji” fans tried to explain the plot of this movie to an oblivious older relative.

“Jumanji” may have begun as a jungle game, but now it’s expanded to include David Lean-ian desert challenges (a dune buggy chase from a herd of angry ostriches) and an elaborate medieval finale plainly inspired by “Game of Thrones” (right down to the casting of Rory McCann as grimy new villain Jurgen the Brutal). Kasdan amps up the violence and intensity in “The Next Level,” although the players each have three lives apiece, which undermines the stakes of all that flashy computer-generated peril — a plus for younger audiences, assuming parents don’t take issue with death being treated as a joke.

For the most part, the film’s values are in the right place, and apart from a few off-color bits (about penis size and sexual prowess), the humor serves the greater goal of looking past one’s physical limitations and respecting friendships in whatever form they take. The storytelling may be sloppy in parts, but the cast’s collective charisma more than compensates. As the saying goes: Don’t hate the players, hate the game.

Reviewed at The Grove, Los Angeles, Dec. 9, 2019. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 123 MIN.

Production: A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures, Matt Tolmach Prods., Radar Pictures, Seven Bucks Prods. production. Producers: Matt Tolmach, Jake Kasdan, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia. Executive producers: David Householter, Melvin Mar, Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner, William Teitler, Ted Field, Mike Weber.
Crew: Director: Jake Kasdan. Screenplay: Kasdan, Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg. Camera (color, widescreen): Gyula Pados. Editors: Steve Edwards, Mark Helfrich, Tara Timpone. Music: Henry Jackman.
With: Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan
Music By: , Nick Jonas, Awkwafina, Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Ser'Darius Blain, Madison Iseman, Danny Glover, Danny DeVito.

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‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ Review: New Faces Join the Gang, Back in the Wild

Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan return for this sequel, and they’ve got Danny DeVito and Danny Glover in tow.

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By Glenn Kenny

It’s only two weeks after Thanksgiving. A little early to have to contend with a new overstuffed turkey. And yet, here is “Jumanji: The Next Level.”

This is the sequel to a 2017 reboot (again directed by Jake Kasdan), which connected mightily with audiences. In that movie, a quartet of teens got sucked into a video game that assigned them avatars, which also served as virtual life coaches. Wimpy Spencer got to inhabit Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a. the Rock), while shy Martha got to kick butt in Karen Gillan’s body. Self-absorbed Bethany got a soft comeuppance being Jack Black. And “Fridge,” a giant jock, got cut down to Kevin Hart’s stature.

Here, on winter break, downhearted Spencer — his life hack didn’t quite take — has dug up the game and re-entered its world. His friends try to follow, but only a couple make it in. They are joined by Eddie, Spencer’s crotchety grandfather (a delightfully dyspeptic Danny DeVito) and Eddie’s estranged best pal, Milo (a warm Danny Glover).

Yes, Eddie does wind up in Dwayne Johnson’s body, which affords Johnson the opportunity to try a New Jersey accent. It’s not bad.

This all sounds more complicated than it plays out onscreen, which is to Kasdan’s credit. Adding to the twists is a body of water that enables avatar-switching; it reintroduces itself at a crucial story point, as one does. At another crucial point, the actress and rapper Awkwafina shows up to join in the ostensible fun; at another, Colin Hanks and Nick Jonas reprise their roles from the prior movie.

It’s perhaps unfair to call this a turkey. It’s got some sweet moments, and the cast, as it did in the previous picture, enjoys itself at least semi-infectiously. But the action sequences are lifeless; the lessons valid but arguably stale; and the trimmings, mere bloat.

Jumanji: The Next Level

Rated PG-13 for video-game-style mayhem. Running time: 2 hours 3 minutes.

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Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Dwayne Johnson, Awkwafina and Jack Black in Jumanji: The Next Level.

Jumanji: The Next Level review – an upbeat, frenetic adventure

N o one was more surprised than I when Jake Kasdan’s 2017 romp Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle managed to squeeze smart new thrills from the premise of Chris Van Allsburg’s 1981 children’s book, first filmed in 1995. While Joe Johnston’s Jumanji (starring Robin Williams) had featured fantastical creatures escaping from the titular board-game to run wild in Brantford, New Hampshire, Kasdan’s “continuation of the story” sent four young players into a video game, where they battled a series of challenges in order to earn a safe passage home. The result was a crowd-pleasing romp that combined the school detention premise of The Breakfast Club with boisterous CG action in sprightly fashion.

With a worldwide box-office gross just this side of a billion dollars, a sequel became an industrial necessity – never an inspiring situation. It’s a relief, therefore, to report that Jumanji: The Next Level keeps things upbeat and lively, thanks in no small part to the introduction of two counterintuitively revivifying characters – curmudgeonly old codgers whose gripes and aches provide a jolly counterpoint to the teen angst that fired Kasdan’s previous instalment.

Danny DeVito and Danny Glover are, respectively, Eddie and Milo – former restaurateurs nursing a 15-year-old estrangement beef. When Eddie’s disillusioned grandson Spencer (Alex Wolff) ventures back into the Jumanji video game with dreams of once again becoming handsome adventurer Dr Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), his somewhat distant friends are forced to follow. Unfortunately, Eddie and Milo are unwittingly dragged along for the ride, swept into an alternative universe in which Jurgen the Brutal ( Game of Thrones ’s Rory McCann) has stolen Jumanji’s life-giving jewel, threatening its kingdoms with drought and darkness. “We’re in a ‘video game’,” the youngsters try to explain to the old farts, to little avail.

More confusing still is the randomness of the in-game avatar identities assigned to each player. This time, the body-swap choices of the first film are shuffled and multiplied, allowing our adult stars to experiment with a wider range of comically mimicked characters. Thus we get to enjoy the Rock doing a loopy impression of Danny DeVito, experiencing the thrill of huge biceps and fully mobile hips (“I’m back!”); and Kevin Hart channelling Glover’s laconic verbal delivery as Franklin “Mouse” Finbar, drawling: “Did I just kill Eddie by talking too slow – like he always said I would?”

Upping the ante is Awkwafina as new game-character Ming Fleetfoot, whose appearance poses both questions and answers as the narrative (penned by Kasdan with returning co-writers Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg) jumbles identities like T-shirts in a tumble dryer. Like some super-charged kaleidoscopic rehash of Freaky Friday , Jumanji: The Next Level takes polymorphous pleasure in its frenetic scrambling of age, gender and racial boundaries, yet somehow manages to keep us up to speed with who is in which body at any given moment – just about. It’s a credit to the film-makers that a one-sided conversation between a cat burglar and a hybrid horse can still pack an emotional punch, a feat of which Polish surrealist director Walerian Borowczyk would have been rightly proud.

There are a few false steps. Some of the bawdier gags about horse dicks and eunuch’s testicles strike a duff note, and there’s a bagginess to the third act that afflicts so many FX-heavy blockbusters. Yet for the most part the set pieces (which include giant ostriches chasing dune buggies and airborne encounters with snarling monkeys) have an enjoyable grandeur, emphasised by Henry Jackman’s score, which cheekily invokes Maurice Jarre’s Lawrence of Arabia theme during an early desert sequence.

As before, it’s the characters that shine through; from Karen Gillan’s ludicrously attired Ruby Roundhouse, whose ass-kicking new skills include nunchucks (once blanket-banned from UK screens by the British Board of Film Classification), to Jack Black’s map-reading Dr “Shelley” Oberon, delightfully reunited with Madison Iseman’s likable mean girl persona. We even get a reprise of Baby, I Love Your Way, a track that raised a big laugh in Welcome to the Jungle and provokes a knowing chuckle here.

Whether this winning formula can be repeated yet another time remains a moot point. An end-credits sequence invokes the “real world” adventures of yore, paving the way for further instalments, but I hope these characters remain true to their promise to “never go back again”. It’s a promise they’ve already broken once, and somehow managed to get away with it. Next time, I doubt I’ll be quite so forgiving.

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Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Is Good, Clean Fun

Looking for a lively, wholesome movie to see with the family this holiday season? The obvious choice is The Greatest Showman , the musical that demonstrates how circus impresario P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) didn’t exploit “freaks” by charging people money to point at them and jeer — he actually gave them a sense of self-worth! My colleague Emily Yoshida dissects the “incredibly specious empowerment metaphor holding up this rinky-dink tent” with painful accuracy — and should get combat pay for attempting to transcribe the numbskull lyrics. Move on to the next screen at the multiplex (plug your ears if you’re passing The Greatest Showman ) and see Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle . The movie has amusingly broad performances; good, bloodless scares (the characters die horribly — but have multiple lives); and self-empowering life lessons too bland to be specious. You could do far worse.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a sequel to and not a remake of the agreeable 1995 Jumanji (starring Robin Williams and the young Kirsten Dunst) based on Chris Van Allsburg’s wonderful 1981 book. In the 1995 film, players of the mysterious board game Jumanji found their reality invaded by sundry animal, human, and insect predators. In the 21st-century version, four very different kinds of teenagers in detention — yes, it’s a Breakfast Club redux — get whisked into a jungle cyberworld where they find themselves inhabiting wildly inapposite avatars.

The upshot is that Dwayne Johnson (playing a nerd who finds himself in Dwayne Johnson’s body) gazes on his own humongous biceps with the same kind of amazement that the rest of us do, while Karen Gillan (the repository of the brainy misfit girl) looks down at her impossibly long legs as if thinking, “How do I walk on these things?” Jack Black (inhabited by a blonde high-school girl) simpers in horror at his own squat reflection, while the diminutive pop-top Kevin Hart — the avatar of a black kid built like a linebacker — screams, “Where’s the rest of me?”

The plot is by the numbers, but that’s okay since the characters are inside a game in which the plot is by the numbers. They need to work together to survive various lethal obstacles (rhinos, hippos, wildcats, Bobby Cannavale) and restore a precious gem to its rightful place atop a mountain. If they don’t, they’ll be stuck in the game forever. The proof is in the form of Nick Jonas as the avatar of a guy who has been there since 1996, when someone evidently found the Jumanji board game that was tossed away in Jumanji .

If director Jake Kasdan will never be confused for an action stylist, he’ll never be taken for a stumblebum, either. He hits his marks. And who cares if the CGI looks artificial? It’s an artificial world. Actually, I wish that Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle had looked even more artificial — that Kasdan had pushed the boundaries. Why stick with the jungle when there could have been multiple settings — Camelot, the Old West, outer space? Maybe those will be the sequels. Can the filmmakers come up with new ways to showcase Johnson’s pecs?

It’s fun to watch Johnson use the sight of his own body to teach himself not to run screaming from peril and get up the nerve to kiss Gillan, who has to learn to smolder like a femme fatale, as well as come to terms with her sudden talent for martial arts. (Gillan is a superb physical comedian — it’s as if she’s standing outside herself watching her own body kick ass.) All the characters have to learn that they “only get one life,” even though they actually get three, which comes off as a mixed message. The Greatest Showman lyricists would have tried to make a song out of that:

You only get one life/

Or maybe three/

So go and ride your light/

Into a tree/

’Cause you’ll come back again/

And get eaten by a rhino/

La-la-la albino …

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Six Act Structure.

Story structure simplified., jumanji: welcome to the jungle story structure analysis.

Jumanji. Movie Poster. Plot summary and story structure.

Plot summary of the 2017 film Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle continues below…

Looking to streamline your script writing? Want to learn how to write a book? Searching for an easy to understand plot diagram ? Pick up your copy of “ Actions and Goals: The Story Structure Secret ” t oday, and take your storytelling to a whole new level!

I’ll admit I had zero interest in seeing this movie when it was released. Fortunately, it was selected as a work team event and I was kind of forced into it. To my very pleasant surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. While the storyline isn’t groundbreaking, it’s an extremely satisfying film, both on it’s own merit and as a sequel to the original. I had intended to touch on the reasons why in this post, but Justin Kownacki did such an excellent job summing up why the movie succeeds at being emotionally satisfying on his blog that I decided to just link to that. Check it out, it’s a good read.

DRAMATIC PHASE ONE: THE SETUP

All of the main characters are introduced. The story world and its mechanics are established. Foundations are laid for the main throughline, subplots and central conflict.

The four students are introduced and their flaws are demonstrated. The game’s ability to suck players into it is foreshadowed with Alex Vreeke and later shown in full when the students are in detention. The nature and objective of the game are explained and the villain is introduced through a cut scene.

Jumanji: Story Structure Analysis

ACT ONE: DEALING WITH AN IMPERFECT SITUATION

A character in an Imperfect Situation faces Oppressive Opposition as he pursues an Initial Goal . But when there is a Disturbance to his routine, he faces a Dilemma regarding his situation, and must assume a New Role .

Panphobic nerd Spencer Gilpin (the imperfect situation) is afraid of the world and of getting in trouble (oppressive opposition) as he tries to help his old childhood friend Fridge with his history paper (initial goal). But when they are caught and receive detention along with classmates Martha and Bethany (the disturbance) they discover an old video game console in the basement and are sucked into it when they turn it on (the dilemma), becoming the avatars they selected in the game (the new role).

The Imperfect Situation: Spencer Gilpin is a panphobic nerd whose childhood best friend has grown past him socially.

Initial Goal: Spencer wants to do Fridge’s homework. Fridge wants to avoid being kicked off the team. Bethany wants to reconcile with her ex-boyfriend, Noah. Martha wants to graduate and go to Princeton.

Oppressive Opposition: The world is a scary place to Spencer. All four students are given detention by their teachers. The principal doesn’t want to listen to their objections or excuses.

Turning Point Catalyst – The Disturbance: 7 minutes (6.3%): We watch Bethany, Martha, Spencer and Fridge all get detention for various reasons.

Turning Point One – The Dilemma: Start Time: 12 minutes (10.9%): The principal brings the students to the basement to serve their detention. Fridge finds an old school Nintendo or something and Spencer plugs it up to a TV. Bethany reluctantly agrees to play. Martha is more adamant in her refusal, but ultimately relents to spite Bethany. When they turn on the game, it vibrates and shorts out before sucking them all into it.

The New Role: The students become the avatars they selected in Jumanji.

Act Run Time: 17 of 110 minutes (15.4%)

ACT TWO: LEARNING THE RULES OF AN UNFAMILIAR SITUATION

The character Learns the Rules of an Unfamiliar Situation and faces Incidental Opposition in pursuit of a Transitional Goal . But when he receives a Reality Check , he makes a Commitment to his New Role.

Act Start Time: 17 minutes (15.4%)

The students find themselves in the jungle wearing other people’s bodies (the unfamiliar situation) and are attacked by the wildlife (incidental opposition) as they try to figure out what’s going on (transitional goal). But when they’re rescued by Jumanji field guide Nigel and learn the backstory of the game (the reality check), they realize they must complete the game to return home (the commitment).

The Unfamiliar Situation: The students find themselves inside Jumanji, wearing the bodies of the avatars they selected. They soon learn how dangerous the game is when Bethany is eaten by a hippo and several more hippos attack.

Transitional Goal: Figure out what is going on.

Incidental Opposition: The quartet is attacked by a pod of hippos.

Turning Point Catalyst – The Reality Check: 23 minutes (20.9%): Nigel, the NPC and Jumanji field guide, shows up and explains the backstory about Van Pelt stealing the Jaguar’s Eye jewel.

Turning Point Two – The Commitment: 28 minutes (25.4%): The cutscene ends and Nigel drops them off after telling them to find the missing piece. Spencer tells the group he thinks they have to save Jumanji to leave the game.

Act Run Time: 13 of 110 minutes (11.8%)

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Jumanji: story structure dramatic phase two: confrontation.

The character is thrown in the middle of the Central Conflict and is placed at direct odds with the forces of antagonism. He undergoes a series of successes and failures as he works toward resolving the main throughline.

The kids are first confronted by Van Pelt’s murderous goons, and then Van Pelt himself. They realize they may actually die if they lose all three of their lives in the game. They also learn that they need to use each of their special skills to work together and willingly assault the transportation shed. When it is revealed that Alex has been stuck in the game for 20 years, they vow to help him get home.

ACT THREE: STUMBLING INTO THE CENTRAL CONFLICT

The character stumbles into the Central Conflict and faces Intentional Opposition in pursuit of a False Goal . But when there is a grave Turn of events, he has a Moment of Truth .

Act Start Time: 30 of 110 Minutes (27.2%)

The group faces off with Van Pelt’s legions (the central conflict) who are willing to kill them for the jewel (intentional opposition) as they try to find the missing piece of the map (false goal). But when they realize they’ll die when they run out of lives (the turn), they are saved from Van Pelt by another player stuck in the game and realize he is the missing piece they’re looking for (the moment of truth).

The Central Conflict: The kids begin trying to play the game, and must contend with it’s various villains and monsters lead by Dr. Bravestone’s nemesis Russel Van Pelt.

Jumanji. Plot summary and story structure. Van Pelt holds the glowing Jewel in his hand, marveling at it.

False Goal: Find the Missing Piece of the map.

Intentional Opposition: They are attacked by Van Pelt’s motorcycle goons. Martha is shot and dies. Later in the bazaar they are confronted by Van Pelt himself and narrowly escape with the aid of a mysterious stranger.

Turning Point Catalyst – The Turn: 38 minutes (34.5%): Though they survive the waterfall jump, Martha is shot and dies. When she respawns, Spencer realizes they each have three lives and if they use them up it’s possible they will die for real.

Turning Point Three – The Moment of Truth: 42 minutes (38.1%): Bethany and Martha have a heart to heart conversation and realize they’re not so different after all. Fridge and Spencer get in an argument over the reason their grade school friendship ended. Fridge punks Spencer, but when Spencer calls Fridge a dumbass, Fridge pushes him off a cliff, killing him. When Spencer is respawned he slaps Fridge, finally standing up for himself. Fridge attempts to retaliate but nearly falls off the cliff himself only to be saved by Spencer. Spencer tells the group they have to work together to get out of the game and they can’t waste lives.

In the Bazaar they finally begin working together, trusting each other enough to defeat the black mamba and retrieve the next clue. But when they are ambushed by Van Pelt, they’re rescued by Seaplane who reveals himself to be Alex, another player stuck in the game. Bethany realizes Alex is the missing piece.

Act Run Time: 33 of 110 minutes (30%)

ACT FOUR: IMPLEMENTING A DOOMED PLAN

The character implements a Doomed Plan and faces Self-Inflicted Opposition in pursuit of a Penultimate Goal . But when an unthinkable Lowpoint occurs, he pulls himself together and discovers a Newfound Resolve .

Act Start Time: 63 of 110 Minutes (57.2%)

The group attempts to steal a helicopter (the doomed plan), drawing the attention of Van Pelt’s mercenaries and man-eating rhinos (self-inflicted opposition) as they try to cross the canyon (penultimate goal). But after Alex loses his last life and Bethany must sacrifice one of her own lives to revive him (the lowpoint), Spencer and Martha confess their true feelings for one another and Fridge announces he’s found the Jaguar Shrine (the newfound resolve).

The Doomed Plan: Stealing a helicopter and crossing the canyon costs Fridge a life (when he drops the jewel in the canyon) and Alex’s final life (when he’s stung by a mosquito).

Penultimate Goal: Steal a vehicle from the transportation shed to cross the canyon.

Self-Inflicted Opposition: Martha attempts to distract the guards and ends up having to fight them. More of Van Pelt’s goons arrive when the group enters the transportation shed. Fridge drops the jewel from the helicopter and they must again face the man-eating rhinos to retrieve it.

Turning Point Catalyst – The Lowpoint: 81 minutes (73.6%): While they celebrate crossing the canyon, Alex is stung by a mosquito and dies, losing his last life. Bethany performs CPR on him, and Martha realizes she is giving him one of her lives. Bethany sacrifices one of her lives for Alex and he is revived.

Turning Point Four – The Newfound Resolve: 84 Minutes (76.3%): Spencer and Martha discover they’re both into each other. Fridge finds the Jaguar shrine.

Jumanji: Story Structure DRAMATIC PHASE THREE: RESOLUTION

The character engages in a final confrontation with the forces of antagonism to resolve the Central Conflict. The main throughline and all additional subplots are resolved. The new status quo is established.

The kids find the Jaguar statue and contend with Van Pelt and their own fears as they attempt to return the stone to the statue and save Jumanji.

ACT FIVE: TRYING A LONGSHOT

The character tries a Longshot and faces Ultimate Opposition while trying to accomplish the Ultimate Goal . But just when it seems All is Lost , he makes a Final Push against the forces of antagonism and either succeeds or fails.

Act Start Time: 88 of 110 minutes (80%)

The group tries to outsmart the final level of the game (the longshot) and faces Van Pelt and his pack of jaguars (ultimate opposition) as they try to return the jewel to the Jaguar Shrine (ultimate goal). But when Spencer gets down to his last life and confides his fear to Fridge (all is lost) they come up with a plan to split up and outflank the defenders to return the jewel and beat the game (the final push).

The Longshot: Based on Fridge’s plan to split up, the group faces off with Van Pelt and his jungle creatures in attempt to return the jewel to the Jaguar.

Ultimate Goal: Return the jewel to the Jaguar shrine.

Ultimate Opposition: With very few lives left, the group faces off with a pack of bloodthirsty jaguars and venomous snakes guarding the statue. They come face to face with Van Pelt who has captured Bethany.

Turning Point Catalyst – All is Lost: 91 minutes (82.7%): While trying to climb through the trees to the statue, Spencer is eaten by a jaguar. When he respawns he asks to speak to Fridge alone and tells him he can’t do it.

Turning Point Five – The Final Push: 93 minutes (84.5%): Fridge comes up with a plan to reach the statue and the group splits up. They finally work together, each using their respective strengths and weaknesses, as well as the lessons they have learned in Jumanji to outsmart Van Pelt and return the jewel to the shrine. They save the game by calling out it’s name.

Act Run Time: 14 of 110 minutes (12.7%)

ACT SIX: LIVING IN A NEW SITUATION

Having accomplished (or failed to have accomplished) the Ultimate Goal, the character is shown living in a New Situation .

Act Start Time: 102 of 110 minutes (92.7%)

The group returns to real world as better people then they were before (the new situation).

The New Situation: The four students are now good friends. Fridge and Spencer are friends again, Bethany is no longer self-absorbed and wants to go backpacking over the summer. Martha and Spencer become a couple. Alex is revealed to be alive, having been spit out at the moment he entered the game. His house is no longer derelict and his dad isn’t the town crazy person anymore.

Success/Failure: Success: Spencer is no longer afraid of everything. Martha has learned to have fun. Bethany is no longer self-absorbed. Fridge isn’t a popular jock/jerk anymore.

Act Run Time: 8 of 110 minutes (7.2%)

To learn more about Six Act story structure, purchase your copy of “ Actions and Goals: The Story Structure Secret ” today!

Read audience and critic reviews for jumanji: welcome to the jungle, full cast and crew credits for jumanji: welcome to the jungle, one thought on “ jumanji: welcome to the jungle story structure analysis ”.

Thanks for tagging me here, Marshall. I’m in the same boat: I wasn’t interested in checking out this movie originally, but after it made $300M I realized I should see what was working so well for so many people. To me, it’s a very good example of how a film can succeed despite its overall mediocrity as long as it nails a few must-have elements. I’ll be curious to see if they do this well with the sequel.

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Film Review: “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle”

Image Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

With a cast as wacky as its narrative, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” is a remake made in remake heaven.

Feeling nostalgic? Well then, we have good news for you! Recently, a remake was released of the 1995 childhood classic, “Jumanji.” Reconnect with your inner child with the new-and-improved version, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” which features an unexpected group of notable actors. The main cast consists of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Karen Gillan, Jack Black, and yes, Nick Jonas himself. All of the cast does a phenomenal job of portraying their characters thoroughly. The casting is impeccable — one could not have chosen anyone better than Jack Black to play a popular teenage girl trapped in the body of an overweight middle-aged man. Similarly, no one could have done a better job than Johnson at playing the strong, heroic Dr. Smolder Bravestone. Simply put, the acting in this film has just the right amount of excitement, humor, sincerity, and irony.

The plot of the story is quite similar to that of the original. However, in order to accommodate the interests of a younger generation, the game of Jumanji transforms itself from its original board game style into a video game format. Each person has to pick a character to play the game and they proceed to get sucked into the virtual reality in their chosen character’s body. Four high school kids with differing personalities are trapped into the game of Jumanji, in which they ironically embody a character completely different from themselves. The object of the game is to return a stolen jewel to its rightful place in order to save the land of Jumanji from peril. Each player starts out with three lives that they can use, but if all three lives are lost, the person inhabiting the character also dies in real life. Throughout their quest to save Jumanji, the crew battles monsters and ‘bad guys,’ but in the process, also learns to overcome their inner demons. Despite the intensity of the plot itself — you know, with all the battling monsters and coming face-to-face with death — there is also a medley of funny, sweet, and heartwarming moments.

The juxtaposition of all the players embodying their literal opposites in the game is a humorous spectacle because we can relate to how awkward and confusing it would be for us if we were in their situation. The characters in the movie are relatable to the viewers because watching them make mistakes and embarrass themselves allows us to reflect on and laugh at ourselves. We can view these characters as sort-of representations of ourselves to help us realize that people are complex creatures: nobody is always brave, or always confident, or always funny. The players eventually realize that, while having their character’s superhuman strength or the ability to dance-fight may help in the game, much of the grit that is required to win has to come from within themselves.

While many remakes of classic films often fail to deliver the same level of gratification that the original did, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” is an exception. The movie was well cast, funny, and relatable, with just the right touch of nostalgia. Treat yourselves to a movie night at your local movie theater, use your student discounts, kick back, and enjoy watching Jack Black crush on Nick Jonas.

Grade: B Director: Jake Kasdan Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Bobby Cannavale Release Date: December, 2017 Rated: PG-13

Image Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

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Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Four teenagers are sucked into a magical video game, and the only way they can escape is to work together to finish the game.
In a brand-new Jumanji adventure, four high-school kids discover an old video-game console and are drawn into the game's jungle setting, literally becoming the adult avatars they chose. What they discover is that you don't just play Jumanji--you must survive it. To beat the game and return to the real world, they must go on the most dangerous adventure of their lives, discover what Alan Parrish left 20 years ago, and change the way they think about themselves --or they'll be stuck in the game forever, to be played by others without break. — Sony Pictures
Jumanji, the magical board game and ancient portal to its fearsome and savage jungles, gets an upgrade, this time luring four teens into its realm when one of them stumbles upon an old-school video-game console. Inevitably, as the unwitting players transform into their chosen game avatars inside a mysterious new world crawling with formidable adversaries, they'll need to put their newly-acquired skills to good use to finally complete the game. The deep sound of the feral drums is incessant. Can the quirky quartet return to the physical world in one piece? — Nick Riganas
When 4 high schoolers are sucked into the video game, jumanji, they soon find out that they each have special capabilities. They must use these capabilities to complete the challenges to escape jumanji, with a certain amount of lives and new bodies to handle, will these four teens band together to escape? Or will they be stuck in jumanji, forever! — Ethan Bates
Four teens are transported into the video game Jumanji. They now have new bodies, complete with unique strengths and weaknesses. They also have a mission: retrieve a precious gem from an evil warlord and return it to the statue from which it came. If they can't do this, they'll never leave the game. — grantss
In 1996, teenager Alex Vreeke ( Mason Guccione ) receives the original (and cursed) Jumanji board game after his father finds it while jogging on a beach, but puts it aside, dismissively noting that nobody plays board games anymore, instead playing a video game involving motorcycles. Overnight, the game changes so that the box's contents are now a video game cartridge, but when Alex puts it in his console and turns it on, he vanishes. Twenty years later, high school student Spencer Gilpin ( Alex Wolff ) is sent to detention for helping his former best friend, Anthony "Fridge" Johnson ( Ser'Darius Blain ), with his homework by writing Fridge's essays for him. They are joined by Bethany Walker ( Madison Iseman ), a beautiful girl who was caught talking on her phone during a quiz, and Martha Kaply ( Morgan Turner ), a socially awkward girl who objected to being made to participate in gym class. For detention, they are charged by Principal Bentley ( Marc Evan Jackson ) with removing the staples from discarded magazines in an old storage area, but Spencer discovers the console containing the Jumanji game and convinces the others to play it with him. They are unable to access one of the five-player options, a pilot, but once all four others have been selected, the game draws them all inside it. Finding themselves in a jungle, all four are shaken to realize that they have become the avatars they chose for the game. Spencer finds himself turned into Dr. Smolder Bravestone ( Dwayne Johnson ), a muscular archaeologist. Fridge arrives into the game as Franklin "Moose" Finbar ( Kevin Hart ), an expert zoologist, but Fridge is upset that his avatar is a foot shorter than he normally is. Martha becomes Ruby Roundhouse ( Karen Gillan ), "killer of men". Bethany is now Dr. Shelly Oberon ( Jack Black ), a cartographer that Bethany mistook for a woman because the description read "curvy genius" (and she becomes horrified upon seeing her reflection). The four freak out as they realize they are in the game. Almost immediately, Bethany is suddenly eaten by a hippopotamus that emerges from the river, but she swiftly reappears after falling out of the sky. Fleeing from a stampede of hippos, the group encounter Nigel ( Rhys Darby ), whose repetitive responses help Spencer identify him as an NPC (non-player character) who tells them that they have come to Jumanji (in the context of the game) in response to a letter Nigel wrote to Spencer's avatar. The letter explains that Nigel was part of an expedition by explorer John Hardin Van Pelt ( Bobby Cannavale ) to claim the legendary gem, the "Jaguar's Eye", removal of the gem from the large jaguar statue granting Van Pelt control over the animals of Jumanji. In order to complete the game, the players must return the gem to the jaguar statue and call out "Jumanji". With those instructions given, the group are dropped off outside a forest, where it is revealed that Bethany alone can read the map Nigel gave them, the map directing them to the next stage of their quest. They are subsequently attacked by Van Pelt's men on motorbikes, but manage to escape by fleeing through the trees and jumping off a cliff into a river. After emerging from the river, Martha realizes that she has been shot, but returns to the group immediately after her avatar explodes. Examining a series of line tattoos on their forearms, which originally consisted of three bars where Martha and Bethany now only have two, Spencer realizes that these bars indicate the number of lives they have in the game, guessing that they will die for good, both in the game, and in the real world as well, once they lose all three lives. While traveling to the bazaar where they will receive their next clue, an argument between Spencer and Fridge over Fridge's perception of Spencer's role in this problem results in Fridge pushing Spencer off a cliff, costing him one of his lives. In the bazaar, Fridge loses one of his lives when he eats cake - previously identified as one of his character's weaknesses - and explodes, drawing the attention of Van Pelt's minions. Fortunately, before they are attacked, they discover their next clue hidden in a basket containing a snake, which the team are able to acquire by pooling their skills and coming together, allowing Spencer to catch the snake while Fridge defangs it. When Van Pelt's forces attack, Spencer attempts to fight them off, but they are soon confronted by Van Pelt himself, only just escaping when another player uses a smoke grenade as a distraction and leads them to a secret passage. The fifth playable character introduces himself as the pilot Jefferson "Seaplane" McDonough ( Nick Jonas ), who says his real name is Alex. He leads the gang away. Alex takes the four to a tree-house that once belonged to Alan Parrish ( Robin Williams 's character from the original movie). He makes margaritas for the gang, and Fridge gets drunk. Alex mentions that he has been stuck in the game for months, and he hasn't been able to get to the transportation shed to get himself out. Alex has used up two of his lives and been unable to progress further without the others due to his limited skills, but has identified the transport shed where they will acquire the means to move on. While Bethany teaches Martha in how to flirt to distract the guards, Alex's dated references lead Spencer and Fridge to realize that he is Alex Vreeke, Alex in turn, being shocked to learn that he has been trapped in the game for over twenty years. Although Alex suffers a panic attack, the team are able to gain access to the transport shed after Martha taps into her character's strength of dance combat, subsequently helping Alex recognize that they can complete the game by working together. There is a brief panic when damage to the helicopter traps it in a canyon in front of a rampaging herd of white rhinoceros, but Spencer is able to repair the damage and help them ascend. Unfortunately, they lose the gem when it falls out of Fridge's backpack, but Spencer is able to reclaim the gem after using Fridge as a 'sacrifice' to draw the rhino herd's attention, subsequently ordering Alex to spin the helicopter in time to catch Fridge as he 'respawns'. Once they land, Alex is stung by a mosquito and begins to die due to his avatar's weakness, but Bethany saves him by giving him CPR, which passes one of her remaining lives to him. As they prepare for their next step, Spencer and Martha admit that they have feelings for each other in the real world, while Bethany begins to bond with Alex. Making their way to the jaguar statue, they find themselves confronted by actual jaguar guards, which cost Spencer one of his lives when he attempts to take the gem along the path to the statue alone. With Fridge's support, Spencer implements a plan where Martha takes out Van Pelt's approaching minions while the other three provide a distraction for the jaguars, leaving Spencer to take one of the minion's motorbikes and continue to the statue. Van Pelt attempts to gain the advantage by taking Bethany hostage, but Fridge is able to drive the jaguar guards away by befriending an elephant, only for the players to lose the gem when it is thrown away. While the others distract Van Pelt's minions, Spencer takes the bike to the top of the statue while Martha retrieves the gem from a pit full of snakes, using her character's weakness to venom to sacrifice her second life and 'respawn' in a position where she can pass the gem to Spencer as she falls. With this action, Spencer places the gem in the statue and calls out "Jumanji!", ending the game and restoring the jungle to peace. With this victory, Nigel appears to congratulate the group, shaking their hands and returning them to the real world. Back in the storage room, all four detention students have returned to their true forms, but are saddened to find that Alex is not among them. As they walk home, they witness the Vreeke household - which had fallen into disrepair as Alex's parents had no answer as to his fate - has been fully restored. As a car parks outside the house to release a family, the father sees the former players and confirms that he is Alex, who emerged from the game in 1996 and changed his history, also revealing that he named his eldest daughter after Bethany. The following week at school, Spencer and Fridge are friends once again, and Bethany is making plans to go backpacking, while Spencer and Martha start dating. When they hear the drumbeats of Jumanji, they take the console out to the back of the school and Fridge drops a bowling ball onto it, each intending that this will end the game once and for all. However, at the end of the end credits, Jumanji's menacing jungle drums play once again, suggesting the game still exists in some form to play another of its dangerous games.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Some thrills, but may be too much for little ones.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

A distinctly unfriendly community is the setting,

The main characters support each other and help ea

Much-threatened and occasionally carried out, in t

"Damn" here and there.

Positive Messages

A distinctly unfriendly community is the setting, with kids who defy and mouth off to adults and pull pranks (though everything comes out right at the end thanks to their intervention).

Positive Role Models

The main characters support each other and help each other survive.

Violence & Scariness

Much-threatened and occasionally carried out, in the form of beatings, bitings, stingings, and stompings mostly by nastied-up members of the animal kingdom. Shooting also threatened by a maniacal hunter.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Jumanji has lots of thrills and perils but little joy, as monstrous jungle predators pour out of an enchanted board game to overwhelm hapless kids and adults in a depressed New England town. It may be too intense for some kids, although young viewers who aren't nightmare-prone will be diverted by the creatures, computer-generated by the same Hollywood whizzes who brought to life the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park . To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (38)
Kids say (80)

Based on 38 parent reviews

All time favorite, but you guys didn't include some key notes!

Entertaining all the way through, but can be a bit scary., what's the story.

JUMANJI begins with a 19th century expedition to bury a board game of unexplained origin. In 1969, young Alan happens to dig up the game and plays it. The relic materializes multitudes of hostile African animals, and Alan gets sucked into the jungle-world of the game. More than 25 years later two orphans (Bradley Pierce, Kirsten Dunst ) move into Alan's old house, find the game, and start playing, unleashing a fresh rampage of vicious beasts and Alan (Robin Williams ). Alan is now a full-grown semi-wild man, being tracked by Van Pelt (Jonathan Hyde), a crazed, implacable, old-school safari hunter. The only way to return everything to normal is for the kids to continue playing the game to the end, even though each roll of the dice unleashes more attacking animals, from demonic bats to man-eating plants to a ghastly herd of giant spiders.

Is It Any Good?

There's no sense of wonder, really, just one scare after another, and the fact that the killer Van Pelt is played by the same actor who embodied Alan's snooty father adds another dark note. Young viewers who aren't nightmare-prone might be diverted a little by the computer-generated beasts, which all have a slightly livid, unreal glaze that's fitting for how lurid engravings and drawings of the late 1800s might portray exotic beasts.

But Jumanji' s script is weak, and Williams pretty much plays it straight as the time-displaced, long-marooned Alan. The young actors are good, but there's a heavy undercurrent of continual peril, death, and morbidity, with no breathing room. The ending, in which history is rewritten for all the characters even better than It's a Wonderful Life , seems a little forced, to say the least, and doesn't dispel the general unpleasantness.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what they think makes for a good fantasy adventure film. Was Jumanji funny, or more on the darker side?

If you were going to make this movie, is there anything you'd change, and if so, what?

Which game would you like to see come alive?

Movie Details

In theaters : December 15, 1995
On DVD or streaming : September 2, 2000
Cast : Bonnie Hunt , Kirsten Dunst , Robin Williams
Director : Joe Johnston
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Columbia Tristar
Genre : Drama
Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Adventures , Wild Animals
Run time : 104 minutes
MPAA rating : PG
MPAA explanation : violence and scariness
Last updated : January 26, 2024

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Outro music: “Ruins (Instrumental Version)” by Origo

Endorsements:

Dana: The Teacher’s Lounge , a film by German-Turkish director Ilker Çatak. It was a Best International Film nominee at the 96th Academy Awards. (Also, Ebertfest in Champaign, Illinois!)

Julia: Kristen Wiig’s Jumanji sketch on Saturday Night Live , inspired by Dana.

Stephen: The British band Jungle, introduced to him by his daughter. A few favorite songs: “Back on 74,” “Dominoes,” and “All of the Time.”

Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong.

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New York Times critic Dwight Garner says, “The Slate Culture Gabfest is one of the highlights of my week.” The award-winning Culturefest features Slate culture critics Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner debating the week in culture, from highbrow to pop.

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IMAGES

Jumanji essay for english
Jumanji: The Next Level
jumanji
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle ‎Blu Ray 3D 4K Ultra HD
A Review of the Book and Film "Jumanji" Free Essay Example
Jumanji Book Review

VIDEO

Jumanji comes OUT of Jumanji. Jumanji is a series of JUNGLE. EMERGENCIES
"You have saved Jumanji"
Jumanji (LEG)- Trailer
I have a Snow Bunny Cough
Essay on Mahatma Gandhi in English
Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) (REVIEW)

COMMENTS

Jumanji movie review & film summary (1995)
"Jumanji" is being promoted as a jolly holiday season entertainment, with ads that show Robin Williams with a twinkle in his eye. The movie itself is likely to send younger children fleeing from the theater, or hiding in their parents' arms. Those who do sit all the way through it are likely to toss and turn with nightmares inspired by its frightening images.
Jumanji (1995)
Jumanji, one of the most unique--and dangerous--board games ever, falls into the hands of the curious teen, Alan Parrish, in 1969. Mysterious and magical, the game strands the unsuspecting boy in the lush, savage forests of a mythical realm. Nearly three decades later, the game releases him before the awed eyes of the young orphaned siblings ...
Why Jumanji Is a Good Comfort Movie 25 Years Later
Why 1995 film Jumanji, starring Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, and Kirsten Dunst, remains a comforting, solid, action-packed adventure movie 25 years later. ... For more My Comfort Movie essays from ...
The Entire Jumanji Story Explained
The original Jumanji opens with a scene set in 1869, showing two brothers named Caleb and Benjamin burying a large wooden box in the woods of Brantford, New Hampshire in the dead of night. As they ...
Jumanji
Jumanji is a 1995 American fantasy comedy adventure film directed by Joe Johnston from a screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh, Greg Taylor and Jim Strain, based on the 1981 children's picture book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg.The film is the first installment in the Jumanji film series.It stars Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Hyde and Bebe Neuwirth.
Jumanji: The Next Level movie review (2019)
Like its predecessor, this latest "Jumanji" movie combines fantasy action and adventure with some comedy, a touch of romance, and real-life lessons about courage, friendship, and empathy—all with the help of some low-key race and gender fluidity.At the end of the last film, the four high school students who got sucked into an old-school video game console and found themselves turned into ...
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle movie review (2017)
It's hard to say whether "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," about a group of teenagers who turn into videogame characters, is a sequel to the 1995 Robin Williams hit "Jumanji," a remake, a reboot, or something else.But it's definitely the kind of movie that works the name of a classic rock song into its title and makes sure to blast it during the end credits, so that people who were ...
'Jumanji: The Next Level' Review
The last two "Jumanji" outings appeal to a collective cultural nostalgia for '90s-era video games, poking fun at the technical limitations and clichéd aspects of that experience (bad ...
'Jumanji: The Next Level' Review: New Faces Join the Gang, Back in the
Jumanji: The Next Level. Directed by Jake Kasdan. Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy. PG-13. 2h 3m. Find Tickets. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we ...
Jumanji (1995)
Jumanji: Directed by Joe Johnston. With Robin Williams, Jonathan Hyde, Kirsten Dunst, Bradley Pierce. When two kids find and play a magical board game, they release a man trapped in it for decades - and a host of dangers that can only be stopped by finishing the game.
Jumanji: The Next Level review
N o one was more surprised than I when Jake Kasdan's 2017 romp Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle managed to squeeze smart new thrills from the premise of Chris Van Allsburg's 1981 children's ...
Movie Review: Jumanji (2017)
The movie has amusingly broad performances; good, bloodless scares (the characters die horribly — but have multiple lives); and self-empowering life lessons too bland to be specious. You could ...
Review: Jumanji (1995)
Most dangerous of all, a "great white hunter" might stalk and hunt you! In New Hampshire in 1869, two boys ominously bury a chest. A century later, young Alan Parrish (Adam Hann-Byrd) discovers the chest, and finds a board game inside. After a fight with his dad, Alan and the girl he likes, Sarah Whittle (Laura Bell Bundy), start to play ...
PDF JUMANJI [1995]
The Jumanji game is simply a means of activating the players' psyche. It is a catalytic force, reaching out to a very specific type of person: orphaned, either essentially or literally. Orphans, physical or psychic, are the only ones who can hear the jungle drums of the Jumanji game - the living pulse of their own wounded unconscious. Judy
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a 2017 American fantasy adventure comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan from a screenplay by the writing teams of Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, based on a story conceived by McKenna.The film is the third installment in the Jumanji film series and a stand-alone sequel to Jumanji (1995). It stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black ...
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Review
Verdict. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle brings audiences back to its classic fictional world with a fun, updated new twist on its well-worn story. So even if some of its subplots and emotional ...
A Review of the Book and Film "Jumanji" Free Essay Example
Essay Sample: A review of the book and film "Jumanji" by Chris Van Allsburg. The story is set in Brantford, New Hampshire, 1969. Main Theme: One day, twelve year old
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Story Structure Analysis
Jumanji: Story Structure Analysis. ACT ONE: DEALING WITH AN IMPERFECT SITUATION. A character in an Imperfect Situation faces Oppressive Opposition as he pursues an Initial Goal.But when there is a Disturbance to his routine, he faces a Dilemma regarding his situation, and must assume a New Role.. Panphobic nerd Spencer Gilpin (the imperfect situation) is afraid of the world and of getting in ...
Film Review: "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle"
Simply put, the acting in this film has just the right amount of excitement, humor, sincerity, and irony. The plot of the story is quite similar to that of the original. However, in order to accommodate the interests of a younger generation, the game of Jumanji transforms itself from its original board game style into a video game format.
Film Analysis Of The Movie 'Jumanji : Welcome To The Jungle'
In the award winning original movie, Jumanji starring Robin Williams plays Alan Parrish who-- along with a friend-- gets stuck in the game for 26 years. When two kids find this game after moving into the mansion years later and play, Alan is freed, but the only way to end the game is to find the girl he once played with.
Jumanji: The Next Level playfully challenges compulsory identity
In her famous 1975 essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Laura Mulvey argued that Hollywood cinema was structured by male gaze and male identification.The male spectator watches some male ...
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Jumanji, the magical board game and ancient portal to its fearsome and savage jungles, gets an upgrade, this time luring four teens into its realm when one of them stumbles upon an old-school video-game console. Inevitably, as the unwitting players transform into their chosen game avatars inside a mysterious new world crawling with formidable ...
Jumanji Movie Review
Based on 38 parent reviews. s3w47m88 Adult. September 6, 2020. age 12+. All time favorite, but you guys didn't include some key notes! Early in the movie a bat removal guy says the kids were murdered. And then the little girl says the boy was chopped into pieces and put in the wall!
Is This Taylor Swift's Cry for Help?
Julia: Kristen Wiig's Jumanji sketch on Saturday Night Live, inspired by Dana. Stephen: The British band Jungle, introduced to him by his daughter. A few favorite songs: "Back on 74 ...