Jumanji

This article is about the film. For the book, see Jumanji (short story). For the TV show, see Jumanji (TV series).

Jumanji
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joe Johnston
Produced by	Robert W. Cort Ted Field Larry J. Franco
Screenplay by	Greg Taylor Jonathan Hensleigh Jim Strain
Based on	Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg
Starring	Robin Williams Bonnie Hunt Kirsten Dunst Bradley Pierce David Alan Grier Jonathan Hyde Bebe Neuwirth Adam Hann-Byrd Laura Bell Bundy
Music by	James Horner
Cinematography	Thomas Ackerman
Editing by	Robert Dalva
Studio	Interscope Communications Teitler Film
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date(s)	December 15, 1995 (1995-12-15)
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$65 million
Box office	$262,797,249

Jumanji is a 1995 American fantasy–comedy film about a supernatural board game that makes wild animals and other jungle hazards materialize upon each player's move. It was directed by Joe Johnston and is based on Chris Van Allsburg's popular 1981 picture book of the same name. Industrial Light & Magic provided computer graphics and animatronics for the special effects.

The film stars Robin Williams as Alan, a man who emerges from the game's unseen jungle world, along with Kirsten Dunst as a girl who plays the game with her brother, David Alan Grier as a hapless shoemaker-turned-police officer, Adam Hann-Byrd as Alan when he was a boy, Bonnie Hunt as the woman who played the game with Alan when they were children, and Jonathan Hyde in a dual role as both Alan's father and a hunter intent on killing Alan. The cast also features Bradley Pierce as the girl's brother and Bebe Neuwirth as her aunt. It was shot in Keene, New Hampshire, where the story is set, North Berwick, Maine (the Parrish Shoes factory) and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Plot

In 1869, two boys bury a chest containing a dangerous object in the woods near Brantford, New Hampshire. When one of them asks what will happen if someone digs it up, the other replies "May God have mercy on his soul". A century later, 12-year-old Alan Parrish flees from a gang of bullies to a shoe factory owned by his father, Sam, where he meets his friend Carl Bentley, one of Sam's employees. When Alan accidentally damages a machine and ruins a new design for a shoe, Carl accepts the blame and loses his job. Outside the factory, after the bullies steal his bicycle, Alan follows the sound of tribal drumbeats to a construction site and finds the chest, containing a board game called "Jumanji".

Alan takes the game home and has an argument with Sam, who insists on sending him to a boarding school. Alan prepares to run away from home, but his friend Sarah Whittle, the lead bully's ex-girlfriend, gives his bike back. The two begin a game of Jumanji, which acts strangely: When a player rolls the dice, the player's piece moves itself and a message appears on the board. When Alan makes his first move, he is sucked into a jungle and he will be released when a player rolls a five or an eight, but Sarah quits the game after being attacked by African bats.

Twenty-six years later, Judy and Peter Shepherd move into the Parrish house with their aunt Nora after losing their parents in an accident. Judy and Peter hear Jumanji's drumbeats and play the game in the attic, they are attacked by giant mosquitoes and crazed monkeys. Realizing that everything will be restored when someone wins the game, Peter rolls a five, releasing both a lion and Alan, who is now an adult. Alan locks the lion in a bedroom, then goes to the closed shoe factory. On the way, he meets Carl, working as a police officer, and discovers that the town's economy was devastated by the factory's closure. In the factory, a man reveals that Sam had abandoned the business to search for his son until his death in 1991.

When rolling the dice has no effect on the board, Alan realizes they are continuing the game he and Sarah started years ago. Finding a traumatized Sarah at home, Alan tricks her into rejoining the game, and the following moves release man-eating vines from a giant flower, a hunter named Van Pelt, a stampede of rhinos, elephants and zebras, and a pelican that steals the game. Increasingly reckless havoc ensues throughout the town. Among other things, Peter transforms into a monkey after trying to cheat; Peter, Sarah and Judy battle Van Pelt in a local department store; a monsoon floods the house and a crocodile attack; an earthquake breaks the house in two, Alan is sucked into the floor by quicksand, and Judy is shot in the neck by a poisonous barb from a plant. Finally, Alan wins the game just in time when Van Pelt is about to shoot him. Van Pelt and the other jungle elements are sucked back into the board.

Alan and Sarah find themselves back in 1969 again, but they both remember the game. Alan reconciles with his father and admits his guilt to his father for damaging the shoe. Carl gets his job back, and Sam allows Alan to attend a local school, admitting he was angry about something else at the time. Alan and Sarah throw the Jumanji board into a river where Sarah and Alan kiss before leaving.

In the present day, Alan's and Sarah's knowledge of their experiences during the game has changed the future for the better: Alan and Sarah are married, Alan has taken over the shoe business, Carl still works there and Sam is still alive. When Judy, Peter, and their parents meet with Alan and Sarah at a Christmas party, they offer Judy and Peter's father a job in the shoe company and discourage the parents from going on a skiing trip that would eventually lead to their deaths.

Sometime later, two French-speaking girls hear drumbeats as they walk along a beach, where the Jumanji board is half buried in the sand. This ending leaves people to believe that these girls would find the game and there will be another story.

Cast

• Robin Williams as Alan Parrish
  • Adam Hann-Byrd as young Alan Parrish
• Bonnie Hunt as Sarah Whittle
  • Laura Bell Bundy as young Sarah Whittle
• Kirsten Dunst as Judith "Judy" Shepherd
• Bradley Pierce as Peter Shepherd
• David Alan Grier as Carl Bentley
• Bebe Neuwirth as Nora Shepherd
• Jonathan Hyde as Sam Parrish/Van Pelt
• Patricia Clarkson as Carol-Anne Parrish
• Tom Woodruff, Jr. as Lion / Crocodile (voice) (uncredited)

Clues from the game

• At night they fly, you'd better run. These winged things are not much fun. — Said to be African fruit bats, but portrayed as smaller, common bats.
• In the jungle you must wait until the dice read five or eight. — The player (Alan) is sucked into the game board and trapped in an unseen jungle until a player rolls either 5 or 8. In the board game, there was a spot on the board that says this.
• A tiny bite can make you itch, make you sneeze, make you twitch. — Giant mosquitoes.
• This will not be an easy mission. Monkeys slow the expedition. — Monkeys.
• His fangs are sharp, he likes your taste. Your party better move poste haste. — A lion. This is also the roll that frees Alan from the game.
• They grow much faster than bamboo. Take care or they'll come after you. — Crawling vines and a Man-Eating Plant. In the board game, the Man-Eating Plant had its own clue.
• A hunter from the darkest wild makes you feel just like a child. — Van Pelt.
• Don't be fooled, it isn't thunder. Staying put would be a blunder. — A stampede of rhinos, elephants, zebras, and pelicans. In the board game, it was just charging rhinos.
• A law of Jumanji having been broken, you'll be set back even more than your token— As a penalty for cheating (Peter tried to drop the dice so they would land on 12), the player (Peter) gradually turns into a monkey. "Set back" refers to devolution.
• Every month at the quarter moon, there'll be a monsoon in your lagoon — A monsoon and a crocodile. In the board game, the crocodile had its own clue.
• Beware the ground on which you stand. The floor is quicker than the sand. — The floor beneath the player (Alan) becomes quicksand which traps him.
• There is a lesson you will learn. Sometimes you must go back a turn. — The effects of the previous move (quicksand) are undone.
• Need a hand? Well you just wait. We'll help you out, we each have eight — Large spiders.
• You're almost there with much at stake, but now the ground begins to quake — An earthquake.

Soundtrack

Jumanji: Complete Motion Picture Score
Film score (Digital download)/Audio CD by James Horner
Released	November 21, 1995
Length	51:04
Label	Epic Soundtrax

All music composed by James Horner.

Track listing
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Prologue And Main TItle"	3:42
2.	"First Move"	2:20
3.	"Monkey Mayhem"	4:42
4.	"A New World"	2:40
5.	""It's Sarah's Move""	2:36
6.	"The Hunter"	1:56
7.	"Rampage Through Town"	2:28
8.	"Alan Parrish"	4:18
9.	"Stampede!"	2:12
10.	"A Pelican Steals The Game"	1:40
11.	"The Monsoon"	4:48
12.	""Jumanji""	11:47
13.	"End Titles"	5:55
Total length:		51:04

Commercial songs from film, but not on soundtrack

• Una Voce Poco Fa
  • Written by Gioacchino Rossini
  • Performed by Agnes Baltsa and the Vienna Symphony
  • Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Ian Marin

• Night & Day
  • Written by Cole Porter

• Serenade in D, Op. 44
  • Composed by Antonin Dvořák
  • Performed by Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
  • Conducted by Neville Marriner

• Locomotive Breath
  • Written by Ian Anderson
  • Performed by Jethro Tull

• The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle (Theme from Gilligan's Island)
  • Written by Sherwood Schwartz & George Wyle

Reception

Jumanji did well in the box office; it took in $100,475,249 in the United States and Canada and $162,322,000 overseas, totaling to $262,797,249. The film earned mixed reviews from critics, with review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 47% of 30 professional critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.6 out of 10. Metacritic posts an average rating of 39%, based on 18 reviews.

Legacy

• The Jumanji animated series ran from 1996 through 1999. In 1996 it was carried by the UPN network, but later seasons were syndicated by BKN. While it followed the film's plot, there were a few changes, such as the exclusion of Bonnie Hunt's character and some changes to the age and relationship of David Alan Grier's character. On each turn, the player was given a "game clue" and then sucked into the jungle until they solved their clue. Alan Parrish (Robin Williams' character) had missed his clue and was continually searching for it in order to escape the board game. The show focuses on the kids and Alan's adventures in Jumanji and their numerous attempts to free Alan. At the end of each adventure, the kids would solve their clue and return to Brantford, but each time they manage to get Alan home, something always happens that causes him to return to Jumanji. The show ends when, during the last episode, the kids help Alan finally find his clue and solve it.
• Milton Bradley released a Jumanji board game that was equipped with not only the game clues from the film, but also some new ones. The elephant, zebras, pelican, crocodile, man-eating pod, and barb-shooting plants have their own clues. The board game has a doomsday grid where a card would go if the other players don't roll the required rescue item in time. If the grid fills up, the game will end if a card lands on this space: "A card placed here brings dreadful news: The game is done, all players lose."
• Zathura is a spiritual sequel that was based on one of the author's later children's books of the same name.
• For several years after Jumanji was filmed, tire marks from the car crash into the "Sav-a-lot" could be seen on the ground in the Liquidation World in Tsawwassen, BC, until the building was subsequently demolished for a new development. They served as a constant reminder for Tsawwassen residents about the hype the filming of the movie meant to the town.
• In 2007, Fuji Trading Co., Ltd. produced an exclusive Pachinko amusement-game only released in Japan. Most of the characters had Anime looks in the game, along with unique 3D-Anime designs and it featured many pictures & clips from the movie. There are several various missions and mini games that can be played throughout the game.
• Additionally, a party video game based on the film was made.

External links

• Jumanji at the Internet Movie Database
• Jumanji at Box Office Mojo
• Jumanji at Rotten Tomatoes