Jumanji (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jumanji
Film poster
Directed by	Joe Johnston
Produced by	Robert W. Cort Ted Field Larry J. Franco
Written by	Screenplay Greg Taylor Jonathan Hensleigh Jim Strain Novel Chris Van Allsburg
Starring	Robin Williams Jonathan Hyde Bonnie Hunt Kirsten Dunst Bradley Pierce Bebe Neuwirth David Alan Grier Adam Hann-Byrd Laura Bell Bundy Patricia Clarkson
Music by	James Horner
Cinematography	Thomas Ackerman
Editing by	Robert Dalva
Studio	Interscope Communications Teitler Film
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date(s)	United States/Canada December 15, 1995 United Kingdon February 16, 1996 Japan March 20, 1996 Australia March 21, 1996
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United States Canada
Language	English
Budget	$65 million
Gross revenue	$262,797,249
Followed by	Zathura

Jumanji is a 1995 American fantasy film directed by Joe Johnston and based on Chris Van Allsburg's popular 1981 short story of the same name. The story is about a supernatural and ominous board game which makes animals and other jungle hazards appear upon each roll of the dice. Expensive, state of the art computer graphics and animatronics were employed by Industrial Light & Magic for the special effects sequences. The film stars Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Kirsten Dunst, Bradley Pierce and Jonathan Hyde.

It is dedicated to the memory of Stephen L. Price, an ILM visual effects supervisor who was involved with the film. This motion picture was shot in Keene, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

[edit] Plot

In 1869, two boys bury a chest near Brantford, New Hampshire. When one boy asks what will happen if someone unearths it, the other replies "May God have mercy on his soul." The sound of tribal drums is heard as the boys ride away.

A century later in 1969, 12-year-old Alan Parrish flees on his bicycle from a gang of bullies by running into his father Sam's shoe factory, where he meets his friend Carl Bentley, one of Sam's employees. When Alan accidently damages a shoe that Carl had designed, Carl takes the blame and loses his job. Outside the factory, the bullies ambush beat up Alan and steal his bike. Alan then walks past a nearby construction site, hears tribal drumbeats, and finds the buried chest, which contains a board game called "Jumanji".

After taking the game home, Alan has an argument with his father, who wants to send him to boarding school for boys. Alan prepares to run away, but his friend Sarah Whittle, who is the lead bully's girlfriend, arrives with Alan's bicycle. Alan and Sarah begin a game of Jumanji, which behaves strangely: when a player rolls the dice, the player's piece moves itself and a message appears on the board. The goal is to reach the center of the board and say "Jumanji". After they each make their first moves, a plethora of bats appear from the chimney, and Alan is sucked into the game board. The message for Alan's move reads that he will be freed when the next player rolls a five or eight, but Sarah flees the house in terror instead of making her move.

Twenty-six years later in 1995, Judy and Peter Shepherd move into the Parrish house with their aunt Nora after losing their parents in a skiing accident in the Canadian Rockies. They hear Jumanji's drumbeats and find the board game in the attic. When they begin playing, they are attacked by giant mosquitoes, crazed monkeys, and a vicious lion. However, they continue playing, having read the instructions that everything will return to normal once the game finishes. Peter rolls a five, which frees an adult Alan from the Jumanji jungle. Alan goes to the shoe factory, which is now boarded up and closed, and learns from a stranger in the factory that his father abandoned his business to search for him until his death, and Carl became a police officer.

When rolling the dice has no effect on the board, Alan realizes they are continuing the game that he started back in 1969, and that the next move is Sarah Whittles's. They find Sarah, who has been traumatized by the game and its aftermath and refuses to play. However, the destruction caused by the game will not disappear until someone wins. Alan tricks Sarah into rolling the dice, and the following moves release man-eating vines, a hunter named Van Pelt, a stampede of rhinos, elephants and zebras, and a pelican that steals the board. Increasingly relentless havoc ensues: Peter turns into a monkey after trying to cheat; Peter, Sarah and Judy battle Van Pelt in a hardware store; Carl's police car is swallowed by a giant flower; and an earthquake splits the house in two, among other things. Finally, Alan wins the game after dropping the dice while cornered by Van Pelt and calls out "Jumanji," sucking Van Pelt and all the jungle elements back into the board.

With the game over, Alan and Sarah find themselves in 1969 again as children, but retaining their memories of the game. Alan admits his guilt for destroying Carl's shoe, Carl gets his job back, and Sam tells Alan he doesn't have to go to boarding school. Alan and Sarah then throw the Jumanji board into a river. Twenty-six years later, Alan and Sarah are married, Alan has taken over the shoe business, and Carl still works there. Sarah is also heavily pregnant. When Judy, Peter, and their parents visit the Parrishes at a Christmas party, Alan and Sarah offer the parents jobs in the shoe company and discourage them from taking their planned skiing vacation in Canada, because they know that Mr and Mrs Shephard would die in a car crash there. Sometime later, two French girls hear drumbeats as they walk along a beach, where the Jumanji board is half buried in the sand.

[edit] Cast

• Robin Williams as Alan Parrish
• Jonathan Hyde as Van Pelt and Sam Parrish
• Bonnie Hunt as Sarah Whittle
• Kirsten Dunst as Judy Shepherd
• Bradley Pierce as Peter Shepherd
• Bebe Neuwirth as Nora Shepherd
• David Alan Grier as Carl Bentley
• Adam Hann-Byrd as young Alan Parrish
• Laura Bell Bundy as young Sarah Whittle
• Patricia Clarkson as Carol-Anne Parrish

[edit] 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.^[1]

[edit] Legacy

• There was an animated series based on the film that ran from 1996–1999. 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. Each turn, the player was given a "game clue" and then sucked into the jungle until they solved their clue. Robin Williams' character had missed his clue and was continually searching for it in order to escape the board game. At the end, the kids ultimately succeed in helping to free him from the game by finding out what his clue was.
• Milton Bradley released a 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 plants, 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 a novel 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 has 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 pictures & clips from the movie.

[edit] Riddles From The Game

• At night they fly, you'd better run; these winged things are not much fun - Bats
• In the jungle you must wait until the dice read five or eight - Alan is sucked into the game
• 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 - Lion
• They grow much faster than bamboo, take care or they'll come after you - Barb-shooting and man-eating plants
• A hunter from the darkest wild who makes you feel just like a child - Van Pelt
• Don't be fooled it isn't thunder; staying put would be a blunder - Stampede
• A law of Jumanji has been broken, you will go back even more than your token - Peter tries to cheat
• Every month at the quarter moon, there'll be a monsoon in your lagoon - Monsoon
• Beware the ground on which you stand; the floor is quicker than the sand - Quicksand
• There is a lesson you will learn; sometimes you must go back a turn - Judy saves Alan from sinking
• Need a hand while you just wait? We'll help you out we each have eight - Spiders
• You're almost there with much at stake, but now the ground begins to quake - Earthquake
• Jumanji - Game Over

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jumanji (film)

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