Jumanji is a fantastic family film, entertaining and scary. The central idea, of children playing a board game which brings the perils of the jungle to them, is from the picture book by Chris Van Allsburg, which was first published in 1981. I never encountered the book before, but recently I got it from the library because I was curious about how much was added to the original story… the answer is, a lot!

The picture book, which has monochrome illustrations, tells us about siblings Judy and Peter, who play a board game they found in the park. When they land on various hazards in the game, such a lion, monsoon or monkeys, these become real. They must finish the game, causing everything to return to normal. Their parents, returning home, are none the wiser.

The film builds up a feature-length story, following the game through the years as a drum-beat draws children into unearthing it. A major feature of the story is that two children, Alan and Sarah, play the game, but Alan gets trapped in its world. Fast forward a few decades, when Peter and Judy, moving into the house which Alan used to live in, find the game there and that’s when Alan is freed, having become an adult. They then have to track down Sarah and continue play. Alan, played by the brilliant Robin Williams, is the main character (instead of Peter and Judy), with a background story exploring his conflict with his father, who owns a shoe factory.

One of the many changes is that the story is not confined to the house – a big problem when the monkeys escape and steal a police car! However, the worst creature to emerge from the game is a colonial-style hunter, Van Pelt (possibly inspired by the hapless guide from the book, who pores over a map). Alan, Sarah, Judy and Peter not only have to play the game and survive the hazards, they have to foil the hunter. I like how neatly the story is wrapped up, time travelling back to Alan’s childhood. The special effects are very good too.

The only detail from the book which I think should have been in the film, was that ‘Jumanji’ is a golden city that the players are aiming for.

Image credit: http://www.impawards.com/1995/jumanji_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=899077