Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

On New Year’s Day, my family ventured forth from the Fortress of Ineptitude to see Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

My wife Andrea and I have seen the first Jumanji before but it’s been years. But our daughter Randie had not so the time seemed right to revisit the original Jumanji.

Randie enjoyed it for its use of practical effects along with the proto CGI of the mid 1990’s. She enjoys experiencing retro stuff like this. Retro? When this first came pout, this was cutting edge stuff. Also I was 20 years younger and at least 75 pounds lighter. Retro? Oh God, I’m depressed.  

Jumanji is a jungle themed board game that is cursed. CURSED, I tells ya! Kids by the name of Alan and Sarah begin playing the game in 1969. Jungle beasties begin invading the world followed by Alan getting sucked out of the real world into God knows where.   

26 years later, another pair of kids find the board game and begin playing it. Or rather playing the game began in 1969. As before, jungle beasties begin invading the world followed by a hirsute wild man. The wild man in question is young Alan, grown to adulthood while struggling to survive in a jungle for 26 years. The game has to be finished to save everything so grown up Alan and the kids go retrieve a now grown up Sarah who has not traversed the last 26 years in a mentally stable condition.  But Sarah is needed to complete her part of the game. Meanwhile, the wild beasts of the jungle are invading the surrounding town along with a crazed big game hunter with a penchant for shooting things.    

There is a lot of excitement and humor to be found in Jumanji as well as heart. Robin Williams is perfect to play the boy in the body of a man. Alan may be 26 years older but he’s missed a lot of the growing up.  In many ways, he;s still that young young boy from 1969, just in an older body. 

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a continuation of the original film. The board game is found in 1996 as was shown in the epilogue of the original film. It winds up on the possession of a teenager named Alex who is more interested in video games tran some gnarly old board game. But the board game is cursed. CURSED, I tells ya! It adapts itself into a video game cartridge and poof! There goes Alex!

20 plus years later, 4 teenagers at Brantford High School with nothing in common are stuck in detention (think The Breakfast Club): 

• Spencer, a nerdy gamer 
• Bethany, a popular but self-centered girl 
• Martha, an ascerbic teenage girl 
• "Fridge", an academically struggling football jock 

For detention, they must clean up an old storeroom at school when they come across the old cartridge. Their boredom is so great, these teens are willing to play this ancient artifact. But after they select their game avatars, the 4 get sucked out of the real world and into a jungle.

And into different bodies.

• Spencer becomes Dr. Smolder Bravestone, a hyper masculine archaeologist  played by Dwayne Johnson
• Bethany becomes middle aged overweight Professor Sheldon "Shelly" Oberon, a cartographer, cryptographer, archaeologist and paleontologist played by Jack Black.
• Martha becomes Ruby Roundhouse, a commando martial artist, athletic, beautiful, and scantily clad and played by Karen Gillan.  
• Fridge becomes Franklin "Mouse" Finbar, a short zoologist and weapons specialist played by the decidedly diminutive Kevin Hart.  

In addition to solving the puzzle box plot of the game to win it and get themselves out of the game, the heart of the movie is 4 teenagers working through their questions about identity, of who they really are even as they have to get through this game in personas who are not at all who they are. It’s not quite that heady but the nuance is there, adding a level of heart to the humor of watching a quartet of adult actors behave like uncertain teenagers.

Like the original Jumanji, this new movie plays fast and loose with time travel.  Our fantastic foursome encounter Jefferson "Seaplane" McDonough, the avatar of Alex Vreeke who disappeared into the game in 1996. Alex's disappearance had a negative impact on his family much as Alan Parrish's disappearance brought down his family. SPOILERS: like they did for Alan, the game ends with the players returned to their homes which for Alex means 1996.  BUT despite time being completely rewritten, a now grown up Alex remebers Spencer and the gang from his time in the game. He even named his daughter after Bethany who saved his life in Jumanji.   

Cool call back to the original movie. Alex stays in a treehouse in Jumanji that was inscribed with "Alan Parrish was here".

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a clever and entertaining follow up and inversion of the first movie. Whereas Jumanji showed the beasts of the game invading the real worl, here in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle we see persons from trhe real world invading the game.  Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle captures the spirit of the original but is hardly a re-tread.  It is a fun time at movies that did not disappoint.