It’s a member of one of the staples of the story-telling business: the Grow Up in a Hurry tale. That’s the central core of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017), the tale of five young people trapped in a deadly video game. It’s predictable, doctrinaire, heavily sprinkled with humor both expected and unexpected, and loaded with stereotyped characters.
And not bad at all.
When I say it’s predictable, I mean it’s predictable for those of us beyond a certain age, who have experienced enough stories to understand where the main current of story-telling generally goes. But I’m not the intended audience of this movie. That audience was in the theater with me, though – kids, ages 5 and up, I’d say from a random sampling of the horde (it was a full house at the Riverview, and a late start). They haven’t seen what I’ve seen – for them, this straight-line adventure is an eye-opener, a virtual class in surviving in the unknown, and what it requires.
The stereotypes, perhaps a little tiresome for the older set, serve as hooks into which the little ones can get a grip, a hitch up the ladder of knowing who these characters might be, of getting their theory of mind rolling. Who are they and what will they do next? For the youngsters, a long setup is not practical, as their attention might wander; the stereotype is an approach to interest the kids and begin the process of predicting the next action to come.
Doctrinaire? Sure. There’s very little questioning of the general aspects of American life. There’s the geek, his semi-friend the athlete, the hot, self-absorbed chick, the metal-head (not so well developed), and the shy lass, and they do not challenge how life is lived in the United States. That gives the young audience a little more traction.
But then there’s the leap into the video game, and four of them land in the skins of folks who are, well, not like themselves. The skinny video game geek, for example, has shoulders two yards wide (played by former professional wrestler Duane Johnson). The hot chick? Think Jack Black. This is the challenge for the kids: to understand how seeing the world from a different vantage point may give you more information about the world, and how others see you based on appearance – and change how you see it, as we see the kids start adapting to their new skins – and the abilities that they bring them, helpfully displayed by a holographic screen listing their strengths and weaknesses.
From here on in, it’s all about the goal set for them by the game, and how they get there, each learning about themselves as the game progresses, blurring their stereotypes into real people. Eventually, they run into the fifth player, another teenager who’s been here longer than he realizes. They learn to work together, to trust each other – even to sacrifice for each other. And if their plans sometime work out a little to conveniently, well, that’s OK – you don’t want too much challenge for the kids. Unfortunately, some of the personal changes came far too easily, and they constitute a flaw in the movie.
In the end, through persistence, cleverness, and teamwork, their goal is achieved – and, as in its predecessor, the cry of Jumanji! releases them from these deadly confines.
And if I was a little unhappy with the conclusion, when the Jumanji drums begin to beat at their school, to the confusion of all, that’s OK. This Jumanji game should certainly be able to survive a beating with a bowling ball, right?
But the keys to this success story are its links to today’s social customs and technology. They render it relevant to the target audience, who then can start learning those age-old lessons, but in the modern context. Just as it’s ever been.
If you have kids of the right age – and there’s some penis humor that might make some parents uncomfortable – I think they’ll enjoy this movie, and learn from it.
