As has been predicted by several commentators, it’s clear, in this secretly taken photograph, that the Jumanji franchise is actually owned by Santa Claus. Rumor has it that profits from the franchise saved Santa Claus Enterprises following the costs of legal troubles encountered when the Martians broke free of Santa Claus’ dominance and wreaked havoc on Easter Island. The role of the Holy Bunny in this incident remains obscure to this day. If you have more information, please don’t tell me, I prefer the mystery.
The jungle drums are beating in Jumanji (1995), summoning the insanely curious to a reckoning, a reckoning that will stretch out for years. Young boy Alan, son of a shoe factory owner, finds the game box labeled Jumanji buried in a forgotten graveyard. He takes it home, with scarce a thought for the crime of robbing the dead. There, with his friend, Sarah, they open the box to find a game board, complete with playing pieces, instructions, die, and a message window.
Within their first couple of turns, Alan has been sucked into the game board itself, while a hysterical Sarah is chased from the grand house by a collection of bats. We go on to learn that Alan isn’t heard from again, much to the sorrow of his parents. And Sarah?
Now it’s twenty six years later, and orphans Judy and Peter have moved in to the grand house, under the guidance of their Aunt Nora. Their parents recently died, and, in some shock from the event, they each exhibit some pathologies, even as Nora makes plans to open a B&B. Don’t trust Judy!
But the drums are banging again, and in rhythms I found quite pleasing. Soon, Judy and Peter find the source of the calling rhythms, and discover what was inevitable: a game of Jumanji, in progress, and they’re implicitly invited to be part of it. Curious or clumsy, soon the bones are rollin’, and the adventures are jumping. Encounters with monkeys and a lion are bad enough, but when a man, clad in skins and leaves as only a man of the jungle must be, emerges from nowhere, it’s all a bit much for the kids.
Meanwhile, the various creatures are not only crippling Aunt Nora’s efforts to rehabilitate the old lady, but are spreading chaos in the neighboring, dying New England town.
And … it’s Sarah’s turn. Where is Sarah? And who is this dude the elephant gun? Can I have one?
A story of rescue after rescue, physical, intellectual, and emotional, it’s all about the courage to stand up and do what’s right.
Even when you’ve won.
This is a lot of fun, and if you don’t love the rhino, you have no heart. I won’t recommend it, as it’s not quite aged as well as I’d hoped, but it’s still got that inspirational quality that made it so popular on initial release.
