I decided to do a Jumanji marathon for my next movies because I wanted something fun and positive, but that also makes me think a little bit.

“When young Alan Parrish discovers a mysterious board game, he doesn’t realize its unimaginable powers, until he is magically transported before the eyes of his friend, Sarah, into the untamed jungles of Jumanji! 26 years later, Alan reunites with Sarah and, together with Judy and Peter, tries to outwit the game’s powerful forces!”

The movie begins in 1869 with two young boys burying a box in the forest at night and then jumps a hundred years in the future to 1969 in Brantford, New Hampshire. And then jumps to twenty-six years later.

“A game for those who wish to find a way to leave their world behind.”

I know when I was a younger human, I often wished to have some sort of grand adventure, and I still sometimes think about that today. The world we live in seems like a bigger and bigger pile of garbage every day and it’s so easy to wish for some sort of magical escape from everything going wrong in the world. One of the points of this movie is to show that you can control your own fate and as much as you think things are horrible, they can always get worse.

Judy and Peter are absolutely hilarious, especially Judy and her story-telling about what happened to their parents. But also, Judy’s first inclination when the giant mosquitos show up is to grab a racket and bat it out the window, which is pretty awesome for someone so young. Judy and Peter do really great in this movie, combining cleverness, determination, and caring.

It’s really interesting to watch Alan demonstrate all of the behaviors from his own childhood; the same behaviors that his dad showed to him. But when you’re stuck in a jungle by yourself for twenty-six years, you really don’t have the opportunity for much growth and learning But then when Alan makes it back to his 1969 beginning, the first thing he does is to hug his father, apologize for his harsh words, and then tell the truth about the conveyor belt incident at the factory earlier that day. This demonstrates the growth Alan does achieve while working with people he cares about.

A little kindness and understanding goes a long ways, even when nothing seems to be going well and you have monkeys shooting at people and destroying discount markets.

Aunt Nora and Carl really did a wonderful job in this movie and it’s maybe a shame that winning the game resets the world back to 1969 so we don’t get to even meet Nora or see how much she loves her family and is genuinely trying. At least Carl gets his dream of continuing on as “the Sole Man” at the factory and clearly becomes like family to Alan and Sarah.

I think one of the really striking things to me is how vastly different movies are these days. This movie, in theory, is a kid’s movie, but it’s absolutely not the watered down version of kid’s movies we see these days. Some of the things Judy and Peter see and go through are truly horrifying and would give them nightmares for the rest of their lives if they actually remembered the events of Jumanji. On the reverse side, Alan and Sarah do remember the events of Jumanji, so much so that they make certain to keep Judy and Peter’s parents alive by offering their dad a job in marketing before the Canadian car crash that would have killed them.

Overall, this movie mostly holds up to the test of time. I’d say it’s a solid three on rating scale. I’m glad I own it and I do rewatch it fairly frequently.

Jumanji. Directed by Joe Johnston, performances by Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, David Allen Grier, Kirsten Dunst, Bradley Pierce, Jonathan Hyde, and Bebe Neuwirth. TriStar Pictures, 1995.