It was the sequel for which no one was asking. 1995's Jumanji is a family classic, forever remembered for pushing the boundaries of CG, and Robin Williams' madcap jungle man performance, as a magical board game turns middle America into a pulp magazine-style safari park.
But just as in the film, and the original book by Chris Van Allsburg, this cursed board game is wily, and waits for new players. But board game no more: When Nineties kids are too cool for dice, it becomes a video game, hiding its secrets in a cartridge (look it up, kids).Watch Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Online, This time, a quartet of modern high schoolers get trapped in its rules, but rather than the world of Jumanji coming to them, they get sucked through the console into the jungle and become the avatars they selected. Nerdy gamer Spencer (Wolff) becomes brawny action tough guy Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Johnson), while his former best friend Fridge (Blain) loses a foot and a half in height and all his football hero strength as Franklin "Moose" Finbar (Hart). Academic outsider Martha (Turner) goes full Lara Croft as Ruby Roundhouse (Gillan). However, it's a Nineties video game, so inevitably there is only one female character, and so selfie-obsessed Bethany (Iseman) ends up in the portly form of cartographer Prof. Shelly Oberon (Black).
The broad and plentiful comedy is in the switcheroo, as Guardians of the Galaxy star Gillan and the man formerly known as the Rock, aka two of the hottest people on the planet, get to play awkward teens. Black in particular relishes channeling his inner future sorority girl, who seemingly was never that far under the skin.Of course, the original Jumanji had its fair share of menace, and Welcome to the Jungle does not spare the danger.Watch Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Online, Video game rules apply, so each character starts off with three lives that are lost all too readily, and often hilariously. Getting mauled by jaguars, or stampeded by rhinos, is less glamorous than it sounds. Yet underlying everything, the game is still the same. There's a new Van Pelt (Cannavale), a lost boy in the jungle (Jonas), a quest to fulfill. This game is on rails, but it's a heck of a lot of fun.
Kasdan injects this all with vigor and breezy humor, as this digital Breakfast Club learns to get along. This is undeniably recognizable Jumanji, with its cartoonish swashbuckling, and rampaging African wildlife.Watch Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Online, Yet what makes this a true high adventure is that it catches the details and nuances of what made Nineties multiplayer console games so infectious and frustrating. Cinematic act structure is replaced by level design, and there are NPCs to confuse and assist. Strip away the characters, and this is the most badass Pitfall! reboot you never played.
Joe Johnston’s 1995 Jumanji took a bunch of kids, transported them to a magical world full of perils and had a big, brash and mildly amusing time with it.Jake Kasdan’s 2017 Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle takes a bunch of kids, transports them to a magical world full of perils, turns them into human avatars and has a big brash and mildly amusing time with it.Watch Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Online, Where the 90s film used a board game as the plot device, 2017’s version is slightly updated with a video game that pulls four teenagers into its virtual realm. Presumably in 20 years there’ll be another Jumanji, with a virtual reality game that has magical pulling powers. Dated video game technology aside, the film takes the concept of the original film and adds a modernising twist.
This time around, the teenage characters take the form of adult humans, and must complete the tasks to escape the world of Jumanji as these avatars. This is a great choice for a number of reasons; not least because it means we don’t have to watch children be shot, killed or objectified (is there any reason Karen Gillan’s character runs around the jungle in a crop top and hot pants, while the male characters are clad in multiple destination-appropriate layers?). It also means an A-list cast gets the humorous job of pretending to be overgrown teenagers, to surprisingly funny effect.
In the ‘real world’, nerdy Spencer (Alex Wolff), jock Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), vain Bethany (Madison Iseman) and introvert Martha (Morgan Turner) are thrown into detention, and before long abandon their assigned task to play the mysterious Jumanji video game.Watch Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Online, They are pulled by an unexplained force into the game, and transformed into their avatars to live out the game irl (as the kids would say).Spencer is Dr Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), Fridge is Moose Finbar (Kevin Hart), Martha is Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan) and Bethany is Professor Shelley Oberon (Jack Black). Part of the film’s humour comes in the disparity between the real-life teens and their virtual characters, and there’s a lot of body-swap humour to be enjoyed (or endured).The film is generally pretty fun and very silly, if quite pointless and unassuming. It’s unlikely to win many awards or become a cult classic, but it’s a perfectly fine way to spend a semi-entertaining afternoon.
Those of you familiar with video games will understand some of the conventions employed here – each character gets three lives, and the group has a series of pre-determined tasks to complete and obstacles to overcome before they can win/escape. There’s some fun to be had with the introduction of NPC (non-player character) Nigel (Rhys Darby),Watch Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Online, and the introduction of Jefferson McDonough (Nick Jonas), the avatar of a player who has been trapped in the game for quite some time.Given the almost-meta video-game references, one could suggest that Ruby’s costume (as we’ve mentioned, it’s made up of very little) could be a satirical look at the way Lara Croft et al have traditionally been clothed in video games, but the script isn’t clever enough to assume this is the case, and it’s certainly not clever enough to convey this in any way. And really, all it means is that Gillan ends up wearing at least 60% less clothing than all the other actors on-screen. Elsewhere, the ‘believe in yourself’, ‘it’s what’s inside that counts’ message is corny, and clichéd and a bit grating, but that’s Hollywood. And it is Christmas, after all.
Ultimately the film works because a talented cast of charmingly funny actors get to play kids trapped in adult bodies; there’s enough time for some endearing, if fleeting, moments of exposition and character growth, and of course by the end everyone’s learned a little bit about themselves, which is nice. Less touching,Watch Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Online, but much more funny, are the scenes in which Bethany has to get to grips with being stuck inside the body of a rotund, middle-aged man; Black does his usual good work with a rich amount of physical and literal toilet comedy that’s simple enough to amuse children but well-executed enough to keep parents entertained, too.All-in-all, this is a pretty inoffensive, fairly funny film that’s got a few nice lines, some big laughs and lots and lots (and lots) of cultural references and homages. This won’t make it onto any ‘Films of 2017’ lists – and not just because it’s mid-December; but it’s an enjoyable way to while away a few hours. This will be a fun-filled Boxing Day ITV2 film in years to come; it’s not a total cracker, but it’s far from a turkey.
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