Starring Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Kirsten Dunst, Jonathan Hyde, David Alan Grier, Bebe Neuwirth, Bradley Pierce
Written By: Jonathan Hensleigh, Jim Strain, Greg Taylor, Chris Van Allsburg
Directed By: Joe Johnson
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Buy on Amazon.com link

Jumanji is the type of movie I’ll watch whenever it’s on TV. Now there’s a special Deluxe Edition out for fans of the movie to enjoy, and since I don’t already own this movie on DVD yet; this is a welcomed re-release.

The movie is about a mysterious board game, that turns everything that’s happening in the game, to life. Imagine Monopoly coming to life, I’d be going straight to jail in no time. And i’m sure Trump would be buying all the Broadyway and Park Places real estate. That bastard! But anyway, Jumanji starts off with a young Alan Parrish discovering a board game near his Father’s shoe factory. He brings it home, and after getting in a fight with his parents; he secretly plays the game with one of his friends he likes, Sarah. The game doesn’t turn out well because Alan gets magically sucked away into the game, and Sarah freaks out and gets chased away by bats. 26 years later, Alan is presumed dead and his parents aren’t around anymore. A new family (Two kids: Peter (Bradley Pierce) & Judy (Kirsten Dunst), and their Aunt Nora (Bebe Neuwirth)) move into the old Parrish mansion. As the kids vet ready for school, they hear drum beats and run towards the sound and they discovered the game Jumanji. They decide to play the game but weird stuff starts to happen. Animals start popping up in their kitchen like monkeys and lions. As they are running away from the lion, a hairy guy covered in plants and leaves, comes to their rescue and gets them away from the lion. The man turns out to be Alan Parrish (Robin Williams), alive and well; he’s just been trapped in Jumanji for a long ass time. The kids and Alan realize that they all need to finish the game for this to go away, so they locate Sarah (Bonnie Hunt) to help them finish the game. The foursome have to battle monsoons, exotic animals like elephants & zebras, poisonous spiders and a crazy hunter from the Jumanji world. If they don’t finish the game soon, they could all be dead. Or get stuck playing it longer until one of them does finish it ha.

Jumanji just screams fun! Well no, if you scream Jumanji, you’d just be screaming the word Jumanji but you know what I mean! The flick is such a fun adventure movie to watch on a boring Sunday afternoon, just like today. The story is really interesting, and all the stuff that happens in the movie is entertaining. As I was growing up, I would always hope that some things from movies or something came to life but after seeing this movie; I don’t think that would be a good experience haha. Yes i’m a dork, I know. Even though this is a family film, it’s still has some scary elements to it. Seeing Alan Parrish getting sucked into the game was pretty freaky and might scare some kids. But I think Robin Williams did a good job of adding humor to some basic lines to the movie, and even Bonnie Hunts has some funny scenes in the movie as well. Robin Williams doesn’t come into the movie until later on but once he’s there, he carries the movie. David Alan Grier was good too, but he pretty much screamed like a girl the entire movie. Kirsten Dunst was a little cutie back then, glad to see she’s “of age” now. Not like I have a chance with her anyway.

The special effects and computer graphics in the movie were good for it’s time. But you look back now and you start to wonder how good they could have really been if this movie was made now. The whole point to this movie getting re-released now is because of Zathura, the sequel or sister of Jumanji. Both written by author Chris Van Allsburg. If you buy this DVD, you get a free movie ticket to Zathura, directed by swinger turned family film director Jon Favreau. That movie looks just as much fun as this one.

This DVD version is two discs (disc 1: movie, extras, disc 2: extras) and contains a lot of the extras that have been included on previous Jumanji DVDs. But there’s some games and other things just for the kiddies. I watched some of the documentaries but they were pretty much standard stuff and I think i’ve seen a lot of this on HBO specials or some where else. Plus all those extras on disc 2 are from the Collector’s Edition DVD that was released a few years ago. At least I think so, I never got that one but they look similar. So I was kind of disappointed with the features on this DVD because it offered nothing new or good.

If you don’t already own Jumanji on DVD, than this is the version to buy. If you already have it, this Deluxe Edition offers nothing really that special and isn’t worth going crazy over. But since I didn’t have this movie on DVD, I’m glad I do now!

Features:
Bonus Features For Kids: – Secrets & Riddles – The Extreme Book of Nature – Ancient Diversions
Special Effects Crew Commentary

Disc 2:
‘Making-Of” Documentary
Production Design Documentary
Storyboards
Special Effects Featurette
Conceptual Art Galleries
Production Stills

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
SPANISH: Dolby Digital Stereo
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Stereo
PORTUGUESE: Dolby Digital Stereo

Video:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:
English, Spanish, French, Portuguese

Favorite Scenes: Monkeys attacking the town, The hunter guy chasing down Alan in the dept store, the crocodile scene, spider scenes.
Rating: PG
Running Time: 105 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: