Jumanji is almost 20 years old.

Do you understand how crazy and upsetting that is to me? I saw Jumanji in the cinema when I was a child, and to think that it is now almost 20 years old is just insane!

Jumanji was released at a time when the blockbuster was still king, and when movies still had amazing character actors with screen presence and acting talent in the central roles. It was also a time when, even though computer graphics were really coming into their own, movies were still story driven and weren’t completely dependent on special effects.

Unlike today- in which we have talentless people acting against a green screen behemoth.

But this isn’t a rant about the shortcomings of contemporary cinema, this is an opportunity for me to revel in a movie that I love so much, and hold so closely to my own heart.

Jumanji is an action adventure film that has it all. It’s exciting. It’s scary. It’s funny. It’s heartwarming. Jumanji takes you on an unpredictable journey that is incredibly fun and uplifting.

It also stars Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, and loads of other great character actors who get to play excellent parts.

Based on a children’s picture book by American author Chris Van Allsburg, Jumanji begins with 12 year old Alan Parrish (Hann-Byrd) finding a wooden board game called Jumanji completely by accident, and then being sucked into it when he plays it with his friend Sarah (Bell Bundy). 26 years later, Judy (Dunst) and Peter (Pierce) continue to play the game, unleashing both Alan (now Williams) and a whole world of trouble- including giant spiders, deadly plants and a stampede of various African animals, such as elephants.

When I saw Jumanji in the cinema as a small child, the scene when Alan is sucked into the titular board game scared the crap out of me- and this made me love the film even more. This was a movie that was brave enough to terrify every child watching it- and that made me feel like the film was treating me like an adult.

The various monstrous animals, plants and even people- as we can’t ignore big game hunter Van Pelt (Hyde)- are equally menacing, and unlike other movies, you actually feel that the central characters are in danger and could be hurt. This raises both the stakes and the tension considerably, and makes the film much more tense and exciting- especially after Alan’s childhood has already been completely destroyed by the board game. And who can forget what happens to Judy at the very end? It’s messed up stuff like this that makes the movie so brilliant!

The plot is exceptional, and is very well paced. The opening and closing bookends are really strong, and the fact that there are several main characters works really well too. The actors are all likeable and competent- especially Kirsten Dunst as Judy- who makes her lying trickster character really endearing. It’s easy to forget that sometimes child actors can be good- and Jumanji is a perfect example of this.  

You also can’t ignore Robin Williams as Alan, who gives a dominating, comical and loveable performance. I always jokingly refer to as his monologue about ‘being scared’ as his Academy Award winning speech. Mainly because it is so cheesy (in a good way) and also because it is so much better than anything you might see in that piece of crap movie Good Will Hunting, for which he actually did win an Oscar.

I don’t usually like movies that have a father/son angsty plot in them, but Jumanji manages to get it right. Even though, to Alan, his father is very profoundly his own worst nightmare, Alan’s father genuinely does care about his son, even though the way he shows it is emotionlessly archaic. The scene when adult Alan discovers that his father spent his entire life looking for his son is one of the best, most powerful scenes. 

The romance between Alan and Sarah is also very poignant. Bonnie Hunt is hilarious and charming as Sarah. The moment when she sees the board game and has a mini mental breakdown is both funny and sad. You genuinely feel for her character. Alan and Sarah’s relationship with Judy and Peter is also very strong, and the four of them working together to deal with the madness that they unleash is brilliant.

The supporting characters of Carl (Grier) and Nora (Neuwirth) are also worth a mention, as they provide the comic relief, which, for once, actually works.

And who could forget the animals? Both animatronic and CGI. They are the other stars of the show. The adventure sequences with the stampede, the lion, the crazy monkeys, killer mosquitos and vicious plants are all amazing. I always loved the bit when the monsoon appears in the house and the crocodile attacks, as well as the giant spiders. Of course the graphics have dated, but they still look good, 20 years later. Except for the monkeys. They looked terrible in 1995, and they look terrible now.

Surprisingly, Jumanji wasn’t particularly well received by the critics, but in spite of this, was a deservingly huge box office smash, becoming the 10^th highest grossing film of 1995- in a year that had Toy Story, GoldenEye and Pukachontas. Audiences clearly loved it then, and still love it now.

They just don’t make movies like this anymore.

In Zulu, Jumanji means ‘many effects’, and this is exactly what Jumanji means to me. It takes me on an emotional journey for so many reasons. Not only do I think that the key components- the story, the script, the visuals and the actors – are all perfect, I also see Jumanji as the kind of film that I would love to make. One that is multi-faceted: an exciting adventure tale that has twists and turns, scares and surprises and most important of all, heart.

The film also makes me remember why I feel in love with movies in the first place. It is probably the first Blockbuster I ever saw that made me fall in love with cinema. Every time I watch the sequence when the die rolls down the crack in the floor, the elephant piece moves slowly onto the middle of the board, and Alan whispers “Jumanji” under his breath, I just know that this is what real cinema is all about. It’s a perfect mixture of so many ingredients, that all come together to make something so profoundly entertaining that words can’t quite describe it.

And that, to me, is my idea of a five star film.