Jumanji: Children's book produced as feature film review #2

Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg was originally written and illustrated as a children's picture book in 1981. In 1995 it was made into a film with the same name. Both the book and the movie are about two children who find a magical board game that makes animals come to life and cause trouble in their house while their parents are gone. The book and the movie do contain some minor differences in the storyline. One difference is that in the beginning of the book Judy and Peter, two young children, whose parents are away at an opera, decide to go for a walk in the park. While they are there they find the magical game and decide to bring it home. They begin playing the game and quickly realize this is no ordinary game. It is full of life and wild animals! In the movie, however, the plot begins with two children burying a game deep into the earth, years later to be discovered by Alan Parrish, the young boy of an (seems to be) uncaring shoe factory owner. No sooner does Alan get home and get the game set up, his friend Sarah comes over to see Alan and they decide to play the game. Alan rolls a 13 and is immediately drawn into the game. Sarah cannot explain what she has seen to anyone. The next scene is 26 years later and two children, Peter and Judy move into a huge old house. After settling in, the two children go up into the attic to explore, and this is where they find a board game named Jumanji. Peter sets the game up and Judy reads the directions aloud. The directions were almost word for word from the book. When Peter tosses the dice, the game pieces move along the board by themselves. Judy and Peter hear a noise from downstairs in one of the rooms. This is where the magic begins.

I am assuming that because the film is based on a children's picture book more detail was needed in the plot in order for it to be feature length. In an attempt to do this the producer added the characters, Alan and Sarah, along with more background information and events about the game.

Like much of Chris Van Allsburg works, the book's illustrations are detailed and exciting but do not jump out at the reader with vivid color. The film, however, takes on a much different approach. Expensive, state of the art computer graphics and animatronics were used for the special effects sequences. Vivid colors and action are in much contrast to the original story in its book form. Did the use of extreme special effects pay off? I'll let you decide....The production budget was $65,000,000. The total US gross in the box office was $100, 458, 310.

Both the book and the film were successful pieces of work. I think that the magic of the book is more effective in the book because a lot is left up to the reader's imagination.