Jumanji (the old one)

We love getting together with family to celebrate New Years Eve but we always find it a bit hard to fill in the time between about 8pm and midnight; especially with lots of kids milling about who want to stay up but start to run out of steam once it gets dark.  So watching a movie always seems like a great idea to have fun together and help pass the time till fireworks and the countdown. 
 
This year we were camping with the extended family and talking about old movies we liked.  The topic of Jumanji came up as the new one had just been released and we decided to re-watch the old one.  Someone hung a sheet on the washing line, put the projector on an outside table and jerry-rigged a speaker out of an old transistor radio (I love my tech savvy family) and we all sat on our camping chairs and watched Robin Williams save the day.

The original Jumanji movie is based on a fictional board game which possesses great power - the power to bring the items in the game to life!  It sucks a young boy into itself before being rediscovered years later by a brother and sister.  They play the game, the young boy (now a man) comes out and helps them finish the game and defeat the wild creatures which are brought to life. 

The effects are wild and imaginative and while many of the 1995 computer special effects don't stand the test of time, the practical ones are pretty awesome still and you don't really mind how fake they look as they are still charming and imaginative.


Rating: We enjoyed the imaginative aspect of Jumanji but it was a little repetitive (much like the board game as we later found when we received an old copy for Christmas), however none of the kids seemed to mind or notice.  They loved the surprise of which wild creature was going to come out next and what they were going to do.  By the end of the movie there is an impressive amount of damage to the house and the town and they loved the chaos.  We had some fairly young kids in our party (age 3 and up) and none of them were worried or scared but if your child is sensitive they would find Jumanji frightening as the animal scenes are pretty intense.  We will watch Jumanji again sometime in the future but not for some time.

Naughty bits: Apart from the animal violence/frightening scenes there is a fierce hunter who stalks the main characters with a gun.  However there is very little bad language and one kiss so overall Jumanji is as clean as Carl Bentley's cop car in his first scene (after that, not so much).

Snacks: Animal Biscuits and jelly snakes

Family In-quotes: (when someone farts) Don't be fooled, it isn't thunder / Staying put would be a blunder"

Related Goodies:
The Board Game (based on the movie!)
Top 10 Robin Williams Performances (not all for kids)