Search - Jumanji (Collector's Series) on DVD

Holly F. (GolferMama) from OXFORD, NY
Reviewed on 4/2/2010...

This movie SCREAMS imagination! If you want your kids to watch a movie that inspires them to be creative and think outside the box let them watch this! I wouldn't let kids under 5 watch it because it may be a little scary for them, but for kids 5 and up, I give this movie 5 STARS!

3 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.

Lisa B. from BOULDER CREEK, CA
Reviewed on 3/25/2010...

An enjoyable movie - enough that my teens wanted to keep a copy. It has some parts that might scare young children - children vanishing, animals jumping out, etc. so those parents might want to prescreen.

But a lot of this movie is pure fun, great to look at!

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Kyra S. from LILBURN, GA
Reviewed on 3/9/2010...

Enjoyed it.

0 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Laura T. (hannahsmom) from HARRINGTON, DE
Reviewed on 12/2/2009...

Great movie!

0 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Jennifer F. (KnJFisher) from GILLETT, PA
Reviewed on 6/28/2008...

There are few children's movies that I particularly enjoyed – I can recount The Borrowers, Labyrinth and The Neverending Story. Jumanji, however takes a new place among children's films – in fact, it may seem that initially, Jumanji is about simplistic story about kids playing a board game. Based on a gorgeous picture book story of the same name by Chris Van Allsberg, this movie takes a beautiful magical adventure and makes it into a thrill ride that defies all natural laws.

Time travel, physical transformations, perceptual distortions and multiple universes are just a few of the things that Jumanji toys with. The most evident phenomena is that the characters run in two different and parallel universes, one where Jumanji exists, and the other where it is just a dream. The life of Judy and Peter as orphans exists in a different world from the one where Jumanji doesn't exist – in other words, Jumanji is a catalyst of fate, an evil entity that does not bring about awe as it did in Allsberg's book, but fear. The world that Allen Parrish is doomed to be incarcerated in the jungles of Jumanji is another one, but that period of time is nonexistent in the world he will eventually live in. This is the beauty of the movie; that these characters can only allow their trauma and epiphanies to cross worlds. With each roll of the dice, the characters grow and change.

The ending with 'Jumanji' is mark of the end of that universe – everything that the jungle world had yielded, from the colonist-hunter Van Pelt to the roaring stampede and the monkeys had to return, to be sealed into the game and the universe. The game controls life; but it is merciful when played to the end without cheating.

The mental agony and pain must have been tremendous for the Parrishes. Presumably, Alan spent his twenty six years in the jungle, but returned to his old self only to again relive his life as if it never happened. The temporal distortion must have presumably had an effect on his parents, although only Sarah seems to notice. (She was playing the game – and only those playing are directly affected, but in the game universe of Judy and Peter we see a problem in the movie's understanding of temporal change)

The power of fate in deciding the endgame was critical in the film. It seems that the game was in itself a game of a game; it was all planned out and ready to go. In fact, it also seems that no matter how crazy or perilous the situation is, the characters cannot be killed. Even Van Pelt says at the Sir Sav A Lot that "I am hunting only Alan. I won't kill you, since you didn't roll" He too is bound to the rules of the game, no matter how much of a colonialist he is. The game instills a high level of fear without death, in order for the game to continue, all the characters must be present. So in one way, no one need be scared of anything in the game. Instead, the game builds resilience in the characters.

It was natural that in the end the end was initiated by the future; or more appropriately the past. At the end, both Sarah and Alan make up for the trouble they have caused and have a life bond from the experience. The jumping between 1994 and 1964 is a critical aspect where we see that the horrors of the game have allowed Judy and Peter's parents to not die in the ski accident. They are oddly willing to put an end to their vacation when they hardly know the Parrishes…

"In the jungle, you must wait, until you roll a five or eight" – Jumanji "Roll a two, roll a four, but never ask for more"

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.