by Elijah Taylor, staff writer
Many people are raving about the recently released Jumanji Movie, also known as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. A sequel to the classic 1995 Jumanji movie, starring the late Robin Williams.
The stars of Welcome to the Jungle are Dwayne Johnson, also known as the rock, playing the character Spencer, Kevin Hart playing Fridge, Karen Gillan playing Martha, and Jack Black playing the character of Bethany. Kevin Hart and Jack Black are well known for their comedic personalities which seems to rub off on their co-stars Karen Gillan and Dwayne Johnson.
For many adults, the idea of a nostalgic visitation of one of their most memorable childhood movies is promising, although this movie may not appeal to that particular audience. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle takes a very different, more comedic approach to the concept, as you can probably tell from the casting
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle takes a very different path than its predecessor, focusing more on its comedy aspect than the original movie did. The movie centers around relatively the same concept as the original towards the beginning, a magical game which can transport its players into the game’s universe.
In the original Jumanji movie, a board game was found by a little boy named Alan Parrish who subsequently ended up being trapped in the game’s universe. In Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle it is an old video game console which transports the four high schoolers Spencer, Fridge, Martha, and Bethany to the game’s universe. Although, this seems to be where the parallels between the two start to become more and more skewed.
In Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the characters who get trapped within the game transform into the adult avatars which they had selected before starting the game.This can explain why Jack Black was cast to play a female character named Bethany as she chose Jack as her avatar.
As Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle progresses it begins to feel less and less like a sequel to the 1995 Jumanji movie, and more like a completely separate type of movie. While the new movie does try to tie in supposed “clues” left by Alan Parrish when he was trapped in Jumanji, it loosely effects the story, as most of the story is completely new with no connection to the original.
For example, Alan Parrish had been trapped in Jumanji for 26 years, only ever coming across one other person, a hunter which stalked him while he was in the jungle. However, in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, there is an entire thriving civilization within the game’s universe. This supposedly is the same jungle where Alan Parrish stayed for 26 years without ever encountering civilization.
Although it may not be exactly what fans of the original movie were looking for, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle definitely hit their target audience grossing a total of $52,775,295 when the first weekend concluded, and a domestic gross of $254,005,329 to date. With an estimated budget of only 90,000,000 and a worldwide gross of $533,393,009 to date, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a highly successful film.
Whether or not the new Jumanji movie is a good match for you depends more on your sense of humour than it does on your fondness of the original film although either way, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a fun film which attempts to carry on the legacy of Jumanji 22 years after the original movie was released.