# Telll Me About "Jumanji"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 30, 2006, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108 "2006-12-30T12:32:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/1 "2006-12-30T12:32:58Z")
Is this Robin Williams movie worth renting? (It’s not the cost of renting, actually…it’s the time wasted on bad movies!) I like most of his movies with few exceptions. - Jinx
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### Author:  [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/2 "2006-12-30T12:57:44Z")
I liked it. Some people didn’t. The effects are becoming rather dated.
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### Author:  [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/3 "2006-12-30T15:13:03Z")
We enjoy it around our house. The special effects in some places are pretty ristic compared to what we have now, as FilmGeek mentioned. It has a good story, though, and ‘name’ actors besides the lead - Bonnie Hunt, Bebe Neuwirth, Kirsten Dunst, David Allan Grier. The actor playing the father is really good in his part.
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### Author:  [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/4 "2006-12-30T15:25:51Z")
I liked it. It’s on my list to get on DVD one-of-these-days.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/5 "2006-12-30T15:49:17Z")
It’s entertaining enough to be worth renting, sure. Not a classic by any means, though.
The old mill they used for the shoe factory is almost right across the street from my workplace.
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### Author:  [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/6 "2006-12-30T16:22:00Z")
I don’t own it, but it’s definitely worth the time investment to watch.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/7 "2006-12-30T16:30:52Z")
It’s better than it has any right to be. You had a hack director\* taking a short children’s book and expanding it to a full-length movie with Robin Williams. That’s a recipe for disaster.
But the film is entertaining and worth a look.
\*At the time. His later **October Sky** was an excellent film, before he went back to hackwork.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/8 "2006-12-30T23:27:46Z")
If you’ve seen _Zathura_ already, you may think “Wait a minute, this is the same story”. But they were both based on books by Chris Van Allsburg, who also did _Polar Express_. He seems to draw up books that make Directors’ eyes light up.
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### Author:  [@jacob\_wrestling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacob_wrestling)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/9 "2006-12-30T23:44:50Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad]
If you’ve seen _Zathura_ already, you may think “Wait a minute, this is the same story”. But they were both based on books by Chris Van Allsburg, who also did _Polar Express_. He seems to draw up books that make Directors’ eyes light up.
[/QUOTE]
_Zathura_ is a vastly better film than _Jumanji_, but the latter still may be worth a watch. Then again, I was about 10 when I saw it, so YMMV.
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### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2006, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/10 "2006-12-30T23:47:41Z")
Kirsten Dunst is so very young too.
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### Author:  [@toadbriar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadbriar)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/11 "2006-12-31T00:14:17Z")
I’m fond of Jumanji because I like the theme of crazy adventures invading the real world, I love Chris Van Allsburg, and Jumanji was filmed in Keene, NH, which is my husband’s hometown and where we’ll be moving soon. So, there are too many good associations for me to NOT like it.
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### Author:  [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/12 "2006-12-31T02:57:56Z")
It’s a great movie - if you’re ten. Or, if you watch it with a ten year old. (And, the previous sentences are not at all sarcastic or a criticism). OTOH, it’s not the type of flick you and your friend can sit on the couch and enjoy (assuming you and your pal are over twelve or so.)
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/13 "2006-12-31T03:09:16Z")
[QUOTE=toadbriar]
I’m fond of Jumanji because I like the theme of crazy adventures invading the real world
[/QUOTE]
I remember thinking how cool it would be to actually have a game like that – only learning the rules first before playing.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/14 "2006-12-31T05:23:43Z")
I think of _Jumanji_, fondly, as the worst kids’ movie starring Robin Williams since _Hook_. It’s even worse than _Mrs. Doubtfire_; almost as bad as _Jack_. And just when you can’t imagine an actor giving a more cringeingly embarrassing performance, David Alan Grier takes the movie to new depths of eye-gouging self-mortification.
I recommend it for sheer draw-dropping awfulness.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/15 "2006-12-31T05:53:56Z")
I rarely agree with Roger Ebert, but dude’s got my back on this one:
> [@](#):
>
> Even for older audiences, there are few redeeming factors, because what little story there is serves as a coathook for the f/x sequences, which come out of nowhere and evaporate into the same place. . . . There is little attempt to construct a coherent story. Instead, the characters face one threat after another, as new and grotesque dangers jump at them. It’s like those video games where you achieve one level after another by killing and not getting killed. The ultimate level for young viewers will be being able to sit all the way through the movie.
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### Author:  [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/16 "2006-12-31T06:27:48Z")
[QUOTE=FilmGeek]
I liked it. Some people didn’t. The effects are becoming rather dated.
[/QUOTE]
The effects were dated the day the movie came out. 😃
Personally I think it’s a fun **kids movie**. Sure there are lots of scenes where an adult would say “what???” but if you roll with it you might enjoy it.
My daughter loved it when she first saw it - of course she was about 6 at the time.
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### Author:  [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/17 "2006-12-31T06:39:36Z")
[QUOTE=lissener]
I think of _Jumanji_, fondly, as the worst kids’ movie starring Robin Williams since _Hook_.
[/QUOTE]
Really? Then why do kids like those movies so much?
My two nephews-in-law watched Hook 40,000+ times and loved every minute of it. As I said in my last post my daughter loved Jumanji (and she also loved Hook).
As an adult watching both these films I can enjoy them for what they are.. a KIDS MOVIE. I can see the attraction for both these movies from a kids standpoint. Adventure, humour, action, and scenes where a child (instead of an adult) saves the day. I would have loved both these movies when I was 8 years old.
Granted, Jumanji is no Showgirls and Robin Williams is no Elizabeth Berkley, but it was a kids movie afterall.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/18 "2006-12-31T06:52:31Z")
It’s funny that you’d take a difference of a kid’s movie so personally, as a reason to be so petty. But at least \*Showgirls \* was bad on purpose; Elizabeth Berkeley was cast specifically \*because \* she couldn’t act; like the people most of John Waters’s movies for example. \*Jumanji \* has no such excuse. But apparently you wrote it or directed it; I can’t imagine why else you’d take my opinion personally enough to get defensive about it.
But if it will make you feel better, I’ll try to refrain from holding my own opinion on children’s movie: I’ll call it brilliant if a kid likes it, because they tend to have such discerning judgment, and suspend all my personal reactions. By that standard, my new favorite movie is _Barbie in The Twelve Dancing Princesses._
(All reactive sarcasm aside, why would you take a differing opinion of a \*movie \* as a reason to inject pettiness and sarcasm, toward another poster rather than the movie, into a CS thread? You do understand that I don’t personally hold it against your children that they like a movie that I and Roger Ebert don’t happen to like? That, in other words, you had no one’s honor to defend?)
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/19 "2006-12-31T15:56:54Z")
I’ve watched _Jumanji_ several times and I obviously think it’s a very good movie. I’ll disagree with some of the specific comments made: I’m an adult and I’ve watched it with other adults who liked it, so it does have non-kid fans; I thought _Zathura_ and _Polar Express_ were okay but I liked _Jumanji_ better; Williams, who admittedly can go overboard, was relatively restrained in this movie and stayed in character; I didn’t have any problem with the quality of the special effects (although admittedly I rarely judge these); the movie did have a coherent story and was not just a collection of special effects (unlike _Men in Black_ for example); and lissener and I have very different opinions on movies.
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### Author:  [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telll-me-about-jumanji/386108/20 "2006-12-31T16:56:09Z")
[QUOTE=lissener]
_Barbie **in** The Twelve Dancing Princesses._
[/QUOTE]
(bolding mine)
Plastic lesbian porn? Sign me up! 😃
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