Jumanji vs Jumanji
Eric S Brown
The original Jumanji film was released in 1995 featuring Robin Williams, Kristen Dunst, and David Alan Grier in its cast. The movie was well received and reached # 1 at the boxoffice its opening weekend. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was released in 2017 featuring The Rock, Karen Gillian, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black in its cast earning several times what the original did and ranking as one the top grossing films that year.
Jumanji is the tale of a magical board game buried a hundred years before the movie begins and is found on a construction worksite where its been dug up. The board game consumes the child who has taken it home and the story shifts a couple of decades into the future where a family moving into their new home discovers it. The family’s children unintentionally begin a game of Jumanji, letting its power loose into the world.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle reimagines the original movie as four students in detention find an old video game and are sucked into it. The kids take the forms of their avatars inside the game and adventure ensues. All of the magic of this Jumanji happens insides its own self-contained game world instead of spilling into the real world with the challenge being to complete the game to escape it.
Which film is the better of two? That’s a relative choice. The original was a fantastic film for its time but Welcome to the Jungle had a much higher budget, better humor, and a more known cast. The characters being able to access the skills of their avatars is a super cool concept that the original Jumanji lacked. The “Dance Fighting” of Karen Gillan’s character alone is enough to make Welcome to the Jungle the more fun film of the two but truly any modern viewer in our current world of video game addiction is sure to find the original childish and almost laughable in comparison.
