Jumanji (picture book)

Jumanji

Author	Chris Van Allsburg
Illustrator	Chris Van Allsburg
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Children's, fantasy novel
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Publication date	1981
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	32 pp
ISBN	0-395-30448-2
OCLC	7196761
Dewey Decimal	[Fic] 19
LC Class	PZ7.V266 Ju
Preceded by	The Garden of Abdul Gasazi
Followed by	Ben's Dream

Jumanji is a 1981 fantasy children's picture book, written and illustrated by the American author Chris Van Allsburg.^[1] It was made into a 1995 film of the same name. Both the book and the film are about a magical board game that implements real animals and other jungle elements as the game is played; thus the dangers which the players have to overcome in the game also appear in real life. Jumanji star Robin Williams claimed "jumanji" is a Zulu word meaning "many effects,"^[2] and Van Allsburg does as well.^[3]

Fritz, a bull terrier in all of Chris Van Allsburg's books, appears as a toy dog on wheels in the third illustration.

Storyline

While their parents are out for the evening, Judy and Peter Shepherd, after playing with some toys, become bored and do not know what to do so they go to the park. There they find a jungle adventure game called Jumanji, which seems to have been abandoned. They take Jumanji home and find a warning message; "Do not begin unless you intend to finish". They start playing, only to discover that the game is real; any dangers encountered in the game spring to life somewhere in the house. When Peter rolls on a lion, a real lion appears, which Judy and Peter trap in their mother's bedroom. Judy rolls on a stampede, Peter rolls on a monsoon, and Judy rolls on an explorer - each appears in real life to wreak havoc in the house. Still they continue to play, hoping that by finishing the game everything will go back to normal. The game finally ends when Judy rolls a volcano and yells "JUMANJI!" In an instant everything is back to normal, and the siblings quickly return the game to the park before their parents finally return. The story ends when Judy and Peter look outside and see their neighbors, Danny and Walter, excitedly returning from the park with Jumanji in their hands and their mother claims they never bother to finish the games they play, nor read the instructions.

Adaptations

• Jumanji, a 1995 film based on the story. Unlike the short story, the film briefly has adult characters that ultimately did not appear in the original short story like Alan Parrish (Robin Williams), Sarah Whittle (Bonnie Hunt), Officer Carl Bentley (David Alan Grier), Aunt Nora (Bebe Neuwirth) and a big-game hunter named Van Pelt (Jonathan Hyde who also portrayed Alan's father, Sam Parrish). Not only is Alan Parrish the main protagonist instead of Judy (Kirsten Dunst) and Peter (Bradley Pierce), but a background story is ultimately added, in which the game trapped Alan in the jungle many years earlier while he and Sarah were playing back in 1969 and Danny and Walter from the end of the original book ultimately do not appear in the film. Also in the film, Judy and Peter are ultimately orphaned after their parents briefly died in a car accident in Canada, and their aunt is now their legal guardian, and the animals wreak havoc all over town, including Peter transforming into a monkey while trying to cheat and Alan ultimately winning the game instead of Judy with everything including time restored back to the way it was before. The drumbeats in the game are also heard far away, which ultimately and briefly never happened in the book.
• Jumanji (TV series), an animated TV series roughly based on the book and the film, which ran from 1996 to 1999. Unlike the book and film, the game transports Judy and Peter in the jungle after taking turns and reading a clue instead of releasing all of the jungle elements and there are other villains besides Van Pelt. Also, Peter transforms into various animals while trying to cheat in a few episodes and Alan Parrish from the film remains trapped in the game until the final episode and Danny and Walter from the end of the original book are absent.
• A continuation of the 1995 film, titled Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is planned for 2017 and will star Dwayne Johnson.^[4]

Sequel

Zathura, published in 2002, is a sequel to Jumanji, also written by Van Allsburg. It has also been adapted to film. In Zathura, Danny (Jonah Bobo) and Walter (Josh Hutcherson)—from the end of the Jumanji story—find a magic board game. Zathura is science fiction and Jumanji is mentioned.

References