Are You Game? Celebrating 30 Years of Jumanji

We all have them: those movies that left such a visceral imprint on our young minds, that watching them feels like stepping back into a life you actually lived. Or maybe a dream you had that you didn’t realize someone was recording. Dear Reader, Jumanji is just that film for me.

There is possibly nothing more terrifying as an adult than when your eager friend wants to play an elaborate board game, right? WRONG! Actually, it’s way more terrifying when two strange kids and your childhood crush, who turned into human mist and disappeared into the board game you started playing 26 years ago, suddenly show up on your porch and say, “Hey according to the rules, it’s your turn!”

Thirty years since its release, Jumanji still taps into my primal fears. Because more viciously even than its giant insects, jungle animals, or lunatic huntsmen, it conjures an overwhelming sense that you’ve gotten caught up in something far bigger than you. That the world is consuming you from all sides, and you have no real power to affect or defeat it. In fact, to win Jumanji, you have to give in to its logic. The only way out is through. The thumping drum beats that call out from the game demand this.

Ok so I’ve established that Jumanji is pretty scary… but I loved being terrorized by this film as a child because it’s everything a ‘90s movie does well. The story is packed with adventure, peril, comedy, and nostalgia. The film’s practical effects invade an otherwise peaceful New England town with a kind realism so rare in our age of CG blockbusters (or its 2017 reboot…). Its cast features icons like Kirsten Dunst, David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, Bebe Neuwirth, and of course, Robin Williams. Williams stars in a naturally funny role, but infuses it with the pathos that made him such a beloved figure—word has it that even though Williams was known to be a pathological improviser, he understood the value of the film’s tightly structured story and only improvised after getting the takes the director wanted.

Jumanji is a film meant for the biggest, loudest screening possible. So I’m excited for SIFF to present Jumanji, on its 30th anniversary, at the best screen in the state at the best prices available. SIFF’s new Community Screenings series is meant to belong to movie lovers—whether you’re a veteran movie buff or budding young cinephile. We’re keeping the prices the lowest they’ll ever be at this Cathedral of Cinema so that all can enjoy the nostalgia, the iconicness, and the magic of some of the most classic films of our lives.

What else makes Jumanji a film deserving of a 30th anniversary celebration?

• Robin Williams was so beloved by the people of Keene, where Jumanji was filmed, that the mayor presented him with keys to the city in 1994 and the townsfolk set up a memorial and public screening of the film after his death in 2014.
• Jumanji pays homage to other film and TV classics, like Home Alone, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Wizard of Oz, and Gilligan’s Island.
• One of its more comedic moments is due to an animation gaffe: the slow rhino that trundles after the stampede in the third act was due to a glitch in the model’s frame rate. But the animators loved it so much they added a wheeze, named him “Sneezy,” and kept him.
• There’s a podcast dedicated to Jumanji in which the hosts watched the film in its entirety every day and recorded a three hour episode about it.
• Ironically, the film inspired a popular board game reproduction. A version of the game used on screen even sold on eBay for $60,800 in 2014.

For all this and more, just join us at SIFF Cinema Downtown at noon on March 29. Try your hand at our own game—movie trivia—for a chance to win SIFF prizes. And we promise we won’t Jumanji you… probably. 🤞

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