A quarter of a century later, the film finally starts proper as orphans Kirsten Dunst and Bradley Pierce restart the game and unleash the grown up Alan (Williams) along with a collection of flora and fauna that run riot through the town, causing chaos. The story opens in 1869 with some kids burying the magical game Jumanji but without explaining who made it or what it's for, as if that stuff were being left for the sequel, then flashes to 1969 where the thing is rediscovered by mixed-up rich kid Alan (Adam Hann-Byrd) and a few turns unleash African bats into New Hampshire and send Alan off to jungle hell. On a scene by scene basis, it is mostly great fun but suffers from a contrived script which repetitively drags characters back to the eponymous magical board game for another effect-producing throw of the dice. Though entertaining, Jumanji - adapted from an idiosyncratic children's book by Chris Van Allsburg - feels more like a package than a movie: Jurassic Park-style CGI effects, Gremlins-style childhood traumas, Honey I Shrunk the Kids-style Joe Johnston direction and Robin Williams-style Robin Williams.
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