Jumanji is a 1995 American fantasy adventure film about a supernatural board game that makes wild animals and other jungle hazards materialize upon each player's move. It was directed by Joe Johnston and is based on Chris Van Allsburg's popular 1981 picture book of the same name. The special effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic in computer graphics, and Amalgamated Dynamics with animatronics.

In 1969, 12-year-old Alan Parrish is trapped in Jumanji whilst playing the game with his friend Sarah. Twenty-six years later siblings Judy (Kirsten Dunst) and Peter (Bradley Pierce) begin playing and unwittingly release the now-adult Alan (Robin Williams). After tracking down Sarah (Bonnie Hunt), the quartet resolve to finish the game in order to undo all its consequences. The movie also stars David Alan Grier as a hapless shoemaker-turned-police officer and Jonathan Hyde in a dual role as both Alan's father and Van Pelt, a big-game hunter intent on killing Alan.

Jumanji was shot in Keene, New Hampshire, where the story is set, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Despite a lukewarm critical reaction, the movie was a box office success, earning $262,797,249 worldwide from a $65m budget, and was the tenth highest-grossing movie of 1995. In 2005, a spiritual sequel to Jumanji, Zathura, which was also adapted from a Van Allsburg book, was released.

Plot

In 1869, two boys bury a chest in a forest near Keene, New Hampshire. A century later, in 1969, 12-year-old Alan Parrish flees from a group of bullies to the shoe factory owned by his father, Sam, where he meets his friend Carl Bentley, one of Sam's employees. When Alan accidentally damages a machine with a prototype sneaker Carl hopes to present, Carl takes responsibility and loses his job. Outside the factory, after the bullies beat up Alan and steal his bicycle, Alan follows the sound of tribal drumbeats to a construction site and finds the chest, containing a board game called Jumanji. Alan takes the game home and, after an argument with his father about attending a boarding school, decides to run away. However, his friend Sarah Whittle arrives, and the two begin playing Jumanji. When the dice are rolled, the player's piece moves by itself and a cryptic message appears in a crystal ball in the center of the board. Alan's first move causes him to get sucked into the game and a group of bats force Sarah to flee.

Twenty-six years later, Judy and Peter Shepherd move into the vacant Parrish house with their aunt Nora after losing their parents in a skiing accident. Judy and Peter hear Jumanji's drumbeats and play the game in the attic; they are attacked by giant mosquitoes and their kitchen is destroyed by a troop of monkeys. The game states that everything will be restored when it ends, so they continue playing despite the danger. Peter rolls, releasing both a lion and Alan, who is now an adult. Alan locks the lion in a bedroom, then heads to his father's old factory. On the way, he meets Carl, who is now working as a police officer. In the factory, now derelict, a homeless man reveals that Sam was distraught at Alan's disappearance and abandoned the business to search for him until his death. Also, because of the factory's closure the town's economy has been devastated.

Alan reluctantly agrees to watch while Judy and Peter continue playing, but soon realizes that Judy and Peter are playing the same game he and Sarah started, and therefore they will have to join in. Upon finding Sarah, who suffered mental trauma from Alan's disappearance, the trio are able to convince her to join them in finishing the game. Sarah's move releases fast-growing man-eating vines. Alan rolls and a big-game hunter named Van Pelt emerges to kill him. Among other things, an animal stampede and monsoon flood damage the house; crocodiles attack the group; Peter gradually transforms into a monkey after attempting to cheat; Peter, Sarah and Judy fight Van Pelt in a local department store; Alan is sucked into the floor by quicksand; an earthquake destroys the house; large spiders attack them and Judy is fatally poisoned by a barb from a flower. Alan eventually wins Jumanji when Van Pelt corners him, causing everything that has happened as a result of the game to be reversed.

Finding themselves back in 1969 as children, Alan and Sarah have full memories of later events. Alan reconciles with Sam and admits that he damaged the machine in the factory. Carl gets his job back, and Sam tells his son that he does not have to attend the boarding school. Alan and Sarah realize that Judy and Peter have not even been born. The two chain up the Jumanji board and throw it into a river before beginning a romantic relationship.

In the present, Alan and Sarah are married and expecting their first child. Alan has taken over the shoe business, Carl still works in the factory as the plant supervisor, and Sam is retired, but still alive. Judy, Peter, and their parents meet with Alan and Sarah at a Christmas party, where Alan and Sarah offer the children's father a job in the shoe company. They convince them to cancel an upcoming skiing trip to Canada, therefore preventing their deaths.

At a beach in another part of the world, two French-speaking young girls hear drumbeats while walking. The Jumanji board is half-buried nearby.

Cast

Robin Williams as Alan Parrish – a man trapped in Jumanji for twenty-six years.

Bonnie Hunt as Sarah Whittle – Alan's friend who is devastated due to his disappearance.

Kirsten Dunst as Judy Shepherd – a young girl in the Shepherd family and Peter's elder sister.

Bradley Pierce as Peter Shepherd – a young boy in the Shepherd family and Judy's younger brother.

David Alan Grier as Carl Bentley – Alan's oldest friend and an employee at Sam's shoe factory who later becomes a police officer

Jonathan Hyde as Sam Parrish – Alan's father. Hyde also portrayed Van Pelt, a big-game hunter from the game.

Bebe Neuwirth as Nora Shepherd – Judy and Peter's aunt and legal guardian.

The Shepherds are portrayed by: Malcolm Stewart as Jim Shepherd, Judy and Peter's father and Annabel Kershaw as Martha Shepherd, Judy and Peter's mother. The cast also includes: Patricia Clarkson as Carol-Anne Parrish, Alan's mother; and Gillian Barber as the Realtor. Adam Hann-Byrd and Laura Bell Bundy play Alan Parrish and Sarah Whittle as children, respectively.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumanji