2017 has been the year for reboots and sequels of movies. From horror to Disney, the remake bug has hit just about every genre of film out there.
A theme that has been present for the past few months has been nostalgia. It seems a lot of people have been focusing on the 1980s. However, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” will take us back to the 90s.
The original “Jumanji” came out in 1995 and starred one of Hollywood’s most beloved actors. The late Robin Williams, who played Alan Parrish, stole the hearts of everyone who watched the film.
We never got to see the world of “Jumanji” and experience Parrish’s life-changing fight for survival, however that will all change with this reboot.
The new adaptation will be focused more towards the millennial generation as Jumanji is now a video game instead of a board game. The characters are stereotypical teenagers in high school who all are in detention. They discover the game in the school basement and start to play it. They get sucked into the world and are now forced to win the game in order to escape.
The remake was confirmed in 2015 and was scheduled to be released at around the time that Williams passed away. There was a large amount of criticism about the release date, much about how inappropriate the timing was, so the release date was moved back and the script was totally redone.
The new writer brought on board was Scott Rosenberg, and the script for the remake was based on a draft written by the original writers, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. Jake Kasdan was confirmed as director of the film on Jan. 14, 2016. The score for the movie was developed by Henry Jackman, who replaced James Newton Howard after the movie was pushed back for release.
The main actors of the movie include Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillian and Nick Jonas. These actors play the characters that the teenagers change into once teleported in the game.
The movie plays on the idea that the characters in the game are the teenagers opposite. This will probably be the source of a lot of the movie’s humor since Jack Black’s game character was chosen by “The Popular Girl.”
The trailers show the teenagers in the beginning not really getting along, so they will have to learn to work together in order to survive. Since each of their game characters have different abilities, this will help them develop those survival skills.
Even though this movie is a remake, it is still canon to the original film. This movie takes place 20 years after the first “Jumanji.” The movie will mostly take place inside of the Jumanji universe, so a majority of the scenes will be in a jungle atmosphere. There will be more action in this film, which was confirmed in the two trailers released to the public.
If you are looking for a comedy/action/nostalgic movie to see this winter, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” hits theaters Dec. 20.
Paige Rogers
Reporter