T he Jumanji franchise has been enjoyably revived in the last few years , but the new reboot films don’t have the purely startling quality of the original fantasy-surreal adventure from 1995, now rereleased for its 30th anniversary. Adapted from a 1981 children’s picture book by Chris Van Allsburg, it starred Robin Williams in an exuberant, winning but notably controlled lead performance. This is an entertainment in the broad Hollywood tradition of Capra and Spielberg, with a boisterous touch of Peter Pan in that the stern father figure and the scary villain are both played by the same actor. But there’s something else, too, a dash of something that, if it were played straight, would be genuinely creepy. And actually, even played just the way it is, it’s still pretty creepy.

Williams p

See Full Page