Bookshelf

Jumanji - Todd Strasser / Puffin œ3.99

Reviewed by Sue

It's many years since I've been to the cinema. Videos have been a
godsend for me because I like to watch things at my own pace, so
being able to stop a video, rewind and watch bits again etc suits
me down to the ground. However, when I saw clips of Jumanji, Robin
Williams' latest film, I was really tempted to see it on the big
screen and made plans to go and see it in our local cinema one
afternoon. Things didn't turn out as planned, and I didn't manage
to see it, so I got the book instead, to tide me over until it
comes out on video.

I should have been suspicious when the book cover said that it
was a novelization, based on a screenplay, based on a screen
story, based on a book ... clearly this was rewritten to cash in
on the film and, some day, I will look out for the original book
which I hope will be a lot better. After reading this version,
which only took a few hours as it is just 152 pages in large type,
I was glad I hadn't dragged myself up to the cinema because it
sounded as though there was very little story, most of the appeal
would be from the special effects.

The book starts in 1869 as two brothers bury a box in woodland,
clearly terrified out of their wits. Wind howls and lightning
crashes, accompanying a mysterious drumming sound coming from
inside the box, but they dig on in terror, frantic to get rid of
it, somewhere where, hopefully, no-one will find it. But, of
course, someone does, a young boy called Alan, and the box turns
out to contain a board game called Jumanji. This game gives the
term 'interactive' a whole, lethal new meaning, when Alan is
sucked into the game, disappearing from the sight of his friend
Sarah with whom he is playing the game. According to the game,
this is his forfeit ...  'in the jungle you must wait, until the
dice read five or eight'. But Sarah runs in terror and Alan is
trapped inside the game for 26 years until two young children find
the game and start to play it, throwing the correct number to free
Alan from his imprisonment (where he has grown into Robin
Williams) with catastrophic results.

As I said before, it sounds as though the highlights of the film
will be the computer-generated special effects, as monkeys,
stampeding elephants and other creatures are released from the
game to rampage through the house and town. The story in the book
consists of lots of 'oh, look what we've summoned now ... let's
run away from it' which isn't the same without the visuals. A few
black and white photos taken from the film are in the centre of
the book.

This book was a big disappointment to me. I'll be interested to
see if (a) the original book or (b) the film are an improvement.





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