Alright.  I think it’s about time I tell you all about what might very well be my very favorite movie: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, starring Dwayne Johnson and Jack Black, among many other excellent actors.

For those, poor souls, who might not be familiar, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle came out in 2017 and is sort-of-a-reboot-of and sort-of-a-sequel-to** 1995’s Jumanji starring Robin Williams and Kirsten Dunst.  In both Jumanji’s, the premise is a game, which turns itself into a fantastical, in-real-life, jungle-inspired adventure.  In the 1995 version (and the original children’s book, Jumanji is a board game that somehow magically brings jungle elements (like monkeys appearing in the kitchen) into the apparently real-life world of the players.  In the 2017 version (i.e., my favorite movie), Jumanji has sneakily adapted itself into a video game, making use of a power hinted at in the 1995 story to whisk all of the players into its own fantasy-jungle world, and going so far as to physically transform them into the avatars they selected upon starting up the game.

It was a brilliant decision on the part of the writers to go this route, and one they took absolutely full advantage of in order to craft a story that is engaging, hilarious, and cathartic.  Bolstered by the writing, the actors – and the characters they represent – are absolutely the heart of the show, which is so nice to see in what could have just been another goofy action show.  To top that off, though, nearly every aspect of the film’s production is given the love and attention it needs to shine just the right amount.

The costumes match the game-characters they’re meant for so well that only the transported-story characters (unexpectedly finding themselves wearing them) are left asking who-the-heck picked this get-up?  The sets aren’t very large, but they’re really beautifully put together and well populated, so that they really do seem like fun places you might want to explore.  (You know, if you could go and explore a video game in person, and if the in-person reality and detail was as cool as the game art had been trying to suggest.)  And all of the extras and minor characters have an additional layer of fun to play with in that the actors are all meant to be portraying NPC’s (video-game Non-Player Characters).  They ham it up just enough to be the sort of delightful flavor NPC’s are meant to be within any game of real quality and story, while winking to the audience about how the effect can often be kind of bizarre and silly.  (Note, for the villain this does mean quite a lot of (pretty delicious) ham.)

Aside from the writing (which I will get to further in a moment), one of the things that really clinches my love of this movie is the choreography.  I am very far from any sort of choreography expert, but I have spent many years taking classes in both dance and martial arts, and when something looks forced, unnatural, or dangerously idiotic, it really throws me out of the show (*cough* multiple Starwars movies *cough* *cough*).  No problems there with Jumanji.  The action is very action-y and over-the-top (Dwayne Johnson’s character can punch enemies so hard they fly up through the roof), but even still, everything is kept just right.  Karen Gillan’s character, Ruby Roundhouse, executes the most beautiful 360-degree back-kick ever (I seriously love it) in one of the first big fight scenes of the show.  (Not only is it a beautifully executed 360-degree back-kick, but it is the right technique for the job, and not a technique that was just wedged into the scene because it was flashy).  Ruby Roundhouse also has an in-game ‘strength’ called Dance Fighting, which you want to think would be ridiculous, but not only do they totally make it work, they make it work so well that a really important character beat that 100% depends on it hits perfectly.

Now, I do have to say, the one aspect of the show that isn’t perfectly awesome is the CGI animals.  The movie’s set in a jungle, so there are a lot of them, and for the vast majority of shots, the pacing and the cinematography are set up to either give you just quick flashes of them, or to put them in low-enough lighting to let you suspend disbelief without too much trouble.  However, especially for the animal characters with fur, the track-record isn’t 100%.  Add to that the bizarre sound-effects choice to make jaguars running on soft jungle floor sound like horses galloping down a hard-packed road, and you have to concede that the cheesy with the CGI is slightly more than it needed to be.  It’s like, the one flaw though, in a show that has so very few.

And, finally, I’ve raved about the great writing and character development, but now let me actually tell you about it.  Why do I think it was so great that the writers chose to have the (high-school-age) characters who are playing the game find themselves wearing entirely new in-game (adult) avatars?  Of course, there’s the obvious action-movie mechanic of it.  When you have adolescents performing the action, you can get some really great movies (Spy Kids anyone?), but it will then really be a movie aimed for kids.  With adults performing the action, the movie becomes for adults, too.  (Adults can of course enjoy movies aimed at younger audiences (and should more often), but there’s still definitely a marketing angle in play here.). But, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle doesn’t stop at just getting a nice action-movie audience boost out of this device.  Instead, it fully embraces all of the potential this device has to offer, so that at the heart this is a movie about transformation and personal growth (and really is a movie for young people as well as for adults).

“How is Strength my Weakness?!” one of the characters demands near the beginning of the show, when the newly-landed teenagers are first starting to get a handle on the simple mechanics of what being a video-game avatar even means (fortunately there’s a handy personal menu to tell them what their avatars’ Strengths and Weaknesses are).  This line seems like it’s all about the ridiculous laughs.  Just like it seems, from a story perspective, like the body-swap mechanic is all about the laughs.  With the avatars of the four leads being played by Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson, and Karen Gillan, the actors have clearly been chosen for their comedic chops as well as their suitability (or not) as action figures.  But these aren’t just great comic actors, these are really great actors, period, and they can pull off playing out-of-their-element teenagers trapped in the (wrong) adult bodies so well, that the reality of their core characters and what they’re experiencing comes through.  These characters have been put into the wrong bodies not just because it’s funny (Jack Black as a self-absorbed prom-queen is so delightful), but also because that gives them Absolute Maximum Character-Growth Potential!

The dorky kid has to learn how to lead and have confidence, because his avatar is the one with the abilities the leader position requires.  Ditto (with a side of loosening up on some prejudices) for the dorky girl.  And prom queen simply can’t survive with her myopic self-absorption intact when she has neither her phone nor her feminine assets to fall back on.  But Kevin Hart’s supposed-to-be-a-big-burly-football-player-and-instead-is-a-speed-challenged-‘backpack-guy’ character (who is freaking obnoxious) is probably my favorite from an excellent-writing standpoint.  Because yeah, Strength was his Weakness, and now he gets to work on that.  His arc, I think, is the one that most rewards re-watching, because the shifts he experiences are more subtle than for the other characters, even while the writing and acting for him seems like some of the most over-the-top (just wait ‘til you find out what it means that one of his avatar’s Weaknesses is cake).

I don’t always want the characters to have to change to survive the story, but when change and personal growth are the core of the story, it’s really lovely to see it handled so believably, that the characters themselves really grow, and it’s not just that the script has them morph into a different person before the end – they earn it.

But that’s not all when it comes to the excellent writing in this movie, because this show simply has great plotting, too, and the writing also does a really excellent job of blending in the mechanics of the world-building.  Everything is tight and necessary and cohesive.  The mechanics that are introduced are used to perfect effect when it comes to molding the pacing and tension of the narrative beats, and getting a couple nice plot twists in there, too.  It does this by taking its subject matter seriously.  Just like with the carefully crafted NPC’s, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle takes videogames seriously, not just as a form for art and entertainment, but as a vehicle of powerful storytelling.  Being a character, does have a powerful effect on players, perhaps not usually as powerful as in the movie, but one that’s worth respecting.  And so why not run with that?  Why not really show off what that can do?

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** Note, the reboot/sequel argument of the first two Jumanji’s doesn’t take into account 2005’s Zathura, which is a lower-budget outer-space take on Jumanji’s real-life adventure-game premise.  I say ‘lower-budget’ only because of how Zathura is scoped.  As with the other Jumanji movies, the writing and acting are most excellent (i.e., great character development), and the special effects are given just enough play to do the job that needs doing (i.e., make the movie immersive and fun).  Zathura also sits, very securely, on my list of favorite movies.