10 Things You Didn't Know About Jumanji

The 1990s were great if you were a young person who loved to watch movies. Either you were just coming of age to enjoy the delights of 90s cinema, or you'd lived through the 1980s, watched classics like The Goonies and Ghostbusters, and had unfathomably high expectations of filmmakers during this new decade.

One such classic of this golden era was Jumanji, Joe Johnston's adaptation of the 1981 book of the same name. We'd just been terrified by Jurassic Park, and horribly let down by Casper, so Jumanji had an awful lot riding on it if it was going to be a success.

It did not disappoint.

Of course, casting Robin Williams was an inspired choice (more on that later), but besides having Mork from Ork, it also had action, suspense and genuine thrills that younger viewers simply weren't used to. This wasn't pandering, this was filmmaking at its finest, and we couldn't get enough of it.

Fast forward 25 years and we're two sequels deep into an ever expanding franchise, but nothing will ever top the original. No matter how many times you watch though, there's always something new to find out.

In fact, we'd wager there's at least 10 interesting titbits you probably never knew about Jumanji, but don't worry we're willing to share them with you right here.

Money is power. That's not just a fancy quote wealthy executives have framed on their office walls, it's also the theme of classic family board game Monopoly, and the only real lesson players learn after hours of playing with siblings or friends.

It was this concept that inspired the creation of Jumanji. As a young man, Jumanji author Christopher Van Allsburg would sit through many a game of Monopoly, growing to despise it for the greedy lifestyle it inspired, and the lack of any real stakes.

In his mind, Van Allsburg wondered what would happen if players who were sent to jail within the game, actually found themselves locked up in a prison cell, stuck in limbo until they roll a double.

Speaking to Scholastic, Van Allsburg went on to discuss this idea further:

“I thought it would be fun and exciting if there were such a thing as a game board where wherever you landed on a square and it said something was going to happen, then it would really happen."

And so, as an antithesis to Monopoly, Jumanji was born.