Jumanji - The Tale of Nightmares

    I have always loved reading and playing games, and have often fantasized of these things coming out of the pages or board, or of me going into them. I loved the magic, the wonder, and the foreignness of what they made play out in my mind. One of my favorite books was Inkspell, because that actually happened and the good and the bad came to life. And good triumphed. However, I never could get through Jumanji growing up. I watched five minutes and it terrified me. Yet for this paper, I was determined to be a big girl, and sit down and watch the whole thing through. While not nearly as scary as it used it be, this film definitely played with the idea of imagination and that was the reason I found it unsettling. It had the nightmares and terrors of the mind coming to life instead of the heroes and wonders, and there was no way to end it except to keep inviting new horrors to play.

    Every child dreams of an escape from the real world. We dream that the worlds in these stories are real. We play as Ironman, Batman, Mulan, Ash, and Lady Knights. There was always an evil that we had to fight, but it never really stood a chance of winning. Jumanji was the opposite. All the evils of the imagination came out, but the good guys never stood a chance of beating them. Alan’s small knife never could have killed the lion. The tennis rackets couldn’t kill the demon mosquitoes. Nothing could have stood up to a stampede or killer plant or monsoon. Alan and the others had no chance against the hunter. They were being driven and beaten, and all they could do was run. And run. And run. Yet they could not escape. Every kid’s worst nightmare. There was no way out except to bring more tragedies and pray they could finish the game.

    I have always hated not being in control of my choices or of the consequences. I have always been rather analytical, so as to avoid unpleasant things. In Jumanji, there was no way to avoid the terror. There was no way to stop the game and the evil that came out. The idea that all of my worst fears would come out to get me and that I COULD NOT STOP was what terrified me most as a kid. I didn’t want to watch the movie, because my imagination came alive even after just hearing what it was about. The game had to be finished. The players had no control over how long the game was, what they rolled, what came out of the board, or the ability to stop and put it away. This idea was one straight from my nightmares. Bad stuff was happening and there was absolutely nothing I could do.

    Some of the fears you had as a child never really go away. The difference between those fears as a child and those fears as an adult is that you face them. But the dark will always be unsettling. I will always be terrified of being kidnapped. But now I deal with those fears. Jumanji demonstrates this as it keeps throwing the idea of growing out of fears, growing up, being a man, and standing your ground. Alan grows up, but because he still runs from his fears, he is still “a child.” But when he stands up to his fears, even though he is technically a child again, he is now “a man.”

    Imagination is all about your dreams and fears and how you see yourself and the world around you. Jumanji confronts all of these aspects and teaches children that while lots of things are scary, and will always be scary, that they are easier to manage when you stand up to them. All things have an end, and that includes the nightmare.