Jumanji

As a small child, Alan Parrish finds a mysterious-looking board game named Jumanji and begins to play it, only to find himself sucked into the game’s jungle world. Twenty-six years on, brother and sister Judy and Peter (Dunst and Bradley Pierce) discover the game and after unleashing a group of screeching monkeys and a ravenous lion into their home, release Alan – now a grown-up Robin Williams – from his captivity. And he tells them they have to win the game in order to end the chaos once and for all…
Basically an excuse for some wonderful effects – herds of elephants rampaging through the town, giant spiders etc – this is a fun family film that only falls down when you start to pay too much attention and realise there’s very little plot to speak of. All the cast are capable enough (although you can’t help feeling that anyone could have played the Robin Williams part) and director Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer) keeps everything moving at a fair old speed. Note that very young viewers may find it a little scary (as may arachnophobes). A spin-off animated TV series was also made in 1996.