Friday, October 4, 2013

Sunday Funnies: Jumanji (1996)

The fledgling UPN network hit the ground running with a Sunday children's lineup in 1996, but didn't stick with it in the long term.

One of the network's first animated series was Jumanji, which, for intents & purposes, was a reboot of the movie of the same name, which was a hit the previous year, starring Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, & David Alan Grier. In the series, Alan Parrish (Williams' character in the movie, now voiced by Coach's Bill Fagerbakke) is still trapped in the game, and that leaves Judy & Peter Shepherd to venture into the game on a weekly basis to try to bring him home. Duckman creator Everett Peck did the character designs for the series, which was the first for Sony's new animation division, Adelaide Productions.

Jumanji spent two seasons on UPN before moving into a syndicated block distributed by Bohbot Kids Network (BKN). Here's the open & close to refresh your memory:



Unlike most cartoons, the series does have a finite ending, as Judy & Peter finally get Alan back into the real world at the end of season 3. Currently, the series is in Sony's vaults.

Rating: B.

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