Jumanji | dakotaatokad

(Note: This review is of the Collectors Edition DVD & The 2017 Blu-Ray)

BOX-ART

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The cover does a good job showing the chaos, while also having that jungle feel that the game seems to have.

MENUS

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The DVD main menu has options for, Play Movie, Set-Up, Scene Select, and Bonus Features. The menus have scenes from the film playing in the background with animations, while others are simply static. There is also music playing during most of them.

The Blu-Ray has a static image with audio, and a pop-up menu overlaid.

AUDIO

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Both 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Surround mixes are present on the DVD. An isolated score track is also included as a 5.1 mix at 384 KB/s. I'm assuming the Dolby Surround mix included on DVD is how it would have been presented in theaters, while the 5.1 is probably a discrete version of the original audio in a 6 channel format. The rear surrounds and bass aren't used extensively, there's a lot of long stretches where only the left, right & center are used. I'm guessing the film was originally mixed in Dolby Surround, which would explain why the mix is rather front heavy.

I'm not really sure why the 2017 Blu-Ray uses 16 Bit audio. The previous Blu-Ray used a full 24 Bits, and there's more than enough room left on the disc that they could have easily used the higher bit-depth. Not that it's a massive difference or anything, it's just curious. Part of me thinks it's a tactic on Sony's part to get people to buy the UHD version, with its full 24 Bit 7.1 audio.

VIDEO

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While the DVD transfer isn't exactly impressive, it isn't disappointing either. It's dull with not very much color or contrast which, I get the feeling, is a style choice rather than a flaw. Some light edge enhancement is visible. The clarity is decent, again, it's not sharp but not exactly blurry either. Luckily, there were no major compression artifacts visible throughout. A lot of the CGI looks quite dated and stands out awkwardly, (…the monkeys...) but the practical effects look very good. It's not a transfer issue just a product of the times, and it looked good back then, but seems goofy now.

This transfer on the Blu-Ray is using the same 4K master as the UHD disc, so it looks top notch. The colors & contrast look much better, as does the fine grain structure. It's much sharper in comparison to the older master used on the DVD. The CGI looks ever-so slightly more natural too. Likely because the more pronounced grain leaves it less smoothed over, and with more texture.

EXTRAS

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The bulk of the extras is the three featurettes about the making of the film. There is also an audio commentary with the special effects team, and an isolated score on the DVD. (Interestingly, the audio commentary is also encoded as Dolby Surround, so you can still get surround sound with the commentary.) Lastly, are loads of those early DVD extras, like still galleries & cast bios that you have to scroll through one page at a time.

The Blu-Ray includes all the extras from the various DVD version plus more but, bizarrely enough, the isolated score is absent. Sadly, it was & still is to this day exclusive to the collectors ed. DVD. (If you know how, you could rip both discs and sync the track up to the Blu-Ray though.)

FINAL THOUGHTS

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I really like this movie, despite the CGI aging rather poorly. I've seen it many times over the years, and it left a big impression on me as a kid.

TECH. SPECS.

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DVD

ASPECT RATIO: 1.85:1 (Original Widescreen)

NUMBER OF DISCS: 1

DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer (6.47 Gb)

REGION: 1 / NTSC

AUDIO: English 5.1 (384 KB/s)

English 2.0 Surround (192 KB/s)