Sony releases Anniversary Edition Blu-ray of Jumanji

Sep 15, 2015- Permalink

It’s hard to believe it has been 20 years since Robin Williams jumped out of a board game in Jumanji, but the Anniversary Edition released by Sony Home Entertainment confirms that it has been two decades.

If you already have Jumanji on Blu-ray, you might not need to buy this version – since the video and audio transfer are the same. Sony has added a few anniversary extras, which we’ll get to shortly.

On the video side, the Jumanji disc does have a few issues that deduct some marks, but it still gets a passing grade. The images are a little excessively processed, so we get edge halos and some occasional detail and texture issues, but otherwise, it’s pretty good. Colours are bright, the flesh tones are natural, and the black levels are stable. If you ever saw DVD versions of Jumanji, you’ll appreciate this transfer more.

What do you get on the audio side? There’s an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Thai. Subtitles are available in English, English SDH, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Thai. As this is an adventure with a lot of animals and other things assaulting our heroes, the surround tracks get quite the workout and you are immersed in the action, while the never losing the clarity of the dialogue.

On to the extras. Owners of the previous edition will recognize the older extras that include a look at the production design and storyboards, a “making of” featurette, commentary from the effects crew, a look at the digital animals created for the film, and a virtual version of the board game. New extras added to this version include a reading by the book’s author Chris Van Allsburg, two episodes of the animated series that ran for three seasons, a look at the original teasers and trailers, and a trailer for Sony’s upcoming Goosebumps film and a way to try an tie this promo in to Jumanji by having the cast of Goosebumps reflect on the older film.

As previously stated, if you already own Jumanji on Blu-ray and don’t care for the new extras, you don’t need to pick this one up. However, if you missed the previous version and want a complete Robin Williams library, you’ll want to order it.It’s hard to believe it has been 20 years since Robin Williams jumped out of a board game in Jumanji, but the Anniversary Edition released by Sony Home Entertainment confirms that it has been two decades.

If you already have Jumanji on Blu-ray, you might not need to buy this version – since the video and audio transfer are the same. Sony has added a few anniversary extras, which we’ll get to shortly.

On the video side, the Jumanji disc does have a few issues that deduct some marks, but it still gets a passing grade. The images are a little excessively processed, so we get edge halos and some occasional detail and texture issues, but otherwise, it’s pretty good. Colours are bright, the flesh tones are natural, and the black levels are stable. If you ever saw DVD versions of Jumanji, you’ll appreciate this transfer more.

What do you get on the audio side? There’s an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Thai. Subtitles are available in English, English SDH, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Thai. As this is an adventure with a lot of animals and other things assaulting our heroes, the surround tracks get quite the workout and you are immersed in the action, while the never losing the clarity of the dialogue.

On to the extras. Owners of the previous edition will recognize the older extras that include a look at the production design and storyboards, a “making of” featurette, commentary from the effects crew, a look at the digital animals created for the film, and a virtual version of the board game. New extras added to this version include a reading by the book’s author Chris Van Allsburg, two episodes of the animated series that ran for three seasons, a look at the original teasers and trailers, and a trailer for Sony’s upcoming Goosebumps film and a way to try an tie this promo in to Jumanji by having the cast of Goosebumps reflect on the older film.

As previously stated, if you already own Jumanji on Blu-ray and don’t care for the new extras, you don’t need to pick this one up. However, if you missed the previous version and want a complete Robin Williams library, you’ll want to order it.