Robin Williams leads the charge in Joe Johnston's "light-hearted romp" Jumanji, about a magical board game that brings jungle creatures to life in a quiet US town. Its emphasis on visual effects over sincere storytelling led to mixed reviews although it was still a hit with younger viewers on its initial release back in 1995.

Live And Unleashed...

Visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston is joined by animatronics specialists Tom Woodruff Jr and Alec Gillis for a rather scattered commentary. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of their work is that they allow room for the human actors to improvise. For this reason, they explain that the puppetry, "becomes expressive; it becomes performance on an intuitive level." Aside from that, however, it's mostly obvious stuff, eg speckling monkey fur with white paint to give the illusion of frost. Unfortunately, without the director to anchor proceedings, there's a tendency to waffle.

Jungle Law

The remaining extras are made up of interactive games. Secrets And Riddles is a straightforward Q&A about the film while The Extreme Book Of Nature doles out educational trivia about bats, lions and monkeys etc. Sadly though, the dull presentation means that children are unlikely to be wowed by the fact that a rhinoceros can run up to 30mph.

At the other end of the spectrum, Ancient Diversions shows kids how to idle away the hours with frankly rubbish magic tricks, eg pretend to read someone's mind using a notepad and a pencil nib taped (discreetly?) to your thumb!

EXTRA FEATURES