Van Allsburg wrote the books just four years apart, and both featured a child who was taken from their home and forced to face great danger and peril for a very long time.

The Jumanji author also wrote The Polar Express So I thought that it would be fun and exciting if there were such a thing as a game board where whenever you landed on a square and it said something was going to happen, then it would really happen.” 2. He told Scholastic in 2004, “When I was a little boy and I would play games like Monopoly, they seemed kind of exciting, but when I was done with the game, all I had was fake money.

Jumanji was based on a 1981 picture book that contrasted chaos with a well-kept homeĪuthor Chris Van Allsburg wrote Jumanji to combat his frustrations with Monopoly. Now, with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in theaters - complete with a new cast, including Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Nick Jonas - we’re revisiting the original and giving you some fun tidbits about the original film.