Jumanji

Games were always make believe. Until now, state the production notes for the movie Jumanji. The same could be said for most computer-generated (CG) animals - until Jumanji.

Tristar Pictures' Jumanji is an action-adventure film, based on a 1981 children's book by Chris Van Allsburg, in book a magical fantasy world. The fantasy world is filled 3D, animated animals you'll swear are alive. It's beautiful. It's also dangerous - as game players Alan (Robin Williams), Sarah (Bonnie Hunt), and two orphaned children (Kirsten Dunst and Bradley Pierce) - quickly discover.

One roll of the dice, for example, sends a tribe of devilish monkeys rampaging through a kitchen and taking joyrides on police motorcycles. A pair of life-size rhinos charge through the walls of a house, sending books and bookcases flying. Right behind them are elephants, zebras, and a pelican that stainpede through the town square. A snarling lion stalks the hallways. Hundreds of bats suddenly, fly out of the fireplace. unsecured loans

Sound like fun? Well, it was for the visual-effects at industrial Light & Magic (San Rafael, CA) who created many of the Jumanji effects and most of the animals.

Remarkably, there are no live animals in Jumanji. The lion, pelican, and bats are CG, with animatronic "cousins." The monkeys and mosquitos are all CG. The rhinos are CG, as are all the other stampeding animals (60 or so). The animals are stunning, making Jumanji a sure bet to be among the finalists for an Academy Award for visual effects. They aren't, however, exactly real.

Director Joe Johnston, himself an Oscar-winning alumnus of ILM (for visual-effects contributions to Raiders of the Lost Ark), decided early on that Jumanji's animals because they were fantasy, animals, would be larger and more menacing than real jungle animals, with a character and intensity bad credit loans that would heighten their, on-screen presence. The believable dinosaurs in Jurassic Park made ILM an obvious choice to create the CG versions.