Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle 4K Review Truth be told I really have no right reviewing this. Yes, I’m tackling this one by default because I have two 4K Ultra HD setups at home, but I have never seen the original Jumanji starring Robin Williams. Is that bad? I’m told no because I surveyed a lot of my peers and none of them had any great things to say about the classic family film. So if they don’t have any kind words, then why should I waste my valuable time on it? However, I feel very different about this 2017 reboot of the action/adventure comedy. This very likable Rock-driven (Dwayne Johnson) vehicle has had mammoth legs at the box office and thee’s always the added attraction of Nebula (Karen Gillan) to gaze upon here too. Heck, I even hear there’s talk of not one, but two sequels already planned in this world. So hell yeah. Sign me up. I am very eager to tackle Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle down below for the very first time and bonus…on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray too. Let me put on some bug spray and I’ll be right back. It’s a jungle out there!

Film

We’ll get into how this film fits with its 1995 predecessor, but for now let’s quickly recap a couple necessary 411 housekeeping items here. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is directed by Jake Kasdan from a screenplay written by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinker (that’s a lot of names). In addition to Johnson and Gillan, both of whom I mentioned above, it stars Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Nick Jonas, Rhys Darby and Bobby Cannavale. Now this next factoid is pretty huge. This comedic action flick was a HUGE hit at the box office. Depending upon what source you choose to pull from it pulled in around $939 million worldwide, which made it the fifth highest grossing film of 2017 and the 44th highest grossing film of all time. How do you like those apples? Even the critics liked it too.

Alright so I saved the best for last in a new paragraph here. Yes! Believe it or not Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is indeed a sequel to the 1995 film. Don’t believe me? Well, let me fill you in on how that is possible. It’s set some 21 years after the first film as the board game (sort of), Jumanji, is found again on a beach under sand. However, this time the board game is “sort of” like a video game cartridge bringing us into somewhat modern times as four completely different teenagers are transported into its world. The world I speak of is of course Jumanji, which is now a video game world full of levels. The brilliant part is they are not themselves in the game, but rather the avatars or playable characters they each selected from the game console they find during detention at school. Like the original I assume they (the adult cast you’re familiar with here name-wise) must work together to overcome the game’s treacherous challenges, win and return home to their teenage bodies.

Now I know what you’re thinking. How do they make a sequel to this without Robin Williams? Don’t worry. I assure you that there is no Carrie Fisher-like Rogue One magic going on here. This sequel pays tribute to the original film without rehashing anything. Actually it kind of flips things around as in the original the jungle of Jumanji comes to our world where in this video game adaptation we actually go to the jungles of Jumanji. The filmmakers do pay a small tribute to Robin Williams through a brief mention of his Jumanji character’s name, but I won’t tell you how or where that springs up. You’ll have to see it for yourself.

So the catch with the avatar style of game play here is rather ingenious in my opinion. Each avatar character is basically the yin yang of their actual real teenage identity. The biggest shakeup of them all is Jack Black’s character because he is a girl…um…in real life. Remember sometimes words are too good to be true and just because the avatar is described as curvy doesn’t mean it’s a curvaceous woman if you catch my drift. Other than that this one is just a lot of good, family fun. It has actually inspired me to watch the original Jumanji sometime. Besides the hilarious antics and quips of the Rock versus Hart in this one, originally paired in Central Intelligence, the biggest surprise for me was Karen Gillan. Her character is as awkward as she is in real life and it was a hoot to see her explore her “dance fighting” abilities onscreen. Plus she’s easy on the eyes so there’s always that too. There’s just so much to love here hence my family friendly score I awarded it up above.

Video

The below video score and related critique of things here are based solely upon my viewing of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. The video presentation found on the 1080p Blu-ray Disc has originally been covered here.

Encoding: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Dolby Vision: Yes
Size: UHD-66
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Clarity/Detail: There’s a lot to gaze upon in Sony’s 4K UHD presentation for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. The film was supposedly captured at a resolution of 3.4K and finished as a 2K DI. I popped in the Blu-ray and previewed that a bit when conquering the extras below and let me tell you. There’s a great uptick in detail in the 4K UHD presentation. Sure pores, moles, freckles and hair are clearly on display, but it’s the jungle that comes to life and all the various textures which are paramount here. The sand and dust look so real that I felt dirty. Ha ha. But I’m telling you it’s the fine detail in all the jungle surroundings that you will succumb to here right down to the individual blades of grass. CG even looks tight too!
Depth: The clarity and detail here are key to the eye popping three-dimensional aspect of it all. Take like a single blade of grass in the jungle as an example. That’s in the foreground and the characters are deep in the background. It’s like 3D without the need for glasses. So yeah, depth of field is in check here. Things certainly never feel flat.
Black Levels: Black levels are deep and inky throughout with no signs of crushing. Check!
Color Reproduction: The colors are natural, but bold, bright, thriving and beautiful. And I didn’t even mention the jungle or Karen in that sentence. Ha! The greens are where it’s at here!
Flesh Tones: Karen’s milky white skin holds up well here. Um…I mean skin tones are natural and authentic looking throughout the 4K presentation.
Noise/Artifacts: I have no issues to report on here. Things were perfect in my home screening of this.

Audio

Like I mentioned up above in the video section, the below audio score and critical comments of such are based solely upon my viewing of Sony’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. While the Blu-ray gets only a DTS-HD MA surround track the elite spenders get the Holy Grail, a Dolby Atmos surround track on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc. Having said that the original critique of the DTS-HD MA track is covered in the Blu-ray review here.

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English Dolby TrueHD 7.1, Czech Dolby Digital 5.1, French (Canada) DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, Thai Dolby Digital 5.1, TurkishDolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese
Dynamics: While I did not preview the 1080p Blu-ray Disc in scrutiny over the audio I’d be willing to bet that this Atmos track on the 4K UHD Disc trumps it. Aaron Neuwirth claims that “Between the action scenes filled with wild animals and explosions and the more dialogue-focused scenes in the midst of jungle action, there is a lot to take in and it’s great to enjoy on a home theater system.” I concur, but I would also like to expand upon that. At times it’s like having a zoo in your viewing area, but for me it was the sound engagement all speakers carried, most notably those tribal drums. Can you say audio orgasm? I can now!
Height: Examples of overhead effects include a video game system sparking, birds, helicopter, uppercuts, thunder and even drums. Yes I said drums. However, the coolest Atmos moment has to be the way the players re-spawn in this video game. Yes this movie is one big video game as already mentioned up above and when the players die and re-spawn they fall from the heavens and boy does it sound awesome.
Low-Frequency Extension: The LFE channel gets a lot to work with here from sound effects and jungle noises to screaming motorcycles, bullets/gunshots, missiles, explosions, rhinos charging and oh yes those heavenly drums.
Surround Sound Presentation: Okay let’s talk about those drums and jungle theme score. From time-to-time this tribal drum beat will sound off and it will rotate and shuffle through the speakers one-by-one all around you. Pretty much everything I mentioned up above in the subwoofer category also transpires here in the rear channels and is prioritized throughout all around you.
Dialogue Reproduction: All lines of spoken dialogue is loud, clear and prioritized throughout. Lots of family friendly laughs to be had with this one.

Extras

Sadly here’s not a whole lot to be found here in the way of extras on the Blu-ray Disc and definitely nothing on the 4K UHD Disc. The biggest disappointment is lack of an audio commentary. You telling me Karen wasn’t free to chime in or anything? Oh well. We do get a Movies Anywhere code, which will put this movie in whatever digital service you use. So there’s that. Let’s take a closer look down below at all the Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle extras you’ll find to work with housed on the 1080p Blu-ray Disc. Enjoy!

Gag Reel (HD, 2:25) – Just your typical bunch of flubs here, nothing special.
“Jumanji, Jumanji” Music Video by Jack Black and Nick Jonas (HD, 3:35) – I don’t even know how to explain what I just saw here. LOL. I’ll let you experience this one for yourself.
Journey Through The Jungle: The Making of Jumanji (HD, 14:54) – The non-playable character Nigel (will make sense when you view the film) is your guide throughout this extra as he examines the cast/characters, the story of reinventing Jumanji, the jungle locations in Hawaii, props/sets, wardrobes, visual effects (even a Black Mamba snake puppet), rules of the game, behind-the-scenes moments and more.
Meet the Players: A Heroic Cast (HD, 7:08) – Jake Kasdan said he landed every actor he wanted for the part. The script was tailored around the actors. There’s no doubt about it everyone loves the Rock here. This one explores the four main characters here and their chemistry together.
Attack of the Rhinos! (HD, 3:56) – This one shows how they made the helicopter escape scene from the charging/attacking herd of rhinos.
Surviving the Jungle: Spectacular Stunts! (HD, 5:47) – This one was all about how they made the movie as action packed as possible. This one includes the motorcycles, jumping off a cliff and even Karen’s dance fighting.
Book to Board Game to Big Screen & Beyond! Celebrating The Legacy of Jumanji (HD, 4:44) – This one is all about how they paid homage to the original film and Robin Williams.

Summary

All in all Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is all about the F-U-N factor. While I cant honestly say if this one is better than the original (as I haven’t seen it) I can say I had a blast with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and cannot wait to revisit it on a lazy weekend day. Here’s hoping they do more sequels as promised too (they can always have different lads play the same avatar characters). Just like this one made mega bucks at the box office this one looks and sounds like a million bucks on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format. I declare Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle a MUST-OWN for all 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray supporters out there. Buy now! No regrets! And oh yeah…enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: This 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review was judged and graded using the following 4K certified Ultra HD Premium television set found here and player here. Make sure to check out all our 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray reviews archived here.