The hit 1995 Robin Williams film of the same name was the inspiration for Jumanji, an animated series based on the mythical board game full of mysterious and often shocking, surprises. Most of the characters from the film were present for the series, although the premise was altered somewhat.

The story revolves around young Peter and Judy Shepard, two kids who are living with their Aunt Nora. While exploring the premises one day, they happen upon an old dusty board game called Jumanji. As one might expect, they did what any self-respecting kid might, they rolled the dice and got the game underway – a game that turned out to be a little more adventurous than they bargained for. When a rhyming message appears on the board, the two tykes are immediately sucked into a strange jungle habitat before they ever knew what hit them.

Lost together in their frightening new surroundings, the two encounter Alan Parrish, a long-haired jungle dweller (portrayed by Robin Williams in the film.) He suffered a similar jungle-sucking fate years before and is more than willing to join forces with his new friends if it will help him finally find a way out of the jungle. Making their collective task more difficult are the efforts of a mad scientist called The Master Inventor, an English hunter named van Pelt and his sidekick Oafal, and a whole army of crafty and mischievous monkeys.

Debuting in 1996, Jumanji ran on the UPN network. Although its Sunday time slot meant that it wouldn’t enjoy the exposure of its Saturday morning counterparts, it still managed to survive for a respectable three seasons, each with brand new episodes – not a bad feat at all considering that, in the world of children’s entertainment, it’s a jungle out there.