I sketched this out probably two years or so ago. Last weekend I finally started to paint it. I finished it yesterday and got it all hung up on the wall. I’m just proud of myself for actually doing it and not leaving the sketched canvas in box any longer.
No longer a person.
Just a moment in time.
Time slipped away along with who we were.
A cagged bird with clipped wings.
A mute singer who used to sing.
Mercilessly, time streaked past and faded to black.
There we were trying not to choke on the people we used to be.
As we stumbled over who we had become.
While falling face first into the sea of who people perceive us to be.
So much bigger and smaller than we are all the time.
How can this be?
How did we lose ourselves?
How have we lagged so far behind?
Just a moment in time.
Young and vibrant only yesterday it seemed.
Thriving with promise.
All the paths stretching before our adventurous feet.
We became sad songs playing in the background.
Ever changing.
Just a moment in time.
We were restless and lost.
Aimless, we aimed.
Until we found the homes our strained hearts were meant to rest.
We found our feet and stopped trying to double back.
We caught our minds and threw off the weight that threatened to break us.
Our worlds lit up.
Everything that was big returned to a manageable size.
We no longer felt small.
Just a moment in time.
One moment in time that changed it all.
A moment in time that made us realize we had always been on the right track afterall.
Just in case this needs to be said, which I doubt, but I’m not affiliated or associated with any movie corporations or any of the Jumanji movies.
Movie Synopsis:
Four high school teens discover an old video game console and are sucked into the game. Each teen is dropped into the jungle that is Jumanji, in the bodies of the adult avatars they chose. What they discover is that they don’t just have to play Jumanji, they have to survive it. To beat the game and return to the real world, they have to go on the most dangerous adventure, risking each of their lives.
My Thoughts:
I was skeptical about a Jumanji sequel. I did not want to see this movie. I grew up with the first Jumanji and sequels don’t tend to be as good as the first. Jumanji without Robin Williams? (May he rest in peace.) The first one was brilliant. I kept hearing about how great the sequel was from multiple people. Eventually I caved to see if it was up to all the hype.
This second Jumanji did it’s own thing in a comedic way all the while nodding to the original film. They had the common sense to know that they couldn’t just duplicate the first movie with different people, but still had to deliver the connection between the two movies without it being forced or disjointed. Which had been what I was afraid of with a second movie being made so many years after the first.
I thought how is the game being changed to a video game going to make it better? That’ll ruin everything, or so I thought. I was wrong, but only because they did it in the best way. I’m not always a fan of reboots of movies either, because it feels like saying that the original is outdated trash and no longer relevant. Which is rarely ever true.
The movie manages to achieve character development for each character, while encountering crazy obstacles. The different actors for the game avatars successfully portray the real life characters outside of the game, despite having to play the two different roles simultaneously. Admittedly, the new version of the villian, Van Pelt, isn’t as menacing or terrifying as the original character. However, for me, this did not derail my experience. I loved that Alex/Seaplane McDonough had been staying in Alan Parish’s jungle fort…abode?…home?…dwelling?… That inner happy voice of mine screamed, “I know something they don’t know!” I love a story were I have history knowledge that the story’s characters aren’t privy to.
Inconsistencies that don’t really matter, but I noticed anyway:
The game transformed into a video game without lightning or anything (I mean Weird Science anybody? Come on guys.) to act as a catalyst, besides Alex commenting to himself, “Who even plays board games anymore?” Not to mention it wasn’t even on top of the game console. No big deal.
Also the four teens were able to destroy the game at the end of the second movie, while in the first it seemed the only solution that had been available to anyone, ever, was to try and conceal the game where it hopefully wouldn’t be found. That being said, obviously there would be no movie if the story hadn’t played out this way.
Plot hole arguments around the internet:
I read in a couple articles that some viewers believe Jumanji-Welcome To The Jungle has provided some plot holes based on differences between the two movies. I believe I can explain these two plot holes.
First: How time passes within Jumanji. The argument is that in the first movie Alan Parish grows older while stuck in the game, but in the second movie, Alex seems to be unaware of the time that has passed both physically and mentally.
I believe this is because Alex is in an avatars body, while Alan was in his own body. Also once the game evolved from a board game into a video game the time that transpires would also be different. In a video game players don’t usually grow older unless that is the object of the game. For example the Sims game objective is to play their lives out however you want. The objective inside Jumanji the video game was to complete the game levels until the last level and return the stone back to the jaguar. Time doesn’t need to pass for the avatars to pass the levels just certain situations and events have to be achieved.
Second: How Judy and Peter did not remember their experience with Jumanji, while the four teens in the second movie did remember. While in both movies the elder children who started playing the games always remember what happened no matter what and are returned back to the time they first started to play the game after completing the game.
Judy and Peter started playing jumanji after their parents went on that trip and died, so it’s possible they’ll get their memories back when they become the same age as they were when they first joined the game in 1995. Which they weren’t the same age when they encountered Sarah and Alan again at the end, because their parents were still planning that trip. It also seems that Sarah and Alan would’ve altered that timeline as well, in the end, because they both advised the parents against the trip.
Additionally, Sarah and Alan’s lives are connected to Judy and Peter’s, because when Alan’s timeline is altered by being in the game it directly impacts Judy and Peter’s timeline. Same goes for when things are set straight, Judy and Peter’s timelines are back on course, but still eventually connected.
The timelines mostly stayed the same in the second movie, because Alex’s presence inside or outside the game made no impact on any of the four teens lives. So nothing would’ve changed except Alex’s situation and timeline. The game would’ve returned all of the participants back to their previous times and places. If the timelines had no impact on the others, then it’d be less likely they would forget their experience in Jumanji when nothing in their timelines had changed.
I liked this movie a lot. So none of these lengthy explanations or inconsistency notions mean I have any problems with the plot or any of it. I just enjoy trying to make sense of it all, for my own fun.
Jumanji-Welcome To The Jungle is able to provide an enjoyable movie experience without compromising the first movie. It’s almost better that they had to play the entire game while inside Jumanji, instead of being sent there as a “go to jail” sort of game roll of the dice. Because it doesn’t feel cheap, like a replica movie that could never be the same as the original.
We learn from the sequel that Jumanji isn’t just a game, it is also place or alternate world. It might not be actual back story to the game, but it feels a bit like it either way. Two worlds in one story, who doesn’t love that? Welcome to the jungle? I love it.
I saw this video on Facebook and wanted to try it. I can use all the extra energy I can get for my day job. I tend to have to wait to eat or drink after I wake up, because of one of the medicines I have to take.
Fortunately, I work at the same place as my husband currently and we carpool. I don’t have to drive most of the time, so there have been times I’ve been able to nod off on the way.
However, each time I’ve tried to do this coffee nap thing, I’ve been unable to go to sleep after drinking my coffee drink. The problem might be that its one of those canned Starbucks Doubleshot Espresso drinks that are sold at gas stations and grocery stores.
I suppose I’ll have to try it with coffee that doesn’t have espresso in it. Which will be tough for me since espresso tends to be a big motivator for my days. I just don’t have the energy I used to.
Unless I’ve been up too long and too awake to fall back to sleep by the time I have the coffee. So we shall see after I try a couple things.
My husband and I work for the same company. While my work is sort of the grunt work on the factory floor, my husband’s role is a lot of documentation type work. He has a cubicle area he shares with about five other guys.
Ben and his cubical mates have come up with these ideas for a show about themselves working at our company with some grandiose elements and situations thrown in. Every time, my husband, Ben tells me about these episodes and I imagine them animated, kind of like the FX series Archer. Sort of like Senfield meets Archer.
I read up a bit on Archer’s animation process and it seems like it’d be difficult to do something like it. I honestly didn’t understand how they ended up merging all of it together. It seems really interesting from what I’ve read.
The first time I watched Archer I really loved the animation. Thinking back, I’ve probably always been interested in animation. One of my absolute favorite types is stop motion though. The process is so complex. I love watching behind the scenes of movies, etc. being made in this style. My sixth grade teacher introduced to us/ let us watch Wallace and Gromit in class a few times and was in love with how it was done.
I read in a few articles that the Archer animators use some sort of rigging for the characters. So it sounds a bit like stop motion, but I don’t think it quite is. I’d probably have to see it done to really understand it, but it makes sense why it’s so unique. I don’t know how serious my husband and his coworkers are about these episodes they joke about, but I think it be fun to do a mock-up of it.
It’d be interesting even as a graphic novel/comic or something to start. I mean we work in a factory, I’m not sure how someone would go about jumping into animating a t.v. series. But, hey research I guess.
Web series or a netflix series would be cool. Not that it’s a piece of cake to break into either. I’d like to draw it up though. I think there’s probably programs that can be used so my fingers don’t go numb from sketching it out by hand. Typing doesn’t seem to bother me so, yeah.
I don’t think they like the idea of it be animated as much as I do. They still talk about it non-animated. Hopefully they write them all down to do something with them.
It’s like writing letters with someone. You’re waiting for a letter to come in everyday. Wondering what it will say and what the person’s been doing.
You finally get a letter and it’s almost more entertaining than you had anticipated the letter being, especially since it’s just a piece of paper with words. It’s also inquisitive enough to make you think all the letters will be as lovely.
After writing a response a while later you receive another fantastic letter in response. You respond again, but this time you wait so much longer than before to receive another.
When you do finally receive another letter it’s vague with chit chat type of conversation. None of your previous questions answered. Giving you entirely new questions and furthermore concerns that cannot be properly voiced through a pen to paper.
The letter itself is flat and neat, but you’ve become so attached to the delightful letters that this disinterested and disconnected response makes you crumple slightly inward. So what do you do? You try to be all the more entertaining to inspire the former interest you had received previously.
Unfortunately, you get these same type of letters a couple more times. The time checking the mailbox each day, becomes a larger number of days between each letter. Until you no longer receive any, no matter how many you send to revitalize a connection again.
However, after you feel you’ve recovered from your attachment, you receive a letter not nearly as entertaining as the first few, but it conveys more interest than the last ones you’d received. This gives you just enough hope to want more and hang on.
Even though the letter wasn’t much, it makes you feel remembered and special. You’ve foolishly become hopeful. But you shouldn’t, because your sender was probably either bored, lonely, or fickle. You get to thinking you’re on the precipice of rekindling that flame that burned at the start of the correspondence.
You haven’t learned this lesson. Or rather, you need to go through it a couple more times before it sticks. So you’ll keep getting the small amount of grip you need to keep hanging off that cliff, but never enough to pull yourself up and go on home. At least…not yet. You will. Just not yet.
Someone at work told me on Friday that I was a talker. Literally no one has ever said this to me before at any point in my life.
He went on to say that he can’t wait until I get old because I will probably have all sorts of stories. I do ramble quite a bit, so I definitely believe this prediction to one day to be true.
But yeah, I got stuff to say. I just hope Ben and whoever is around me wants to hear all my stories and ramblings too.
You think you’re so kind to me. You think nothing of when you cut me up with your words but save all the nice ones for your friends.
I wonder when I stopped being beloved and became the lowly disappointment I am. You’re spooning out my guts and you say its all my fault. You continue to try to mold me to your specifications.
I’m always wrong and I’m never enough but you’re always in the right. I don’t want to wake up and find out what you’ll be disappointed in me for that day anymore. Each day you judge me. You don’t care to know me and accuse me of being awful instead. I have no comfort. I have no home. I’m tired and receive no rest. I’m alone.
If you say,”don’t keep it bottled up” make sure you’re not the reason I have to secure and tighten that lid.
Thorn in my side
Perforates my heart
Claws at me inside
While others sprint towards progress
You refuse to acquiesce
Despite the ardor you profess
Yet I wait
Each day stained
In a tedious state
By the end
Are we there?
Did you bend?
Or does my heart throughout
Become so riddled with holes
That I bleed out?
We’re all just ants. We’d accomplish so many fabulous things, bigger than ourselves if we didn’t constantly force ourselves to work alone.
But people let us down, so we have to count on solely ourselves and then we are alone working on the big picture. So everyone is alone working for the greater good, possibly, but we can’t organize so we fail, because the puzzle pieces aren’t being assembled.
We are chaos if we don’t work together for the greater good. It’s our duty to save what’s good. There is so much terrible in the world, it’s our responsibility to manifest and organize the good we can.
-These are the thoughts I have while I watched one of the last few seasons of Walking Dead on Netflix-
Stenographer For My Thoughts 