CMU School of Drama


Friday, April 13, 2018

Escape Room Brings New Dimension to ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’

Variety: If you truly love a movie, there are countless ways to extend your experience beyond the theater, ranging from merchandise to theme parks. And now, fans of the worldwide hit “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” can enjoy possibly the most immersive encounter imaginable: an escape room.

7 comments:

Cooper Nickels said...

This reminds me of the arcade project that I am currently working on. We actually used the original "Jumanji" as inspiration for the mystical rainforest that we are building. I like the idea of incorporating popular movies into real life experiences. It reminds me of the Westworld theme park that was built in the desert outside of some convention this year. These types of experiences allow fans to really become enthralled and involved in story lines that they have found a strong connection to. Not unlike the way disney has created worlds and rides for its guests to enjoy that are based off of their movies. Although, I think things like this are different, almost more immersive than disney, because they require an extra level of action on the audiences part, much like arcade. When you get your audience physically and mentally involved in what they are doing is when you can really engage them and make them feel like they are a part of the story.

Unknown said...

I feel like this article is particularly relevant to me right now due to Escape rooms' similarities to the Arcade project. Our box also involves a person "escaping" but in a less literal sense than the attraction in the article. That said, I find this escape room really cool and well made, and also a genius marketing move. The concept of an escape room is a perfect fit for the film, which revolves around a group of people who suddenly find themselves trapped in the jungle with their fates uncertain. It really is a clever way of marketing their film. The only real similarity to our Arcade box ends with the goal of escape though, as our setting is drastically different than the amazonian rainforest. It's a little more abandoned, a little more familiar, but hopefully just as unnerving. It's got a long ways to go, but it should be pretty cool! Come check it out!

Kelly Simons said...

Oh man oh man. What a wild ride Jumanji was when I watched it as a kid. Suspenseful and mildly terrifying, an all around excellent movie that defined many a person's childhoods. To be able to dive into the world of Jumanji by running around in an escape room trying to get out before the game board sucks you back into it sounds like a great day to me. I'm pleased that the writers and creators of this escape room had such a good time with making this. According to the article the creators had to toss out puzzles because they made too many to accommodate what the room could do. To have people with so much passion working on a project I think will really shine through when players go in to play this room. I hope that I can attempt to escape this room one day when I have more time.

Kimberly McSweeney said...

Escape rooms have definitely been growing in popularity over the past few years and I remember the one and only time I participated in one was my sophomore year of high school. There is a company at Gillette Stadium that has an escape room complex consisting of two themes and that was a good amount of fun. We did not complete the final puzzle in time, but we all had a great time doing the physical challenges and making our way though crazy decorated rooms with cool new hiding places we weren’t expecting. I think there is more to explore in this movie adaptation part of escape rooms and off the top of my head I can think of at least 10 movies that would make excellent escape room puzzles and stories, including the National Treasure movies of course. Overall, this looks like an awesome time and creating and testing these rooms could be an awesome job.

Rachel Kolb said...

Jumanji is a great movie. I want really a fan of the remake but the original with Robin William is an icon of childhood. Escape rooms are becoming increasingly popular just like the article says. And I think Jumanji is a perfect theme for one of these complex and puzzling rooms where your task is to solve a clue or a puzzle in order to escape. This fit perfectly with Jumanji because that is the premise of the movie itself. This room really has the potential to transport audience members into the movie that captured them as children. I’m not really a fan of escape rooms mostly because I’m not a big puzzle person, but I do love the concept of an escape room. Usually a small area that transports the audience member or members into a different place and then forces them to interact with their environment. This feels really relevant to our arcade project and the ever rising theme of interactive theater.

Unknown said...

This is a brilliant idea on several fronts. Escape rooms are a great way to create and experienced based moments for people that encourages thinking, communication, and socializing. The idea of a Jumanji themed escape room is also a clever way for the studio to encourage and reinforce brand loyalty with audiences. By having the escape room, become an extension of the movie and the IP of the Jumanji cinematic universe it also allows the room to retool itself everytime a new Jumanji movie is released, which means that people will have to repeatedly come to the escape room. Furthermore, since escape rooms are so popular with millenials this is a clever way for millenials who have not seen the movie to frequent the escape room and become more exposed to the brand. They may go home and stream the movie, and then see the sequel when it is released in theaters. It will interesting to see if other movies follow this route, since the cost of building movie themed rooms is much lower than building a theme park. It might become commonplace in the future for popular movie universes to have escape rooms across the country.

Monica Skrzypczak said...

I love escape rooms. Solving puzzles is so satisfying and when you have the right group of people to help you solve the puzzles. Using Jumanji as the inspiration of the escape room is really clever. The whole point of the movie was the entering into the game of Jumanji and the chaos that ensued. So to use it as a game is very apropos. I’m not surprised that they had too much to go off of- there are a lot of side shenanigans that happen in the movie that could easily be construed into puzzles.
In other observations, I really like the scenic design-it adds to the immersion really well. And it looks like they took a lot of care to conceal where various secrets are revealed- if you look at the statue of little guys, one has his mouth open as either a drawer or a button you have to push.