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Jumanji (short Story)
''Jumanji'' is a 1981 fantasy children's picture book, written and illustrated by the American author Chris Van Allsburg. The book is about an enchanted board game that implements wild animals and other jungle elements as the game is played in real life. A sequel to the book titled ''Zathura'' was released in 2002. The book was adapted into a 1995 film of the same name and it spawned a franchise that includes three sequels and an animated series. According to Van Allsburg, the name ''Jumanji'' is a Zulu word meaning "many effects," referring to “the exciting consequences of the game,” which includes the unleashing of wild monkeys, untamed tigers and huge spiders into the world. Storyline While their parents are out for the day, Judy and Peter Shepherd, after playing with some toys, become bored and decide to go to the park. There, they find a safari-themed board game called "''Jumanji"''. Taking the game home, they find a warning message stating, "Do not begin unless you ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Van Allsburg
Chris Van Allsburg (born June 18, 1949) is an American illustrator and writer of children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for ''Jumanji'' (1981) and ''The Polar Express'' (1985), both of which he also wrote, and were later adapted as successful motion pictures. He was also a Caldecott runner-up in 1980 for ''The Garden of Abdul Gasazi''. For his contribution as a children's illustrator, he was a 1986 U.S. nominee for the biennial International Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for creators of children's books. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Michigan in April 2012. Life and career Van Allsburg was born on June 18, 1949 to a Dutch family in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, the second child of Doris Christianen and Richard Van Allsburg. He has a sister named Karen, born in 1947. His family lived in an old farmhouse, but when he was three years old, they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscillation of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) between its limits to the north and south of the equator. Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is also sometimes used to describe locally heavy but short-term rains. The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the West African, Asia–Australian, the North American, and South American monsoons. The term was first used in English in British India and neighboring countries to refer to the big seasonal winds blowing from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea in the southwest bringing heavy rainfall to the area. Etymology The etymology of the word monsoon is not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea. The order was formerly much more diverse during the Pleistocene, but most species became extinct during the Late Pleistocene epoch. Distinctive features of elephants include a long proboscis called a trunk, tusks, large ear flaps, pillar-like legs, and tough but sensitive skin. The trunk is used for breathing, bringing food and water to the mouth, and grasping objects. Tusks, which are derived from the incisor teeth, serve both as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging. The large ear flaps assist in maintaining a constant body temperature as well as in communication. African elephants have larger ears and concave backs, whereas Asian elephants have smaller ears, and convex or level backs. Elepha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocodile
Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans (family Alligatoridae), the gharial and false gharial (family Gavialidae) among other extinct taxa. Although they appear similar, crocodiles, alligators and the gharial belong to separate biological families. The gharial, with its narrow snout, is easier to distinguish, while morphological differences are more difficult to spot in crocodiles and alligators. The most obvious external differences are visible in the head, with crocodiles having narrower and longer heads, with a more V-shaped than a U-shaped snout compared to alligators and caimans. Another obvious trait is that the upper and lower jaws of the crocodiles are the same width, and the teeth in the lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snake
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs about twenty-five times independently via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule is not universal (see Amphisbaen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bradley Pierce
Bradley Michael Pierce is an American actor, producer and cinematographer. Along with other roles and bit parts in television, films, direct-to-video animation, advertising, and video games, he played Peter Shepherd in ''Jumanji'', the original voice of Chip in ''Beauty and the Beast'', one of the original voices for Tails from the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' franchise and Pete Lender in the 1997 film adaptation of ''The Borrowers''. Career Pierce began acting at age six, and has since appeared in various projects ranging from commercial and voiceover to television and film. He played the role of Andrew Shawn Donovan IV on ''Days of Our Lives'' for just over a year. He is also known for voicing Chip in Disney's ''Beauty and the Beast'' as well as Flounder in the television series ''The Little Mermaid'' and Tails in the Saturday morning cartoon series ''Sonic the Hedgehog''. Other roles include Peter in ''Jumanji'' and a starring role in ''The Borrowers'' with John Goodman. Pierce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Caroline Dunst (; born April 30, 1982) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the short ''Oedipus Wrecks'' directed by Woody Allen in the anthology film '' New York Stories'' (1989). She then gained recognition for her role as child vampiress Claudia in the horror film ''Interview with the Vampire'' (1994), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also had roles in her youth in ''Little Women'' (1994) and the fantasy films ''Jumanji'' (1995) and '' Small Soldiers'' (1998). In the late 1990s, Dunst transitioned to leading roles in a number of teen films, including the satires ''Dick'' and '' Drop Dead Gorgeous'' and the Sofia Coppola-directed drama ''The Virgin Suicides'' (all in 1999). In 2000, she starred in the lead role in the cheerleading film '' Bring It On'', which has become a cult classic. She gained further wide attention for her role as Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007). Her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Hyde
Jonathan Stephen Geoffrey King (born 21 May 1948), known professionally as Jonathan "Nash" Hyde, is an Australian-English actor. Hyde is perhaps best known for roles as Herbert Arthur Runcible Cadbury in the 1994 comedy film '' Richie Rich'', Samuel Parrish and Van Pelt in the 1995 fantasy adventure film ''Jumanji'', J. Bruce Ismay in the 1997 epic romantic film ''Titanic'', Culverton Smith in '' The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes'', Warren Westridge in creature feature film ''Anaconda'', Dr. Allen Chamberlain in the 1999 adventure horror film ''The Mummy'', and Eldritch Palmer in the FX TV series ''The Strain''. Although an Australian citizen, he has mostly lived in the United Kingdom since 1969, after his family left Australia. Early life Hyde was born in Brisbane, Queensland, to a middle-class family. His father was Stephen Geoffrey King, a solicitor. Hyde's interest in law took him to university to study the subject but his passion for performing and the theatre led him to purs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Big-game Hunting
Big-game hunting is the hunting of large game animals for meat, commercially valuable by-products (such as horns/antlers, furs, tusks, bones, body fat/ oil, or special organs and contents), trophy/taxidermy, or simply just for recreation ("sporting"). The term is often associated with the hunting of Africa's "Big Five" games (lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and rhinoceros), and with tigers and rhinoceroses on the Indian subcontinent. History Hunting of big game for food is an ancient practice, possibly arising with the emergence of ''Homo sapiens'' ( anatomically modern humans), and possibly pre-dating it, given the known propensity of other great apes to hunt, and even eat their own species. The Schöningen spears and their correlation of finds are evidence that complex technological skills already existed 300,000 years ago, and are the first obvious proof of an active (big game) hunt. ''H. heidelbergensis'' already had intellectual and cogn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bebe Neuwirth
Beatrice "Bebe" Jane Neuwirth ( ; born December 31, 1958) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. On television, she played Dr. Lilith Sternin, Frasier Crane's wife, on both the TV sitcom ''Cheers'' (in a starring role) and its spin-off '' Frasier'' (in a recurring guest role). The role won her two Emmy Awards. In 2005, Neuwirth was cast as Bureau Chief/ADA Tracey Kibre in the short-lived ''Law & Order'' courtroom drama series, '' Law & Order: Trial by Jury'' on NBC that ran for 12 episodes. In film, she portrayed Nora Shepherd in the original '' Jumanji'' (1995) and '' Jumanji: The Next Level'' (2019). On stage she played the Tony Award–winning roles of Nickie in the revival of '' Sweet Charity'' (1986) and Velma Kelly in the revival of ''Chicago'' (1996). Other Broadway musical roles include Lola in the revival of ''Damn Yankees'' (1994) and Morticia Addams in '' The Addams Family'' (2010). From 2014 to 2017, she starred as Nadine Tolliver in the CBS political drama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Alan Grier
David Alan Grier (born June 30, 1956) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his work as Bernard on ''Damon (TV series), Damon'' (1998), as David Bellows on ''Life with Bonnie'' (2002–2004), as Joe Carmichael on ''The Carmichael Show'' (2015–2017), as Hal on ''A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV series), A Series of Unfortunate Events'' (2018), and for his movie roles such as Roger in ''Streamers (film), Streamers'' (1983), Carl Bentley in ''Jumanji'' (1995), and Jim Fields in ''Bewitched (2005 film), Bewitched'' (2005). Early life and education Grier was born in Detroit, Michigan, one of three children, to Aretas Ruth (née Blaney), a school teacher, and William H. Grier, William Henry Grier, a psychiatrist and writer, who co-wrote the book ''Black Rage (book), Black Rage''. He graduated from Detroit's Cass Technical High School, and received a Bachelor of Arts, B.A. in radio, television and film from the University of Michigan, and an Master of Fine Arts, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laura Bell Bundy
Laura Ashley Bell Bundy (born April 10, 1981) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for originating the Broadway roles of Amber Von Tussle in the musical version of '' Hairspray and'' Elle Woods in the musical version of ''Legally Blonde''. She also portrayed Dr. Jordan Denby on the television show '' Anger Management.'' In 2010 she signed to Mercury Records Nashville and released her first two country music singles, " Giddy On Up" and "Drop on By". Early life Bell Bundy was born in Euclid, Ohio, and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. Her mother, Lorna Bundy-Jones (née Lorna Ann Bell), is a Lancome Beauty Advisor at Ulta, and her father, Don Bundy, is an electrical engineer. Her parents divorced in 1997 when she was 16 years old; both have since remarried. She took dance lessons at Town and Village School of Dance in Paris, Kentucky. When she was nine, she appeared in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in New York City. She graduated from Lexington Catholic High S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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