Tribute to Fido: Judy and Peter have a pull toy resembling Van Allsburg's brother-in-law's bull terrier, Winston.
The Movie
Acting for Two: Jonathan Hyde plays both Alan's father Sam and Van Pelt, which is carried over to the various foreign dubs (such as Shinji Ogawa in the Japanese home media releases, and Blas García and Dany de Álzaga in the first and second Latin American Spanish dubs). A common theory is that Jumanji conjures up Van Pelt by taking the form of the person you had dreaded the most, and for Alan, it's his father—especially since Van Pelt spouts out the same criticism as his father. It also serves as a Shout-Out to stagings of Peter Pan, where Mr. Darling and Captain Hook are always the same actor. Oh, should we also mention that Robin Williams also played Peter Pan himself?
Dawson Casting: Downplayed but the characters Alan and Sarah are supposed to be around the same age. Robin Williams was 10 years older than Bonnie Hunt when the movie was filmed.
Defictionalization: A Jumanji board game was released when the movie came out. It shared many elements with the game in the movie, aside from the supernatural elements, like the automatically moving pieces or sucking in players...we think. It also used cards, not even attempting to copy the magic-8 ball style interface. It came full-circle again when Zathura came out, which used cards. Returned to shelves in 2017, when Cardinal Games picked up the license from Hasbro. The Noble Collection did their own collector's replica which combined elements of the original Jumanji and its sequels.
The novelization contains an explanation for why Nora had to talk with the principal after Peter and Judy's first day: the realtor's son called Judy out on her lies, and Peter started a fight with him.
The 2017 Blu-ray release revealed that Carl eventually became the president of Parrish Shoes. Also, the Christmas gifts Alan gave to Peter and Judy were pairs of sneakers inspired by the game, complete with Jumanji imprinted on the bottoms.
Dueling Dubs: There are four Japanese dubs for the film. The first was produced for the VHS and DVD editions in the late 90s and early 2000s. The second premiered on Fuji TV in 1998 and the third premiered on TV Asahi in 2000. When the film was released on Blu-ray years later, another dub was produced. Masashi Ebara voiced Alan in all four dubs, while the late Shinji Ogawa voiced Sam and Van Pelt in the home media releases.
Enforced Method Acting: Robin Williams admitted that he did not need to act startled for the scene where Van Pelt is shooting at him, as the blank gunfire was extremely loud on-set.
Fake American: Australian-born Englishman Jonathan Hyde plays Sam Parrish and Van Pelt. He uses a slightly American-sounding voice as Sam, but gives Van Pelt an English accent.
Font Anachronism: The typeface used for the board game Clue came out only in the 1990s.
In Memoriam: The film was dedicated to visual effects supervisor Stephen L. Price, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer six months before its release.
Posthumous Credit: Despite succumbing to cancer in May 1995, Stephen L. Price is credited for his work.
The gun shop owner asking Van Pelt if he's a postal worker. Around the time of the movie, there had been a lot of news stories about postal workers going crazy and shooting up their workplaces, from which we get the expression "Going Postal."
Robin Williams noted the parallels of Alan and his father's relationship to his own father's with his grandfather.
Technology Marches On: Referenced when they start playing the game in 1969, with Alan remarking that the self-moving pieces must be done with magnets. When the kids continue the game in 1995, Judy suggests it's done with microchips, which actually makes less sense. Plus, Carl proudly showing off his prototype for a modern basketball shoe.
Throw It In!: While programming the stampede, one rhino had too many animation frames and lagged behind. The effects artists convinced director Joe Johnston to keep "Sneezy" that way, given it made for a funny image.
Trolling Creator: Robin Williams would often give fake answers to people who asked him what the title meant. "I tell them it's an island in the Caribbean. Book your travel there early". They did kind of have it coming, given it's an adaptation of a well-known picture book.
Tim Curry had discussions for the part of Van Pelt before the casting of Jonathan Hyde. He would also tryout for Van Pelt in the cartoon before the casting of Sherman Howard.
In earlier drafts of the films, Nora was supposed to be Judy and Peter's mother.
Alan's parents wanted to send him to boarding school for a different (and better) reason than in the final draft. After Alan was beaten up by Billy Jessup and his gang, Alan's parents finally realized that Alan was not fitting in with the other children in Brantford, correctly guessing that it was because they were jealous of Alan's wealth and status as a Parrish. Therefore, they believed he would fit in better with boys at Cliffside (or "Boden" as it was called in the original draft) because they were more "his status." The end result was still the same with Alan though.
In the original draft of the film, after being turned into a monkey, Peter slowly regressed to Hulk Speak, and lost his memory of being human and whatnot.
