Jumanji recently came under a bit of fire when they debuted Karen Gillan’s wardrobe choices. The actress was next-to-naked in a crop top and short shorts while her male co-stars were completely clothed. In fact, has the Rock ever worn this many clothes in a movie?
Despite the guarantee that the Rock will probably take his shirt off at some point in the film (has he been in a movie where that hasn’t happened?), fans can breathe easy knowing that Gillan’s wardrobe isn’t just rampant sexism — it has a point. Some new plot details were released that make the outfit at least sort of understandable.
Officially welcoming our #JumanjiJuniors to our film. @serdariusblain @madisoniseman @natandalex Morgan Turner. #DontBeScaredKids #Jumanji pic.twitter.com/KuE4si3UL7
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) September 23, 2016
Four kids joined the cast of Jumanji last week, including The Naked Brother Band’s Alex Wolf who plays a boy named Spencer. According to THR, Spencer’s avatar is Smolder Bravestone (played by Dwayne Johnson) in a Jumanji video game. You heard it right — a video game. The other adult characters (Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Gillan) are avatars as well.
If the whole world of Jumanji takes place within a video game, Gillan’s wardrobe was choice was based on the fact that she’s a video game character. Not only is she a video game character, but she’s an old video game character. The kids stumble upon an old console — we’re guessing something like SNES or early Sega. As disappointing as it is to say, it’d be weird to have a female avatar in an action-based game that isn’t hyper-sexualized. The gaming world is notoriously unkind to women, and though we’ve come leaps and bounds since even just the ’90s, we’re still not all the way there (or even close). Jumanji appears to have wanted to make a believable character, and honestly, the outfit is pretty classic Lara Croft (from Tomb Raider).
According to some rumors, the kids get sucked into the game and take on their avatar’s bodies, which means a teen girl will likely be trapped in Gillan’s sexy, hyper-sexual character, Ruby Roundhouse. Hopefully, it won’t be weird (but how could it not be weird?). We’re also going to guess that because old video games often had just one female character to choose from, the other girl will be stuck as Professor Shelly Oberon (Jack Black). It just seems like a very Jack Black thing to happen — and you can totally count on Black’s sense of humor shining through when playing a teen girl trapped in a man’s body.
We’re not sure how Jumanji is going to feel if it’s not an ancient, cursed board game. It may come across a bit Legends of the Hidden Temple or it could be totally cool. We just remember the anxiety we faced as children watching those dice rolls in the first film. A video game has none of that turn-taking, and that’s an element that would be sorely lost.
Jumanji comes out sometime in 201 7, so we’ll just have to wait and see if it can hold up to the classic.
