The stars had to align

In 1996, four-year-old Justin Fitz went to a movie theatre for the first time.

He went to see Jumanji, a fantasy film about a board game that comes to life and brings the dangers of the jungle to a small town in New Hampshire.

Being young, it scared the heck out of me and I jumped under the seat, said Fitz, now 31 and living in Spring Lake, Mich.

Little did he know, that experience would stay with him for the rest of his life leading him to unexpected connections with fellow fans and a trip to Canada, one he described as a dream come true.

In 2020, Fitz connected online with Ted Barlett, another Jumanji superfan based in Syracuse, N.Y., who collects props and promotional material for the film, released around Christmastime in 1995.

My mom said it was the best babysitter. I burnt out my first VHS copy of this movie. I would just watch it, rewind it, Bartlett said.

Bartlett, who works at a nuclear power plant, says the game board has always fascinated him as a young boy, he would dig in the yard, similar to the films young Alan Parrish digging through dirt at a construction site to pull the board game out.

My mom was like, What are you doing? the 29-year-old said. Digging for Jumanji. Its got to be out here.

I feel like everybody has something like this that they saw when they were a kid and it just captivated them. Thats what this board game was. As I got older, I just became more and more fascinated with it and I really wanted to own one.

He has since purchased several props, including the tokens and dice used in the film.

Fitz, a baker with an interest in woodworking, has also hand-carved a game board as close to the one in the film as possible.

The corners are magnetic, so if you want to throw the token into the corner you can, Fitz said. The doors are magnetic so it closes and will hopefully stay closed if anything happens.

Posting about their passion for the film on Instagram, the pair attracted the attention of Dan Sissons, the Vancouver-based property master for Jumanji.

Sissons, who worked with several artists to develop the game board, said its an honour to work on a film where a prop is the focus, and to have made something that has made a lasting impression.

When people ask me what my favourite movies [to work on] were, Jumanji is always one of the ones that I say, said Sissons, whos also worked on Suicide Squad and Deadpool 2, as well as television series Battlestar Galactica and Stargate SG-1.

The trio met in person for the first time last year, in Keene, N.H., to see the town that stood in for Brantford, the fictional setting for Jumanji.

More recently, in April 2023, they reconnected in Vancouver, B.C., to visit the Canadian locations that played starring roles in the film.

Its my first plane ride, first time in another country, first everything, Fitz said.

Early in the film, viewers are taken to the Parrish Shoe Factory, owned by the father of the main character, Alan Parrish played by Adam Hann-Byrd as a child, and later by Robin Williams.

Parrish, on the run from bullies, stops by the factory and chats with an employee about a new, futuristic pair of shoes.

The buildings exterior was filmed in Keene, but the inside was an old steel factory in a neighbourhood now known as Vancouvers Olympic Village.

Located on 2nd Street, that building is Brewhall, a local pub with arcade games. While its interiors have changed significantly since the 90s, there remain structural components that look the same, Sissons says.

A former steel bridge construction company-turned-film studio in Burnaby, B.C., east of Vancouver, was home to the interiors of the Parrish family mansion, later purchased by the aunt of Judy and Peter Sheperd, played by a young Kirsten Dunst and Bradley Pierce.

Over the course of the film, the interiors are transformed as jungle vegetation and creatures take over.

The entire contents of the building, all of the interiors and everything were built at the Bridge Studios, Sissons said.

The interiors of the mansion were built and shot on the John Thomas Special Effects Stage, which has since been replaced with new studios.

Meanwhile, scenes outside the mansion were filmed in a Vancouver neighbourhood with towering trees and stone walls. At the time, Sissons says, the lot they used was empty, and the crew built a facade for the home.

The art department came and they built this magnificent mansion with great detail, Sissons said.

Basically you could walk through the door but nothing was behind it it was just the front of a building.

The facade was taken down after filming, and today, its the site of a new, fully built home.

While touring Jumanjis filming locations and seeing some of Sissons props have been thrilling, Fitz says its their connection that hes found most fulfilling.

Just hearing the stories, how the crew worked on it, the behind-the-scenes stuff and just the details and learning has been amazing, Fitz said.

Getting involved with Dan and getting to talk to him about the process of making them was incredible, Bartlett echoed.

He hopes they could continue their annual gatherings centered around Jumanji, including a visit to Vancouver again.

Fitz, Bartlett and Sissons acknowledge how unexpected and unusual their meeting was thanks to storytelling, nostalgia and social media.

The stars had to align, Bartlett said.