I find it hard to believe....(SPOILERS)

Yes to this!
As luck would have it, I recently re-watched the original with my 8-year-old nephew. I have fond memories of watching it way back when with my now grown sons.

The movie still holds up despite the clunky CGI because of the story. And, yes, based on Alan Parrish' description, I always pictured Jumanji as some sort of nightmarish Neverland, filled with monstrous creatures that we would recognize, but with bigger fangs and claws. Van Pelt was the Captain Hook of this alternative universe. His style of dress and his elephant gun hinted at a place where technology was primitive at best.

So it was jarring to me to see helicopters and motorcycles in the previews for the new movie and I just can't connect it to the Jumanji of the original. It looks more like they put together a fantasy movie with a similar setup, and then stuck Jumanji in the title to appeal to nostalgic Millennials.

I agree too that it doesn’t seem like the same place as the first movie.

I think the jungle updated when the game did.

The original Jungle is definitely implied to be a sort of Lost World/Savage World type place, where sabertooth tigers are still around, maybe morlocks and dinosaurs.

Agreed. Even basic lore that the first film introduced, like however much time passes in the 'real world' will pass in the jungle, wasn't used in this film. Otherwise, why didn't you-know-who age?

However, I do think that has something to do with board game-video game conversion. And it didn't halt my enjoyment of this version, so it wasn't a huge problem.

I agree, but it seems obvious to me that the game changed as it became a rendition of a computer gane setting. It had many typical computer games elements in it, and those Could not have been in the world Alan inhabited. The game then was a kin to board games and so mostly driven by unpredictable and unlimited fantasy. Computer games are fantasy too, but inherently ruled by rules. And this we see. I say the games adjust or evolves.

That being said, as a computer game it did not seem so hard to play. Dwayn Johnson was unbeatable (was he not scare) so with that avatar I think I could finish the game in a jif... In Alan”s time it seemed near unbearable. So should have made it much more challenging.... something like all the characters dying one by one and to only return if it is finished in the end by one of them. If they would have designed it like this instead of everyone needs to survive to finish .. the games difficulty could had been set to hard and more en pas with how Alan described it.

I agreed. the Jumanji jungle that was shown in this movie looks nothing like the place Alan Parrish described.

In my time as a forest ranger, I've seen bears do things that sometimes even a bear wouldn't do!