The Jumanji Overture Analysis by Nicholas Ni

“The Jumanji Overture” by British Composer Henry Jackman is the theme song of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017), an action-adventure film about characters getting sucked into a video-game with nature, fantasy and survival elements.

The song is divided to 3 parts in my opinion: 1 intro from 0:00 to 0:06 played by fast string chords in 77 beats per minute, part 2 from 0:06 to being the main melody played by brass instruments with strings to fill the blanks between notes of the melody with irregular scales (not any major or minor but a fast melody-like set of notes), likely to make the song a lot less boring and add unpredictability, since it’s a adventure film filled with changing events. The song’s excitement level increases a lot in 0:37 by increasing its pitch and frequent use of string/harp glissandos then returning to the original intro style with drums and strings in a lower octave, creating contrast, making the song very dramatic again in a good way. 

In 0:50 to both the intro to 0:37 lower pitch darker melody and the 0:37 and after higher octave melody can be heard overlapping until ending in a disharmony chord, leaving listeners guessing what’s going on later, similar to how many Star Wars movie intro themes intentionally not ending on any major chords to add mystery.

Overall, “The Jumanji Overture” is very dramatic and adventurous with frequent use of new structure, new chords and small melodies, making it very fitting for the movie.