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Hunter Van Pelt
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Hunter Van Pelt, often referred to simply as Van Pelt, is a fictional hunter and villain from the 1995 film Jumanji, as well as the spin-off cartoon series. He is portrayed by Jonathan Hyde in the film and by Sherman Howard in the TV series. He was also one of several characters not from the original book by Chris Van Allsburg, having been created especially for the film.
Film
In the film, Van Pelt was a hunter from the game Jumanji, appearing as the stereotypical hunter inspired by those in jungle fiction stories such as Allan Quatermain from King Solomon's Mines or Captain Hamilton from Sanders of the River.
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Encyclopedia
Hunter Van Pelt, often referred to simply as Van Pelt, is a fictional hunter and villain from the 1995 film Jumanji, as well as the spin-off cartoon series. He is portrayed by Jonathan Hyde in the film and by Sherman Howard in the TV series. He was also one of several characters not from the original book by Chris Van Allsburg, having been created especially for the film.
Film
In the film, Van Pelt was a hunter from the game Jumanji, appearing as the stereotypical hunter inspired by those in jungle fiction stories such as Allan Quatermain from King Solomon's Mines or Captain Hamilton from Sanders of the River. In all depictions, Van Pelt is always seen dressed in hunting garb with a spiked pith helmet.
Van Pelt primarily uses an elephant gun as his weapon, but early into the film, it runs out of ammunition, so later he purchases a modern automatic rifle, apparently with antiquated money, and steals the Jumanji game to trap Alan and hopefully kill him. His plans are thwarted by the efforts of Judy and Peter, two children who began playing the game Alan had started before he was trapped in the game. At the end of the film, Van Pelt is sucked back into the game once Alan wins.
It is never made clear why Van Pelt wished to kill Alan Parrish, although it is implied that, being a hunter, he simply kills by nature rather than by reason, and views Alan as extremely rare game. In addition, he is apparently the only person with which Alan alone grew up in Jumanji.
The origins of Van Pelt are also unclear. Despite his appearance as a stereotypical character from British Empire fiction and his name Van Pelt inferring German or Dutch origins, it is possible that Van Pelt himself has no nationality, being just a component of the Jumanji game and not a "real" person.
TV series
Like many other characters of the series, Van Pelt was altered for the cartoon series, although not to any great extent. In the TV series, Van Pelt is still a hunter, but this time with a light-blue skin tone, and has built a lodge in the jungle where he keeps various trophies of animals he has hunted and killed.
In the first episode, Van Pelt escorts Judy and Peter (who have just arrived in the game) to his lodge, but is furious at the idea of Jumanji being nothing but a game, and tries to kill them. Throughout the rest of the series, Van Pelt returns as a recurring villain, and was given a large traction engine in the series to get about the jungle, the preliminary sketches of which appear in the ending credits of the series.
In the episode "The Law Of Jumanji", Alan, Judy and Peter seem to finally kill him by luring him into falling off a cliff, but Jumanji simply replaces him by turning Peter into a miniature replica of Van Pelt, who claims "There must always be a Van Pelt. It's the rules of the game". This ends up being reversed by solving the game clue, at which point the original Van Pelt simply climbs back up the cliff.
See also
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