- “Ashton Phillips has done it again!”
- —Catchphrase
Ashton Phillips is the daring, bold but greedy adventurer of "JUMANJI". Alan Parrish, Judy and Peter Shepherds encountered him twice in their mission to free Alan from The Game. Though he was thought to have died in the Temple of Riddles in "The Palace of Clues," he actually survived and resurfaced when it came to looking for the Golden Goblet of Jumanjicon. After drinking from the Golden Goblet of Jumanjicon, he reverted to childhood form.
Characteristics[]
Ashton Phillips is a top class explorer and knows the land of "JUMANJI" well, along with every hidden treasure. Phillips is really self-centered, greedy and egotistical, making his catchphrase: "Ashton Phillips has done it again" more self-obsessed. Devoted to his lifestyle as much as riches and fame, he considers himself the biggest and bravest explorer and thinks very little of anyone else, even betraying even his agents: Alan, Judy, and Peter several times.
Roles[]
In The Palace of Clues after they paint Alan's door, Ashton Phillips shows up and admires the ruby red sparking coat. Phillips decides to invite Alan, Judy, and Peter to join him on his adventures. Judy is suspicious of Phillips, but from one of his words, believes he could be part of what their clue refers to, since he plans to travel to the Palace of the Lost Clues where there's a lot of gold he intends to take, which also holds recordings all of the clues of the players so Alan and Peter are hopeful that they can find Alan's long-lost clue there so he can go home, but Alan is initially reluctant to go due to his debt to Trader Slick but both Phillips and Peter convinces him to, as some of the wealth may help pay off his debt.
On the way, Ashton Phillips reveals there's a curse of not coming back alive from the palace but doesn't seem to believe in it before the four accidentally fall off a cliff. Luckily they land on a ledge lower down, but Alan is forced to cut off Judy's pack. Phillips gets angered when Judy refuses to acknowledge that he saved her and about her cutting lose her bag with his things in it, but he calms down and promises smooth sailing from there, but they end up in the middle of a blizzard and have to take shelter inside a cave. Fed up with Phillip's snoring, the trio find Bats sleeping at the back of the cave and are safe until Phillips wakes up and loudly yells out, agitating the Bats into attacking the quartet. Phillips runs away outside, but the collapsing cave revealed that they were resting in the legendary Man of the Mountain, indicating to Phillips that the Palace of Lost Clues is very close, and he heads off to find the palace on his own, willing to abandon Judy and Peter to get his treasure.
While Phillips finds the Palace of Lost Clues nearby, he tries to keep them out of the palace and accidentally causes part of the bridge to break. In the palace, they find a Lion statue with ruby eyes and figure they must be the eyes from the clue. The walls of the palace are lined with clues and the statue lights up what seems to be Alan's clue, but before he can read it, Phillips selfishly removes the rubies from the Lion statue's eyes. Removing the rubies causes the palace to start to collapse and Peter to shatter, but the rubies fall out of Phillip's satchel, land on Peter's eyes and restore him not only from his shattered state but back to his original one as well. The palace continues collapsing so Peter, Alan, and Judy quickly try to escape. A couple of boulders block their path while Aston tries to collect as much gold as he can despite the ground starting to sink. Alan warns Ashton to let go of his baggage but he goes down anyway and doesn't care as he has his gold while the other three escape without Alan's clue but with the rubies.
In An Old Story, the three decide to head for Jumanjicon, an ancient ruin where the Golden Goblet of Jumanji is and if Peter and Judy drink from that Goblet, their youth will be restored. On their way, they encounter Ashton Phillips who takes the compass from them, revealing Trader stole it from him, but Judy manages to trick Ashton into taking them along, with him.
Along the way, they reach a geyser field that Phillips and Alan are fit enough to make it through on their own, but Judy and Peter's failing vision traps them part of the way. Alan comes back for them and uses Phillip's hat and a geyser to propel them the rest of the way. They find Jumanjicon, but once again, Phillips double-crosses them, steals the Goblet, drinks from it and leaves them stranded. Alan's efforts save them and they find Ashton reverted to his childhood. They get out of the temple which collapses and drink from the Goblet which returns them to their proper ages. Judy realizes their clue is solved as her walking stick helped find the goblet and they're back to normal. The two return home leaving Alan to deal with the child Ashton Phillips who's even more annoying than his grown-up self.
Continuity[]
- Ashton Philips essentially serves as the animated series equivalent to the character of the Guide from the original short story, since the Guide ignored Judy because of his keen determination to find his way while Philips is a highly determined explorer, and often ignorant of everyone's safety in favour of his fortune and glory.
- His character also serves as a predecessor to Professor Van Pelt from the 2017 film Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, as they were both greedy treasure hunters with a disregard for other people's well-being, both dared to blind a big cat statue by stealing the previous stone eyes, causing a string of disasters that followed including someone's death and subsequent resurrection, followed by their own defeat after still intent on claiming riches for themselves.
