Brantford Pawnshop

Brantford Pawnshop
Van Pelt examines the pawnshop firearms
Overview
Builder	Brantford council
Inhabitant(s)	Ralph Smigel Louise “Lenny” Creech Van Pelt
Object(s)	Daewoo USAS-12 Franchi SPAS-12 Heckler & Koch HK94 Various Firearms Various blades
Behind the scenes
Appearance(s)	1995 Film Film Novel Animated Series

Brantford Pawnshop is an established secondhand market located in the Main Street of Brantford, New Hampshire. It was built presumably after the disappearance of Alan Parrish. Apparently business was few and far between as the proprietor Ralph Smigel was dozing off behind the counter until the arrival of the right kind of customer: Van Pelt.

Appearances

• 1995
• TV

Lousie attends to closing the shop.

When Van Pelt was released from Jumanji by Alan Parrish, he initially came out of the game with a modified Winchester M1901 Shotgun rifle to hunt Alan with. But after a confrontation with Officer Carl Bentley, the hunter ran out of ammunition for his modified pump action Winchester Elephant gun, he postponed his hunting of Alan Parrish to acquire more ammo, coming across the pawnshop.

Victorian era gold coins.

Ralph was snoozing behind his counter until the appearance of this potential customer came stomping in, inspecting the firearms on display. While examining a firearm, Louise observed the man who looked like Teddy Roosevelt; back from the dead, complete with a hunting rifle. When Ralph tended to Van Pelt’s inquiry about replacement ammunition, he regretted that 1903 was the last time the Knynock Nitroball ammo had been manufactured due to the company going belly-up. Van Pelt then opted for a replacement firearm, answered by Ralph’s obligation for a waiting period and background check; necessitating important info such as driver’s licence, social security number, and his last three addresses, as well as records of time servers. Van Pelt could not answer any of that truthfully and successfully managed to bypass it all with bribes by handing Ralph a pocket-full of antique Victorian era solid gold coins.

"Now if anyone asks, you didn't get this here..."

Although he knew this was illegal and any destruction and damage would be on him, Ralph didn’t care for the idea of being sent to jail if he were caught, as the sights of this exotic gold made him instantly dream of a new car and Caribbean vacation. Ralph’s eyes positively lit up and he put the forms away, prompting Louise to stand guard at the shop door and place the sign from open to closed. Ralph then handed Van Pelt the modern sniper rifle, outfitted with an automatic reload, telescopic sight and silencer.

"You're not a postal worker, are you?"

With an evil smirk on his face, the great white hunter swung the rifle around and took the sight up to his eye, catching everything within the sight. Still examining Van Pelt’s dress sentence and enthusiasm, Ralph couldn’t but ask if he were a postal worker, only to be answered by a cold stare of confusion from Van Pelt.

Mr. Olsen transformed into an Elephant.

In the animated series, Brantford's Pawnshop is managed by Mr. Olsen, who plays a major role in the episode The Magic Chest. When Nora Shepherd bought the Parrish Mansion, she did a clear out and soon began to sell some of the antiques she no longer wanted to Mr. Olsen. Unfortunately, Alan Parrish, Judy Shepherd and Peter Shepherd were sent to Brantford while still on their turn of Jumanji, and Mr. Olsen came to collect the antiques that Nora left for him and found the magic chest that Peter left behind. Mr. Olsen was instantly lured to the magic gold coins and took them back to his pawnshop for himself.

When the trio confronted Olsen about the dangers of the coins, he ignored them and picked up a handful of the coins, transforming into an Elephant, much to his horror and became violently aggressive, still intending to keep the chest. In a tug-of-war with Peter, Olsen was sent flying backward into his desk and remained stuck headfirst for the remainder of the episode.

Behind the scenes

• In the novelisation, Louise is changed from a woman to a man known in as Lenny.
• In the film’s background music, the music heard on the radio while Van Pelt is in the shop (the Mexican national anthem in the U.S. release) is from a Berliner Gramophone disc record performed by Sousa's Band, recorded April 7, 1898.
  • When the film was released in Mexico itself it was changed to feature another musical score. It is an infringement of Mexican law to play the anthem for commercial or mockery situations, deliberately or not, although in the U.S. Territories it is in the public domain.
• In regards to Ralph asking Van Pelt if he's a postal worker: Around the time of the movie, there had been a lot of news stories about postal workers going crazy and shooting up their workplaces, from which the expression "Going Postal" originated.