Master Builder

Master Builder
Jumanji Elements
Crystal Ball Message	"I CAN MAKE FISH SWIM! I CAN MAKE BIRDS FLY! I CAN MAKE YOU RUN! BUT DON'T ASK WHY!"
Characters	Alan Parrish Judy Shepherd Peter Shepherd Nora Shepherd Van Pelt Professor J.S. Heinrich Ibsen Dead Eye, Brute & Fang
Wildlife	Hippopotamus (organic & steampunk) Berbalangs Hyenas Winged Monkeys Giant Bees Pods Purple Flowers Giraffe
Episode Credits
Directed by	Bob Hathcock
Written by	Steve Roberts
Air date	October 13, 1996
Previous	Ransom of Redhead
Next	No Dice

Master Builder is the 5th episode of the animated series. It marks the first appearance of Professor Ibsen, soon to be a recurring inhabitant of "JUMANJI", as well as the recurring notion that some of native animals and even plants are in fact machines are creations of his design.

Plot

At home in the Parrish Mansion, Peter struggles with his homework and wants to use Judy's mathworks computer thinking it can do his homework for him, but she warns him that if he doesn't solve his own theoretical problems by himself, then he never will.

Bored with homework, Judy and Peter decide to play "JUMANJI" ", and are given the clue I can make fish swim! I can make birds fly! I can make you run! But don't ask why!". Arriving in the jungle, they are sighted by Van Pelt, who takes a shot at them just as Alan pulls them out of the gun fire range. The trio flee from Van Pelt and manage to lose him up a steep hilltop as he dislikes the Giant Bees that built a hive on-top. After Alan duels with the Bee drones, they retreat to a cave before reinforcements arrive.

Inside the cave, while trying to figure out the meaning of their current clue, Peter reveals he borrowed Judy's computer and brought it with him to "JUMANJI" to see if it can help them understand. Judy is initially angry that Peter brought her computer without asking, but instead has an idea that if Alan describes everything he learned in from The Game over 20 years, they can configure a solution. Although the strange technology initially scares Alan, he decides to go along with their plan, telling his full life story up until he first met the kids.

Sunset finally approaches by the time Alan stops, and recognises that they must escape the cave as Berbalangs will come out and attack them at night. The Berbalangs start to overwhelm the trio until they are blinded by a set of bright lights coming from the truck of Professor Ibsen, whom they have never met before, but he gives them a lift to his laboratory anyway, revealing that the Berbalangs are in fact mechanical creatures that he designed. Inside the impressive Factory of Ibsen, the trio see mechanical skeletons of some of The Game's dangers that they have previously faced. An angry Alan demands to know everything from Professor Ibsen, who calmy explains he did not create everything in the jungle, only the machines that he designed and manufactured, believing that he provides The Game with a great service by enhancing the fantastic experiences of it's creatures and even sends a daily report to "JUMANJI" itself, which he broadcasts at precisely 8:00pm.

Judy plugs her computer a large mainframe database which gives her laptop the ability to analyze everything in The Game and predict the future, revealing that within seconds a tidal wave will hit. Ibsen retreats to shelter but is instantly attracted to the laptop, intending to retrieve it. The trio escapes the flooded lab, but hit a fork in the road and are chased up a tree by Hyenas. Alan feels betrayed that Judy tries to get find the right way and his clue against his own judgement, just as Ibsen knocks the tree down to steal the laptop. He uses it to create even more monstrous creatures, reform damaged ones, and reshape the terrain to make it more dangerous.

The trio race through the jungle, avoiding his creations and fake their deaths by jumping into a whirlpool. Alan comes up with an idea to retire Judy's laptop while Ibsen is busy doing his daily report, as 8:00pm is due. During the report, the trio evade Van Pelt and Purple Flowers, while Ibsen makes a speech about how he now not only rules Jumanji but has become Jumanji itself and Peter figures out their clue. At his lab they try stealing the computer back, but his machines attack, and then the computer overloads creating a Tornado. Peter realizes their clue ties in to how to stop the computer. He asks it "why", which it tries to answer but cannot since it has no context and it shuts down. Ibsen shuts down too, revealing that Ibsen is also a machine. His factory is destroyed and the kids return home.

At home Judy tells Peter to finish his homework before they return to Jumanji and offers him the use of her computer which she'd denied him earlier, but he decides to do it by hand.

Continuity

• Ibsen refers to one of his designs being the Acid-Tounged Frogs, which appeared in the following episode.
• The "Backstage" which appears in the next episode closely resembles the workings of Ibsen's lab, questioning who made it.
• Ibsen sends out a mechanised Hippopotamus which succeeds in its design until it is sunk by quicksand. In Air Judy, he unveils a new design of mechanised Hippo he refers to as the "Hippopotamus of doom".
  • Another of Ibsen's mechanical creatures are Winged Monkeys, probably referencing the scene in the 1995 film where the Monkey party watch footage of the popular 1939 Wizard of OZ, and copy the Winged Monkeys antics.
• Judy identifies the date of Alan's arrival in The Game as April 3rd, 1972, but in Young Alan, the date is changed to 1965.
• Although this would be the first time the trio met Ibsen, the events of Young Alan have them meeting in Alan's past, which Alan did not seem to remember (having hit his head at sometime), yet Professor Ibsen even seems to recognise Alan, wondering if he was one of his creations too.

Gallery

Ibsen's broadcast is ignored by an organic Hippopotamus.