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Van Pelt's Lodge is the residence, trophy gallery, weapons vault & armory and butchery house of Van Pelt.

Overview[]

Van Pelt Lodge 2

The Lodge on the hill.

The Lodge is a brick built, wooden plank floor, red roof house that stands on top of a hilltop by a river, hidden by bushes. The steep cliffs are inhabitant by cave-dwelling lizards that make sailing them unwise but a convent way to take Van Pelt by surprise. The interior walls are decorated in trophies of Van Pelt's kills of Jumanji's natural wildlife and apparently had mounted heads of Manjis and even children. A large painting depicting the portrait of Van Pelt sits above his comfy chair next to the fireplace which provides household lighting. A multitude of weapons is kept noted on racks and inside wardrobes, but the weapon of choice is always the double-barrelled, elephant gun, which can blast the household furniture to pieces. A bookcase full of books are available for Van Pelt's entertainment when having a spot of tea at night. Relaxing but often looped opera music plays whenever Van Pelt is at home.

Lodge Fireplace

The Fireplace.

While Van Pelt tends to live a solitary life and most animals within Jumanji are prey to him, Van Pelt is master to a duo of ravenous black mastiffs hounds that respond to his commands by blowing on a horn. In addition to his hunting dogs, he has a monkey butler. He also apparently once had a housekeeper maid but shot her for undisclosed reasons.

Roles[]

Van Pelt Lodge Nightfall

The Lodge at night.

In Price, when Judy and Peter first played Jumanji and consequently entered Jumanji's realm, they encountered Van Pelt, who took the children back to his lodge to interrogate them. As the children explained themselves, they started to argue and therefore agitated Van Pelt into firing on them, but misses when Alan pulled them up the chimney. Van Pelt then fired at the trio through the roof, making them lose their balance and fall through the top of the hunter. Alan then wrestled with Van Pelt and caused a mounted Rhinoceros head to land on and impale Van Pet, but he was easily able to shrug off the wound.

Van Pelt Blast

Van Pelt blasts in the middle of the night.

In Bargaining for Time, the trio reluctantly sneaked into Van Pelt's Lodge in the middle of the night to procure his pith helmet to complete their transaction with Trader Slick. However, Van Pelt woke up after recognising Judy's lies about her identity when realising he shot his maid the day before.

Zebra Pelt

Nora admires the Zebra stool.

In Ransom of Redhead, Van Pelt returned home with his new catch but lost it because of Nora Shepherd's interference. While he decided to keep her to lure the Alan and the kids to his lodge, her p's & q's led to her making remarks and attempts to housekeep which gradually riled the hunter up, even firing into the ceiling to try and shut her up.

In Law of Jumanji, due to getting rid of Van Pet for good, Alan decided to move into Van Pelt's Lodge as part of his new outlook on life in Jumanji to be the hunter, not the hunted. But due to Peter being assimilated by Jumanji as Van Pelt's successor, and the hunter's eventual return due to the clue being solved, his stay was not permanent.

In The Intruder, as part of an improvised plan to lose Jack, Peter pretended Van Pet had a chest of emeralds hidden in his Lodge, which convinced the robber to go along with his plan. Peter snuck into Van Pelt's Lodge and fortunately found a small chest and escaped while Van Pet was relaxing with a good book, but he soon found the chest missing and was furious to see it gone since that chest actually contained the horn of a legendary Rhinoceros cousin, Juroceros.

In The Three Peters, Van Pelt brought both the timid and naive Peters to his Lodge to dissect them. Alan, however, stopped him by pushing a stuffed Bear on top of him. Van Pelt is later fooled by Alan when wearing the hide of a Lithuanian Wildebeest and faking an injury, initially believing it would go well with the one he already had.

In Who Am I?, due to Alan and Van Pelt switching bodies with minds, he manages to trap Judy and Peter outside Alan's cave and takes them back to his Lodge to mount their heads on his wall. Fortunately, Alan (in Van Pelt's body) arrived to cut them loose and allowed them to escape down the laundry chute and set off the stored gunpowder which totalled the entire Lodge.

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