Hunter Van Pelt

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 exclusive 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.
Despite being a hunter and the film's primary antagonist, Van Pelt is an honorable man who respects the rules of Jumanji. His only target is Alan, because Alan rolled the dice to let him out. He does not harm Sarah, Judy or Peter, although he is prepared to use them as bait to attract Alan. He does not even fire at the armed (but inexperienced) Carl, though he destroys his police car. When he finally has Alan cornered, he gives him a running chance, expecting him to flee like a coward as he always has done before, and is genuinely impressed when Alan says he's finally prepared to face what he's afraid of.
Van Pelt initially uses an elephant gun as his weapon, but about halfway through the film it runs out of ammunition, forcing him to purchase a modern semi-automatic (bribing the store owner with antiquated gold coins to skip the formalities). He also 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, along with everything else (strangely, including the sniper's rifle).

It is never made clear why Van Pelt wished to kill Alan Parrish in the jungle. Van Pelt is an elapsed metaphor of Alan's fear of his father, with both Van Pelt and Sam Parrish being played by actor Jonathan Hyde (a similar metaphor is used in most stage and film productions of ', with Captain Hook and Wendy's father played by the same actor). Both Van Pelt and his father admonished Alan for being "cowardly", and Van Pelt's description is that of making Alan feel like a child. In addition, he is apparently the only person with which Alan alone grew up in Jumanji.
The origins of Van Pelt are unclear. Despite his appearance as a stereotypical character from British Empire fiction and his name Van Pelt implying Dutch origins, Van Pelt himself has no nationality, being just a component of the Jumanji game and not a real person. His face is on the box of Jumanji on the first circle on the top left, He shows no great difficulty adapting from a jungle set in the late 1800s into the present day (he shows no confusion when he is informed that his elephant-gun has been obsolete for 60 years, simply stating that he will require a replacement) and was probably created with the game as an antagonist for players to face along with the other obstacles from the games. His statement to Sarah that "You didn't roll the dice - Alan did." suggests that he is aware of this.
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 (like Prof. Ibsen, Trader Slick and Captain Squint) 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 a Law of Jumanji/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 after Peter tosses his staff down it. Also, Alan states that Van Pelt is indestructible so he cannot actually be killed.
Friends & Enemies
The episode Night of the Hunters introduced a rival to Van Pelt, named Ludwig Von Richter. Like Van Pelt, Von Richter was a hunter resembling pre-WWI caricatures (in this case, the game hunters of the German Empire). Van Pelt and Von Richter ultimately compete for the favour to kill Alan Parrish, with Alan rescuing Van Pelt from quicksands, believing that Van Pelt would have merely been replaced by Von Richter. They don't like each other, but have respect and would never kill the other.
The only friends of the big game hunters are eventually Trader Slick (who supplies him with new weapons) and Prof. Ibsen (which also threatened Alan's life). The animals in Jumanji are hostile to him, but seem to fear his weapon - except the monkeys, which often annoy him.

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