In the original Jumanji one of the magical constructs of the game is a guy named Van Pelt; an old fashioned Great White Hunter-type guy, complete with a jungle explorer’s uniform, muttonchops, and a pith helmet.
In the film, apart from wanting to murder Alan (Robin Williams’ character), he also berates Alan for cowardice, orders him to “come back and face me like a man!”, and belittles Alan for being “not good enough!”
As a kid I always thought this was really weird. Why would this random English hunter guy that had never appeared in the story before have such a hate-boner for Alan Parrish? It didn’t make any sense.
It wasn’t until YEARS later I realized that Van Pelt is played by Jonathan Hyde, the same actor who plays Alan’s father, Sam Parrish.
Van Pelt is the personification of Alan’s difficult relationship with his father. Sam Parrish was not an affectionate man. At one point Alan says his father didn’t even like to hug him. Early in the film Mr. Parrish challenges Alan to fight back against some bullies who have been after him (implicitly calling Alan a coward), which Alan does and gets the shit kicked out of him for his trouble. In Mr. Parrish’s defense, he later says he didn’t realize it was a whole gang of bullies not just the one kid, but it’s cold comfort to Alan. And immediately after the bitterness is compounded when his father reveals he wants to send Alan away to a boy’s boarding school. His father thinks this is a great honor to go to such a prestigious school (Parrish boys have been attending this school for generations apparently) but all Alan sees is his father kicking him out of the house. Once more his father pushes him away rather than embracing him.
He wants to love his father but in Alan’s mind his father seems to hate him for no reason, causing Alan to fear his father in turn. And the murderous and hateful Van Pelt is the living embodiment of that.