Bargaining For Time Judy can't stop telling little white lies to bet out of trouble, so when she breaks her wrist watch she trades it to a merchant in Jumanji called Slick for a get out of Jumanji free card, their adventures are finally over. Or are they...?
Plot
The foyer of the Parrish Mansion, now home to Aunt Nora, Peter and Judy Shepherd. It is just about to strike half past three in the afternoon on the Grandfather clock. Eventually the larger hand hits the six and the clock chimes.
Keys rattle in the lock of the front door as Peter lets himself in. He hurries in relieved now that another school day was finished. He throws off his backpack with all his books in and heads upstairs. "Cool beans! Last one to Jumanji is a rotten Manji!" He cheered.
"Kallae Kistnaeeeee..." Oscar rasped in gibberish as he hurried in after.
"Guys slow down! Don't run about indoors!" Judy calls out to the boys as she heads inside. "Peter wait uuuuuuup!" She tripped on a rug and fell comically flat on her face and slid into a small pedestal with a vase perched on top.
Oscar gasped.
"No!" Peter cried. The vase toppled and fell on the floor, it smashed.
"Ugh..." Judy was in a daze from colliding with the pedestal.
"Oh bummer... We are so dead..." Peter groaned picking up the broken pieces of vase.
"That is not good..." said Oscar.
"It's just some old vase... What about my wristwatch? It's broken!" Judy groaned looking at he wristwatch.
"Aunt Nora is gonna..." Peter drew his thumb across his throat and made a choking sound. "You!"
"Aww... no sweat...I can handle old prune face..." said Judy making silly faces and mocking Aunt Nora.
Oscar gasped. "You're Dick Tracy!"
Peter face palmed. "No she's not! Dummy!"
Aunt Nora was standing behind Judy. Peter gulped and was silently pointing his hands about in a manner similar to Shemp from the Three Stooges.
"What was that Jude..." Aunt Nora cut in. She had a stern look upon her face.
Judy gulped. "Uh... What I meant was... is I can handle the vase. A little glue and it's as good as new!"
Aunt Nora gasped when she saw the shattered vase. "My favourite vase! Are you two responsible for this?!"
"No! It was um... Our guest Oscar!" said Judy. Oscar frowned at her. "Yeah he's way out of control! You've got to stop inviting him in!"
Aunt Nora didn't believe a word of Judy's accusation.
"Uh... actually it was... a horde of steel-jawed termites!" Peter replied. "There was this swarm a few minutes ago and they gnawed on the wooden pedestal. We tried to stop them!"
Judy grimaced flustered by Peter's silly story.
"Steel-jawed termites... right..." said Aunt Nora.
"They're worse than killer bees! We should call the National Guard!" Peter yelled.
Judy face palmed.
"And there were some clowns! Yeah some circus clowns were here for some reason!" said Oscar.
Aunt Nora frowned.
"Is the clowns any more far-fetched than the steel-jawed termites..." Oscar sighed.
"I can't deal this now... run along... I have calls to take and I have to get ready for a date..." said Aunt Nora.
"A date?" Peter looked perplexed.
"Yes... Peter I have been seeing this gentleman for a while... He came round for dinner once..." said Nora.
"And you still haven't got his name..." said Peter.
"Now Judy, be a dear and tidy up the pieces of vase..." said Aunt Nora. Judy fetches the dustpan and brush.
...
Eventually Aunt Nora left to get ready, and call an exterminator.
"That was close..." said Peter as the kids head up to the attic.
"Yeah well I think I smoothed things over..." said Judy grinning like a Cheshire cat.
"Yeah well Aunt Nora will believe anything you say.l." said Peter sulking.
"I'm just a better liar..." said Judy.
"Yeah... Steel-jawed termites... Really Peter..." Oscar rolled his eyes.
"He goes off into flights of fantasy sometimes..." said Judy.
"Don't talk to me! You tried to sell me out like a rat!" Oscar snapped.
Judy was taken aback.
"Yeah Jude... that was not cool..." Peter frowned.
"Yeah so I tell a few tales..." Judy frowned.
"Those are not tales... Those are blatant lies..." said Peter fetching Jumanji from its box.
"If you wanna get technical..." said Judy.
Peter rolls the dice. The riddle appears in the resin orb. "A trick in rhyme saves time."
"Okay that one is weird..." said Oscar.
The energy wisps slither about and they get stretched and distorted and sucked into Jumanji's world again.
"I hate this..." Judy whined.
During the trip through oblivion...
"Ow... I'm allergic to being dematerialised..." Peter groaned.
"Why does every kid hero I meet who wears a sweater get lambasted for being a bit badly behaved... Screw Perfect Peter! Henry is cool!" Oscar jabbered.
Judy winced at him.
"Ummm..." said Peter.
"Uh... never mind that... some Peter's are cool." said Oscar sheepishly.
"Eh just call me Pea-buddy." Peter grinned.
They eventually arrive in the jungles of Jumanji.
"Okay stay close. This place is dangerous remember." said Judy.
A snake slithered down from a branch and hissed at them. Judy yelped.
"WHAT COUNTRY YOU FROM?! THEY HAVE ENGLISH IN HSSSSSSS?!" Oscar yelled.
Peter yanked on his sweater to get him to consider fleeing and not getting himself bitten.
They fled and Oscar followed by swinging on a vine.
The they heard Alan jabbering and making odd noises. Judy hushed Peter and pushed aside some leaves of a fern. Alan was in a clearing talking to some Manji. He was talking in their strange language of rude tongue sounds.
Peter scratched his head baffled.
Suddenly Manji's screeched as they ambushed Peter, Judy and Oscar and point sharp spears at them.
"Clever girl..." Oscar quoted Jurassic Park...
...
Alan arrived. He seemed a bit peeved.
"Of all the times you guys could have arrived, you pick now during a delicate negotiation..." Alan sighed.
"Uh it's not like we can choose when and where we arrive..." Judy retorted sharply.
"Yeah we have school all day... beardy..." said Oscar. Peter chuckled.
"Yeah.. well I was in the middle of negotiating with the Manji, I was asking if they would lend me the legendary Manji war spear." Alan sighed, irked with the kids arriving at a bad time.
"Cooooool beans!" Peter cooed.
Oscar frowned at Peter.
"Oh it's cool alright, It has mysterious powers. It could get me out of this horrible place." said Alan.
"I'll help!" said Judy.
"Jude no!" Peter yelled.
"Hush Peabuddy. I can be rather persuasive..." Judy taps her nose.
"Jude no! Manji is a complex language! And you can barely say hello in it..." Oscar seethed.
Judy frowned.
"Judy let me handle this..." Alan sighed.
"But..." Judy asked.
Oscar snapped his fingers. Judy's head turned into a large oversized, chocolate chip cookie.
"Jeepers?! Oz what did you do?!" Peter yelled.
Oscar hushed him.
Alan continued negotiating with the Manji.
"But Negotiations are my forte..." Judy with a cookie head whined.
Oscar gawked. "How are you still speaking? That usually stops people from being able to talk..."
Later... Judy's head was back to normal.
"I'm just saying..." Judy sighed trying to make excuses for being a busy body...
"Judy, never lie to the Manji... They'll boil your gizzard and serve it with onions." Alan warned her.
Oscar made the Hannibal Lecter rasp when he explained he ate a census taker's liver.
Peter backed away from him nervously.
"I'm getting too old for this..." said Alan sighing.
Judy sighed and rested a palm gently on his arm trying to show she understood his lamentations.
Alan sighed. Suddenly at his feet was a map. A map of Scandinavia to be exact.
"Eh..." Peter was confused.
"FINLAAAAAAAAND!" Alan yelled furiously.
Peter and Judy face palmed.
"Alan seriously!?" Oscar yelled. Bats were startled and flew out if the trees.
"You're one to talk... doofus..." Judy sighed with a cold glance.
"I just want to go home... If only I could make a deal with Jumanji..." said Alan.
"Did somebody say a deal?" said a rather eccentric man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a corkscrew hat. He resembled Bob Hope but spoke with an irritating, nasal voice in a quick witted and smarmy manner.
Peter, Judy and Oscar screamed, startled by the man.
...
"Who or what are you?!" Oscar yelled.
"Professor J Hieronymus Slick, purveyor of oddities, fineries and rarities, at your service." said Trader Slick.
The kids and Alan winced.
"I've got oojamaflips, thingamabobs, Doohickeys, Knickknacks, paddy-whacks... and if you bring you're dog I'll even give him a bone..." said Slick who was rather chatty. He guided them all to his store, which was a tiki-style shack with a thatched roof.
Oscar chuckled. "Paddy-whacks..."
"We eh... don't have a dog..." said Peter as Slick was offering them random junk and strange artefacts...
"I have a live bear at home..." said Oscar.
Peter winced at him.
"Well then sonny, may I interest you in a genuine Australian Shepherd." said Slick. He fetched from his shack a small chihuahua.
"That's a chihuahua..." Oscar said unimpressed.
Crickets chirped as everyone stood in awkward silence.
"Kids, I've heard of this guy... don't listen to him. he's a sham, a charlatan, a cheater..." said Alan shepherding Peter, Judy and Oscar away from Slick.
"A cheater?! Why certainly not my dear fellow!" said Slick. "Why the name Slick is synonymous with honesty! You cut me to the quick!"
"Please don't tell me you just offended him Alan..." Oscar groaned as literally everyone he previously met in Jumanji took exception to him and went on a murderous rampage.
"Yessiree bob! I have integrity in spades! And clubs..." said Slick. Playing cards flew out of his sleeves.
Peter scowled, irked by the annoying charlatan.
"Yessiree bob I have everything and anything you need right here..." said Slick hopping over his counter and waiting in the shade of his store.
"Anything eh?" Oscar grinned.
"Of course my diminutive chum!" said Slick.
"Oz don't trust him..." Alan warned.
"Okay, very well..." Oscar shooed Alan away. "Do you sell a fully loaded rocket launcher?"
Peter winced, freaked out.
"I uh... like to blow stuff up..." said Oscar.
"Uh actually we're looking for something to get us all out of Jumanji, like a coupon or ticket out of here." Judy pushed Oscar rudely aside. Oscar glared at her.
"Ah! I might just have the card, up my sleeve..." said Slick. Playing cards pour out of his sleeves. Then a blue card followed. "The Get Out Of Jumanji Free card."
"Get out of Jumanji free card?" Judy asked with a hopeful smile.
"Yessiree bob! Guaranteed to transport you out of Jumanji, and off to where ever you call home." said Slick.
Peter looked as if Santa had left many presents.
"There's just one catch." said Slick.
"And what's that?" Oscar asked.
"It's not free." Slick snatched back the car. They all groaned. "Sorry chums! But I do have to make a living here... Pony up..."
Oscar dug about in the pockets of his brown shorts. He pulled them inside out to show they were empty. Moths flew out. "Uh... I'm a little light on cash... can I give you an IOU..."
"Sorry kid, but no." said Slick.
"I have a stick of gum!" said Peter. "It's only been chewed twice." The wad of gum had been chewed and had lost its flavour.
"Eeeeeew!" Oscar and Judy groaned.
"Uh... no sale..." said Slick.
The three kids and Alan sighed with dejection.
"How much for the rocket launcher?" Oscar asked.
"Oz no!" Peter and Judy yelled.
He glared at them.
"Wait I have what you need!" said Judy.
"Oh do you?" Slick rubbed his hands together.
"Yessiree bob..." said Judy confidently.
"Jude do not copy that clown..." Oscar seethed.
"Jude what are you doing..." Peter asked nervously.
Judy offers Slick her broken watch. "One trendy, snazzy wristwatch..."
"But Judy it's- mmmmmmph!" Judy clasps her hand over his mouth to stop him speaking.
Oscar seethed as his face turned red, steam shoots out of his ears.
"I refuse to allow this charade to continue! That watch is broken! And we are not taking shortcuts to get out of here! Especially after last time when Peter became a monkey!" Oscar ranted.
Judy seethed.
But the plot insists that Slick accepts the watch...
"Deal." said Slick.
The three kids and Alan all hold the card, it glows yellow and they glow too before dissolving into sparkles, vanishing for good.