- Starring
- Josh Hutcherson, Jonah Bobo, Dax Shpard
- Direction
- Jon Favreau
- Rating
- PG
- Genre
- Action, Adventure, comedy, Family, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
- Release date
- Nov 11, 2005
- Where to watch
- Netflix
Zathura: A Space Adventure follows two young brothers, Danny and Walter Budwing, who discover an old board game in their basement. When they start playing, their house is magically transported into outer space. Along with their older sister Lisa and an astronaut they encounter, the siblings must navigate various intergalactic dangers, including meteor showers, malfunctioning robots, and hostile aliens, to finish the game and return home safely.
James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
I know this movie is set in “outer space”, but it’s not set in the future. I don’t think the movie was released in the year 2205.
(This is one of my favorite movies. I’ll wait until later to gather my thoughts before I post my opinions).
This is old school fun movie entertainment and even teaches kids about loving your sibling. Its based off of jumanji but set in space. This is also waaaay before kristen stewart decided to play the cult games. Good family movie and kids will enjoy
“Sometimes you have to grow up all at once.”
Zathura is not a direct sequel to the 1996 Jumanji movie starring Robin Williams (an excellent film in its own right). However, it’s based on the same ideas and operates on similar rules. Much like Jumanji, Zathura is also a magical board game in which the obstacles come to life and players are required to overcome them. The players are required to take turns. The game ends when someone reaches the end. Although there can only be one “winner”, the real goal is to reach the end so everyone can return home safely. Because of this, the gameplay is semi-cooperative; the players all have to work together and if at any time even one of the players decides to stop playing, then everyone will be stuck in the game forever because no one can proceed if he doesn’t take his turn. Jumanji’s themes said that you had to face your challenges like a man and you had to finish what you had started because otherwise your problems would chase you forever and never go away. Zathura differs from Jumanji in a structural way: while the Jumanji jungle creatures moved beyond the house and caused mayhem all over town, Zathura sends the house into outer space, leaving our players isolated and stuck with each other as it travels across the universe.
Because Mom is divorced and Dad has to go to work, 10-year-old Walter and 6-year-old Danny are left alone in the house with their older sister who is sleeping and doesn’t want to be disturbed. Danny wants to spend time with his older brother, but Walter is going through his “edgy preteen” phase and doesn’t want to spend time with his little brother Danny, whom he views as a tag-along, a klutz and a step behind. Once the game begins and the house has trapped them together in outer space, they have no choice but to work together, even though Walter can’t stand Danny and Danny gets increasingly afraid as each passing turn brings increasingly dangerous and difficult challenges. Midway through, the game issues a card that requires them to rescue a stranded astronaut: an adult player who has been stuck inside the game for fifteen years because he had wished upon a star to make his brother disappear, and he couldn’t finish the game because it wasn’t his turn. While Walter, Danny and their big sister all have their issues and don’t want to get along, the astronaut encourages them to stick together to ensure that they see things through all the way to the end, and the game’s challenges inspire all the players to overcome their fear, pettiness and apathy in order to survive the journey.
The only part of the movie that might be objectionable are a couple instances of crude language. At the beginning Danny calls his older brother a “dick” for interfering with his turn playing baseball with Dad, and Dad tells Danny not to use that kind of language. Later, Walter gives a robot an order calling it a “byotch”, and Danny tells him not to act like a jerk and make the robot mad.
There is plenty of action and peril, but the only real casualty is the house. The house gets continuously wrecked and lots of things get set on fire but the players typically make it out unscathed and unharmed.
“Sometimes you have to grow up all at once.”
Zathura is not a direct sequel to the 1996 Jumanji movie starring Robin Williams (an excellent film in its own right). However, it’s based on the same ideas and operates on similar rules. Much like Jumanji, Zathura is also a magical board game in which the obstacles come to life and players are required to overcome them. The players are required to take turns. The game ends when someone reaches the end. Although there can only be one “winner”, the real goal is to reach the end so everyone can return home safely. Because of this, the gameplay is semi-cooperative; the players all have to work together and if at any time even one of the players decides to stop playing, then everyone will be stuck in the game forever because no one can proceed if he doesn’t take his turn. Jumanji’s themes said that you had to face your challenges like a man and you had to finish what you had started because otherwise your problems would chase you forever and never go away. Zathura differs from Jumanji in a structural way: while the Jumanji jungle creatures moved beyond the house and caused mayhem all over town, Zathura sends the house into outer space, leaving our players isolated and stuck with each other as it travels across the universe.
Because Mom is divorced and Dad has to go to work, 10-year-old Walter and 6-year-old Danny are left alone in the house with their older sister who is sleeping and doesn’t want to be disturbed. Danny wants to spend time with his older brother, but Walter is going through his “edgy preteen” phase and doesn’t want to spend time with his little brother Danny, whom he views as a tag-along, a klutz and a step behind. Once the game begins and the house has trapped them together in outer space, they have no choice but to work together, even though Walter can’t stand Danny and Danny gets increasingly afraid as each passing turn brings increasingly dangerous and difficult challenges. Midway through, the game issues a card that requires them to rescue a stranded astronaut: an adult player who has been stuck inside the game for fifteen years because he had wished upon a star to make his brother disappear, and he couldn’t finish the game because it wasn’t his turn. While Walter, Danny and their big sister all have their issues and don’t want to get along, the astronaut encourages them to stick together to ensure that they see things through all the way to the end, and the game’s challenges inspire all the players to overcome their fear, pettiness and apathy in order to survive the journey.
The only part of the movie that might be objectionable are a couple instances of crude language. At the beginning Danny calls his older brother a “dick” for interfering with his turn playing baseball with Dad, and Dad tells Danny not to use that kind of language. Later, Walter gives a robot an order calling it a “byotch”, and Danny tells him not to act like a jerk and make the robot mad.
There is plenty of action and peril, but the only real casualty is the house. The house gets continuously wrecked and lots of things get set on fire but the players typically make it out unscathed and unharmed.