Synopsis
After their father is called into work, two young boys, Walter and Danny, are left in the care of their teenage sister, Lisa, and told they must stay inside. Walter and Danny, who anticipate a boring day, are shocked when they begin playing Zathura, a space-themed board game, which they realize has mystical powers when their house is shot into space. With the help of an astronaut, the boys attempt to return home.
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Cast
- Josh HutchersonWalter Budwing
- Jonah BoboDanny Budwing
- Dax ShepardAstronaut
- Kristen StewartLisa Budwing
- Tim RobbinsDad (Mr. Budwing)
- Frank OzRobot (voice)
- John AlexanderRobot
- Derek MearsLead Zorgon
- Douglas TaitZorgon
- Joe Bucaro IIIZorgon
- 91
Entertainment Weekly
Zathura is a rarity: a stellar fantasy that faces down childhood anxieties with feet-on-the-ground maturity. - 90
L.A. Weekly
The result is a glorious low-tech pleasure that may be the most lyrical, phantasmagoric boys' adventure story since Joe Dante's Explorers. - 75
ReelViews
Will work better for younger viewers than older ones. There's not much plot to absorb and there's plenty of action, so this is the kind of spectacle that will appeal to those without long attention spans. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Favreau again delivers that rare beast -- a family film that even childless adults can enjoy. - 70
Variety
Its unwieldy title notwithstanding, Zathura: A Space Adventure is arguably the best adaptation of a Chris Van Allsburg book to date. - 70
Dallas Observer
Neither pandering nor dull, Zathura plays exactly like a no-limits replica of the kind of space adventure that imaginative kids left to their own devices might enact. - 70
Washington Post
This handmade feel gives Zathura an appealing, childlike sense of wonder, an element too often forgotten in movies with many times the budget and technological resources. - 60
The A.V. Club
Director Jon Favreau, who dipped profitably into family entertainment with 2003's "Elf," effectively recreates the illustrative universe of a good children's book, but he's stuck with a story that noisily grinds its gears.