Looking forward to Ratatouille, and having recently engaged in a debate with a friend and colleague about the shelf life of the Fantastic Four sequel, I got to thinking about legitimately compelling kids' films, and particularly those of the non-animated persuasion. That led me to think back to Zathura, so I'll repost a redacted version of a DVD review of the movie that initially ran elsewhere, concurrent with its original release.



If it’s in general hard to predict which movies will stand the test of time and which will seem hopelessly outmoded in only a decade or two (try watching Wall Street again, and taking it seriously), it’s probably on the surface less foolhardy to try to handicap children’s films. After all, animated smashes like the Toy Story and Shrek franchises are built for the long haul — or maybe just deftly sold as such. Take away animated films, though — admittedly a hug chunk of kids’ films these days — and then try picking the last youth-skewing movie you think you might actually want to revisit with your own children, grandchildren or nieces and nephews somewhere down the line. Are the Agent Cody Banks flicks or, God forbid, disposable tripe like Martin Lawrence's Rebound going to have any residual sway with the adolescent audiences of tomorrow?

Hopefully not, but I’ll wager that Zathura, actor-turned-director Jon Favreau’s crisp, smart adaptation of Jumanji and The Polar Express author Chris Van Allsburg’s sci-fi adventure tale, will hold up admirably, and stake itself a deserving place in the DVD collections of discriminating film fans looking for both wholesomeness and quality. Chiefly a tale of fraternal strife and reconciliation, the movie centers around two bickering brothers — athletic pre-teen Walter (Josh Hutcherson, above left) and his diminutive, 6-year-old sibling, Danny (Jonah Bobo, above right). When their father (Tim Robbins) leaves the boys alone in the care of their inattentive teenage sister Lisa (Kristen Stewart), Walter and Danny immediately start squabbling. A bored Danny soon finds an old, dusty, metallic board game, and… presto chango!, the entire house is magically transported into an outer space world rife with meteor showers, malfunctioning robots, ice storms and carnivorous, lizard-like creatures. The only way back “home” is for the family to work together and, with the assistance of a wayward astronaut (Dax Shepard), complete the game.

Beautifully fleshed out in non-pandering fashion by screenwriters David Koepp and John Kamps, Zathura mines a deep reservoir of genuine feeling often missing in adolescent entertainment, and combines this with enough spry sensory pleasures to produce a winning piece of entertainment that, truly, the whole family can enjoy. While Lisa is egregiously underwritten, other characterizations are crisp, and conflict between the brothers exists in perfectly measured fashion — not too heavy so as to be a drag, not too contrived so as to come off as emotionally irrelevant. All the films that push off needlessly surly adolescents or histrionics in lieu of genuine pubescent discord could stand to learn a thing or three from the smart, modulated set-up of Zathura and the emotional authenticity that subsequently flows naturally.

DVD special features on the movie's single-disc, 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen release include an audio commentary track with Favreau and co-producer Peter Billingsley, a look at the making of the accompanying videogame to the movie and a clutch of featurettes on the work of author Van Allsburg, the cast, the visual effects and the like. The best of these examines the vanishing art of model miniatures, and includes interviews with Favreau, miniatures supervisor Michael Joyce and others about the painstakingly detailed construction of the six-foot replica of the house from the movie’s Glendale location shoot. A hint for all you future model makers out there — the herb thyme doubles nicely as bushes, since it doesn’t deteriorate or go bad. A- (Movie) B+ (Disc)