Why The 2000s Best Sci-Fi Family Movie Failed, But Is Still Worth Streaming

By Drew Dietsch | Updated

Controversial statement: sci-fi shouldn’t just be for grown-ups. Kids love science fiction and should get plenty of movies and TV shows that explore and celebrate the genre without dumbing it down due to the intended audience’s age. Back in the 2000s, one movie tried to do just that but flopped at the box office and is still not given the full appreciation it deserves today. We’re hoping to change that.

Zathura: A Space Adventure was pretty much doomed from the outset. Based on a book by Jumanji author Chris Van Allsburg, director Jon Favreau’s sci-fi spin on the “board game comes to life” concept had so much working against it. It was never going to get a fair shake, it was promptly buried at the box office and mostly forgotten about.

Twenty years later, it’s time to admire this clever kid flick for what it is: a fantastic adventure story that not only stands as the best entry in the Jumanji franchise but as a stellar movie all on its own.

How Zathura: A Space Adventure Was Created

Jon Favreau was coming off the success of the family Christmas comedy Elf. He’d shown just how stylish and sharp he could be with a film intended for all audiences. His decision to make Zathura was an attempt to show how he could once again handle all-ages material with his trademark wit and charm. This time, he would take special effects and genre storytelling to an even higher level.

Zathura excels at these elements. Favreau insisted on using as many practical effects as possible. He employed Stan Winston studios – who would also work on Favreau’s next little film, Iron Man – to create the lizard-like antagonists, the Zorgons. These creatures are just plain awesome.

A Zorgon in Jon Favreau’s Zathura

With CG becoming the norm for creature creation, Favreau was committed to building actual effects that the actors could interact with and respond to. Bless him and the many artists who brought the Zorgons to life. They are a huge highlight of the film.

This mentality extends to the entire production side of Zathura. The story primarily takes place in one location (a house), and Favreau has to turn it into a floating spaceship of sorts. It gets pummeled and picked apart as the movie goes along, and the design behind those aesthetic decisions adds real character to the structure. Favreau shot real models of the house for use in the film.

Zathura’s house becomes a spaceship

Add to all that artistry the wonderful ’50s sci-fi style that informs the movie’s design decisions, and you’ve got a movie with a very specific visual attitude. Favreau knows how to polish effects and make everything feel tactile. It’s a masterful touch.

Zathura’s Script And Score Do So Much Right

Zathura isn’t simply a technical delight. The script by David Koepp & John Kamps does so much right. It strips down the story to a much simpler structure than the original Jumanji by minimizing the number of necessary characters. It also does a better job of focusing on the young protagonists and their relationships. The drama might be simple, but it’s extremely effective. And when we learn more about the mysterious astronaut character (Dax Shepard) that shows up later, it all pays off thanks to some very smart first-act setup.

Dax Shepard as “The Astronaut”

Zathura also features a truly underrated score from composer John Debney. The opening credits and the main theme nail the mood and intention of the movie in the very first seconds. There is a 100% commitment to the grandiose adventure tone in Debney’s score.

He takes what could be perceived as a small movie (due to the single-house location) and makes it feel epic. “Underrated” gets thrown around way too much, but it might actually apply to the work Debney puts in for Zathura.

Zathura’s Perfect Cast Includes Kristen Stewart

Kristen Stewart in Zathura

Zathura knows it has to be an intimate movie because of its scale. While Lisa’s (Kristen Stewart) attraction to the astronaut implies a goofy little romance, the real emotional drama of the movie is a relationship between two brothers (Josh Hutcherson and Jonah Bobo). Their conflict is simplistic but handled with earnestness.

It helps that the entire cast plays everything pitch-perfect. There’s not a weak link in the ensemble’s chain.

Josh Hutcherson and Jonah Bobo in Zathura

Zathura is a kids’ movie that doesn’t demean its target audience, either in the story, characters, or film production. This is a solid A-grade experience for young viewers and kids at heart.

Why One Group Didn’t Support Jon Favreau’s Family Sci-Fi Movie

When we talk about how a movie “failed,” we’re often referring to its general reception in some way. When it comes to critical reception, Zathura didn’t fail at all. As of this recording, it is tied on Rotten Tomatoes with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle for the best-reviewed entry in the entire Jumanji franchise, and Zathura is definitely holding up better than that flick is.

Zathura’s robot

It wasn’t critics that disliked or ignored the film. It was audiences. 

Zathura opened in the number two slot on its opening weekend, being beaten by Disney’s Chicken Little in its second weekend at #1. Yes, Zack Braff, as a CG panic-stricken fowl in a low-tier Disney effort, beat a film from one of the key architects behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe and The Mandalorian.

Adding more fuel to the fire burning Zathura at the box office, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire released the following weekend and Zathura plummeted almost 62% to the #5 slot. That wizard took any potential target audience Zathura could have hoped for.

The Zorgons attack!

A Creative Clash Leads To Bad Marketing

It didn’t help that there was a creative clash about how to market the movie. Allsburg and Favreau said that even though the overall premise was similar, Zathura was not the same kind of movie as Jumanji.

Unfortunately, the studio wanted to use the Jumanji name to help market this movie. It made people confused or resistant to what just looked like “Jumanji in space.” Even now, this very article is contributing to tying Zathura to another movie its story doesn’t actually have anything to do with.

The Zathura game

That’s unfair. Zathura doesn’t deserve to be smothered by Jumanji‘s shadow. That film has a lot of generational nostalgia due to the inclusion of Robin Williams, and that attachment might cloud how lovers of Jumanji view Favreau’s standalone triumph. It certainly affected Zathura at the time since audiences saw the Jumanji name attached but without Robin Williams’s on-screen involvement, leading to a disconnect and disinterest in the movie.

Zathura shouldn’t be left to collect dust in the basement. It needs to be taken out and played. Yes, some things might seem familiar, but they are exciting and dangerous in brand-new ways. Take flight into the unknown, space cadet. There is peril, glory, and majesty out there in the depths of space. Zathura is waiting.

Zathura: A Space Adventure is currently available to stream via rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video.

Loading Comments...
Sort By: