A New Review Of Older Movies (With Kids In Mind)

This occasional series takes a look at older films viewed through the eyes of a modern six-year-old, a ten-year-old and their movie-loving Gen X mom who originally watched these films before she had kids. Things hit different when you watch them later, or watch them for the first time with fresh eyes.

Zathura: A Space Adventure is a Jon Favreau-directed film based upon a book of the same name that tells the story of two brothers – ages six and three quarters and 10 – who find a mysterious game in their dad’s new house and of course, start to play it. Playing the game impacts things in real life. Like Jumanji before it, Zathura is full of twists and turns and bonefide big brother little brother flair, with a big sister going through teen angst thrown in for good measure.

TLDR: We loved it and highly recommend it but there is foul language use that my children have, frankly, never heard before. I opted to not draw attention to what the six year old called his older brother in the first 5 minutes of the film since those words aren’t an issue in my household. You could skip the first 5 minutes of the film and avoid all that unnecessary language. Read on for the rest of the review.

The brothers play this space astronaut game, illustrated by a delightfully old-school-looking windup toy board game where space rockets fly in circles around the board. They turn a little metal knob to roll the die, and after landing on the new space, the game spits out a card that tells them what’s next in game play. Sometimes you get to wish upon a star. Other times the Zorgons (evil, flesh-eating lizard men) attack the house and destroy the living room while eating the hamster.

This PG-rated, 2005 film has a shocking plot twist at the end that I won’t give away here, but suffice to say that my 10-year-old loved it, and the 6-year-old looked wide-eyed at the fellow six year old on screen who “saved his brother because he was the littlest person in the room.”

It’s a feel-good story with plenty of real-life action and too-close-to-home brotherly arguments. The then-children in the film – Josh Hutcherson played the older brother Walter – and Jonah Bobo portrayed little brother Danny – are entirely different types of kids. Older brother is physical and into baseball and football and ESPN Sportscenter and little brother is trying very hard not to be considered “a baby.” Upon re-watching this, I felt like someone had been in my house and was writing a story for my two little boys, a story about brotherly love and teamwork. The portrayal of sibling rivalry was astutely written, not over the top and completely relatable for all of us. (In fact, we paused the movie to talk about it a bit.)

Dax Shepherd plays the astronaut in this tidy story, and Kristen Stewart plays big sister Lisa.

Watching all these stars from a 2005 film is a joy, as I know where they all end up. And for my oldest child, it’s a trip because he has yet to see their more adult films, and when he does he will have a better understanding of their career trajectories. As for my youngest child, he curled up in my lap at certain parts and was afraid when the lizard men came upstairs, hunting for human meat. This freaked him out, so I held him in my lap and assured him all would be well in five movie minutes.

This is not a film I would allow my children to watch solo with no discerning adult nearby. I would have paused it – or stopped it – if my 6 year old got any more agitated by the storyline. As it stands, he saw himself in little Danny’s attempts to do things by himself, without help and to assert himself as the smallest person in a large household and in a big house.

PG is a good rating for this piece, as it is a big too scary for a G rating. Also, it’s good down-home fun. I enjoyed the re-watch over Christmas break 2022. Of course it would be nice if the brotherly bickering subsided after the film ended, but alas, in my house it did not. But my oldest child sat back thoughtfully for a few hours to consider the things that Walter did that were not very nice when it came to his little brother. And both of my children ran around the house saying film catchphrases like: “Do NOT touch that button!”

This film is a 10 out of 10 on the rewatch. It’s 1 hour 41 minutes long.

Does it age well? Yes

Re-watch tip: The opening credits are long and boring, so you can skip those to get straight to the story so your littles don’t get too bored before the fun begins.

Where to watch: NetflixNFLX
, or just buy it on DVD. (Your kids might watch it frequently)

Film and Box Office Background: Zathura cost around $65 million to make but only earned about $65 million at the global box office. Many people called this one a flop because it basically broke even. But I think it’s a pretty good film to watch at 2 p.m. on a weekend with your kids. Zathura is actually a follow up to Jumanji and was written by the author who penned both books: Chris Van Allsburg. You really should read the books (they’re super accessible) but essentially at the end of Jumanji the book, the siblings throw the game away but it is found by their neighbors. When Walter and Danny find Jumanji, it opens a door to the space-themed Zathura.

Also, if you are scratching your head and wondering why you hadn’t heard of it or seen it yet, it’s likely because Zathura was released one week before Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which destroyed nearly every movie released at that time at the box office that year.]