Zathura (film)
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| Zathura | |
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 Zathura film poster |
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| Directed by | Jon Favreau |
| Produced by | Michael De Luca Scott Kroopf William Teitler Peter Billingsley |
| Written by | Chris Van Allsburg (book) David Koepp John Kamps |
| Starring | Jonah Bobo Josh Hutcherson Dax Shepard Kristen Stewart |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 11, 2005 February 3, 2006 (UK) |
| Running time | 113 minutes |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Zathura is a film directed by Jon Favreau, released in November 2005, based on an illustrated book by Chris Van Allsburg. It starred Jonah Bobo as Danny. Tim Robbins also had a small role as the divorced father of Walter and Danny. The film also gave a sister to the boys, introduced a derelict astronaut to the plot, and multiplied the number of the Zorgons and Zorgon ships.
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[edit] Plot summary
Two boys, Walter and Danny, discover a space themed board game where everything inside it becomes real. The boys are eventually drawn into an intergalactic adventure when their house is magically hurtled through space. The story is similar to Jumanji, another illustrated book by Van Allsburg (because in the book, the Zathura game is contained inside the Jumanji one).
The main villains in the movie are the Zorgons, reptilian humanoids who are fond of heat and are attracted to a heat source much like bees are attracted to nectar, because they are cold-blooded. They travel space searching for heat. They are nomads because they burned their world for heat.
Another character, a robot, first appears (as a wind-up tin toy that quickly becomes life size) rampaging through the house. It can switch sides via the "Reprogram" card from the game. One of the boys uses this on the robot, and it instead sets its sights on the Zorgons. The robot is destroyed when a Zorgon ship explodes with it.
[edit] Retro style
The film was set in present times while the book had illustrations with a 1950s look, before and after the board game started. The game was changed from a cardboard board game to a retro tin toy.
The Zorgon spaceships look like the archaic submarine-style types seen in science fiction serials of the 1940s or earlier. In a scene on board a Zorgon starship, we see a single Zorgon acting as a stoker for an old-style furnace fired by wood or anything combustible. The movie's design is an example of "yesterday's future," based on what the future was imagined to be like at different points in history. The Zorgons have the "look of the future" from the 1930s and 1940s, the robot from the 1950s and the derelict astronaut from the 1960s. The robot also arguably resembles Cylons from Battlestar Galactica or Darth Vader from Star Wars, as well as an old fashioned stove.
The story takes place in a classic turn of the century California Arts and Crafts movement house located in South Pasadena, California. The style, resembling the Greene & Greene houses in Pasadena, emphasizes perfect square shapes (the floor-plan for the house itself appears square-shape). Windows, sliding doors, fireplace, and dumbwaiter. Squares recur in various places in the movie, including a flat square television. Presumably this is to allow the house to clash as much as possible with the natural shapes of rock, fire, and gas that surrounds the house for most of the movie. [dubious — see talk page]
[edit] Box office
Despite having very positive buzz from critics (75% on Rotten Tomatoes) and screenings, it was considered a box office bomb. Ineffective marketing of the film led to only $28,045,540 grossed, less than half of its $65 million budget.
[edit] Cast
- Jonah Bobo: Danny
- Josh Hutcherson: Walter
- Dax Shepard: Astronaut
- Kristen Stewart: Lisa
- Tim Robbins: Dad
- Frank Oz: Robot (voice)
- John Alexander: Robot
- Derek Mears: Lead Zorgon
- Douglas Tait: Zorgon
- Joe Bucaro III: Zorgon (as Joe Bucaro)
- Jeff Wolfe: Zorgon
[edit] Pop-culture references
- Bullitt
- A Christmas Story - If you look closely in the living room, the leg lamp can be seen in the background.
- Jak 3 - Danny plays Jak 3 at the beginning of the film.
- Night of the Living Dead
- SpongeBob SquarePants - Danny watches SpongeBob SquarePants. You can briefly hear Patrick Star laugh and say "It's a giraffe!". After Walter changes the channel from SpongeBob SquarePants to SportsCenter, Danny says "Hey! I was watching that." and asks Walter "Can we watch SpongeBob?" and Walter says "No." and Danny says "You used to like it." and Walter says "Times change." and Danny silently says "Tartar sauce".
- SportsCenter - Walter changes the channel from SpongeBob SquarePants to SportsCenter and watches it.
- Super Smash Bros. - Walter gets mad at his dad for agreeing to play Smash Bros. with Danny.
- Thirteen
- Tenacious D: The Complete Masterworks
[edit] Trivia
- Similar to Jumanji, a player's piece won't move if it's not their turn. This explains why the astronaut couldn't finish the game after he wished his brother was never born: It was his brother's turn after he wished. Although, this could be considered a minor goof since if his brother was never born, he never would have found the game.
- Fritz, a pit bull in all of Van Allsburg's books, appears in the movie as a Beanie Baby toy on a shelf after Walter wishes his older self's (the astronaut) brother back.
- Creating a float to advertise this movie was the challenge on an episode of The Apprentice 4.
- A running gag is that there is a bicycle that keeps on floating near the house, even after all those events. At the end of the film, when the house is back on Earth, the bike crashes down from the sky, just before the credits roll.
- Lisa's character was later added after it was decided that leaving the kids home alone was irresponsible.
- At the beginning of the film, Danny is watching SpongeBob SquarePants.
- Illustrations on the game are (from start to finish): Earth, a spaceship, the Space Academy (most likely the one mentioned in the cards), meteors, the Robot, Tsouris-3, a Zorgon Pirateship attacking, a shooting star, a Zorgon pirate with a gun, and Zathura.
- Tsouris is a Yiddish word meaning problems or difficulties.
- Some clues that the astronaut is Walter are that he knew about how the house works (he told Danny to turn off the pilot light of the furnace) and that he had the same card as Walter. He also knew that Walter was going to use the shooting star to wish Danny had never been born.
- In the book, Zathura is described as a purple planet, but in the movie, it's described as a black hole.
- If you look closely in the living room, the leg lamp from A Christmas Story can be seen in the background.
- The design on the shirt that the astronaut/older Walter wears is actually the Unisphere, the largest sculpture that represents Earth, located in Flushing, NY. It was the symbol of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. Also visible is the Trylon Tower, which no longer exists. With the Perisphere ball, it served as one of the co-symbols of the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair.
- The movie was originally going to be released in December 2005.
- This movie was released 10 years after the Jumanji film was released.
- Like The Jumanji film, the movie features an experienced guide (the astronaut), who explains the game.
- The music for the movie trailer is a remixed version of Clint Mansell's "Lux Aeterna," a tune from the soundtrack of Requiem For A Dream. The remix was originally heard in trailers for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
- In their dad's office, there is a Bullitt poster set against the fireplace
