Zathura

Zathura is an illustrated children's book by the American author Chris Van Allsburg as well as a film that was based on the book. Two boys are drawn into an intergalactic adventure when their house is magically hurled through space. The plot is similar to Jumanji, another illustrated book by Van Allsburg, and references are made, both visual and textual, to Jumanji.

Plot overview

Two quarrelsome brothers, Walter and Danny Budwing, find the game in a nearby park. They return home alone to a large American Craftsman house and open their discovery. The jungle themed game holds little interest for either of them, but when Danny looks deeper in the box, he finds another game inside it: Zathura, a space-themed board game where everything inside it becomes real.

He starts playing Zathura, and Walter has to help his sibling rival to get home. To finish the game, they must endure a malfunctioning gyroscope, a meteor shower, low gravity, a defective robot, and invading Zorgon aliens. The game is eventually "finished" when a black hole sends Walter back in time to before the two started playing Zathura.