ZATHURA

ZATHURA. Jori Favreau, dir. Chris Van Allsburg, book. David Koepp and John Kamps, script.. J. Machael Riva, prod. design. USA: Columbia Pictures, Radar Films (prod.) / Sony Pictures Entertainment and Columbia Pictures (US dist.), 2005. See IMDb for non-US distribution and further credits for the "look" of the film.

Fantasy space opera, recycling premise of Van Allsburg's JUMANJI (film version, 1995), but in SF/F terms. See for design elements. The Zathura game is 1930s space opera, complete with FLASH GORDON-style rockets for players' pieces, reptilian space pirates (with cannons and cutlasses), and a mad robot reprogrammable into a helper and protector. There is also an astronaut, whose outfit combines the look of real-world astronauts ca. 1969 with older versions. The robot is a combination of Industrial-clunky in the 1930s-Modern vision, plus Industrial/Cyberpunk: picture The iron Giant gone bad on the robot equivalent of steroids and crack cocaine (cf. and contrast Johnny-Five in SHORT CIRCUIT 2, and the threatening robot Maximilian in THE BLACK HOLE (film). The ships of the nefarious space pirates are Jules Verne-ish, with a touch of Buck Rogers (initial film: 1939 [see IMDb for vts and details]). We suspect there are more specific allusions visible to viewers sophisticated in SF illustration.