Zathura

Chris Van Allsburg, the author of the book that spawned Jumanji, sends his second work to the screen with this week's release of Zathura. The two plots are eerily similar-two kids find an old board game that, once begun, spins their world out of control and the only way to right themselves is to finish the game. Now, Jumanji was better, but it was also aimed at an older crowd than its relentlessly PG successor. That said, Zathura is one of the most well-done children's movies in recent memory. In sharp contrast to the dark African jungle theme many of us found so enticing, this movie plays off of all the ridiculous B-movie sci-fi stereotypes of the '50s and '60s. The board game resembles old tin space toys, and the two kids and their teen sister are rocketed off into outer space near the beginning. Surprisingly well-worked effects help make this theme artistic instead of cheesy. Rocket ships are welded iron with wildly disproportionate flame-tails, and the physics of space bashfully bat their eyes in protest. Zathura may not be as solid a movie as Jumanji, but its audience, mostly younger children and their legal guardians, will be having too much fun to notice.