'Zathura' (PG) (out of four)

It's ironic that "Chicken Little" was last weekend's box office champ, since two vastly superior family films -- October's "Wallace and Gromit" and this weekend's "Zathura" -- will likely debut and fade with less popular acclaim.

Attention parents: Do not let "Chicken Little" satiate your hunger for an all-ages experience. There are better options, and this is one of them.

"Zathura," based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg, follows in the wake of "Jumanji," about a board game that comes to life and fans the imagination of two exuberant kids. In this way it's not all that different from real board games, which incite interaction, just as flashy video games discourage it.

And so it is with Danny (Jonah Bobo) and Walter (Josh Hutcherson), two brothers who are suffering a case of the summer blahs. Then again, the movie never comes out and says it's summer. That's just the way it feels -- two kids home for the summer and bored silly.

They seem like normal kids, vying for the attention of their father (Tim Robbins) while getting ready to spend the next few days with their mother. They're clearly still adjusting to the divorce, acclimating to their dad's new, creepy old house, complete with a scary basement. And they know well enough to stay away from their teenage sister (Kristen Stewart), who sleeps with headphones on until she has to get up for, what else, a date.

Bored with ESPN's "SportsCenter," Danny picks a fight with his brother. And banished to the basement, he stumbles upon the board game: Zathura, a space adventure. They start playing the archaic game, turning a key and hitting go, which then spins a dial, moves their spaceship forward and spits out a card.

The cards are filled with the kind of stuff young boys daydream about. One tells them to rescue an astronaut. Another warns them their robot is defective. There are even those cards that tell them to move back, jump forward, and to watch out for the black hole.

And then there's the surprisingly scary zorgons.

As the game plays out, their suburban home is uprooted and shot into outer space. They confront these astronauts (Dax Shepard), robots and zorgons, and each time are presented with a new challenge. They must first work together and then split up and work alone, overcoming their fear of the basement and their fear of their sister's wrath.

Like so many delightful children's films, the premise is as simple as the production is skilled. Here, director Jon Favreau ("Elf"), who is starting to make quite a name for himself, balances the film between learning the truths about the game -- most importantly the boys' evolving strategy as to how to return to Earth -- and surviving the many surreal vignettes that play out like a series of short adventures.

It works because the adventures are fresh and compelling, and because, as the house gets trashed, young Danny and Walter must realistically adapt and grow. Shepard, in an essential role as mentor and the father they wish they had, gives the film's strongest performance, helping these two to realize that their brother is all they have.

Bit by bit they fight through these supernatural battles and while Favreau may push the sweet-natured bonding a bit too much in the end, it's an emotional release the film has genuinely earned.

It's not every day that a film like this comes along, leaving you wanting more. But perhaps it's appropriate that its ending is like all its charms: direct, poignant, inventive and aware of its audience's attention span. "Zathura" is a film that knows what it wants to do, sets out to do it as creatively as possible, and then knows when enough is enough.

It's a space adventure, period. What more do you need?