It's easy to tell that Jon Favreau was a kid of my generation who fell irretrievably in love with movies because of Lucas and Spielberg's work in the 70s and early 80s. There are more miniatures and on-set practical effects in Zathura than most similar modern movies. I mean, rod puppets, man-in-suit robots and monsters, and exploding miniatures are vanishing arts that are expertly used here. CG was only used where it wasn't feasible to do convincing practical work or to add an extra level of enhancement to physical effects, and it shows on the screen because things just look real.
I don't know if I'll pick up the DVD on sale or wait for Blu-Ray, but I'm almost definitely gonna buy it at some point.