The Pagemaster (1994)

Why such a low rating? A movie with such good intentions and well made characters deserve more love. I was so into the idea from the start, and the message about facing your own fear was well woven into a classic fairy-tale trope of going through 3 tests. Of course you'll get the most out of the movie if you know all the references to classic books like Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Treasure Island, Alice in Wonderland, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Moby Dick, etc., but I think that's what makes The Pagemaster a good family movie. Kids can get entertained by the lively animated characters and relate to Macauly Culkin's role while adults can enjoy the clever use of historic literature. The different segments of literary genres could've been both deeper and wider had the movie been just fifteen or so minutes longer, because honestly, it was a little rushed at times, but that's my only complaint about it. The segments were fine as they were, but could've made more out of its source material. The animation was pretty good at times. Also a little dated sometimes, but the horror segment and that of fantasy actually had a grand feel to it. The dragon was my favorite simply because of the massive presence it had. It really felt BIG. The anthropomorphic books were also cute and clever in their interactions. Some may find them annoying, but Whoopi Goldberg,Patrick Stewart and Frank Welker brought them to life with exellence. An underated family movie which deserves more attention. Entertaining, educational and heartwarming

Macaulay Culkin plays a young and frightened boy in part-animation part-live-action story piece that quite frankly seems to be looking for a lost identity. But unlike in Home Alone, this little frightened boy doesn't have the engineering skills of a young Tony Stark to fall back on. But that is all about to change as he enters a place that will surely test his mettle. The Library!From there we get... You know, I'm not quite sure. A creepy stalker man of a librarian grabs him as soon as he enters, uses his dark powers to turn the boy into 2D-animation and sends him looking for a way out. On his way the boy meets Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg and Leonard Nimoy of all people. Oh sure, their characters have names, but they're such shallow stereotypes that it's easier to call them by their real names. Oh, and there's also all kinds of literary characters opposing their path. Mr. Hyde, Hound of Baskerville, Long John Silver, to name a few, but oddly enough, no one from the fantasy section. What, you couldn't find anyone not copyrighted? Why not call it the fairytale section instead and use pretty much any evil witch ever invented, or something?And I get what they were trying to do here. It's a romp through classics of literature. It's supposed to arouse interest in these side characters and get kids to read about them. A fair goal, but the problem is that they're not interesting here. That's partly because they're hardly on the screen before we have to move on, and partly because we see nothing but villains. And sure, villains are cool, but here they're merely there to act as obstacles and mean jerks that try to murder the heroes we're supposed to be rooting for. I don't want to read about them, I want them to go away.The film is also technically unsound. It doesn't follow a three act structure, is always in a rush and doesn't allow enough time for characters to grow. Sure there's some development, but often it comes straight out of nowhere with no way to see how we got there. The boy's character arc is the most whole, but even that is merely decent.Still, the voice actors are talented - despite being distracting - the quality of animation is surprisingly high and Christopher Lloyd is always a plus. Not something I'd recommend, but if a kid wanted to see it, I wouldn't say no.

As a 90s baby, I grew up watching this. The Pagemaster and a whole slew of other fun kiddie movies were the bomb. Now that I am an adult with a vast knowledge of movies, I have come to the conclusion that lots of the cool things I grew up watching really weren't that good. Compared to nowadays things, the stuff I grew up with are all epic masterpieces. When not compared and when not tying into any bit of nostalgia, I can understand why movies like The Pagemaster was not very well received.In one of Culkin's most underrated roles, he plays a total geeks who is afraid of everything. Nothing wrong with that. His parents are worried about him and will do anything to make him grow out of his shell. Nothing wrong with that. His dad (Ed Begley Jr.) sends him to a hardware store to buy nails. He wants his son to go alone to get some guts. Nothing wrong with that (I found). He takes his bike where he encounters a group of school bullies doing bike tricks on unfinished road construction with no workers around. Red light! How unrealistic is that!? He decides to take another route which lands him in the middle of a rain storm. I highly doubt a smart kid in the suburbs would not know another way. He goes into a library for shelter and meets a freaky librarian (Christopher Lloyd). This is where the problems subside. One thing leads to another and finds himself a cartoon with real life literary characters and book genres. He gets himself with Fantasy, Horror, and Adventure involved in different classic novel scenarios such as Moby Dick. Most of the movie is Culkin as a cartoon and the animation is good. The movie is supposed to make books seem like a ton of fun and it succeeds and turn a wuss into a daredevil (slight exaggeration). I was just very under-welmed with how everything was undertaken. The movie is 75 in length, but it feels like a lot longer. There were set-ups and aftermaths of each of his tasks like there should be, but they are all just weak. Wendy Moten composes a tremendous tune called "Whatever You Imagine" that I love and that plays a few times in this, but does not do much to help. I love everything that came out between 1990 and 2000. The fashion, music and movies are all near and dear to my heart. I don't care that The Pagemaster was not what I remembered because it takes me back anyway to a better time in my life.I may not always like this. This is so dull and droned for a 75 minute film. The only good bits are the live-action parts.

The whole makeup of this film is an absolute bore-fest, you might as well sleep through the whole lot because it would be no different if you put the effort in to watch this film. I mean it's meant to be adventurous and epic, but the way it goes about it is enough to make you cringe. On top of that, it features many different characters of famous literature including Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Captain Ahab, The Tiny People of Gullivers Travels and Long John Silver, but the problem with all these cameo's is, it doesn't explain who these people are or why they're famous. They just appear and disappear without a word to the audience of who these people are or what they're known for. Worse still, it features the uselessly bland expression that is McCauley Caulkin, who was the eldest in a line of three brothers who continue to keep up the family tradition of blank emotionless faces and acting that makes you want to cry or question whether or not you have a soul left.The film begins with Richard Tyler, a young nervous bookworm of a boy who lives his life by statistics which means he hasn't the confidence to do fun things like most kids do without scrutinising them endlessly (if I had a child that bland I'd be very worried). Whilst building him a tree-house (which he most likely wont use), his father asks him to get some nails from the hardware store. Whilst on his way, Richard gets lost in a storm and finds his way to an old Library, where Christopher Lloyd is the strange Librarian who wants to enchant Richard into taking out some books from three categories, Horror, Adventure and Fantasy (treating them like they were the only three forms of book in existence, forget Sci-fi and Romantic Comedy, it's looks like there's only three in the world). But Richard only wants to use a phone. Whilst searching for the phone, he slips and falls, knocking himself out. When he comes to, the ceiling begins to drip on him and before long he is engulfed in a huge animated flood that transforms him into an illustration. He is soon confronted by the Pagemaster (a name that sounds dull to begin with, founder of the written word? More like founder of the most boring subject matter award!) He is soon sent off on a voyager (By way of supersonic library cart) and comes across his first booky friend, Adventure, a Scurvy Dog of a Book who wants Richard to check him out of the Library. It's not long before his second friend of the books arrives named Fantasy, a stuck up fairy like book. After escaping the Hounds of the Bascavilles, the trio becomes a quad as they bump into Horror, a simple minded book which is raggedy. Together, the group must find the Exit, but they must first face the various fictional monsters that lie ahead. Will Richard make it home? Will they ever find the Exit? Will Richard ever get his dad's nails? Set your alarm clock for 45 minutes time and you'll find out soon enough...Again, very boring subject matter which has no reference to any of the famous characters that are featured in the movie. There are only three categories of literature that are explored and there is no reference to any other category so for viewers who are not fully embalmed in the world of literacy, they'll only believe that these three categories exist. Big shocker when they bump into Sci-fi, Non-Fiction or Heavily Indulged Romance (I'm talking to you "50 Shades of Grey"). Granted the animation can be quite enjoyable and I really do see that a lot of effort was made into making this film, but if only their time and effort was put into something that wouldn't have viewers snoring away merrily within the first 5 minutes. Good for a watch on a wet Saturday afternoon, but other than that, a real turn off...