The Pagemaster

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source: The Pagemaster

When I was a little girl, I used to love this movie and I truly believe it deserves a better rating. I haven't watched it in years and yet, I still remember the huge library, the three different books (Adventure, Horror and Fantasy if I remember well), their related stories and universes. I remember understanding the cowardice of the boy (why are heroes always so confident?) and how he overcomes it. And as a French student of English literature, I believe it's a nice way for a child to approach some classics of British literature. It could even be used in schools (am I going too far? aha). Perhaps that if I watched it now, as an adult, I'd hate it. But does it really matter? It's meant for kids anyway!

"I'm a cartoon!" "You're an illustration!" what does that suppose to mean?! This plot could not be worse as a boy, who's afraid of everything, becomes very brave at the very end of the film because he went into a library. The only purpose of this waste of celluloid was to encourage American kids to read, when a cheaper, and more effective way of doing this could have been a series of adverts! Even the talents of Macaulay Culkin(as the kid), Christopher Lloyd (as the so predictable "that he's a the Page Master" librarian), could save this pointless film from the dull plot. Even the voices of Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Stewart,(even) Leonard Nimoy, or the Hollywood God of voices, Frank Welker as the cartoon characters don't save it ever. I can only describe it as a 1990s equivalent to the even ghastly 1978 adaption of the Water Babies, because the bland animation makes the film worse, not improving the dull plot!

Adding to the voices of those who found this movie awful, I can only add "Amen!" One question- the whole movie is devoted to showing the character how books can help him and early on the viewer discovers that he has never had a library card...how, then, did he get all the facts and statistics about accident probabilities that he was so obsessed with? And, what kid his age knows as much about accidents as the National Safety Council? The father character was complaining about his kid's obsession with safety and his fearfulness...OK, who put the "Safety Bike" together for the little bugger? The Caulkin character? Not even!! Utter hogwash...any good fantasy has at least a little believability factor...this one had zero from the outset. It struck me as a quickie film made to cash in on MC's popularity while it was still hot.

The main argument that I have against this film is that it seems to try, and subsequently fails, to be Disneyesque. As a result, it does not come across as an original or innovative idea. However, this is definitely not the only thing wrong with this disappointing feel-good extravaganza. First of all, there are some definite cast issues: Macaulay Culkin is quite unbearably irritating as the cowardly Richard Tyler, a role that, in my opinion, would have benefited a lot from a more comic portrayal that would have made the audience relate to him more easily. Another annoying feature is Whoopi Goldberg as Tyler's animated literary companion, Fantasy. She is the wise-cracking character that you find very often in animated feature films, like the Genie from "Aladdin" (portrayed engagingly by Robin Williams), except that Goldberg, for all her talent, does not really have the extreme pathos that Williams had, and that the role requires. Patrick Stewart, the man with one of the greatest voices to ever grace the big screen, is somewhat wasted as the obligatory coward-who-thinks-he's-so-brave, Adventure, and although Frank Welker's Horror (the hunchbook) is amiable, the character still comes across as boringly formulaic, like the film. The cast's only real saving grace is the live-action Christopher Lloyd as Mr Dewey the librarian, not to mention the latter's animated alter-ego, the Pagemaster. As he so often is, Lloyd is brilliantly over the top. Otherwise, the only other interesting vocal contribution is that of Leonard Nimoy as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, although his appearance is limited to a small cameo. Furthermore, the animation, for a modern day viewer, is not impressive enough to distract the audience from the dull plot, and neither is the dialogue, which falls flat (especially with Culkin's unenthusiastic delivery) and the gags are mostly grindingly facetious and unfunny ("Would you like to crawl into a corner with a good book?"). There is also a song in the middle of the film, "Whatever You Imagine", written by Barry Mann, James Horner and Cynthia Weil, and performed by Wendy Moten. The song seems to be an attempt at capturing the Disney feel of incorporating Pop songs into the story-line. However, whether you like Disney's songs or not, you have to admire their talent for incorporating them into the plot, as can be seen in "The Lion King" (a film of which I, personally, am not tremendously fond) with Elton John and Tim Rices' Oscar-winning "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", not to mention the other songs that they wrote for that film, all of which fit seamlessly into the plot. In "The Pagemaster", no such cohesion between plot and music is achieved even minimally. However, although this film is mostly disappointing, not all is lost. The story, for all its flaws, wastes no time in getting started, and there is a certain nostalgia surrounding the film for the endless stream of, mostly mediocre, but still harmless, cartoons of the 90s, when computer-generated animation was yet to be exploited. The film does make a respectable attempt at being educational on the literary world, but some of the references are too fleeting (more Sherlock Holmes would not have gone amiss) while others were given too much emphasis, especially the "Treasure Island" segment, although Long John Silver is quite endearingly modeled on Robert Newton's classic portrayal of the character from the 1950 motion picture. Pixote Hunt, Maurice Hunt and Joe Johnston handle the direction skillfully, and, had the script and the story been polished up, this film just might have been passable. Having said that, I can't deny that, when I first saw the film, as a young boy, around ten odd years ago, I was sufficiently entertained, so it is definitely a good, innocent film to plant your children in front of if it's on television, but definitely not worth buying.

"The Pagemaster" may have been the only really good movie that Macaulay Culkin ever did. Playing accident-obsessed youngster Richard Tyler, who goes to the library and gets transferred into a world of horror, fantasy and adventure, he makes the most of the role. Patrick Stewart (a pirate-like book named Adventure), Whoopi Goldberg (a fairy-like book named Fantasy) and Frank Welker (a maladroit book named Horror) show themselves to be as adept in these kinds of movies as they are in their normal roles, as does Christopher Lloyd (the librarian and the Pagemaster). All in all, this movie really shows you how much there is to read. I think that my favorite scene was the whole Jekyll and Hyde sequence - although the dripping painting was also pretty impressive. A very well done movie. Also starring Ed Begley Jr., Mel Harris, and the voices of Leonard Nimoy, Dorian Harewood and Phil Hartman.

OMG! I used to love this movie when I was little it brings back such fond memories!!! This movie was great I dnt care anyone says! Maculy Calkin (or how ever u spell his name) GREAT JOB!!!!!Of course he was really good in Home Alone and Home Alone too! did u no Maculy Calkin (or however u spell it) was in a music video for Michael Jackson??!! I jus saw it on this Michael Jackson thing that talked about his life!! well great job Pagemaster I loved the little Pirate Book he was funny!