The Pagemaster (1994)

Good movie but grossly overrated

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The Pagemaster is a live action/animation hybrid movie about a young boy (played by Macaulay Culkin) who worries a lot about the world, being obsessed with death statistics and thinking through things twice. One day the kid is sent out to the store, but runs into a thunderstorm on the way and has to seek shelter in a library, where Christopher Lloyd plays a creepy librarian that has no bearing on the plot. While waiting for the storm to stop, the kid goes on to look at the books when he slips and hits his head, and is magically transported into a alternate animated world where books come to life and he has to learn some sort of lesson about... something.Look, the plot doesn't really matter. This film is first and foremost an attempt to try and make children read more books more than it is a coherent story. Once the kid gets transported into the magical world, he meets three anthropomorphic books with paper-thin personalities who guide him through a theme park ride of various famous book characters, where nothing feels like a cohesive narrative and none of these characters are given any sort of weight to them.Dr. Jekyll, Ahab from Moby-Dick and Long John Silver appear but their inclusion in the story has no bearing on the plot, and gives no indication of who they are, why they do what they do or why these are considered to be classic books. Why would Dr. Jekyll drink this potion to make him into Mr. Hyde? Why is Ahab out to kill this whale? Why is Long John Silver such a legendary pirate? None of these questions are even acknowledged, it is assumed that the viewer will be so curious of these one-note displays of out of water characters that one would just go pick up the book on that alone, but I don't really feel inspired to read at all by this.Because on top of being a confused narrative with tons of plot holes, poor pacing and very little character or meaning behind it, it's also just a bad propaganda film. When I was a kid I didn't even think about the fact that these characters were from books or that I could go read about them while watching this because nothing they did affected me or made me curious to look closer, and as an adult all it makes me want to do is hunt down better cartoons.Then there is also the attempt at some sort of second moral about overcoming your fears or something, but it makes no sense what so ever. So, what, this kid who is already clearly suffering from anxiety hits his head and is either transported into a dimension where serial killer mad doctors, pirates, dragons and sharks are constantly trying to kill him; or suffered major brain injury and had one hell of a scary fever dream depending on how you look at it, all while his dad and other kids make fun of him for being a coward, and this is supposed to help him somehow? Or is it supposed to be about how escapism can help you cope with your fears, but only escapism in fiction books and nothing else? It's very muddled and to me at least comes off as somebody's grand-dad complaining about "them kids these days being sheltered, unlike in my day", which isn't all that inspirational.The best thing one could say about this movie is that it has a remarkable all-star cast (albeit with less than remarkable performances at times), some decent looking animation and some flashy colors to distract kids with. However, the lack of a proper story, the manipulative attempts at shaming kids for their taste in media and a confused tone that can't decide if it's supposed to be cynical, whimsical or thrilling makes this end up as a forgettable and mildly unpleasant watch. Only recommended for the nostalgia value or for hardcore Macaulay Culkin fans.

I'm not sure what exactly pulled me into the world of books - perhaps it was mostly Harry Potter - but I am absolutely certain that The Pagemaster had its hand in introducing me to the idea of stories. I read a few reviews complaining that movies shouldn't be telling kids to read more books, but I would argue that it isn't exactly the point of this film.As a very shy and anxious child myself, I identified with Richard Tyler (the main character). This story is about overcoming your fears. It is also about stories - not just books, but stories overall. Perhaps this is just my belief, but I think stories influence a person's life more than any other form of media. Movies are fast forms of stories (and not at all as deep as books), but that doesn't make them bad forms.Moreover, I don't know if anyone else noticed, but the plot moved from a place of fear - the horror section - to fantasy, plus they had to go through adventure to get there. Personally, I think this is a great message.Regarding the animation, it isn't as terrible as everyone is saying. No, it isn't Disney quality, but it serves its purpose just fine. Its no worse than watching a lot of older Disney movies. If people dislike the movie due to the animation, then I would counter that they aren't paying much attention to the quality of the story itself. One thing I did not like about this film was the cheesy song when they enter the fantasy world. If you think you can bear one potentially annoying song then you'll be fine. As it is a cartoon, they must have their LSD moment in there somewhere.

It's in the middle, by the waterfall! - No, it's East.. by some broccoli.I'm sorry. But I absolutely love this movie! I remember it so well from when I was a kid, how I watched it over and over again, never getting tired of it. For years I have been wanting to see it again, but I couldn't remember what it was called. And when I Finally found it, I was a bit scared to actually see it. I mean, whenever you have had so high expectations on a movie (especially one that you've seen and loved as a child) you always in some way get more or less disappointed. But this time I have to say I didn't! Sure, the colors and contrast isn't as powerful as it could be and the part where he gets chased by the color isn't half as realistic as I remembered it too be, but for a 4-yearold (which I was at the time this came out) it's more than enough to get the engines running! This movie is partially responsible for my massive interest and collection of fantasy-books and movies at home, as well as my ridiculous fear of thunder. I mean, come on, it's really nicely put together! It's got it all! Plus, even if they are only in there for a short period of time, you build up an interest for all the stories you come across throughout the story, like Moby Dick and Dr Jekyll. And that was the intention of the maker of this move, right? To get the children into reading. At least I remember asking my mum to read all those stories to me after seeing this! Okey, maybe I'm letting myself get a bit carried away.. I'll be honest, If I hadn't seen this as a kid or had kids myself, I probably wouldn't think that much of it. It's a bit dated which we all can tell and with todays technology you could make this 10 times better . But setting that aside, this is a timeless story! And I hope that when I have kids myself, this movie will help them get their lazy asses away from the computer and into the library.In the end I will not rate this movie from an adult living in our time's point of view, but from the heart of a little girl. And never the less, this adults heart still beats hard for this movie.

I only review the movies I really adore, some will slip that I don't adore but this one isn't one of them, it seems that over the years people have lost a lot of imagination, it seems as we go through the future we realize what cannot be true is so phony, but as I see it people will return to it one time, I am still a really liker of imagination, but people today don't wanna believe the things that no one can believe, so because of that this movie haven't got a lot of good reviews, I want to do this movie justice...The pagemaster is made for kids and adults who still dreams, it isn't the most serious movie at all but it does have some spots that has deemed it serious, mostly it is a movie that should be taken lightly.This movie wants us to be taught something like many others of its nature, in this movie we are taught two major things first 1. to take choices and not be afraid, to do things we normally would be a afraid of as a child, second 2. it teaches us the main thing, to believe, simply just to believe, we all know none of this is real but why do we have to disband these movies, they are imagination, fantasy something many today could need a whole lot more of.This movie is also done very good by the actors, they chose the right actors for every voice in the movie, but my favorite is of course Christopher Loyd as the Pagemaster, the one who granted a single wish for a kid who were afraid of everything.The music is perfect in this movie, as it is a fantasy music like this is needed, this is something people and companies have at least kept forever and haven't still forgot, now if only they would do the same for fantasy, for imagination, we all have a child in us, why grow up so fast, we get to be mature but that doesn't mean we have to let go the things that made us into what we are today, many of these movies have been forgotten but they will always stay inside us, so now it is time to say that this movie is all that it is a classic, a classic people just forgot.As I said above I only do reviews of movies I like, not movies I don't like so of course this is one of my favorite, I grew up watching movies like this, enjoy it, and for do yourself a favor and watch it again, slowly fall inside imagination, just one more time, it is worth it..."Shh I have a talent for guessing what people need"