The Pagemaster
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The Pagemaster is a 1994 American live-action/animated fantasy adventure film starring Macaulay Culkin, Christopher Lloyd, Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Stewart, Leonard Nimroy, Frank Welker, Ed Begley Jr., and Mel Harris, the film was produced by Turner Pictures and Hanna-Barbera and was released by 20th Century Fox on November 23, 1994. Culkin stars as a timid boy who uses statistics as an excuse to avoid anything he finds uncomfortable in life. But after reluctantly undertaking an errand for his father, he gets caught in a storm, which forces him to seek refuge in a library. He then finds himself trapped inside the library, where he must battle his way through literary classics come to life if he is to find his way home.
Plot
A storm forces frightened Richard Tyler inside a nearby library for shelter. Mr. Dewey, the librarian, sees that Richard needs an adventure and tries to give the boy a book, but all Richard wants is a phone. Before he can call his parents, Richard slips on the floor, hits his head and passes out. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a fantasy land populated by famous literary characters.
Bad Qualities
- The plot is very dull and uninteresting.
- Although the concept of going to various worlds based on famous stories sounded cool, the concept was poorly executed.
- Most of the characters are either bland, annoying, or poorly-written, such as;
- Richard Tyler (the main protagonist) is a huge coward who is afraid of almost everything and acts like a wimp.
- Mr. Dewey/The Pagemaster acts very creepy around Richard when he first meets him, that it makes him seem like a pedophile, he also puts Richard through a life-threatening adventure so he can make him braver.
- The three book characters; Adventure, Fantasy, and Horror, are annoying comic reliefs who usually make book-related puns and don’t serve that much to the plot.
- The famous literature characters that Richard meets such as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Captain Ahab, and Long John Silver don’t have that much screen time nor backstories and don’t serve anything other than to give Richard character development by making him braver.
- The main antagonist, the Dragon, is very slow and doesn’t do that much other than to intimidate Richard.
- The bullies that taunt Richard at the beginning are very unlikable because they make fun of Richard and call him names and were never seen again after that scene.
- The film only focuses on three story genres; Adventure, Fantasy, and Horror, and doesn’t focus on other genres that would make cool or interesting settings such as Mystery, Sci-Fi, Western, Crime, and so fourth.
- Despite it being a family film, the film has several inappropriate and disturbing scenes for children, which includes and are not limited to;
- The Pagemaster's face melting when the paint drips down from the rotunda ceiling.
- Fantasy talking about her Little Mermaid underwear.
- The infamous scene where Dr. Jekyll turns into Mr. Hyde.
- Captain Ahab saying "damn" during the Moby Dick sequence.
- Some of the jokes are unfunny and weak since they’re usually book-related puns.
- The films was purely made to try to make kids read more, even though it failed at it.
- Most of the action scenes are very boring and not exciting.
- Plot Hole: Where have Fantasy and Horror been after the rowboat that they were on got crushed by Moby Dick and how were they able to survive?
- This film along with Cats Don’t Dance (although good and an improvement over The Pagemaster), had set back and marked the closure of the short-lived Turner Feature Animation studio.
- Misleading Poster: Richard holds up a magical sword and characters like Frankenstein and Cinderella are shown, but Richard doesn’t hold up a magical sword in the actual film and Frankenstein and Cinderella are nowhere to be seen, and Richard only uses a sword from a dead knight during the dragon fight (however clips of Richard holding up a magical sword and Frankenstein were shown on the trailer).
Good Qualities
- The concept of going to different worlds based on famous books was cool, although it was executed poorly.
- Beautiful animation which is a step up from the limited animation that Hanna-Barbera is usually known for.
- Some funny moments such as "How'd you like to curl up with a book?"
- Although the dragon doesn’t move that much, his design is pretty cool and makes a pretty intimidating antagonist.
- The musical score is really good, especially the song Whatever you Imagine.
- Decent voice acting.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 19% based on 21 reviews and an average rating of 4.3/10. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore have the film a Grade A- on scale of A to F.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times criticized the way the film's message came across, calling it a "sad and dreary film", adding that its message seemed to be that "books can be almost as much fun as TV cartoons and video arcade games". Brian Lowry of Variety said that the film's principal appeal for adults would be its abbreviated running time, and that it did not do enough with its famous fictional characters, noting: "A more inspired moment has Richard using a book, Jack and the Beanstalk, to escape from the belly of a dragon. Unfortunately, such moments are few and far between". Rita Kempley of The Washington Post gave the film a positive review, calling it a "splendidly original children's fantasy about the world of books". James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave another positive review, calling it a "clever, often engaging, and always fast-paced motion picture" that "uses the visual medium to encourage its viewers to reach out with their imagination".
Videos
Comments
- 20th Century Fox films
- Bad media
- Films
- 1990s films
- Live-action films
- Mean-spirited films
- Animated films
- Fantasy films
- Adventure films
- "It's made for girls/boys"
- Bad films
- Hybrid films
- "It's made for kids"
- Boring films
- Family films
- Box office disappointments
- Box office bombs
- Average films
- Films with misleading posters
- Films with content inappropriate for their target audiences
- Children movies
- Based on books
- Traditionally-animated films
- 20th Century Studios