The Pagemaster (1994)
Directors: Joe Johnston and Maurice Hunt
Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Richard Tyler (Macaulay Culkin) is a chicken-hearted preteen boy who gets lost in an animated world of books and must prove himself in the realms of Horror, Adventure and Fantasy before he can go home.
The Pagemaster was Culkin's second-to-last movie before he retired from these kinds of roles (Richie Rich was the last). I used to read movie review books as a youngster, but I didn't care what anyone else thought of this one, because I liked it a lot. I watched it nine times just in the past thirteen months since I revisited it, and my opinion of it was still favorable…but that's probably because I was nostalgic of the old days, when was my second most-rented movie from Blockbuster in the latter days of the VHS age.
The key problem is the script. The film reportedly took three years to animate, so why didn't it take longer to write? Many situations are pre-meditated, and it feels like the writers just used whatever they could come up with for the material.
And while the writers clearly could name famous novels, they have the same problem with literature that I used to have with history. Strictly speaking, I could name famous events but not what made them important. Books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Herman Melville, and Robert Louis Stevenson are adapted into the adventures of Richard and friends less faithfully than Jonathan Swift, which plays a very minor role in the plot.
As for the avatars, Adventure (voice of Patrick Stewart) and Fantasy (voice of Whoopi Goldberg) come across rather fine, but for annoying sidekicks in movies, Horror (voice of Frank Welker) ranks right up there with Bubba, Jar-Jar, and Mater*.
And it is amazing that it took so long to animate, because the animation here is…well, not overcast, but it does use a drab palate. The only time when it's really satisfactory is during the Treasure Island stint, and first in the library.
Finally, the casting is under-inspired. Very few movies have every single part played by a star, but Culkin, Welker, and Christopher Lloyd (in a dual role as the librarian, Mr. Dewey, and the eponymous Pagemaster) were probably chosen in the same way that the script was written. The ending is a little disappointing because of Richard's initial lack of gratitude and failure to accomplish what the past villains say he has.
As a film, The Pagemaster is not in the same league of badness as the film I just reviewed. Not even close. But it is no better than just okay.
A sequel I was planning—wherein kids would be inspired to keep a good diet and weight instead of read—might have been better. Maybe I can still do that?
*-In Cars 2 only
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