cool idea, middling movie
“The Pagemaster” is a cool idea in search of a better movie. Here, through some second tier animation, nicely portrayed action, and of course Macaulay Culkin, the filmmakers hoped to appeal to kids on the joys of books. If the thinking were a bit broader than “let’s make an advertisement”, maybe this would have done better business but as is the film is still very noble and occasionally very entertaining.
Culkin plays a fearful kid named Richard who even has statistics to prove how everything can kill you. One day, to get out of the rain, he winds up running into a deserted library where a spirited librarian (Christopher Lloyd) seemingly can’t wait to taut the joys of books ranging from adventure, fantasy, and horror. When Richard says he only came in to get out of the rain, the dejection on the man’s face is palpable. But if that’s how he feels, imagine how it is for the books? Or so the film is all too ready to explain to us.
Before long, a big mural depicting such classic characters as Captain Ahab, Dr. Jekyll, and Long John Silver begins to bleed, melting right on to Richard and turning him into a cartoon. He then meets The Pagemaster (voiced by Lloyd), who explains Richard must go through three tests of courage in order to return to human form. He’ll be aided in his journey by three generic, talking books: a swashbuckling Adventure Book (voiced by Patrick Stewart), a fairy Fantasy book (Whoopi Goldberg), and a hunchbacked Horror (Frank Welker). All three have been shelved for a very long time and they’re looking to leave the library to be put to use.
Together the four seem to jump from classic to classic: we’re in Poe’s “The Raven”, then we’re seeing Dr. Jekyll drinking a potion to turn into Hyde, then we’re on the high seas with Ahab, before being kidnapped by Long John Silver. The whole thing kinda reminded me of “Ready Player One”, a lot of nods to the zeitgeist but at the same time it’s more so summoning up a feeling of recognition while barely scratching the surface of what made these characters and stories cool to begin with.
Still, there is good humor to it nicely played by Stewart, Goldberg, and Welker, and the action is well-conveyed (the Dr. Jekyll scene I thought was wonderfully suspensefully), even as the animation feels a bit too washed out and dreary for its own good. James Horner’s musical score is also a wonderful positive attribute.
If I had one bigger gripe with the film it would be why did they make it so short? And why not put a more compelling overarching story in there. Sure, there’s a nice nod to how stories give us courage but the film is more interested in going from one storybook episode to the next without giving us much reason to stay invested in the final outcome. With a lot of the crap Hollywood feeds kids, it’s hard to knock “The Pagemaster” too much for what it’s trying to do. But at the same time, you wish it elaborated on the joys of storytelling more than it really does.