In this live action/animated film, Macaulay Culkin plays Richard Tyler, a 10 year old boy whose socially awkward, nerdy, and afraid of everything. As Richard is sent to buy a bag of nails for a tree-house that his Dad (Ed Begley Jr) is building for him to help boost up Richard's courage; Richard gets caught in a dangerous storm and heads to the local library for shelter. There he meets an eccentric librarian (Christopher Lloyd) who gives Richard a library card, despite that Richard only came to the library to escape the storm, and directs Richard to a phone to call his parents (Which I'll admit I do find kind of odd that the front desk doesn't have a phone, but I'm nitpicking). Richard stumbles across a large rotunda that's painted with famous literary characters and a wizard in the center of it, when all of a sudden the painting starts to melt and turn Richard and the library into illustrations. Richard meets the wizard that he saw on the painting who is called the Pagemaster (Voiced by Christopher Lloyd) and sends Richard on a journey through the magical library to find his way home as he has to face some of literature's most famous and deadliest villains. Along the way, he teams up with three living books to help him find his way home, who in return hope for Richard to check them out of the library, which Richard promises to do so.
Watching this film again after so many years, I have to admit that while I still admire the premise and the amount of creativity that the film puts into it, despite that the film is drenched with books and fictional characters, I honestly didn't feel like the film's primary focus and moral was to inspire kids to read but instead more focused on facing your fears. Ok, now to be fair, I can see how this film can inspire kids to read, because it does after all take place in a library full of famous literary characters and magical books. I'll also admit that as a kid, the film did inspire me to look at the some the stories that involved the characters that Richard meets on his journey. So judging by the film's creative world, yeah I can see how the film can inspire kids to read, but in terms of story and character development, not so much and that's a big problem too because story and character development are the two major ingredients of executing a lesson. While Macaulay Culkin does a good job playing and voicing our lead (Even if he does at times get annoying with how he constant blabs about statistics that are supposed to be funny) the idea of having a socially awkward nerdy kid who already seems to be a bookworm (Since he knows so much about statistics) to go on a journey to face his fears by the power of books really doesn't seem as plausible as say having a kid who hates reading and is obsessed with TV to go on this journey, nor does it make a whole lot of sense. Is this journey supposed to also inspire him to use his imagination through the power of books, instead of always basing things on reality? If that's the case, even that aspect is also done poorly since we never see him use his imagination, and yet the film just keeps blabbing about how great it is to use your imagination. Now when going into a fictional world where our lead character will be facing dangerous fictional characters, I do see the facing your fears aspect of the story working fine, but since this film is supposed to inspire kids to read, the film never really says why reading is good and rewarding, and to me it doesn't seem that the film actually cares if it encourages you to read or not, since you're already seeing these fictional characters in their movie. If anything, the film seems more concerned with you buying the video games based on the movie to explore the film's world, especially since the video game came out around the same time the movie was released on multiple platforms that even Siskel and Ebert found to be the case. As I said before, I can see some kids getting inspired to read books by the setting and characters that Richard comes across (I was one of those kids), but in terms of describing what makes reading so great, the film never really addresses why it is and just seems to use books and literary characters as a gimmick to set-up an adventure for a kid to face his fears instead of being inspired to read. Let's just say that I can think of many TV shows and specials that do a much better job inspiring kids to read books than how this film delivers its message.
With Culkin's performance being good, despite how poorly written his character and story-arc is, how are the rest of supporting characters and the actors portraying them that help Richard on his journey? Well, we have the film's second major star Christopher Lloyd as the librarian and the Pagemaster, who are obviously both the same character and Lloyd does a pretty good job of playing both identities to this eccentric and yet wise character with his over the top performance, while still managing to come off as humble. Though I'll admit, the scene when Lloyd tries to guess what kind of book that Richard came to the library for, did seem kind of creepy and a bit pedophile. I know it wasn't the intention and that it's really just Lloyd being his old eccentric self, but come on, how could you not watch the scene without feeling just a tiny bit uncomfortable with how close Lloyd gets to the kid with his weird over the top expressions in an empty library? The talking books that Richard encounters on his journey are cute characters who are a lot of fun and voiced by pretty good actors. You have Patrick Stewart as the Pirate book Adventure, who's brave and courageous but yet gets himself into more trouble than he's already in; Whoopi Goldberg as the Fairy book Fantasy, who's charming but sassy; and Frank Welker as the dim-witted, fearful but kind hearted deformed hunchback book Horror. I'll admit the book puns that each of these characters exchange is hardly ever funny, but the likability from the characters (In my opinion) is good enough to make these lame jokes forgivable. On the plus side at least the film doesn't shower itself with dialogue that's all based on book puns when it involves these characters. As for the actors playing Richard's parents, they do a natural job of playing their roles, especially Ed Begley Jr as the Father who you really do sense his love for his son, as well as his frustration with boosting up his son's courage.
Before I talk about the animation and the literary characters that Richard meets in the library I want to take this time to talk about the live action segments in the film that happen in the beginning and end of the movie. The live action segments are directed by Joe Johnson who directed such nostalgia classics as "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" and "Jumanji", and his direction and use of sets and special effects in this film are just as good as they are in the film's that he's known for. I love the visuals gags that he uses to show how fearful Richard is of everything; the library that Richard enters looks cool and gigantic; but the best scene in not just the live action bits of the movie but the whole entire movie in general has to be scene where the paintings are melting that leads to a very creative, clever, and intense transition to the animation portion of the film. Yes the paint that splatters all over the ground and turns into a giant wave is animated in CG, but it still looks cool, especially how we see the book shelves slowly become animated whenever the paint hits it. Even the painting itself that Richard looks at and how it is shot looks amazing!
The film's animated segments are animated by Pixote Hunt (Credited as Maurice Hunt) and in terms of creativity that the film takes with this magical library, they’re for the most pretty imaginative and full of so many references to literature that can be seen in the background and the foreground that it takes more than one viewing to catch them all. There are so many numerous book titles on the shelves; set pieces from classic works of fiction that we're all familiar with; and even brief cameos of literary characters that if you blink, you could miss it, and I love when film's do that, because it gives you a reason to go back to the film and re-watch it to find things that you haven't noticed before. In fact, after watching this film again, I just noticed how many subtle parallels the film's story and visuals are to the classic fantasy story that we all know and love "The Wizard Of Oz", which I won't spoil for those who haven't seen the film yet, nor will I spoil the amount of references to literature that the film offers. Another creative idea that I also really admire about the film is the idea of characters, monsters, and objects popping out of famous books whenever the characters open one, which the film does go full out creative with that concept. It even leads to perhaps the only book pun in the movie that I found to be both clever and inventive, which I won't give away but let’s say it happens during the horror portion of the film. The film's music is composed by James Horner who's music has touched every kid's nostalgia growing-up from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s whether the film was good or bad, and his score in this movie is no exception. It's indeed one of his most beautiful and whimsical scores that really emphasizes on the magic element of this magical journey.
What I also really love about the film's set-up is, instead of just taking place in a library where magical things happen; the characters also find themselves heading to three different sections that play out as three different worlds. The first section they visit is the horror section that has a dark and foreboding look as it’s flooded with Graveyards and a giant haunted mansion as it's centerpiece owned by Dr.Jekyll (Voiced by Leonard Nimoy; which I'm beginning to realize that the majority of the cast are actors who either starred or appeared in the "Star Trek" franchise). Even though I would prefer a British actor voicing Dr.Jekyll and his monstrous half Mr.Hyde, Nimoy does an excellent job voicing both egos. I also found the design for both them to be pretty cool (In fact, if you look at Dr.Jekyll's design, you'll noticed that he has Vulcan shaped ears and it surprisingly doesn’t look as out of place as you think it would.), and the scene when Dr.Jekyll turns into Mr.Hyde is a very tense and well animated scene. Sadly though, when he finally turns into Mr.Hyde, despite looking scary, he hardly does anything except pretty much wait for his defeat, which is disappointing and anti-climatic. What I also found disappointing about this part of the journey is originally the Frankenstein Monster was going to appear in the film, but I guess cut his scene was out of the movie for time. As disappointed as I am with not seeing our leads take on the Frankenstein Monster in the same house that Dr.Jekyll lives in, I wouldn’t mind it so much if the film didn’t already promote him being in the movie! I’m not kidding, he was already seen in the Trailers, TV Spots, sneak peeks, and even on the poster with the other literary characters; and if that isn’t insulting false advertisement for you, he also appeared in the picture books and video games that spun-off from the movie, even though he was never in it. What a big slap in the face to the people who were expecting to see the monster in the movie through the promos, and the people who wondered why he wasn’t in the movie through the merchandise.
The second section that our characters visit is the Adventure section that takes place on the open water and a tropical Island, where our characters meet two famous literary characters that have sailed the high seas. The first literary character they come across is the famous psychotic Whale hunter Captain Ahab (Voiced by George Hearn). As awesome as the sequence is with its dramatic music, change of lighting, intense build-up to the famous giant White Whale Moby Dick that attacks our characters, and haunting and energetic performance from Hearn as he recites some of the famous dialogue from the book; Ahab's appearance as well as the sequence itself only lasts for about a minute and a half. I get that the film is limiting the appearance for these characters not just for time, but are making their appearances and motivations vague so they can inspire kids to read the books to understand why they are this way; but could they still at least give Ahab a little more screen-time then what he was given? It's already bad enough that they barely give Mr.Hyde anything to do, but did they have to make Ahab's appearance so short and brief where it's resorted to a cameo, instead of an actual encounter with one of the most famous literary characters of all time? They hardly interact with him, nor even look at him in the eye! The only famous literary character that does something and gets more screen-time compared to the others is Long John Silver from "Treasure Island" (Voiced by Jim Cummings), he at least has Richard under his clutches with his cut-throat Pirate crew. As over the top as these Pirates are with jokes that are hit and miss, they're still tons of fun to watch, especially Jim Cummings as Long John Silver, who actually sounds more natural at delivering a pirate voice, than Stewart is at voicing Adventure’s pirate voice (Not to say his Pirate voice is bad). The only major downside to the way the film portrays Long John Silver is the scene when Richard threatens him with a sword which turns this smart and dangerous pirate into a total wuss. When he’s being threatened by his whole entire Pirate crew as they are all pointing guns at him, he still acts tough and shows no fear of dying, and yet when a 10 year old kid points a sword at him he cowers and fears. To be fair, maybe his reactions is supposed to be part of the twist at the end, but even if that were the case it still doesn’t excuse his defeat from being anti-climatic.
The third and final section that our characters visit is the Fantasy section, and sadly this is the blandest looking section in the whole movie. I know the Adventure section is mostly on the sea, but at least it had an adventure look and feel as our characters encounter Pirates and a giant Whale; this section hardly offers anything creative or visually interesting, it actually almost looks like a junkyard because of how old, brown, and colorless it looks, though to be fair as good as the animation and designs are in this film, the colors do look very muted where they look dark and dreary to the point where it almost looks as polluted as how Whoville looked in "The Grinch" starring Jim Carrey. Now we do see a few famous fictional fantasy characters and as well as props and locations from fairy tales in this portion of the film, but they don't save the land from looking boring. Hell, when we're first introduced to this land we get a really corny 90s song called "Whatever You Imagine" sung by Wendy Moten, that makes this world seem even more bland than it already is. Richard also doesn't face a famous literary character this time; he instead faces a Dragon that was created specifically for the movie. In all honesty, I'm cool with that since this is the fantasy section where all is possible, and I do like the design for the Dragon and the film's semi build up to it. But as good as the build-up and design for the Dragon is, the climax is pretty boring and not all that thrilling. Richard doesn't even slay the Dragon, nor is the Dragon defeated. Granted, there are a few good jokes in this sequence and I like what Richard does to save his friends and himself, but it's still a pretty unexciting and slow moving climax, and if you're thinking that's what my critical adult mind is currently thinking, even as a kid I was pretty bored by it, and that's a huge let down too considering that the posters and the film itself was building up to Culkin fighting against a Dragon.
While I don't think the film is as bad or forgettable as some critics make it out to be, I will say that it is a very hit and miss film. The premise is creative, but its story is lacking the good intended message of inspiring kids to read. The performances are good, but their character's roles in the film feel half-baked. The choice of literary characters are great, but they're not in the film long enough to truly shine. The animation and designs are very imaginative, but the color scheme is bland. Still as hit and miss as everything in the film is, it is a very entertaining movie with a good chunk of creativity being put into it as you experience it with some pretty likable characters. It's not a good film, but it's not that bad either.
RATING 3/5
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