Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be checking out a family film from 1994. That movie is "The Pagemaster".
Now, I have a bit of a story about this film. You see, I remember seeing the trailer for this movie way back when I use to watch movies like "Ferngully" and "Once Upon A Forest" on VHS. And as a kid, I thought it looked awesome. And I didn't get a chance to watch it until a couple of years later on TV.
Now, here's where it gets a little strange. See, while I did eventually get a chance to finally watch it...I don't exactly recall if I even liked the film or not. And I should mention, again, that I watched it on TV, but again, I don't have any recollection of whether I liked it or not. Which brings me to the present, because I eventually caved in and finally decided to get this movie on DVD and go into this one with a fresher memory than before.
Now I know this film is a fantasy movie and it also stars a young Macaulay Culkin. And I also know this movie mixes in both live action and hand drawn animation together, which is gonna be interesting to see. Now I'm also aware that this movie is somewhat of a polarizing film. Some people I've heard say that this movie has aged rather poorly, while others still herald it as a piece of childhood memories and still love it to this day.
Now I don't really know which way this film is gonna swing for me personally. Even though I have technically seen it once before, my thoughts on the movie back then are rather hazy. But thanks to this series, I finally get a new chance to go into it and see if it either holds up or it really has aged poorly. And the only way I'm gonna find that out is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Pagemaster".
3 minutes later
Wait, so Macaulay Culkin's Dad in this movie is building a treehouse for him, even though it's just been stated by his mother that he's afraid of heights. If he's afraid of heights, why the hell would you build him a treehouse then? He's obviously not gonna go up in it, so why even bother with it? I mean, I get he wants to be a good father to his son but it still doesn't really make sense to build something that will make him afraid of heights, you know what I mean?
7 minutes later
OK, I have a question, and it's admittedly a bit of a stupid one, but I want to ask it anyway. So, this librarian, who's obviously Christopher Lloyd, is guessing at what kind of book Richie wants, even though Richie just wanted to get out of the rain. And he was doing it in a rather strange and, somewhat, creepy way. Does he do that with *every* kid who comes into the library? I'm only asking because if he approached me in that manner when I was a kid, I would be a little bit weirded out and terrified by how close he's coming towards me. That's just me, personally speaking, but still, I have to wonder if he does that to every kid he meets who comes to the library? I'm really sorta curious here.
11 minutes later
You know, guys, what's really kinda surprising me a bit? It's the fact that Patrick Stewart voices the pirate book called Adventure, and yet, he doesn't sound *anything* like Patrick Stewart. Which honestly makes him stand out the most out of every character that has appeared in this movie up to this point. That's actually kinda interesting, really.
20 minutes later
Sorry, guys, if I'm not saying a whole lot right now. It's just that this movie hasn't really given me much to work with at the moment. I'm hoping that something interesting will happen sooner, so that way I'll have more to talk about. But right now, this movie has been kinda slowing down a little bit.
9 minutes later
You know, guys, out of all the things I was expecting from this movie, a music segment wasn't really one of them. It's not really a musical number, seeing as how this film hasn't had any real songs in here to begin with. But this is the first song I've heard in the movie so far, and it's sorta reminding me of that scene in "Ferngully" where Krysta and the other guy she was with were together. And also similar to "Ferngully", the song here is kinda lame and forgettable. At least, to me it is. Also, I just noticed some electric-looking fairies...interesting. At least the animation is pretty good, so I can at least say that much.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "The Pagemaster". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Well...what exactly do I start with first here? I suppose I can start by answering this question. Earlier, I had mentioned that this movie was seen as being rather polarizing to a lot of people. And being that this is my first time in watching it since I was a kid, I wasn't totally sure if this movie was either going to hold up decently well, or if the movie really has aged poorly, as some have proclaimed. Well, now that I have seen it with a fresher mind, I can answer the question of has this movie aged well for me? And I can officially say that...it kinda does. Mind you, the film is still rather flawed, but unlike the time when I watched "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story" where I had no nostalgia for it to begin with, I do have a little more fondness for this movie since I do have a little recollection of actually watching it as a kid, even if I didn't remember on whether or not I liked it then. So yeah, I can say that I did enjoy this movie fine, despite it's flaws.
With that said, let's actually get into this one, shall we? I'm gonna start with writing. Writing in this movie is rather archaic at best. Basically, the film's structure is that our main child character, Richard Tyler, or Richie if you prefer, ends up getting transported into a world after going into a library to get away from the rainstorm. And there, he ends up meeting a wizard who tells him that he needs to overcome three trials, which is basically Richard overcoming his own fears and him getting to the exit. What's really funny to me is that, even though this movie does work in genres like horror, adventure, and fantasy, it really plays itself out like a standard fantasy story. The only new thing that's included is how books are being used as a gimmick. Other than that, the story is really nothing new here. It plays itself safe, since especially this is a family film and all. So, I'm willing to give the setup here a bit of a pass.
However, I do need to talk about the biggest problem with the movie, which is the pacing. Pacing in this movie is rather uneven. It starts off quick when we actually get to the animated world of the movie, and we're introduced to the world of horror. Which looks great by the way, however, I'll get to all that when I cover animation. But it's when we get to the world of adventure in which the movie's pacing starts to become a problem. And the main problem with the adventure segment is that almost nothing of interest happens there. The only bit of interesting stuff is during the beginning of it where our heroes encounter Moby Dick, but outside of that, the whole segment involving Long John Silver is boring as shit. It almost feels like it takes forever to get through. And mind you, the movie's only a little over an hour long, but the adventure segment made the film feel longer than it should. Which I didn't think was possible for a movie that's a little over an hour long, but this film found a way to do just that.
That being said, I will say that the segment involving fantasy is much better. Not just because of the dragon fight, which is really cool mind you, but it's for something else that I'll get to later when I cover animation. So anyway, writing here as a whole, while operating on a formulaic matter, is still decent for what it is. Our characters here are kinda one-noted. You have Adventure acting as a pirate, Fantasy as a fairy, and Horror as, well, looking like an old horror book. Yeah, so Horror's personality is that he doesn't like the genre that's essentially his name. Which kinda makes sense, if you view it from his perspective since a lot of it involves scares, death, and all things related to horror. Granted, it makes you wonder why someone would name a character Horror, when they don't like the genre that they're a part of, especially when you consider that both Adventure and Fantasy live up to their names and embrace their genre. But Horror doesn't. Which, again, kinda makes sense from his perspective, but still, it would be something that could come into mind if you try to think about it.
Aside from that, guys, the writing here, like I said, is decent. And the characters are mostly likable, too. So at the very least, it sorta balances itself out a little bit. Now, what about the acting? Well, in terms of the live action segments, most of it is pretty good. Macaulay Culkin does OK with the script he's given, being that he was still a child actor at this time. The two actors who stand out the most, though, are Christopher Lloyd and Patrick Stewart. Christopher Lloyd, when he's the librarian, hams it up, as he's known to do sometimes. And it's OK, though it's not one of his stronger showings. The other one who stands out is Patrick Stewart. I've brought it up before, but Patrick Stewart in this movie doesn't sound like Patrick Stewart at all. He mostly talks with a gruff pirate accent, and if his name wasn't clearly advertised for this movie, you wouldn't be able to tell that it is him voicing a pirate book. Now normally, when it comes to Patrick Stewart, you would mostly expect his normal sounding voice, as I've seen him do with his performances in animated shows such as "American Dad" or his guest appearances on "Family Guy", but here, he puts on an almost unrecognizable accent, which makes him stand out as the best actor in the entire movie.
Unsurprisingly, though, the worst actor in this movie, by far, would have to go to Whoopi Goldberg as Fantasy. She easily phones in the weakest showing, because she's basically acting like herself, all sassy and whatnot. Which is a stark contrast with Patrick Stewart, who puts in an effort to not sound like himself at all. Whoopi puts in no effort to sound different than what she already sounds like. But then again, Whoopi hasn't put in any real effort, aside from the time that she voiced one of the hyenas in "The Lion King". Now aside from her, there is also the legendary Frank Welker, who voices Horror in this movie, and he does an amazing job also. But then again, it *is* Frank Welker and he has been in the voice acting business for decades, so I probably shouldn't be expecting anything less from him whenever I see his name in anything.
Animation is here really good. For a movie that came out in 1994, this is some really good-looking hand drawn animation. The art-style, in particular, is amazing. Especially in areas such as horror and fantasy. With horror, you get that spooky-looking vibe that really brings out the genre that it's suppose to be representing. And with fantasy, it's really more about the smaller details that catch my eye. And it mainly has to do with how trees look. The designs of the trees and how they look hand painted remind me of "Sleeping Beauty". I was always a fan of how that movie looked, and seeing those those similar-looking trees in this movie kinda made me happy. But yeah, the looks of horror and fantasy look great. And even though I didn't care for the adventure segment, I still think it looks really good for the setting. Color palettes here are really good, though there are certain moments where the characters look a little...lighter-colored, I would say. And I think it's mainly when they stand together after the horror segment is when I first noticed it. Though that's just more of a nitpick on my part.
There is one other thing that I need to bring up involving the animation, which is the CG. Now there is very little CG in this movie to begin with. And that mainly comes from the water coloring segment at the beginning where all of the paintings on the ceiling in the library start to melt. It looks really cool when they melt, but it's when they start to drop on the floor is when you get to notice the obvious-looking CG. For me, it was when Richie starts to run away from it that I noticed how dated the CG looked. Now for 1994 standards, it probably looked really cool. But if you're viewing it by today's standards, it looks really dated. However, the whole segment is still really cool-looking, as long as you're able to look past the dated CG.
Sound-mixing here is fine. The music, at least in terms of it's score, is perfectly fine. The songs, though, are really forgettable and kinda shit. Mind you now, there's really only two songs that I was able to pick up on. And that's the scenes involving the beginning of the fantasy segment and the ending credits. Both songs are really kinda lame and there's no way in hell that you're gonna remember the songs by the time the movie's done. Unless, of course, you're really into these kinds of songs to begin with, but if not, then the songs here are not gonna stick at you at all.
Now with all that said, when it comes right down to it, can I recommend "The Pagemaster"? For kids, yes. I would totally recommend it to children. If you, yourself, are associated with children in some way, be it your own or you have a niece or nephew, then I would say let them check it out, and they're guaranteed to be entertained. If you, yourself, grew up with this movie, then obviously, there's no need for me to recommend it to you further, because you have already seen it and probably own it on VHS, DVD, or Blu-ray. But for newcomers? Well, if you can look past the middle section involving the adventure segment, then I would say it's possible that you'll find some enjoyment out of it. Though whether you enjoy the whole thing or not is completely subjective on your point of view. As for myself, while it does have some obvious problems, I can actually say that I enjoyed it enough to where I can hold onto it for my DVD collection. So yeah, I think that answers the question on whether it has held up for me or not, which it does decently enough. Now...I do still have "Ferngully" on DVD, I think I'm gonna go and watch that next because it has been a long, long time since I last watched it, so I'm gonna go see if that one has held up since my last viewing of it.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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