by Austen Terry, Contributing Writer
Back in 1994, a live action-animation hybrid was released from 20th Century Fox called The Pagemaster. The live action scenes were directed by Joe Johnston, and the animation scenes were debut directed by Pixote Hunt. This movie was released before many of the other live action-animation hybrids, which probably contributed to it largely being overlooked or forgotten. Some of the other factors I have found in my research of why this movie flopped are two-fold: either people dislike the message of the story, or they don’t like the animation. Rewatching this movie in 2022, I also noticed the horror elements toward the beginning of the animated portion might have been unsettling to young viewers, as those scenes were dark, dreary, and downright terrifying.
The Pagemaster has been forgotten by most, even though it came on the coattails of both leads finishing two major franchises and being at the top of their game. It stars Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone and Christopher Llyod from Back to the Future, along with several recognizable actors in voice acting roles including Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg, Frank Welker, Leonard Nimoy, Richard Erdman, Jim Cummings, and Phil Hartman. This movie should have been a success and not a flop lost to the library of time.
The filmtells the story of Richard Tyler (Culkin), a boy who fears everything because of accident statistics. But one day, he sent out on an errand by his father Alan (Ed Begley Jr.), and on his way home Richard seeks shelter in a gothic castle-style library. Upon entering, Richard meets librarian Mr. Dewey (Lloyd) who tries to help the boy out (by mimicking the 1955 Doc Brown meets Marty scene) by guiding him to a pay phone and giving him a library card. When Richard slips and falls to the floor in the library’s big rotunda with popular stories illustrated on top, he is forced quite literally by a tidal wave of paint into the illustrated world. With the help of Adventure (Stewart), Fantasy (Goldberg), and Horror (Welker), three walking talking books, Richard must find the exit and leave the library. Throughout his journey, Richard travels through many well-known stories like The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Moby Dick, Treasure Island, Gulliver’s Travels,and some fantasy-style stories as well. Richard must overcome his many fears to not only save himself, but to save his newfound friends who desperately just want to be checked out of the library.
The tidal wave of paint that washes Richard into the illustrated world looks wonky against the real-world backdrop, but to me, the animation, though not Pixar-level great, still holds up even in 2022. The animation looks hand-drawn instead of computer generated, and blends well as an ever-expanding library is becoming in the illustrated world. Maybe in ’94 people weren’t ready for a movie that starts live-action and then cascades into animation. When I see reviews hating on the animation, I wonder what they are seeing that I am not, because the animation looks great especially when you compare to some of the animation problems in Toy Story a year later.
Going from live action to animation here causes Richard to get out of his statistics in his head and realize what’s more important in life. You go through the journey of self-discovery with all the characters even the anthropomorphic books as they journey to be less self-centered.
Whereas many critics have said that this movie set out to try and encourage kids to visit the library and read books rather than just watch TV or movies, puns like naming your librarian Dewey, as in the Dewey Decimal System, fell flat and largely unnoticed to me until today. While it may seem that way, I remember the fun of going to my local library and getting books, and it was mostly the excitement for me rather than because of this film’s encouragement. If that was the case I would have read all the books mentioned throughout the movie, whether directly mentioned or just seen on the spines of the non-anthropomorphic books. Fun fact — I haven’t read any of these books, but I have seen movies and shows based on them. I just don’t see that as a part of the plot; it takes place in a library where The Pagemaster is literally the keeper of all written word. You would expect to have elements from other books and stories to shine through. When I read books or stories of any kind, in my head I imagine a movie. I don’t just see words going through my head ;I see images. Whether I do that because of my great imagination or this movie is left to be determined.
At the heart of this story is a true message to overcome one’s fears not just for others in your life, or to save your friends, but for yourself. Richard builds bravery and self-confidence throughout his experiences in the story. That’s the main theme of this movie — or, at least that’s what I get out of it.
One of the first stories Richard and Co travel through is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which is definitely not a kids’ story, and they don’t play it as such. Being a lover of horror, I did find it to be quite terrifying to see these. You see both Jekyll and Hyde, and the transformation into Hyde alone probably would give some kids nightmares. Once the gang finds horror and they get through the Jekyll House, then there are not many scary elements left, aside from the finale of a fire-breathing dragon and some skeletons. Okay, maybe there are more horror elements in this story that someone like me who loves horror enjoys.
I am still baffled, though, because The Lion King,which has some dark elements and scary scenes and is based on Hamlet, was also released the same year and is held in such high regard. I am left truly baffled because I adored The Pagemaster and some others did as well. Maybe there was something there I just picked up on that others didn’t.
Like me, Richard was bullied and would rather spend time alone focusing on his special interest instead of being with other people. Having a parent who doesn’t understand why you don’t want to be like everyone else can be tough to manage and make it hard to navigate through life. Richard eventually finds his friends in books, whereas I found friends in my favorite movies. Rewatching The Pagemaster in 2022 filled me with joy. It was like welcoming in an old friend, and I find comfort in that. So maybe I just connected with Richard more than the other people who saw this movie.
What got me thinking about this movie was a while back a TikTok trend was going around of someone asking if there was a movie or show from your childhood that you remember but no one else seems to. A popular TikTok creator responded with The Pagemaster, and in the comments, not many people seemed to remember this movie at all. Maybe the world wasn’t quite ready for a film like this in ’94, and maybe it still isn’t in 2022. But this is a film I will always enjoy and I about wore out my VHS copy back in the day. The Pagemaster will always allow me to escape back to my childhood, and is a movie I will treasure always.
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