"The Pagemaster" is a heavily flawed, highly panned family movie about a boy with fears of just about everything learning to overcome his fears when he becomes trapped into the world of illustrations in a strange library run by an eccentric man played by Christopher Lloyd. The film starts out with live action, switches to complete cartoon animation for most of the screen time, and then returns to live action for the last few minutes. Now to be honest, the quality of the animation sucks. It is dull, has very little vibrance, and looks more like a low-budget Saturday afternoon ten-minute cartoon. Which is a shame, for the script is good and the characters are more likable than their 2-Dimensional appearances.
The film explores the worlds created by several different authors of classic literature including Capt. Ahab's mad obsession with hunting the white whale Moby Dick, to pirates seeking fortune on Treasure Island, the two-sided character of Dr. Jekyll, and so on and so forth. The bottom line is, despite the dry appearance, I did enjoy the substance that was held underneath.
As a note, the title of the film has very little to do with the plot of the movie, and I did marginally enjoy "The Pagemaster". It's just a shame that the filmmakers didn't put more budget, time, and effort into making the animation more vibrant and colorful and more attractive like the live action parts that were wonderfully done and directed. I compliment the acting jobs as well, and although I do not recommend "The Pagemaster" and had a lot to complain about it, I will not deny that I did like it.
The film explores the worlds created by several different authors of classic literature including Capt. Ahab's mad obsession with hunting the white whale Moby Dick, to pirates seeking fortune on Treasure Island, the two-sided character of Dr. Jekyll, and so on and so forth. The bottom line is, despite the dry appearance, I did enjoy the substance that was held underneath.
As a note, the title of the film has very little to do with the plot of the movie, and I did marginally enjoy "The Pagemaster". It's just a shame that the filmmakers didn't put more budget, time, and effort into making the animation more vibrant and colorful and more attractive like the live action parts that were wonderfully done and directed. I compliment the acting jobs as well, and although I do not recommend "The Pagemaster" and had a lot to complain about it, I will not deny that I did like it.