THE PAGEMASTER [1994 / 2013] [Blu-ray] [USA release] All The Adventure Your Imagination Can Hold! Lively! Vivid! Appealing To All Age Groups!
Enter a magical world of adventure and fantasy! When Young Richard Tyler [Macaulay Culkin] takes shelter from a storm in an empty library, he is suddenly transported into the wondrous world of The Pagemaster! Face-to-face with some of the world's most fearsome literary legends, like the mighty Moby Dick, treacherous Treasure Island pirates and even a fierce fire-breathing dragon and Richard Tyler must conquer his greatest fears, or he'll never get back home! Co-starring Christopher Lloyd, and featuring the voices of Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Stewart and Leonard Nimoy, this live-action/animated adventure provides inspiration to the imagination and entertainment for the whole family!
FILM FACT: Awards and Nominations: 1994 The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards: Nominated: Worst Actor for Macaulay Culkin. 1995 Fantasporto: Nominated: International Fantasy Film Award: Best Film for Joe Johnston and Pixote Hunt. 1995 Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA: Nominated: Golden Reel Award for Unknown for Steve Nelson. 1995 Razzie Awards: Nominated: Worst Actor for Macaulay Culkin. 1996 Grammy Awards: Nominated: Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television for Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and James Horner for the song "Whatever You Imagine."
Cast: Macaulay Culkin, Kanin Howell, Alexis Kirschner, Jessica Kirschner, Guy Mansker, Brandon S. McKay, Stephen Sheehan, Ed Begley Jr., Mel Harris and Christopher Lloyd
Voice Cast: Macaulay Culkin (Richard Tyler), Christopher Lloyd (The Pagemaster), Patrick Stewart (Adventure), Whoopi Goldberg (Fantasy), Frank Welker (Horror), Leonard Nimoy (Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde), George Hearn (Captain Ahab), Dorian Harewood (Jamaican Pirates), Ed Gilbert (George Merry), Richard Erdman (Pirate), Fernando Escandon (Pirate), Robert Picardo (Pirate), Phil Hartman (Tom Morgan), Jim Cummings (Long John Silver) and B.J. Ward (Queen of Hearts)
Directors: Joe Johnston (live action sequences) and Pixote Hunt (animation director)
Producers: Barry Weiss, Claire A. Glidden, David J. Steinberg, David Kirschner, Michael R. Joyce, Paul Gertz and Roxy Novotny Steven
Screenplay: David Casci (story/ (screenplay), David Kirschner (story/ (screenplay) and Ernie Contreras (screenplay)
Composer: James Horner
Cinematography: Alexander Gruszynski (live action) (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Spanish: 2.0 Dolby Digital Surround
French: 2.0 Dolby Digital Surround
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH and Spanish
Region: All Regions
Running Time: 75 minutes
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Fox Searchlight
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: In the film ‘THE PAGEMASTER’ [1994] Richard Tyler [Macaulay Culkin] is a child with an overactive imagination... of the wrong kind. He's obsessed with accidents and injury statistics, and as a result he's afraid to do just about anything other than cower in his room, which is plastered with warning posters of all kinds. Then one day while out on his bicycle, he's caught in a sudden downpour and takes shelter in a nearby building, which happens to be the library. To the chagrin of the librarian, he's uninterested in the books that line the shelves, until a touch of magic sends him into the world of the books themselves. Befriended by a swashbuckling novel named Adventure [Patrick Stewart], and he begins a voyage that will call on him to face his own fears and discover inner strength.
‘THE PAGEMASTER’ is mostly an animated feature, framed by live-action sections. I enjoyed the style of the hand-drawn animations, which are fairly simple without being simplistic. Each of the three main book characters, Adventure [Patrick Stewart], Fantasy [Whoopi Goldberg], and Horror [Frank Welker], has a highly individual and creative appearance that matches perfectly the way the voices are done. The voices are, in fact, uniformly excellent, which shouldn't come as a surprise given the slate of actors assembled: apart from Patrick Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg, we also get Leonard Nimoy and Christopher Lloyd in supporting parts.
However, after watching this film, I have come to the conclusion that Macaulay Culkin may be famous, but he is a lousy actor. Or, at any rate with his other films, but this time he is quite good for a change in ‘THE PAGEMASTER’ and with his live-action performance characterised by slightly wooden facial expressions and unconvincing body language. This became apparent to me at the point in ‘THE PAGEMASTER’ when the film switches to animation: I suddenly realised that the animated character of Richard Tyler was doing a significantly better job of acting than the live Macaulay Culkin. Not good. Fortunately, the animated portion takes up most of the film, and Macaulay Culkin does an adequate job of providing the voice for the cartoon boy.
It's hard to criticise a film that takes as its premise "reading is good"... but the truth be told, I really don't think that ‘THE PAGEMASTER’ does much with that premise. Look at it this way: if an alien visitor came to the planet Earth, saw this film without some cultural explanations (we'll assume that our hypothetical alien speaks English) it would conclude that "books" are rectangular-shaped cuddle toys. Book-shaped objects are found throughout the film's scenes, and of course several of the main characters are, literally, books, but there are no scenes anywhere that involve actually reading these books. As I said, this may seem like splitting hairs unnecessarily, but it seems to me that ‘THE PAGEMASTER’ should have and easily could have gone just a step further in embracing its theme.
At only 75 minutes long, ‘THE PAGEMASTER’ is a really good length for its main target audience of children, and the story keeps moving along at a very lively pace that should keep them interested more than usual. I don't think there's a whole lot of substance for the adult viewer, but it's moderately entertaining at least to keep the adult audience interested. Readers who enjoy the works of Robert Louis Stevenson in particular will be tickled to see the number of references or actual story elements drawn from his books.
THE PAGEMASTER MUSIC TRACK LIST
WHATEVER YOU IMAGE (Montage) (1994) (uncredited) (Lyric by Cynthia Weil) (Music by Barry Mann and James Horner) [Performed by Wendy Moten]
DREAM AWAY (1994) (Written by Diane Warren) (Produced by David Foster) [Performed by Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds and Lisa Stansfield]
WHATEVER YOU IMAGE (End Credits) (1994) (uncredited) (Lyric by Cynthia Weil) (Music by Barry Mann and James Horner) [Performed by Wendy Moten]
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Blu-ray Image Quality – ‘THE PAGEMASTER’ is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Fox Searchlight with a beautiful 1080p encoded image transfer and in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. This is a solid if just slightly underwhelming looking transfer that benefits from elements with only very minor damage. Balancing that is just slightly tepid looking colour, though perhaps ironically the few CGI elements seem to have weathered the storm of time better than some of the traditionally drawn cell animation. There's a completely natural layer of grain in evidence here and if the transfer looks slightly soft a lot of the time, it's not necessarily a distraction, especially in the longer animated section, where things look kind of "old school" anyway. Line detail remains reasonably sharp in this long section and colours, while not quite as vivid as some may hope, are nicely saturated and certainly very varied. As with the animated sequence, the live action bookending moments look just slightly soft, but feature are good detail in close-ups and accurate, nicely saturated colours.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – ‘THE PAGEMASTER’ sounds brilliant in its 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio surround mix and is nicely immersive, though it's perhaps just slightly less rambunctious than some might expect from a fantasy film like this one. Things get off to a good start in the storm sequence, when the roar of thunder gives the low end a real workout and the pelt of rain and hail fills the surrounds. Once the animated section takes over, there are some great sound effects, including some spooky moments in the graveyard leading up to Jekyll's house, the nice sea sequence which find Richie chasing Moby Dick, and the fun treasure hunting sequence with Long John Silver. The two featured songs nicely fill the surround channels as well. The mix here is a bit on the noisy side at times, and unfortunately the tendency is to place all the dialogue in the front channels, where it only sounds more crowded, especially when characters are talking over each other. That said, the audio fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is very wide.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Exclusive Behind-The-Scenes Documentary [1994] [480i] [1.37:1] [23:10] This is what I assume must have been a half hour television special, hosted by Christopher Lloyd. There are some decent interviews here and a look at the voice recording sessions and storyboarding process. There's also a brief look at the CGI elements (crikey folks, you wait until you get a look at the old style CRT monitor!).
Special Feature: Music Video: “Dream Away” [1994] [480i] [1.37:1] [4:47] This is a song recorded by Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds and Lisa Stansfield, of early-1990s mega-hit "All Around the World" fame, and recorded exclusively for the 1994 animated film, ‘THE PAGEMASTER.’ It was written by Diane Warren and produced by David Foster. Is it any good, well I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Theatrical Trailers: Here we get to view two trailers for the film ‘THE PAGEMASTER’ and they are: No.1 Theatrical Trailer [1994] [480i] [1.37:1] [1:04] and No.2 Theatrical Trailer [1994] [480i] [1.37:1] [1:02].
Finally, ‘THE PAGEMASTER’ is technically a film that is to me an unqualified triumph. While the live action special effects are impressive, the animation appears somewhat rushed. It's certainly not the worst to have graced the big screen in the past few years (that distinction probably goes to ‘FernGully’), but certain sequences, most notably those involving ‘The Pagemaster’ who resembles Gandalf from the animated ‘The Hobbit’ looked unfinished. On the other hand, the fire-breathing dragon is suitably imposing and menacing. The characters of Fantasy, Adventure and Horror are wonderfully acted and supplied with some cheeky repartee by producer-writer David Kirschner. "How do you like to curl up with a good book?" takes on an altogether different meaning when Adventure suggests it to Fantasy. The animation is not up to the standards set by Disney's ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ but it's cheery and comical enough to keep the little ones interested. Despite a lot of negative reviews towards this film, I personally think it is totally brilliant and enjoyable romp, despite the fact that I have never been a great fan of this precocious Macaulay Culkin and especially his previous ghastly films, but this one hits the mark 100% and ever since I had this on a Region 1 DVD, I have enjoyed this type of concept of live action combined with animation and to now have it on the Blu-ray format, brings this film to even greater heights of enjoyment and I know with each viewing I will love this film even more and that is why I am so pleased to add this to my ever increasing Blu-ray Collection. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
