The Pagemaster

Pagemaster -- I remember watching Pagemaster when I was around 9 years old (this was released on 1994, btw). I loved the whole live-action and animation combination throughout the movie. Well, it wasn't so much of a combination as compared to Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or Space Jam since the movie switches between live-action and animation, plus majority of the story is animated.

For those of you who haven't heard of the Pagemaster yet, it's a movie that stars Macaulay Culkin as Richard. He was a timid boy who was fearful of a lot of things. His father decided to make a tree house for him but he's too scared to climb up and help his dad. So one day, his dad runs out of nails and asks Richard to buy some for him. On the way home, rain starts to pour heavily and Richard is forced to seek shelter at the library.

There he meets the librarian, played by Christopher Lloyd, who quickly assumes that Richard is looking for a fiction book and sends Richard off to find one. He slips on the floor at the center of the building and as he wakes up, and suddenly a huge wave of color engulfs him, turning him into a cartoon character.

He then meets three books, Adventure, Fantasy and Horror, in their respective sections. They encounter the Pagemaster who tells them that they have to find the exit, and thus begins an adventure for Richard.

It's a great movie for both kids and adults. I mean, a lot of the grown-ups would recognize literature references all throughout the movie more than the kids would do. Well there's a moral too, just a simple lesson for Richard to face his fears. It was a lot of trouble for that one piece of advice, but at least, he was able to learn how to do just that.