jackcwelch23 This was my favourite film as a kid. Being born the year it came out, I think i spent the majority of 1998 watching it as that is when my brain developed enough to remember a movie. I honestly remember sitting there in my lounge room literally wishing there would be a sequel or a longer version somewhere out there because even as a toddler there were still parts of the film frustrated the hell out of me. I wanted to see Richard at school, get better sense of his lack of friends and worried, overly cautious nature. I wanted him to have a girl he liked, or someone he wanted to impress, that he could after his adventures with the books. I wanted more Christopher Lloyd. I wanted the areas of the journey he embarked upon to go longer than about 15 minutes each, I wanted more jokes and maybe a few more characters for them to meet along the way. I also would have liked more books to pop up, maybe like action or something like that. Even just a little cameo would have been cool.All that being said, what I was left with, I loved. More than anything. James Horner's score is easily my favourite of all time and summarises my awesome childhood. Macaulay Culkin was always my hero. I was delighted he was the star of this. It was a hell of a lot better than richie rich. Yeesh. The visuals were terrific and it really did have a sense of wonder. The very short runtime however, stopped it from being a real classic. Man oh man that was a small tragedy as a kid. It filled me with a rich sadness, because I didn't want the story to end. It did make me feel as hard as i think i ever felt as a child though, and for that, I cant fault it. Plus the bike scene made me want to jump 10 feet in the air with happiness.

Ruairidh MacVeigh Now this was popular with Cartoon Network, when I was growing up this was always a classic movie special for the channel, and as a kid I do have some fond memories of this film. But as an adult I can see the problems of which there are many.What's the marshmallow? Macaulay Culkin plays Richard Tyler, a nervous and awkward child who allows statistics to control his life, meaning he never does anything sporty or risky like other kids. This all changes though when he enters a creepy library to escape a raging storm, and is soon thrown into an enchanted animated world where he has to locate the exit. On the way he picks up three books, Adventure, Fantasy and Horror, who help him embark on his quest through the library and all the mysterious and strange wonders it may entail.Now, the problems. It is quite slow in places which even as a kid left me rather turned off to it. At the same time there are quite a few little holes in the story that do make you scratch your head in confusion. Another problem I found as a kid was the fact that it only dabbled in three genres of literature. What about Science Fiction, Non-Fiction, Action, Celebrity Autobiography? I realise they're trying to keep it simple, but it didn't have to be as simple as that! Also, it's simplistic nature does cause some issues when they come across literary legends as they're literally just glanced over! If it weren't for the fact that I'd heard of these icons of novels already, you wouldn't know who they were or what stories they were from as the movie never takes the time to explain them properly!But on the plus side, the animation is very good, with some lovely colours and an interesting art style. As a kid I never had any complaints on that front. Another good thing is that the story, while as mentioned slow in places, does keep you gripped long enough to watch it.On the whole, a lot of problems with the film, but at the same time some good things that will keep you entertained. Perhaps for younger kids I'd say this movie is recommended, but for adults you'll probably find yourself disinterested.

Amsomnia Studios I only review the movies I really adore, some will slip that I don't adore but this one isn't one of them, it seems that over the years people have lost a lot of imagination, it seems as we go through the future we realize what cannot be true is so phony, but as I see it people will return to it one time, I am still a really liker of imagination, but people today don't wanna believe the things that no one can believe, so because of that this movie haven't got a lot of good reviews, I want to do this movie justice...The pagemaster is made for kids and adults who still dreams, it isn't the most serious movie at all but it does have some spots that has deemed it serious, mostly it is a movie that should be taken lightly.This movie wants us to be taught something like many others of its nature, in this movie we are taught two major things first 1. to take choices and not be afraid, to do things we normally would be a afraid of as a child, second 2. it teaches us the main thing, to believe, simply just to believe, we all know none of this is real but why do we have to disband these movies, they are imagination, fantasy something many today could need a whole lot more of.This movie is also done very good by the actors, they chose the right actors for every voice in the movie, but my favorite is of course Christopher Loyd as the Pagemaster, the one who granted a single wish for a kid who were afraid of everything.The music is perfect in this movie, as it is a fantasy music like this is needed, this is something people and companies have at least kept forever and haven't still forgot, now if only they would do the same for fantasy, for imagination, we all have a child in us, why grow up so fast, we get to be mature but that doesn't mean we have to let go the things that made us into what we are today, many of these movies have been forgotten but they will always stay inside us, so now it is time to say that this movie is all that it is a classic, a classic people just forgot.As I said above I only do reviews of movies I like, not movies I don't like so of course this is one of my favorite, I grew up watching movies like this, enjoy it, and for do yourself a favor and watch it again, slowly fall inside imagination, just one more time, it is worth it..."Shh I have a talent for guessing what people need"

Atreyu_II First of all, I'd like to point out that I saw this movie just by "accident". I mean, it was only by occasion that I had a chance to watch it and, even though I had not the foggiest idea of what was the movie about, I decided to watch it because I was in the mood of seeing something different. I knew this was an animated movie, but I didn't know it was a combination of live-action and animation. That was a big surprise when I started watching the movie. But even before that I was surprised when I looked at the opening credits because there was a list of famous actors, such as the legendary and unforgettable Macaulay Culkin, Cristopher Lloyd, Whoopi Goldberg and Patrick Stewart. I was delighted because it stars the great Macaulay Culkin.The story introduces Richard Tyler (portrayed by Macaulay Culkin), an intellectual boy obsessed and concerned about statistics of nearly everything. He lives with his parents but seems to be a lonely boy with practically no friends. That and his obsession for statistics worries his parents. When he goes to a library, he meets an eccentric librarian, Mr. Dewey (played by Cristopher Lloyd), who believes Richard is desperate for a book about a fantasy world with adventure, danger, darkness, dragons and so on. After that, Richard sees a spectacular roof painted with strange characters and fantastic creatures. Then he accidentally slips on some water and falls down unconscious. What's next? Well, Richard and everything around him is transformed into illustrations. Richard lives great dangers and adventures in a world of fantasy and horror, including being swallowed by a enormous fire-breathing dragon.The movie starts very well and (I've gotta admit this) it has some spectacular and very creative special effects in the library. Next, the movie becomes animated, but not for good. While the animation is good, I can't say the same about the rest. The designs/drawings, sceneries, picture quality and artwork in general are nothing but dreadful. That fantasy world is a horrible place. The animated characters themselves are, most of them, very ugly. The illustrated Richard looks good and similar to Macaulay Culkin and the giant dragon looks absolutely amazing, but the rest of the characters are too much and annoying, especially those animated books: Adventure (a pirate-like book), Fantasy (a fairy-tale shaped book) and Horror (a horrific-looking book). Through great part of the movie, I found similarities and common elements to other movies and stories. Where do I begin? The tree-house idea comes from "Home Alone". The fact that Macaulay Culkin wears glasses here is a similarity to his character from "My Girl". A treasure island and the one-legged pirate Long John Silver comes directly from "Treasure Island". There are also elements from "Peter Pan" and "Moby Dick". But that's not all: common elements with "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Harry Potter", "The Lord of the Rings", "The Black Cauldron", "Sleeping Beauty", "Ghost Busters" and even with Asian anime cartoons are another reality. Some similarities with "The NeverEnding Story" can be found either. In the fantasy world, Richard is sent to a quest to face his fears. Another good example is the fact that he goes to a library (in this case, in the live-action world) and meets an eccentric librarian who tells him about strange and fantastic stories. Another similarity is that Richard gets angry in the end, for all they made him been through.Back to real life and the live-action world, Richard is still unconscious but when he wakes up, he seems to become a stronger boy and more ready to face life's problems.A good movie? Definitely not for me. Like I said, it starts very well and promising, but turns out to be a major disappointment when it becomes animated. Its combination of so many stories doesn't work well and its artwork is really terrible. The movie is also extremely dark, like "The Black Cauldron" and "The Lord of the Rings", for example, which doesn't help either. Overall, a good movie for kids, but for adults I'm not so sure. It all depends on each person's tastes.At least Macaulay Culkin deserves credit for his performance. He might have messed up his life later, but he always proved to be an excellent actor. This was one of his last movies and may have been an attempt to do something different, but turned out to be unsuccessful.