The Pagemaster

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The Pagemaster is a 1994 film that features both Live Action and Animation, one of only two made by Turner Entertainment's animation unit before Warner Bros took over (Cats Don't Dance was the other). The Pagemaster tells the story of a young boy named Richard Tyler (Macaulay Culkin), who is -- to his parents’ annoyance -- timid to the point of neurosis. He is tremendously afraid of heights and generally obsessed with quoting the statistical risks invovled in countless everyday actions, which, of course, explains why he isn't the most popular guy. One day his father runs out of nails while building him a tree house and sends a very reluctant Richard to buy more.

On his way to the hardware store, a storm suddenly breaks out, and Richard seeks shelter in a huge and luxurious but rather sinister library. The only person there is its extremely enthusiastic and slightly creepy librarian, played by Christopher Lloyd, who is disappointed that Richard merely sought shelter from the storm and isn't looking for books, but affably points him towards the public telephone so he can contact his parents. While wandering deeper into the library in search of the phone, Richard enters a magnificent rotunda painted with gigantic scenes from classic novels which surround the image of a blue-robed wizard holding a scroll.

The paint descends on Richard, transforming him and the library into an animated world of illustrations where the mystical wizard, the eponymous Pagemaster (also voiced by Lloyd), tells him that in order to get home, the boy must face three challenges: The lands of Horror, Adventure and Fantasy. He is assisted by three books which personify those genres(colourfully voiced by Frank Welker, Patrick Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg respectively). Along the way we see references to many classic books such as Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, along with a goodly heaping of Incredibly Lame Puns, while Richard learns to confront his fears and to lead a life of bravery.

Beloved childhood classic to many children of The Nineties.

Tropes used in The Pagemaster include:

• Actor Allusion: May be unintentional, but Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sound like Spock and Evil Spock respectively.
  • Entirely Intentional/Coincidental, Leonard Nimoy voiced said character
• Animation Lead Time: There were trailers coming out for this movie FOUR YEARS before it was released!
• You Fail Logic Forever : "8% of all household accidents involve ladders. Another 3% involve trees. We're looking at 11% probability here". First, he's ignoring some overlap between the 8% and the 3%. Secondly he's assuming that an accident will happen, in which case the probability that it involves ladders is 8%, but that doesn't tell us anything about the chances that this specific ladder-climbing event will lead to an accident. What he needs is a statistic in the form of "X% of the time somebody climbs a ladder, they have an accident" rather than "X% of all accidents involve ladders."
  • Apparently his fear is so great that it actually warps his sense of logic.
  • Of course, it is worth remembering that he's a kid. They presumably don't teach statistics in grade school.
• Award Bait Song: "Whatever You Imagine", which plays during Fantasy's sequence.
• Axe Crazy: Mr. Hyde in the horror section, using a cane instead of an axe.
• Big Bad: The dragon. Sort of. He's more of a Final Boss.
• Body Horror: Dr Jekyll's (presumably) very Painful Transformation to monstrous Mr. Hyde
• Character Title
• Cowardly Lion: Richard himself.
• Deadpan Snarker: Fantasy, to an extent. It helps that she's voiced by Whoopi Goldberg.
• Drunk On the Dark Side: Literally, Dr Jekyll after becoming Mr Hyde.

My name is... Mr HYYYYYYDE !!!

• Everything Trying to Kill You: In the beginning of the movie, Richard has one of the most death-defying bike rides ever, encountering heavy rain, harsh winds, exploding street lamps and falling trees. Of course the scene is from his point of view, meaning it all seems terrifying to him. Played straighter when he enters the Library, where everything is trying to kill him.
• Evil Laugh / Laughing Mad: Mr Hyde.
• False Crucible
• The Foreign Subtitle: A few countries just put Pagemaster: [Something] as the title.
• Genre Blindness: As the characters approach a frightening mansion in the Horror section, Fantasy reads the names of the residents: "Dr. Jekyll...Mr. Hyde...(Beat)...Must be a duplex." Then again, It's not Fantasy's genre, so OF COURSE she wouldn't realize the rules of a horror story.
• Ghost Butler: The door of Jekyll's mansion closes after Richard ventures in, trapping him inside.
• Glamour Failure: The Anthropomorphic Personification of a Horror book is seen through a vial of mysterious liquid for a few frames of Beautiful All Along.
• Groin Attack: Averted. Adventure's sword came up between Richard's legs.
• Hair of Gold: Richard.
• Haunted Castle: Jekyll's house.
• The Homeward Journey
• Hypocritical Humor: After his dad is hit on the head with a bucket and falls from the treehouse, Richie says "Can't argue with statistics, Dad!" despite him being the one that set the accident in motion.
• I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: Be honest, how many of you said, "That's Spock!" when you heard Jekyll's voice?
• Just Eat Him: The "Alive and Whole" subtype is enacted by the dragon.
• Large Ham: George Hearn as Ahab, which isn't a surprise when one remembers his other roles. He is only on-screen for few minutes, but surely everyone remembers him.
  • Considering how OTT Ahab got when even thinking about Moby Dick, this characterization isn't too far off.
  • Also Mr Hyde at his best. This is Xehanort doing his voice after all.
• The Library of Babel
• Medium Blending: Trapped in an Animated World
• Nerd Glasses: Richard.
• Never Trust a Trailer / Covers Always Lie: That sword? The live-action Richard doesn't get it. The animated one does, for a brief time.
• Oh Crap: Adventure gets one of these, when he realizes that the dragon was right behind him.
• Omniscient Morality License : The eponymous Pagemaster takes a cowardly child and subjects him to all sorts of deadly situations. To all appearances, there was a real chance that the kid would either die or develop severe mental trauma as a result of this. But instead he learns to be courageous, and the Pagemaster gets off the hook because apparently he's just so darn wise that he knew it would work out like this from the beginning.
• Or Was It a Dream?
• Ow My Body Part: Adventure yells "Ow! Me binding!" after Fantasy smacks him.
• Pirate: Adventure acts like one, and then they meet real ones (Long John Silver's crew).
• Portal Books
• Public Domain Character: Tons of them.
• Random Events Plot: But seriously, the film is really, really lacking in, shall we say, story structure?
  • The Pagemaster said the whole point was for Richard to face his fears.
• Reading Is Cool Aesop
• The Renaissance Age of Animation
• Right Behind Me: Adventure starts ranting about how the dragon doesn't pose a single threat to him, just as said dragon is behind him.
• Rule of Three: Three challenges and three books, anyone?
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Horror and Adventure.
• Shout Out: Many classic books are referred to during the course of this movie, from full sequences to quick moments like a raven cawing "Nevermore!" while swooping down from a bust of Pallas above the archway in Dr. Jekyll's manor.
  • Don't forget the dozens of covers of the various books that we see during the film.
  • The satyr with the panpipes and the little dancing blue fairies are respectively references to the Pastoral Symphony and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in Fantasia.
• Spooky Silent Library
• Stock Audio Clip: Richard saying "Hey, look! There's the exit!" twice.
• Talk Like a Pirate: Adventure and the actual pirates from the Treasure Island part
• Technically a Smile: Horror.
• Visual Pun: Richard and the gang encounter some ghost stories, i.e., books that are actually intangible and/or haunted.
• Wrote the Book:

Adventure: I wrote the book on sailing. In fact, I am the book on sailing.

• X Meets Y: The Wizard of Oz meets Reading Rainbow.