Before starting the review, I should say that my point of view might be a bit biased. This was one of the few movies I saw in theaters as a kid, so I might be less harsh than I really should be.

The Pagemaster is about a boy named Richard who is afraid of everything. To escape a storm, he goes into the library where he slips and falls. After he falls, he's transformed into an illustration and meets the Pagemaster. The Pagemaster tells him that he must pass the three test to return to the real world: fantasty, adventure, and horror.

The movie feels more like a series of scenes rather than a unified film, but it's still okay. The one scene that was really out of place was a musical montage jin the fantasy area. They just add one song montage and all they do is show a few characters.

The animation is good, though not particularly amazing. To be fair, they have quite a few bits that are technically difficult that they did well.

Like I said (a million times), I was shocked and suprised by the negative reviews I would see on the web, I thought it's a great film with a excellant soundtrack score by the James Horner (An American Tail,Krull,Titanic,Troy,etc), and a wonderful blend of live action and animation and this film became one of my favorite live action/animated films along with Disney's Song of The South (and the new Enchanted), and Arthur and The Invisibles.

The film starts with 10-year-old Richard Tyler who is scared to do anything that might endanger him, like riding his bike, or climbing into his treehouse. While seeking shelter from a storm in an old library, he is mystically transported into the animated "wonderful and quite unpredictable world of books." I love the main title sequence with the clouds that was awesome! and the mural in the library too.

This is really a fantastic movie, in fact up in my top five. The story is great, and the characters are some of the most fun I've seen. Though when I was five I was scared of it... Oh well.
Certainly a favorite, or maybe I'm just easy to please.

I found this one at Wal-Mart in the cheap rack and figured what the heck, it's only few dollars if I don't like it I'm not out much.
I remember renting it back when it first came out, but that was so long ago I didn't remember much about it other than it had the home alone kid in it and some talking books.

I know now why I didn't remember much. The story and characters are very weak. Instead of possibly spending fifteen minutes building up the characters' character it jumped from one scene to another. The story was fairly bland as well. The whole theme was a kid was so afraid of everything he wouldn't do anything at all. He slips on a wet floor in a library knocking him unconcious, and is then tranported into the animated realm of books. There he learns the meaning of courage and how to face his fears. The animation is ok, but does not compare to any of the Disney films that were being released at the time.

The only things that saved this film from a 1 star rating were the score and the cast. James Horner composed the score and it's very nice, not his best, but enough that it stood out to me. There is one place, where out of the blue a song just explodes then is over just about as quickly as it started. Very very out of place and the song isn't that good either. Thankfully none of the characters sang it.
The cast was very good. Many big name stars are in this film and did a very good job.

Overall this film would maybe keep a young child entertained, but I doubt any kid over ten would be very thrilled by it. One that if it's seen, not much has been missed.

Take The Neverending Story, suck out the good bits, and shove in the worst elements of Free Willy style schmaltz, and The Pagemaster is what you get. You have your hero who has "issues". In the case of this movie, he has unnatural fears of everything. But then he discovers courage when a conk on the head sends him into a fantasy land where he goes on adventures with talking books and characters ripped from literature. Can you feel the bad taste forming in the back of your mouth already?