Movie Night!
Talking about one of my favorite movies
Disclaimer: I do not own any photos used in this blog post.
I remember watching a lot of movies growing up but a movie that I can remember very well, and one that made a huge impression on me was, The Pagemaster.
I remember this movie very well and I love it to this day. For my readers who do not know about this movie, I recommend you watch it at least once. Now the gist of the movie is that a little boy named Richard Tyler who is played by Macaulay Culkin is sent to buy a box of nails because Richard’s dad is building him a treehouse. Richard is a very cautious child and while he is riding his bike to the hardware store he gets caught in a thunderstorm. Richard takes shelter from the thunderstorm in a nearby library, the librarian Mr. Dewey meets Richard and assumes that the boy came to the library for a book so much so that Mr. Dewey does not give Richard a word in edgewise and gives him a library card. But Mr. Dewey is disappointed when this isn’t the case.
Richard tells Mr. Dewey that he is only in the library because of the storm, Richard then asks Mr. Dewey if there is a phone he can use to call his parents to let them know where he is and that he’s alright. Mr. Dewey points down a hall and tells him that there is a phone down the hall that he can use, Richard follows the directions and finds a large rotunda, with a mural on the ceiling. The mural depicts 4 famous literary characters, Dr. Jekyll and his counterpart Mr. Hyde, the legendary pirate Long John Silvers, Captain Ahab and the white whale Moby-Dick, a fire-breathing dragon with a knight, and in the center of the mural is a wizard.
Richard is in awe at the pictures but as he stands still the water dripping off him creates a puddle and he slips and falls flat on his back presumably knocking him unconscious. When Richard wakes up he finds the lights of the library turned off and hears distant sounds. After a few seconds, the paint from the mural drops from the ceiling onto Richard and the floor around him, he runs in fear and the fallen paint forms a dragon before gushing toward Richard. The paint moving was made with CG animation. He returns to the rotunda where paint from all the surrounding hallways comes back to the rotunda and covers Richard and all of the walls and books of the library.
Now this is where the movie changes from live-action to cartoon animation, and nearby comes the wizard from the mural but not as detailed. I personally love the lines from this character. He approaches Richard and says, “You are an illustration.” I just think Christopher Lloyd portrayed this character very well. Richard asks who this man is, to which he responds, “I am The Pagemaster. Keeper of the books and guardian of the written word.” Ah, I love this so much! This line gave me more respect for librarians than I already had, and I loved going to the library as a child.
Richard then asks where the others from the mural are and The Pagemaster replies that they are there and all around. Richard then asks if The Pagemaster can help him leave, to which he obliges, and starts walking to show him the way out. The Pagemaster leads Richard to the Fiction section and explains the wonder of fiction, “Where all is possible! Where a boy’s imagination… can take root and grow to incredible heights! Where a boy’s courage is a wind that moves him to discovery.” The Pagemaster sends Richard down the long hall on a book cart crashing into a telephone booth. Now Richard’s true adventure begins, as he will meet new friends and face three challenges in Horror, Adventure, and Fantasy. The names of the section also are the names of his three new friends and they are books.
As Richard faces these challenges he faces his fears, gains some courage, and becomes close with Horror, Adventure, and Fantasy. While they travel through the Horror section, books come to life when they are opened, this is then used again as a way to help Richard face the final challenge. Together The books and Richard make it to where they can see the exit sign. They reach the top of a mountain and face two giant French doors that look like a book and have the advice The Pagemaster gave to Richard at the beginning, “Look to the books”. They enter to find The Pagemaster and a half-sphere with energy going through the top.
Richard gets upset with The Pagemaster and tells The Pagemaster about his adventure but in an annoyed way. The Pagemaster then remarks, “Yet, you stand before me.” Making Richard reflect a little and The Pagemaster continues, “Think boy! What kind of an adventure would you have had if I’d brought you here with a turn of a page?” Where the light is, comes the challenges Richard faced to confront his fears, which were the 4 famous characters from the mural. And they all congratulate Richard for making it to The Pagemaster.
In the reflection of the half-sphere, The Pagemaster shows Richard no longer as an illustration asleep on the floor at the Rotunda. Wanting to go home with his new friends The Pagemaster uses magic to send Richard, Horror, Adventure, and Fantasy back to the real world through the rotunda. The rotunda ceiling returns back to the mural and when Richard wakes up he finds his friends in their regular book forms. The Librarian, Mr. Dewey comes to find Richard on the floor and helps him up, and goes to pick up the three books to put them away, but Richard stops him and tells the librarian he wants to check them out. Mr. Dewey tells Richard that the library has a policy that only two books can be checked out at one time, but he makes an exception. The movie ends with Richard in his treehouse that he was previously afraid to climb asleep from reading the books, we as the audience see shadows of the fantastical books as it fades to black.
There are multiple reasons why I love this movie. I love the beginning when The Pagemaster shows fiction to Richard. He creates a paper out of nowhere and when he throws it up the page becomes a giant. And throughout the movie when books are opened the contents of the book come to life. I just love that books can take you anywhere, and this movie showed that. I also love certain lines throughout the movie that I can make connections to real life, especially now that I am older than when I first saw it.
One line is from Adventure, “Be careful lad, not all sharks are in the water.” As a kid, I didn’t really get it but now I get it. For the context of the scene, Adventure and Richard were stranded on a piece of wood as a makeshift raft surrounded by sharks, and in the distance were pirates in a dinghy. Richard calls out to them and they row towards the duo and are taken to Long John Silver and forcibly recruited into his crew.
I am a sucker for puns, I have a dry sense of humor it might as well be a desert. But puns will always at the very least get me to crack a smile, so I appreciated all the book puns in the writing. “Mhm, a classic misprint” said by Fantasy as an insult towards Adventure. “Even books have spines.” A line by Adventure essentially telling Richard to man up when they are attempting to escape from the Horror section. Of course, there is the classic quote, “You mustn’t judge a book by its cover.” said by Fantasy in regard to Horror.
Another line that I took note of was when Richard says “You guys are my only friends” to Horror, Fantasy, and Adventure. Which as sad it may sound, for some people books really are their only friends. For a while as a child, I didn’t have many friends and during recess, I would go to the library and read books or help out the librarian. My librarian would try to encourage me to go to recess and play with the other kids, but I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I felt like I didn’t fit in with the other kids. But slowly as I grew up I came out of my shell and made friends, but I still like enjoying a good book.
Overall this book made a huge impression on me as a child, do you guys have anything like that? A book, a movie, a TV show, a song, etc. Let me know in the comments.