The Pagemaster

As the cartoon characters took over, the storyline slid predictably into place as we watched Richie battle dragons and learn a lesson about the "meaning of life."

The Pagemaster is the kind of movie first-grade teachers would have popped into the VCR in the 1990s to kill time on a rainy afternoon.

Built on a wispy premise better suited to the realm of TV, The Pagemaster plays like a slickly produced afternoon special.

Mediocre, really, this mixture of real actors and animation.

A pallid film framed at the start and finish by live action and mostly composed of cheap-looking animation.

In this age of technology, a not-so-subtle plug for a classic method of mental stimulation comes as a pleasant surprise.

The perfunctory prologue and epilogue, the unimaginative use of the literary sources, the mushy songs which Disney appears to have made obligatory and the lacklustre animation left me with little to do but bemoan missed opportunities.

Narrated with a rhythm that prevents that one can get bored, the moral of 'The Pagemaster', which invokes the power of books and reading. [Full Review in Spanish]

Weak Macaulay Culkin fantasy with some cartoon violence.

Weak Macaulay Culkin fantasy with some cartoon violence.