Opening

78% Fast & Furious 6 May 24
—— The Hangover Part III May 23
—— Epic May 24
95% Before Midnight May 24
83% We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks May 24
—— Fill the Void May 24
—— A Green Story May 24
—— Alyce Kills May 24

Top Box Office

86% Star Trek Into Darkness $70.2M
78% Iron Man 3 $35.8M
49% The Great Gatsby $23.9M
46% Pain & Gain $3.2M
69% The Croods $3.0M
77% 42 $2.8M
56% Oblivion $2.3M
98% Mud $2.2M
37% Peeples $2.2M
8% The Big Wedding $1.2M

Coming Soon

—— After Earth May 31
—— Now You See Me May 31
88% The East May 31
100% The Kings of Summer May 31

The Pagemaster (1994)

tomatometer

29

Average Rating: 4.7/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 5

No consensus yet.

audience

48

liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 50,015

My Rating

Movie Info

A young boy overcomes his obsessive fears by discovering a love for books in this animated fantasy adventure. In a live action wraparound, Macaulay Culkin stars as Richard Tyler, an easily bullied, nervous wreck of a kid who's an expert on safety statistics. His mother and father (Mel Harris and Ed Begley, Jr.) don't know how to inspire their son to embrace life boldly. Barely able to leave the house, Richard ventures out one day, but he gets lost in a storm and ends up at a mysterious library.

May 28, 2002

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Cast

ADVERTISEMENT

All Critics (17) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (3) | Rotten (14) | DVD (3)

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

December 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A splendidly original children's fantasy about the world of books.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This clever, often engaging, and always fast-paced motion picture uses the visual medium to encourage its viewers to reach out with their imagination.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: ReelViews
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A sad and dreary film.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comments (4)
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Weak Macaulay Culkin fantasy with some cartoon violence.

January 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

Weak Macaulay Culkin fantasy with some cartoon violence.

December 14, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

The film rests on its initial ingenuity and fails to develop the concept in interesting or surprising ways.

December 4, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

If you're looking for a movie that may inspire your children to read, ignore this one and lay your money down for The Princess Bride or The NeverEnding Story.

July 25, 2002 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Apollo Guide

a nice starting point for an important conversation with your child about why so many cartoons think children are stupid.

June 6, 2002 Full Review Source: Film Freak Central
Film Freak Central

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

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle

The Pagemaster's problems can be easily traced back to the screenplay, which simply lacks anything remotely resembling wit.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Audience Reviews for The Pagemaster

All The Adventure Your Imagination Can Hold.

Not a great or horrible movie! The beginning of this movie is excellent with tremendous sound and some nice humor, but once the film changes into animation it quickly loses its appeal. However, although this film is mostly disappointing, not all is lost. The story, for all its flaws, wastes no time in getting started, and there is a certain nostalgia surrounding the film for the endless stream of, mostly mediocre, but still harmless, cartoons of the 90s, when computer-generated animation was yet to be exploited. Overall, just not memorable enough or able to compete with the great animated films of the last dozen years.

This is the story of a young boy named Richard Tyler, who finds shelter from a storm inside a nearby library. Tyler slips and is knocked unconscious while exploring a rotunda in the library. Upon awakening he is led on a journey through conflicts and events that resemble fictional stories, keeping him from finding the exit from the library.
February 22, 2011
xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
Manu Gino

Super Reviewer

Kids will like it and the animation is nice, plus some good acting, but overall its not the most memorable animated film made
June 6, 2011
michael e.
Michael Edwards

Super Reviewer

No quotes approved yet for The Pagemaster. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Discussion Forum

There are no discussion threads for The Pagemaster yet.

Latest News on The Pagemaster

November 21, 2011:
Viola Davis Helps Save Rhode Island Library
The R.I. native joins Alec Baldwin and state Senator Elizabeth Crowley in re-opening the shuttered...

December 5, 2007:
Total Recall: The Golden Compass and Kids in Fantasyland
After a series of delays and personnel changes, the first part of Phillip Pullman's His Dark...

Help | About | Jobs | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Mobile