History WesternAnimation / ThePagemaster

%%* MagicLibrarian: The Pagemaster himself.

** 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 ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}''.

Richard Tyler (Macaulay Culkin) is a young boy who is -- much to his parents’ annoyance -- timid to the point of neurosis. He is tremendously afraid of heights and generally obsessed with quoting the statistical risks involved 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.

* SecondaryCharacterTitle

* NeverTrustATrailer: [[http://www.impawards.com/1994/pagemaster_ver1.html That sword?]] The live-action Richard doesn't get it. The animated one does, for a brief time. The cover pictured on this page also features a Frankenstein Monster and a Ghost you never get to meet at all in the movie, and the Pagemaster himself's color schemes is strangely altered.

** Also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK08AXDhM6M "Dream Away"]] by {{Music/Babyface}} & Lisa Stansfield which plays over the end credits.

* LogicalFallacies: "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." JustifiedTrope given Richard's age (he can't be any older than junior-high age). Just because he knows statistics doesn't mean he understands how to calculate probability.

* NeverTrustATrailer / CoversAlwaysLie: [[http://www.impawards.com/1994/pagemaster_ver1.html That sword?]] The live-action Richard doesn't get it. The animated one does, for a brief time. The cover pictured on this page also features a Frankenstein Monster and a Ghost you never get to meet at all in the movie, and the Pagemaster himself's color schemes is strangely altered.

** "Whatever You Imagine", which plays during Fantasy's sequence.
** Also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnCM1lcV_m4 "Dream Away"]] which plays over the end credits.

* ThePublicDomainChannel: Or rather, "The Public Domain Library". Mr. Dewey's library doesn't appear to have any sort of literature in stock that was written after 1922.

* ThePublicDomainChannel: Or rather, "The Public Domain Library". Mr. Dewey's library doesn't appear to have any sort of literature in stock that was made after 1922.

* ThePublicDomainChannel: Or rather, "The Public Domain Library". Mr. Dewey's library doesn't appear to have any sort of literature in stock that was made after 1922, nor do the worlds that Richard and the books travel through feature any literary characters that debuted in the last seventy-two years (at the time of the film's release date), which means you definitely won't be seeing [[Literature/TheHobbit Bilbo Baggins]] or Literature/JamesBond in this movie. This also leads to...
* PublicDomainCharacter: Tons of them.

* ThePublicDomainChannel: Or rather, "The Public Domain Library". Mr. Dewey's library doesn't appear to have any sort of literature in stock that was made after 1922, nor do the worlds that Richard and the books travel through feature any characters that debuted in the last seventy-two years (at the time of the film's release date), which means you definitely won't be seeing [[Literature/TheHobbit Bilbo Baggins]] or Literature/JamesBond in this movie. This also leads to...

* RoomFullOfCrazy:
** More like "Boat full of crazy" for Captain Ahab; hoo boy, that is one mad man. Even Fantasy, who's out of her depth and section in the "Adventure Section" can see it!
** There's also Doctor Jekyll; it involves potions, a cane, a floor burning from acid, candles, a chandelier and one very crazy mad doctor. No more needs to be said.

* TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation

* XMeetsY: ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' meets ''Series/ReadingRainbow''.

* DeadpanSnarker: Fantasy, to an extent. It helps that she's voiced by WhoopiGoldberg.

''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 WarnerBros took over (''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance'' was the other).

* XMeetsY: Film/TheWizardOfOz meets ReadingRainbow.

Richard Tyler (Macaulay Culkin) is a young boy 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 involved 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.

''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 WarnerBros took over (''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance'' 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 involved 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 Creator/FrankWelker, Creator/PatrickStewart and Creator/WhoopiGoldberg respectively). Along the way we see references to many classic books such as ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' and ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde'', along with a goodly heaping of puns, while Richard learns to confront his fears and to lead a life of bravery.