Aaron Ploof
America has a literacy crisis. According to the National Literacy Institute, only 79% of adults nationwide were literate in 2024. Furthermore, 54% had literacy skills below a 6th-grade level. In schools, only about 34% of 4th-grade students read at or above the proficient level on national assessments. At the same time, over a third fall below the basic threshold. Eighth-grade students do even worse. For instance, 39% are below the proficient level, and a record 1/3 score below the basic achievement threshold. English professors are complaining that students are not able to write remedial essays.
Even in schools, students are learning from tablets instead of actual books. They work on them to submit essays, instead of using a pencil and paper. At home, their interests are mostly limited to electronic devices like phones and iPads. Further still, books are being banned in record numbers. In addition, conservative groups are limiting children’s access to literature that explores experiences that are different than theirs. This is especially true when it comes to racial minorities and LGBTQ+ groups.
This is all very different than the days when I was a student. I read novels at school like Brave New World, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Huckleberry Finn, and Slaughterhouse-Five. These controversial books prepared me for the world ahead. I was able to face the obstacles in my life with more courage and confront my fears. For instance, Huckleberry Finn gave me a role model in Huck, an individual who rebelled against what he saw as a corrupt society with skewed morals and stood up for his friend, Jim.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve read less for fun. Sadly, I’m not alone. Only 16% of people in America read daily for fun, according to a 2023 survey. I’ve been battling this bad habit myself. Recently, I’ve been working to read more novels, comics, and other types of fiction (my favorite type of literature). Horror is one of my favorite genres. I’ve enjoyed going back through the books I’ve missed. I am attempting to broaden the number of authors I’ve read.
I owe my interest in literature to numerous factors. I’m autistic, and reading fiction helped me understand the social world, for one. Yet, one piece of art in particular helped catapult me into the world of books from a young age. It’s called The Pagemaster.
Released in 1994 and considered a cult classic today, this movie has the power to introduce children to classical literature. Although it’s not a perfect film, and I view it differently than I did as a child, it still accomplishes its main goal. Specifically, it prepares children for the world to come, giving them the tools to use their imagination and the courage to face life head-on through the power of art. If more children watched movies like it today, we wouldn’t lose them to the world of brain rot and illiteracy.
The Pagemaster tackles its main goal through the tale of its protagonist, ten-year-old Richard Tyler (Macaulay Culkin). Richard is spooked by almost everything. His bedroom is filled with a multitude of safety tools. There’s a box that reads, “In case of fire, break glass,” with a pair of shoes hung next to it reading, “In case of broken glass, use these.” His father, Alan, is at his wits’ end with Richard, complaining that the boy is afraid of tuna fish sandwiches. No, scratch that, his mother says, “mercury levels in the tuna.”
To push his son towards confronting his fears, in this case, the fear of heights, Alan is building Richard a treehouse. Yet, as expected, Richard is so afraid of heights that he refuses to go up. When Alan asks Richard to bring him up a bag of nails, he states his knowledge of statistics: “Dad, eight percent of all household accidents involve ladders. Another three percent involve trees. We’re looking at an eleven percent probability here.” Richard uses a bucket and pulley to bring the nails up to his father, but he doesn’t pay attention, and he drops the nail bucket on his dad’s head, sending him falling onto the ground from the tree. Of course, Richard sees this as a confirmation of his fears: “Can’t argue with statistics, Dad!” he states. His dad sends him on a mission: get a few doo-dads from a local hardware shop.
This is important to note. On Richard’s way there, he is made fun of for his safety helmet and other attire by local kids jumping a construction ramp with their bikes. But Rich doesn’t dare to face up to them. Instead, he pedals down a long tunnel, a storm closing in on him. He takes refuge in a library, where he meets the librarian, Mr. Dewey (Christopher Lloyd). He points Rich towards the phone in the back to call his parents, but on his way there, Richard slips on the floor, and after waking, the giant mural above him transforms into a multi-colored dragon and chases him, finally catching up and turning Richard into a cartoon. He then meets the titular Pagemaster, a wizened old wizard who sends Richard on his journey towards the exit sign.
The rest of the film explores Richard’s attempts to get to the exit of the animated library. Along his way, he befriends a few anthropomorphic books: Horror (Frank Welker), Adventure (Patrick Stewart), and Fantasy (Whoopi Goldberg). Each of these books wants to be checked out from the library, the main motivating factor for a library book. Together with Richard, they travel through different animated literary worlds, each one based on a genre of book. The novels they visit are varied: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Moby-Dick, Treasure Island, Gulliver’s Travels, and 1,001 Arabian Nights, amongst others.
The point of Richard’s journey is that by the end of his adventure, he’s gained the courage to confront his fears. He survives a confrontation with Moby Dick, faces up to Long John Silver (Jim Cummings), rides a magic carpet to impossibly high heights, and dons a heroic suit of armor to save his new friends from a fire-breathing dragon. When he once again meets the Pagemaster, Richard is furious, as he’s almost died multiple times. Yet the wizard points out that Richard still stands before him. He proves to our once cowardly protagonist that if he had brought Richard to the end with a “turn of a page,” he’d never have gained the courage to face his own fears.
Richard’s spirit is returned to his real-life body, and he checks out Horror, Adventure, and Fantasy before making his way home. When he comes across the bike ramp, he takes off his safety guards and makes the jump, proving his bravery. He further demonstrates his newfound courage when he sleeps in the treehouse that night, impressing both his father and his mother.
When I returned to the narrative of The Pagemaster as an adult, it was easier to see its flaws. Yes, despite its popularity with children of the early ’90s, The Pagemaster was maligned by critics and most other audiences. Currently, it sits at a 19% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating. Audience members gave it an only slightly better rating of 49%. Most of the complaints can be summarized by the late Roger Ebert’s review.
Ebert’s main criticisms of the film concern the scattershot plot, the lack of motivations for the literary characters, and the poor quality of the animation. I concur with his points on almost all these flaws. The movie could have used more runtime to elaborate on the classic literary characters. They enter the film and leave without much of an impact, with appearances that mostly amount to brief cameos. Animation-wise, I must be biased. Indeed, 20th Century Fox’s animation skills aren’t up to the same quality as Disney’s, but I still found the depiction of the various worlds and literary characters to be creative.
In fact, I find the whole premise to be creative. While there have been various literary world crossovers since The Pagemaster (the comics The Unwritten and Fables as well as the TV show Once Upon a Time come to mind. Seriously, these are must-read comics and must-watch shows if you love literature), I can’t recall another literary-based crossover over multiverse film before this one.
Another factor I disagree with Ebert on is the point that he says reading is its own reward. He argues that the point of The Pagemaster seems to be that reading can be just as fun as TV cartoons and video arcade games. Reading shouldn’t need to be sugarcoated, he argues. Why yes, it should be, Ebert!
As I argued earlier, kids today are enraptured with electronic devices and brain rot content on YouTube and TikTok. While video games are an important artistic medium, not all of them have something important to say. Watching streamers goofing off in a Minecraft world can be alright for a while, but it eventually gets brain-numbing. Movies like The Pagemaster serve to counteract that effect. They reach children where they stand, in film and animated shows, conveying to them the importance of imagination and the power of art. They encourage children who are distracted by the fast-paced rhythm of social media and the diluting power of AI to actually sit down with a physical book and get pulled into another world, just as Richard enters the fantastical realm of literature.
It is for this reason that despite its flaws, The Pagemaster still remains a favorite of mine. I’m so intrigued by its world and imagination. I hum its memorable songs by James Horner and Diane Warren, “Whatever You Imagine” and “Dream Away,” constantly throughout my day, as they bring me comfort and hope. And I plan to eventually get around to reading all the books that the film features. Moby-Dick is already my favorite novel; I expect Treasure Island to come close. If you haven’t seen this one, give it a watch. Your inner child will thank you, and you may find yourself looking to the books once again.
