First of all, I'd like to point out that I saw this movie just by "accident". I mean, it was only by occasion that I had a chance to watch it and, even though I had not the foggiest idea of what was the movie about, I decided to watch it because I was in the mood of seeing something different. I knew this was an animated movie, but I didn't know it was a combination of live-action and animation. That was a big surprise when I started watching the movie. But even before that I was surprised when I looked at the opening credits because there was a list of famous actors, such as the legendary and unforgettable Macaulay Culkin, Cristopher Lloyd, Whoopi Goldberg and Patrick Stewart. I was delighted because it stars the great Macaulay Culkin.
The story introduces Richard Tyler (portrayed by Macaulay Culkin), an intellectual boy obsessed and concerned about statistics of nearly everything. He lives with his parents but seems to be a lonely boy with practically no friends. That and his obsession for statistics worries his parents. When he goes to a library, he meets an eccentric librarian, Mr. Dewey (played by Cristopher Lloyd), who believes Richard is desperate for a book about a fantasy world with adventure, danger, darkness, dragons and so on. After that, Richard sees a spectacular roof painted with strange characters and fantastic creatures. Then he accidentally slips on some water and falls down unconscious. What's next? Well, Richard and everything around him is transformed into illustrations. Richard lives great dangers and adventures in a world of fantasy and horror, including being swallowed by a enormous fire-breathing dragon.
The movie starts very well and (I've gotta admit this) it has some spectacular and very creative special effects in the library. Next, the movie becomes animated, but not for good. While the animation is good, I can't say the same about the rest. The designs/drawings, sceneries, picture quality and artwork in general are nothing but dreadful. That fantasy world is a horrible place. The animated characters themselves are, most of them, very ugly. The illustrated Richard looks good and similar to Macaulay Culkin and the giant dragon looks absolutely amazing, but the rest of the characters are too much and annoying, especially those animated books: Adventure (a pirate-like book), Fantasy (a fairy-tale shaped book) and Horror (a horrific-looking book).
Through great part of the movie, I found similarities and common elements to other movies and stories. Where do I begin? The tree-house idea comes from "Home Alone". The fact that Macaulay Culkin wears glasses here is a similarity to his character from "My Girl". A treasure island and the one-legged pirate Long John Silver comes directly from "Treasure Island". There are also elements from "Peter Pan" and "Moby Dick". But that's not all: common elements with "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Harry Potter", "The Lord of the Rings", "The Black Cauldron", "Sleeping Beauty", "Ghost Busters" and even with Asian anime cartoons are another reality.
Some similarities with "The NeverEnding Story" can be found either. In the fantasy world, Richard is sent to a quest to face his fears. Another good example is the fact that he goes to a library (in this case, in the live-action world) and meets an eccentric librarian who tells him about strange and fantastic stories. Another similarity is that Richard gets angry in the end, for all they made him been through.
Back to real life and the live-action world, Richard is still unconscious but when he wakes up, he seems to become a stronger boy and more ready to face life's problems.
A good movie? Definitely not for me. Like I said, it starts very well and promising, but turns out to be a major disappointment when it becomes animated. Its combination of so many stories doesn't work well and its artwork is really terrible. The movie is also extremely dark, like "The Black Cauldron" and "The Lord of the Rings", for example, which doesn't help either. Overall, a good movie for kids, but for adults I'm not so sure. It all depends on each person's tastes.
At least Macaulay Culkin deserves credit for his performance. He might have messed up his life later, but he always proved to be an excellent actor. This was one of his last movies and may have been an attempt to do something different, but turned out to be unsuccessful.
The story introduces Richard Tyler (portrayed by Macaulay Culkin), an intellectual boy obsessed and concerned about statistics of nearly everything. He lives with his parents but seems to be a lonely boy with practically no friends. That and his obsession for statistics worries his parents. When he goes to a library, he meets an eccentric librarian, Mr. Dewey (played by Cristopher Lloyd), who believes Richard is desperate for a book about a fantasy world with adventure, danger, darkness, dragons and so on. After that, Richard sees a spectacular roof painted with strange characters and fantastic creatures. Then he accidentally slips on some water and falls down unconscious. What's next? Well, Richard and everything around him is transformed into illustrations. Richard lives great dangers and adventures in a world of fantasy and horror, including being swallowed by a enormous fire-breathing dragon.
The movie starts very well and (I've gotta admit this) it has some spectacular and very creative special effects in the library. Next, the movie becomes animated, but not for good. While the animation is good, I can't say the same about the rest. The designs/drawings, sceneries, picture quality and artwork in general are nothing but dreadful. That fantasy world is a horrible place. The animated characters themselves are, most of them, very ugly. The illustrated Richard looks good and similar to Macaulay Culkin and the giant dragon looks absolutely amazing, but the rest of the characters are too much and annoying, especially those animated books: Adventure (a pirate-like book), Fantasy (a fairy-tale shaped book) and Horror (a horrific-looking book).
Through great part of the movie, I found similarities and common elements to other movies and stories. Where do I begin? The tree-house idea comes from "Home Alone". The fact that Macaulay Culkin wears glasses here is a similarity to his character from "My Girl". A treasure island and the one-legged pirate Long John Silver comes directly from "Treasure Island". There are also elements from "Peter Pan" and "Moby Dick". But that's not all: common elements with "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Harry Potter", "The Lord of the Rings", "The Black Cauldron", "Sleeping Beauty", "Ghost Busters" and even with Asian anime cartoons are another reality.
Some similarities with "The NeverEnding Story" can be found either. In the fantasy world, Richard is sent to a quest to face his fears. Another good example is the fact that he goes to a library (in this case, in the live-action world) and meets an eccentric librarian who tells him about strange and fantastic stories. Another similarity is that Richard gets angry in the end, for all they made him been through.
Back to real life and the live-action world, Richard is still unconscious but when he wakes up, he seems to become a stronger boy and more ready to face life's problems.
A good movie? Definitely not for me. Like I said, it starts very well and promising, but turns out to be a major disappointment when it becomes animated. Its combination of so many stories doesn't work well and its artwork is really terrible. The movie is also extremely dark, like "The Black Cauldron" and "The Lord of the Rings", for example, which doesn't help either. Overall, a good movie for kids, but for adults I'm not so sure. It all depends on each person's tastes.
At least Macaulay Culkin deserves credit for his performance. He might have messed up his life later, but he always proved to be an excellent actor. This was one of his last movies and may have been an attempt to do something different, but turned out to be unsuccessful.