The Pagemaster

THE PAGEMASTER, a children's adventure intended to extol the virtues of reading, is lively enough that it may rescue a few young borderline illiterates from a life of video games. Yet the film never grapples with the paradox suggested by its central conceit: if a large dose of high-tech Hollywood animation is required to persuade the average kid to open a book, hasn't the battle been lost already?

Afraid of germs, terrified of heights, and allergic to risk-taking, Richie Tyler (Macaulay Culkin) is a textbook case of childhood panic. When his parents (Mel Harris and Ed Begley Jr.) send him to the store to buy nails for a treehouse that he hates, a storm breaks ...