The Pagemaster is a 1994 American live-action/animated fantasy adventure film starring Macaulay Culkin, Christopher Lloyd, Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Stewart, Leonard Nimoy, Frank Welker, Ed Begley Jr., and Mel Harris.

The film was directed by Joe Johnston (live-action) and Pixote Hunt and Glenn Chaika (animation), and produced by David Kirschner and Paul Gertz.

Despite Richard's protests, he meets Mr. Dewey, an eccentric librarian/custodian who insists that he needs a special book and gives him a library card.

Dr. Jekyll, Captain Ahab, Long John Silver, and the dragon reappear in a magical twister and congratulate him.

The crew included animators who were veterans of productions such as An American Tail (1986) (also produced by David Kirschner and composed by James Horner), The Land Before Time (1988).

All of the fictional works featured in the film were created and first published before January 1, 1923, making them a part of the public domain in most countries.

[7] This was also the third film in which Leonard Nimoy and Frank Welker co-starred; the first two were Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and The Transformers: The Movie.

20th Century Fox's next animated film, Anastasia, produced by its own in-house animation division, would use a digital method of coloring and combining scanned drawings similar to Disney's CAPS software, which would eliminate the need for cels, the multiplane camera, and many of the optical effects used for the last time in The Pagemaster.

The screenwriting credits for this film were the subject of a protracted legal arbitration with the Writers Guild of America (WGA)[8][9] when its producer, David Kirschner, attempted to claim sole authorship of the screenplay and original story, with no credit for its original screenwriter, David Casci.

In the case of The Pagemaster, the producers attempted to claim that, as the film was now largely animated, the WGA did not have jurisdiction to determine credits.

These facts positioned the WGA to get involved, testing their tenuous authority over a feature film with animated elements.

After a lengthy investigation and interviews with those intimately familiar with the genesis of the Pagemaster project, including three persons within Kirschner's own office, the WGA credit arbitration process determined that David Casci was, in fact, the primary writer, and that Kirschner did not provide a sufficient creative contribution to the writing process to warrant any screenwriting credit.

The deleted scenes and characters can be still seen during the making of the film, trailers and TV spots, SkyBox International trading cards, books and other related products.

[13] Brian Lowry of Variety said that the film's principal appeal for adults would be its abbreviated running time, and that it did not do enough with its famous fictional characters, noting: "A more inspired moment has Richard using a book, Jack and the Beanstalk, to escape from the belly of a dragon.

[14] Rita Kempley of The Washington Post gave the film a positive review, calling it a "splendidly original children's fantasy about the world of books".

[15] James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave another positive review, calling it a "clever, often engaging, and always fast-paced motion picture" that "uses the visual medium to encourage its viewers to reach out with their imagination".

[16][17] The Pagemaster earned a Razzie Award nomination for Macaulay Culkin as Worst Actor for his performance in the film (also for Getting Even with Dad and Richie Rich).

The soundtrack album was released only on Compact Disc and Cassette Tape format on October 30, 1994, and is also available in the iTunes Store.