The Monsterous or the Crazy: My Personal Favorite Film Librarian

You know, if you really think about it, librarians have been in movies for a long time. Long enough to have a name for them: reel librarians. Yes, most of them are bit roles used to shush the main characters and never actually help.

Madam Pince

A good friend of mine actually just did a paper on the role of Madame Pince in the Harry Potter series. For those who do not know, there actually is a librarian that works in the library that Hermione frequents, who knew?

Monster's University

Though the unhelpful monstrous stereotype does exist pretty obviously in film…..

 

I would like to take the time to review my favorite librarian in all of film.

Now, those close to me know of my secret lesbian crush on Evelyn O’Connell from The Mummy. I mean, look at her! Who would not want to be with this sexy librarian beast who unleashes the plagues upon an unsuspecting Egypt because she can’t listen to the guy who obviously knows more about Egypt than her (the Egyptologist). But, hey, her mom was Egyptian so  she obviously knows what she is doing.

Hottie McHot

No, my favorite reel librarian touched me way before I wished Evelyn O’Connell would. My favorite librarian took the kid from Home Alone and I on an adventure that I still cannot forget to this day. He is the Pagemaster!

The Pagemaster is a 1994 film staring Macaulay Culkin as Richard Tyler, an overly cautious kid that may need way more therapy than his parents are willing to admit.

As a storm hits the area while riding his bike home from the hardware store, Rich takes refuge in the town library. Let me also say that, even though he was such a whimp that I, a 6 year old girl, could beat him up, he had a seriously awesome

bike that he tricked out himself. No one seems to give him credit for that though.

At the library, he meets the eccentric librarian, played by Christopher Lloyd (who always tends to play the crazy but brilliant person) who tried to talk Rich into exploring the fictional area of the library. Rich just desires to call his dad from something called a payphone in order to get a ride home instead. Some might think that Rich was such a scardy-cat that he didn’t even think a library was safe, however Christopher Lloyd played the part so well that even I got some pedo vibes from him.

Richard soon proves that maybe he was right to always be scared when he slips on the floor, hitting his head on the way to this payphone thing. When he awakens, the paintings of wizards and dragons in the library start to come alive. Rich is soon part of the paintings, having become 'illustrated'. Rich meets the wizard, known as "The Pagemaster". The Pagemaster tells Rich to get back home, he must face three tests: Adventure, Horror, and Fantasy. As a kid, this part was truly epic. Taking an actor then turning him into an animation was something way too much for me, it made me feel older to watch it.

If you want to read the rest of the synopsis, you can find a good one here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110763/synopsis. Or you could just watch it. Watching would be better.

What I wanted to discuss was why the pagemaster beat out all the other excellent librarians out there in films, at least in my opinion. The Pagemaster was not just a movie, but a character. He, the librarian, understood the value of the books under his charge, and more importantly the value of children reading them. Yes, being a kid, Rich probably did not grasp the full story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

But, to the pagemaster, it isn’t about the dissecting of a piece or the literature analysis. We don’t have to have a Ph.D. in English or Literature to read it. It is about the story. Where do you go when you are reading about a crazed man chasing a whale? Does your mood change with the characters? Do you understand the plight of the pirates searching endlessly for Treasure Island?

Furthermore, books can be your friends. Yes, if the books start literally talking back, maybe there could be some issues. But have you ever felt lonely in a good book?

Pagemaster: Think, boy! What kind of an answer would you've had if I brought you here with the turn of a page?

[hologram of Mr. Hyde appears, then morphs into Jekyll]

Dr. Jekyll: You prevailed over evil. [morphs into Captain Ahab]

Captain Ahab: Ah, you looked Moby Dick in the eye, boy. [morphs into Long John Silver]

Long John Silver: Ah, you got pirate stuff, me lad! An' don't let no one tell you different.

Pagemaster: If I had brought you here from the start, you would've never had the courage to face your own fears. [hologram morphs into the Dragon] And in doing so, you triumph here... and always. [hologram shows Richard Tyler unconscious on the library's rotunda floor]

The Pagemaster started something in me while I was still quite young. He was right. If I can do this alongside my favorite characters, than I can do it in real life. I can talk to people and make friends and everything else that really goes against my naturally crippling social anxiety. Thank you crazy Christopher Lloyd for always playing the quirky but magical teacher that always is in control and knows best.

 OK, he may be a tad creepy still.....




Jones, A. (Director) (2011, November 10). A Librarian's View of Madam Pince: Promoting Stereotypes, Perpetually Absent, or Plot Device?. Replacing Wands with Quills: A Harry Potter Symposium For Muggle Scholars. Lecture conducted from James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.

Kirschner, D. (Director). (2012). The Pagemaster : Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Laemmle, C. (Director). (2004). The Mummy : Universal Studios.

Heyman, D. (Director). (2002). Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets : Warner Home Video.

Scanlon, D. (Director). (2013). Monsters University : Disney.