The Pagemaster - Production Notes

Production Notes

The Pagemaster took three years to produce; the animation in the film was produced by Turner Feature Animation, headed by David Kirschner and recently spun off from Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. The crew included animators who were veterans of productions such as An American Tail (also produced by David Kirschner), The Land Before Time, and Aladdin. This was one of the first films to feature live-action, traditional animation, and CGI animation all together. One scene involving a computer generated dragon made from paint was used, a challenge for the filmmakers. 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. The theme songs to the movie are "Dream Away", sung by Babyface and Lisa Stansfield; the other being "Whatever You Imagine", sung by Wendy Moten.

The majority of the cast has appeared in a role in the Star Trek universe: Patrick Stewart played Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Whoopi Goldberg played Guinan, Leonard Nimoy played Mr. Spock, Christopher Lloyd played Kruge in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Ed Begley, Jr. played Henry Starling in two episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, George Hearn played Dr. Berel in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and B.J. Ward played numerous characters in Star Trek computer games as did Jim Cummings. Composer James Horner was also the composer for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Frank Welker voiced Spock's screams in Star Trek III and the alien creature in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Nothing Human".

Additionally both Nimoy and Welker voiced the character Galvatron in Transformers (with Nimoy voicing him in the 1986 film and Welker voicing him in the TV series).

Promotional advertisements for this film used the theme from the 1984 film The Last Starfighter.

Casci's original screenplay included a story arc for the protagonist, Richard Tyler (played by Macaulay Culkin), who begins the tale as a boy who hates reading, but by the end of the film, learns to love reading. The revised screenplay by Contreras and Kirschner omitted the reading-themed story arc, instead emphasizing the boy's journey from cowardice to courage.

According to the film's animation crew, the film went over budget during animation production due to mismanagement and changes to the narrative. The 2001 book Producing Animation by Catherine Winder and Zahra Dowlatbadi (Johnston's assistant on The Pagemaster) recommends against making story changes during the animation process.

Fantasy and Long John Silver are voiced by Whoopi Goldberg and Jim Cummings, both had starred a role (along with Cheech Marin) in The Lion King as 3 troublesome hyenas.