Continued

'The Pagemaster' (1994)
Macaulay Culkin plays a nerdy boy who hits his head in the library and gets transported into a magical animated world in this charming family film. He must battle through adventures taken from classic books like "Moby Dick" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles" to get home. Vocal talent includes Whoopi Goldberg as a wise-talking pink book. Believe it or not, this was one of three movies released in 1994 starring Culkin. Three! The other two were "Getting Even With Dad" and the "Richie Rich" update. Culkin wouldn't appear in another movie until nearly 10 years later ... nor would an animated version of him.

'Casper' (1995)
Last month I rediscovered this movie while flipping through channels before Halloween, and it rekindled an element of my childhood. This update of the classic comic books features Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci as a father and daughter who move into a spooky old mansion. Luckily, the ghosts are (mostly) friendly. But Cathy Moriarty and Eric Idle sure aren't. They want the treasure inside the house. The film takes place in a reality so far removed from our own that it might as well be animation. Yet CGI Casper remains undeniably human, keeping things grounded.

'Joe's Apartment' (1996)
A couple of weeks ago, someone asked me if Jerry O'Connell had ever starred in a good movie. I said no. I would now like to formally retract that statement. "Joe's Apartment" was the first film produced by MTV. I remember how cool we all thought we were seeing its PG-13 crudeness at the mall. The story is a musical comedy about a regular dude who discovers talking cockroaches in his new apartment, much to the annoyance of his girlfriend. There is little additional plot to speak of, but Don Ho appears in a supporting role. Don Ho, people!

'Space Jam' (1996)
The Looney Tunes characters have a long history of interacting with real people on celluloid, but never were their exploits more bizarre than in "Space Jam." Eleven years after the fact, the movie feels like a period piece culmination of everything that was wrong with the '90s. "Space Jam" stars Michael Jordan as himself during his, "I'm a baseball player now" phase. When Earth must battle evil aliens for control of the universe in a basketball game, it's up to Jordan to come back to his rightful sport and claim the title for our planet. Bill Murray is also on the team. Yikes.

'Little Otik' (2000)
Jan Svankmajer is a demented Czech animator and director whose surreal films combine stop motion animation with human actors. His greatest (and strangely enough his most accessible) work is "Little Otik," which must be seen to be believed. The plot follows a couple that is unable to have children. The man places a large tree root in a crib to cheer up his wife. She starts to pretend the root is her real baby, and soon it comes to life. The only problem is that it has a taste for blood. That's right, blood. Rent this now.

'Monkeybone' (2001)
Most people wrongly associate Tim Burton as the director of "The Nightmare Before Christmas." While Burton created the famous characters in that film, Henry Selick directed the feature itself. Selick is also the weird mind behind "Monkeybone," one of the most disastrous flops in recent cinematic history. The movie was drubbed by critics and earned less than $6 million against a $75 million production budget. Ouch, especially considering that it doesn't deserve such a bad rap. This is a solid, if bizarre, adventure of a cartoonist stuck in and battling with his own creation.

Other films that mix animation and live action include "Victory Through Air Power," "The Reluctant Dragon," "Osmosis Jones," "Scooby-Doo," "Stuart Little," "Small Soldiers," "Dragonheart," and "Fat Albert." While not all great cinema, they are at least worth checking out if you have a passion for the genre.

Which one of these animated worlds would you most like to escape to? Did we miss a film that's one of your favorites? Which duck in "The Three Caballeros" would you most like to be? Let us know at heymsn@microsoft.com.

Sound off: Comment on this story | Also: Features archive

Previous

In addition to making regular contributions to MSN Movies, Frank Paiva is a junior at New York University, where he studies theater and writing. His work has appeared in The New York Times, the Seattle Weekly, the Not for Tourists guide, 80108, and EDGE.