Amazon.com Essentials:
Wolfgang Petersen (In the Line of
Fire) made his first English-language film with this 1984
fantasy about a boy (Barret Oliver) visualizing the stories of a book
he's reading. The imagined tale involves another boy, a warrior (Noah
Hathaway), and his efforts to save the empire of Fantasia from a
nemesis called the Nothing. Whether or not the scenario sticks in the
memory, what does linger are the unique effects, which are not quite
like anything else. Plenty of good fairy-tale characters and memorable
scenes, and the film even encourages kids to read. --Tom Keogh
