Inkheart

Theatrical Release Date: 2008 (USA) / 2009 01 23 (USA) / 2009 01 09 (USA)

UPC: 794043127311

Studio: New Line Home Video

MPAA Rating: PG   Contains:[Scary Moments]

Summary: Author Cornelia Funke's best-selling children's novel comes to vivid life on the big screen with this family-friendly tale about a bookbinder whose storytelling skills possess the curious power to transport the characters he speaks about into the real world. When a nefarious villain from a bedtime story that the father is currently reading to his daughter emerges to kidnap the stunned storyteller, it's up to the young girl and her adventurous friends -- both real and imaginary -- to bring dad back home and close the book on the dreaded fiend once and for all. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Category: Fantasy

Features: Eliza reads to us: co-star Eliza Bennett shares a favorite Inkheart passage not in the movie, accompanied by cornelia funke illustrations

Inkheart

Format: DVD

Release Date: 06/23/2009

Audio: DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 106 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Subtitles: English,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1, Side A -- Inkheart
1. Silvertongue on a Search [4:25]
2. Opening Up Inkheart [5:31]
3. Elinor's Villa [3:32]
4. The Library [3:17]
5. Taken Captive [4:00]
6. Into the Book [5:46]
7. Capricorn's Pawns [3:48]
8. Fortune and Flames [4:34]
9. Just a Dream [5:20]
10. Reading Their Escape [5:54]
11. End of Their Stories [2:26]
12. Author Meets Character [3:59]
13. Bring Her Back [4:42]
14. Another Silvertongue [3:22]
15. Along for the Ride [3:42]
16. Look Who's Back [2:54]
17. Fate of the Disobedient [4:04]
18. Jailbreak [4:26]
19. Plans and Nonplans [4:23]
20. Time to Be Reunited [3:48]
21. Rising Shadow [3:37]
22. Ashes In the Wind [4:25]
23. Reading Everything Aright [3:08]
24. Dustfinger's Turn [3:01]
25. End Credits [7:37]
Disc #1, Side B -- Inkheart
1. Silvertongue on a Search [4:25]
2. Opening Up Inkheart [5:31]
3. Elinor's Villa [3:32]
4. The Library [3:17]
5. Taken Captive [4:00]
6. Into the Book [5:46]
7. Capricorn's Pawns [3:48]
8. Fortune and Flames [4:34]
9. Just a Dream [5:20]
10. Reading Their Escape [5:54]
11. End of Their Stories [2:26]
12. Author Meets Character [3:59]
13. Bring Her Back [4:42]
14. Another Silvertongue [3:22]
15. Along for the Ride [3:42]
16. Look Who's Back [2:54]
17. Fate of the Disobedient [4:04]
18. Jailbreak [4:26]
19. Plans and Nonplans [4:23]
20. Time to Be Reunited [3:48]
21. Rising Shadow [3:37]
22. Ashes In the Wind [4:25]
23. Reading Everything Aright [3:08]
24. Dustfinger's Turn [3:01]
25. End Credits [7:37]

Jason Buchanan

Once upon a time, there was a literary fantasy adventure film with an imaginative premise and a fine cast, unfortunately, the dreaded curse of a meandering plot besieged the entire second act, making the intriguing setup and exciting finale all for naught. There were flying monkeys, a Minotaur, and even Helen Mirren on a unicorn, but even that marvelous sight wasn't enough to save the plot from becoming tiresome as our harried group of heroes attempted to defeat an otherworldly evil by accomplishing the thrilling act of... locating a lost book. The story gets under way as Mortimer Folchart (Brendan Fraser) and his 12-year-old daughter, Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett), arrive in a small European village. Mo is a "Silvertongue" -- a rare individual with the power to conjure the fictional characters in books into our reality simply by reading the stories aloud. But, for every character that crosses over into reality when Mo reads, a real person disappears into the pages of the book in his hands. Mo's daughter was just three years old when he first read her a lavish fantasy adventure entitled "Inkheart." At the time, Mo didn't understand his unique power, and after summoning the story's menacing villain, Capricorn (Andy Serkis), along with some of his most feared henchmen and a wily fire-dancer named Dustfinger (Paul Bettany), Mo's wife, Resa (Sienna Guillory), disappeared into the pages of "Inkheart." For the past nine years, Mo has been scouring used bookstores on every continent in search of the elusive book. If he can just track down a single copy, perhaps he can read his wife back into reality. But Mo isn't the only one scouring the globe for "Inkheart"; holed up deep in the English countryside, in a sprawling castle far from the prying eyes of modern civilization is Capricorn. Having grown quite accustomed to living in our world, Capricorn is determined to track down and destroy every copy of "Inkheart" so he will never be banished back into the pages of fiction. Meanwhile, Dustfinger longs to return to his family in the novel. When Mo locates a copy of "Inkheart" on the dusty shelves of a cramped used bookstore, the race is on to save his wife before Capricorn discovers the plan and destroys what appears to be the last surviving copy of the book. Perhaps with a little help from curmudgeonly book collector Elinor Loredan (Helen Mirren), eccentric "Inkheart" author Fenoglio (Jim Broadbent), and good-natured Arabian Nights thief Farid (Rafi Gavron), Mo and Meggie can prevent Capricorn from summoning the dreaded Shadow and using the towering abomination to claim our reality as his own. Inkheart is a film that's brimming with fascinating ideas and elevated by some memorable performances -- Broadbent and Serkis in particular are compulsively watchable as the sardonic author of "Inkheart" and smiling scoundrel respectively -- yet after our heroic protagonists make a daring escape from Capricorn's castle early on, the action comes to a grinding halt for a good half-hour as they regroup and hatch a plan to set things right. It's a genuine thrill to see Dorothy's house from The Wizard of Oz spinning through the sky after Mo ingeniously summons the tornado from the book in order to escape Capricorn's castle, and it's fun to see familiar fiction blend with original ideas as the story winds to an appropriately grandiose climax, yet even all of this can't make up for the fact that the action simply dissipates for a substantial portion of the second act. Even Broadbent can't stave off boredom as he sits locked away in Capricorn's dungeon, cracking wise as he and Meggie scheme to thwart the villain's nefarious plan, and by the time the Shadow casts the castle into darkness and all hope seems lost, the story has long run out of steam. But all hope may not be lost yet, because when the film loses momentum and the little ones grow restless, perhaps parents can persuade them to pick up a book and exercise their own imaginations. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Cast and Crew: Andrew Licht  Executive Producer 
Iain Softley  Director 
Iain Softley  Producer 
Diana Pokorny  Producer 
Javier Navarrete  Composer (Music Score) 
Ileen Maisel  Executive Producer 
Mark Ordesky  Executive Producer 
Toby Emmerich  Executive Producer 
David Lindsay-Abaire  Screenwriter 
Cornelia Funke  Producer 
Brendan Fraser  Actor 
Paul Bettany  Actor 
Jim Broadbent  Actor 
Helen Mirren  Actor 
Andy Serkis  Actor 
Eliza Bennett  Actor 
Sienna Guillory  Actor 
Rafi Gavron  Actor 
Jennifer Connelly  Actor 
Matt King  Actor 
Steven Speirs  Actor 
Tereza Srbova  Actor 
Stephen Graham  Actor 
Richard Strange  Actor 
Jamie Foreman  Actor 
John Thomson  Actor 
Mirabel O'Keefe  Actor 
Lesley Sharp  Actor 
Jessie Cave  Actor 
Roger Allam  Actor 
Paul Kasey  Actor 
Mamix Van Den Broeke  Actor 

Country: USA