15 Years Later: Is Inkheart a Mistimed Fantasy Tale?
On the 23rd of January 2009, Inkheart was released in the USA. Inkheart is an adaptation of Cornelia Funke’s novel and saw one of the most popular action-adventure stars of the time Brendan Fraser take the leading role. Not many people talk about this movie, and today, I am going to look back and see what might have caused the franchise to never have been returned.
15 Years Later: Inkheart
Story
A teenage girl discovers her father has an amazing talent to bring characters out of their books and must try to stop a freed villain from destroying them all, with the help of her father, her aunt, and a storybook’s hero.
Box Office
Inkheart was produced with an estimated budget of $60 Million and only made $63 Million worldwide. But why did it struggle so badly at the Box Office? The staggered release didn’t help, as the UK and other parts of the world received the movie in late 2008. While the biggest audience USA didn’t receive it in January, right in the middle of award season. After years of having a Harry Potter movie released around the Festive period, this seemed like an attempt to plug that hole, as the magical wizard had moved to a summer release.
Critical Response
Inkheart has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 38%. The consensus is that it is a bit clumsy and basic in how everything is presented. This is seen across the positive and negative reviews, which give a middling series of ratings.
The Fresh Ratings
Kim Newman’s Empire Magazine review quotes ‘Magical, if messy – this gets by on a good heart, high adventure and an unashamed love for books.’
Peter Bradshaw’s Guardian review quotes ‘CGI fantasy adventures in the post-Potter, young-adult, old-child mode are not quite my taste, but this one is likably boisterous, and Iain Softley directs with flair.’
The Rotten Ratings
Roger Ebert’s Chicago Sun-Times review quotes ‘No child seeing Inkheart will ever want to be read to again.’
Sara Michelle Fetters’ MovieFreak.com review quotes ‘Instead, much like a forgotten piece of pulp fiction, this film evaporates instantly from memory, the book closing on this one’s chances of success long before they even have a chance to begin.’
Cornelia Funke
Cornelia Maria Funke is a German author who wrote a host of fantasy novels. In 1993 the first of her ‘Wild Chicks’ series was released along with the ‘Ghosthunters’ series. Followed closer by the ‘Dragon Rider’ series.
In 2003, the Inkheart trilogy started, with follow-ups ‘Inkspell’ and ‘Inkdeath.’ As we know, we never got to see the sequels turned into movies, but there was potential there. Elsewhere, ‘MirrorWorld’ series has been released. Nearly all of her work as been adapted over the years, with Inkheart being the biggest worldwide appeal.
Fantasy Fatigue
We mentioned Harry Potter before, the juggernaut which dominated box office charts through the 2000s. ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ came out later in 2009. After previously being pencilled in for a 2008 release. Elsewhere, in the fantasy world ‘Twilight’ had just kicked started another novel series of movies taking the world by storm. ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ has released a third movie.
You must remember that in the early-2000s we saw the beginning of Harry Potter. The ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy stormed the Box Office and Awards shows. Studios jumped at the opportunity to greenlight any fantasy novel which had a global audience. By the time Inkheart was released, we had already seen some of the biggest attempts fail at the Box Office.
‘The Golden Compass‘ was the previous biggest failure. It couldn’t bring to life Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’. Which has become a popular television series in its own right in recent years. Outside of pure fantasy, The Marvel Cinematic Universe was about to start, taking away much of the similar fantasy love in the most recent years.
Cast
Brendan Fraser
Brendan Fraser had been on top of the world after his appearance in ‘The Mummy’. Unfortunately, his career didn’t take on the way others had in the past. He appeared in a string of movies that didn’t find real success. ‘Dudley Do-Right’, ‘The Quiet American’ and ‘Looney Tunes: Back in Action’. Brendan did appear in the Oscar-winning ‘Crash’, but we all know how popular that movie is now.
In 2008, Brendan starred in ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ and the third mummy movie, ‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’. With two fantasy films already completed, Inkheart made it three.
After Inkheart, Brendan fell off the map for major releases, turning to television for a return. In more recent years it emerged he was unfairly blacklisted for reporting sexual misconduct by a higher-up in Hollywood. 2023 saw Brendan making his triumphant return to Hollywood, winning the Best Actor Oscar for ‘The Whale’. He also appeared in Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’. Hollywood has welcomed Brendan back with open arms and we can’t wait to see what he does next.
Eliza Bennett
Eliza Bennett is the youngest member of the cast, playing the daughter of Mo. She previously appeared in ‘Nanny McPhee’ before guest starring in a host of television shows. Her biggest movie role since is ‘Do Revenge’ the teen comedy available to watch on Netflix now.
Other Cast Members
Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, Andy Serkis, Jennifer Connelly, Sienna Guillory, Stephen Graham and Jamie Foreman filled the supporting cast. Just like many fantasy adventures, we get a massive cast of stars. Everyone involved understood their roles and has continued to have successful careers in Hollywood.
Could It Return?
Inkheart could return in some shape or form. I feel it would struggle as a movie, but there is no reason why we couldn’t do a television series. The streaming services are always after their latest big cornerstone project. However, this could be a lot smaller project that gathers steam. Any fantasy adventure could work in the modern era of entertainment. To add to this, we have seen the previously mentioned ‘His Dark Materials’ Disney has brought the ‘Percy Jackson’ series back and Amazon has been making the ‘Wheel of Time’ series.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, Inkheart came out too late into the fantasy boom, leaving it in the shadows of larger franchises. Harry Potter, Twilight and Lord of the Rings became the biggest and a lot like many others, Inkheart got lost in the shuffle. It has nothing about the lack of source material or performances. Unfortunately, it never captured an audience previous fantasy movies had.
What did you think of Inkheart?