Mo (Brendan Fraser) is a repairer of old books has a special gift.  He is also a Silver Tongue, a person with the ability to bring any character from any book to life if he reads the book aloud.   He and his daughter, Meggie (Eliza Bennett), have been on the constant move since Megge’s mom has disappeared.  Mo knows what happened to her and he has accidentally unleashed characters from a little known novel called Inkheart.   He is being hunted by two characters from the book- Capricorn (Andy Serkis) and Dustfinger (Paul Bettany).  Capricorn wants Mo to use his gift to bring other evil characters to life while Dustfinger just wants back in the book to be with his wife.   Mo has been obsessed with tracking down a copy of Inkheart since his wife disappeared.   Don't forget Toto, the the unicorn, and others are in this film.

INKHEART is a fun and imaginative fantasy film (based on the novel by Cornelia Funke).   The characters and story are wonderful.  The only problem is that every character overshadows the central character of Mo while every other actor brings their characters to life vividly compared to what Fraser is doing (Helen Mirren is impressive with what she is given for the character of Aunt Elinor).   INKHEART is one film that was victim to various release date changes (sitting on the shelf for two years and may even be victim to being edited down by New Line)before being dumped to theatrical release in January.   I do wish INKHEART was longer and also I wouldn't mind if there was a sequel to this gem.   It is a smart choice for Brendan Fraser even though he is better in the other two films where he plays the father/ parental figure (JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH and THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR).

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The only extra is Co-Star Eliza Bennett reading her favorite passage from the novel- and ending that goes farther than where the movie ended.

If you are lucky enough to get the DVD and Blu-Ray combo unit, the DVD has a digital copy while the Blu-Ray disc has deleted scenes and a two additional featurettes not on the DVD.  I wish Warner and other studios would stop doing this by including extras that can also be fit on the DVD (and making the extras exclusive to Blu-Ray).

FINAL ANALYSIS:   INKHEART is a fun fantasy for the entire family.  Check it out.  Buy the Combo package if you love the film and considering upgrading to Blu-Ray in the future.  The only downside are extras not included on the DVD (making Blu-Ray owners the only ones who can see them).

This DVD review is (c)6-26-2009 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com