14th March 2007, 8:22 PM
Neil Gaiman is awesome. Dave McKean too... Watch it.
This is Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's first movie; they've done books, television shows (the fantastic Nevewhere -- that's amazing too!), graphic novels, etc, but not a film... well, until this, which came out in 2005. The story is by Neil Gaiman and the art and direction by Dave McKean, and they did a really good job (like with all of Neil Gaiman's stuff that I've seen/read). Mirrormask follows some of Gaiman's common themes in that it's about an English (British, that is) person drawn into a fantastic world. In this case, the main setting is a strange dream world, which the main character, Helena, a teenage girl whose family runs a circus enters after her life seems to fall apart when her mother gets sick. The art design and CG work (it was made with the Henson company) is very well done and has a unique style. The plot is pretty good too. The environments and situations along the way are what really makes the film, though, not the story. The one weak point, perhaps, is the ending, but this is a British film, not a Hollywood one, and for a British film, the ending is probably actually pretty happy...
Anyway, while perhaps the basic concept -- person drawn into another world -- is conventional, and something Gaiman has done several times before, such as in Neverwhere or Stardust (which seems to be in production as a movie to be released this year; the book has been out for some time, though, and is good.), but each one of those has its own unique spin. Neverwhere is a much darker, scarier work, while this has a stronger fairy-tale feel and less depression, though there is sadness and difficulty of course.
It's hard to talk about something so focused on the plot without saying anything about that plot, isn't it... the ending does not spoil the good qualities of the plot, though, and I really liked the film. Perhaps Neverwhere was better, but that was six TV episodes, not a 100 minuite movie, so it had more space to work with, and had a different focus as I said... I don't know, Mirrormask is good as well. It is less "adult", but this is not a bad thing; on the contrary, the tone the movie sets works very well. Recommended, if you can find a copy to rent somewhere.
This is Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's first movie; they've done books, television shows (the fantastic Nevewhere -- that's amazing too!), graphic novels, etc, but not a film... well, until this, which came out in 2005. The story is by Neil Gaiman and the art and direction by Dave McKean, and they did a really good job (like with all of Neil Gaiman's stuff that I've seen/read). Mirrormask follows some of Gaiman's common themes in that it's about an English (British, that is) person drawn into a fantastic world. In this case, the main setting is a strange dream world, which the main character, Helena, a teenage girl whose family runs a circus enters after her life seems to fall apart when her mother gets sick. The art design and CG work (it was made with the Henson company) is very well done and has a unique style. The plot is pretty good too. The environments and situations along the way are what really makes the film, though, not the story. The one weak point, perhaps, is the ending, but this is a British film, not a Hollywood one, and for a British film, the ending is probably actually pretty happy...
Anyway, while perhaps the basic concept -- person drawn into another world -- is conventional, and something Gaiman has done several times before, such as in Neverwhere or Stardust (which seems to be in production as a movie to be released this year; the book has been out for some time, though, and is good.), but each one of those has its own unique spin. Neverwhere is a much darker, scarier work, while this has a stronger fairy-tale feel and less depression, though there is sadness and difficulty of course.
It's hard to talk about something so focused on the plot without saying anything about that plot, isn't it... the ending does not spoil the good qualities of the plot, though, and I really liked the film. Perhaps Neverwhere was better, but that was six TV episodes, not a 100 minuite movie, so it had more space to work with, and had a different focus as I said... I don't know, Mirrormask is good as well. It is less "adult", but this is not a bad thing; on the contrary, the tone the movie sets works very well. Recommended, if you can find a copy to rent somewhere.