MirrorMask (2005)
Directed by Dave McKean
In a fantasy world of opposing kingdoms, a 15-year old girl must find the fabled MirrorMask in order to save the kingdom and get home.
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As screenwriter Neil Gaiman tells the story, Mirrormask came about when Lisa Henson contacted him about creating a new movie in the mode of Labyrinth and The Dark Crystaltwo Jim Henson fantasy features that failed at the box office but have reached family-classic on VHS and DVD.
Gaiman and McKean's mandate from the Jim Henson Co. was to create something in a similar vein to The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, movies which bombed on initial release but have steadily grown in popularity over the years.
Borrowing heavily from The Wizard of Oz, and to a lesser extent from Alice in Wonderland and The Chronicles of Narnia, co-creators Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (collaborating with The Jim Henson Group, who made The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth in this genre during the 1980s) develop a simplistic tale of good and evil, and of a quest that doesn't have many interesting intermediate points between its beginning and its conclusion.
Combining elements of Dali surrealism, Cirque du Soleil, Eyes Wide Shut‘s anonymous orgy scene, The Brothers Quay’s mannequin-infatuated stop-motion shorts, Adam Jones’s videos for Tool, The Wizard of Oz, two prior Henson projects ( Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal), and Gaiman’s own Sandman comic series, this children’s fantasy about the bond between parents and children is a stylistic smorgasbord bloated with literary and cinematic influences.
At best, Helena's wiggy adventures recall such Jean Cocteau films as "Orpheus" and "Blood of a Poet."
A first-time cinematic collaboration between the extravagantly imaginative writer Neil Gaiman and the artist-director David McKean (both are intensely revered in the comic-book subculture for their work on the esteemed "Sandman" series, among many other things), the movie has a flickery, handmade quality that recalls such primordial entertainments as George Méliès' 1902 "A Trip to the Moon," and an unrelenting otherworldliness that's indebted to more modern films, like the late Jim Henson's 1986 "Labyrinth." ("MirrorMask" was in fact produced by the puppet masters of the Jim Henson Company.)
As screenwriter Neil Gaiman tells the story, Mirrormask came about when Lisa Henson contacted him about creating a new movie in the mode of Labyrinth and The Dark Crystaltwo Jim Henson fantasy features that failed at the box office but have reached family-classic on VHS and DVD.
A first-time cinematic collaboration between the extravagantly imaginative writer Neil Gaiman and the artist-director David McKean (both are intensely revered in the comic-book subculture for their work on the esteemed "Sandman" series, among many other things), the movie has a flickery, handmade quality that recalls such primordial entertainments as George Méliès' 1902 "A Trip to the Moon," and an unrelenting otherworldliness that's indebted to more modern films, like the late Jim Henson's 1986 "Labyrinth." ("MirrorMask" was in fact produced by the puppet masters of the Jim Henson Company.)
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…from Time Bandits, an otherwise fine parallel), she wishes to run away from the “wild life” -- in this case the Circus…
The movie essentially becomes a protracted dream sequence, a tip of the hat to The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland and many other books and movies you and Neil Gaiman have seen and read.
Borrowing heavily from The Wizard of Oz, and to a lesser extent from Alice in Wonderland and The Chronicles of Narnia, co-creators Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (collaborating with The Jim Henson Group, who made The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth in this genre during the 1980s) develop a simplistic tale of good and evil, and of a quest that doesn't have many interesting intermediate points between its beginning and its conclusion.
Although the plot and motifs are largely borrowed from "The Wizard of Oz" and "Alice in Wonderland," there is something oddly intoxicating about Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman's coming-of-age fantasy "MirrorMask."
Combining elements of Dali surrealism, Cirque du Soleil, Eyes Wide Shut‘s anonymous orgy scene, The Brothers Quay’s mannequin-infatuated stop-motion shorts, Adam Jones’s videos for Tool, The Wizard of Oz, two prior Henson projects ( Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal), and Gaiman’s own Sandman comic series, this children’s fantasy about the bond between parents and children is a stylistic smorgasbord bloated with literary and cinematic influences.
Combining elements of Dali surrealism, Cirque du Soleil, Eyes Wide Shut‘s anonymous orgy scene, The Brothers Quay’s mannequin-infatuated stop-motion shorts, Adam Jones’s videos for Tool, The Wizard of Oz, two prior Henson projects ( Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal), and Gaiman’s own Sandman comic series, this children’s fantasy about the bond between parents and children is a stylistic smorgasbord bloated with literary and cinematic influences.