(Credit: DVDtown.com)
Directed by
Dave McKean
Cast:
Stephanie Leonidas …. Helena
Gina McKee …. Joanne
Rob Brydon …. Helena’s Father/Prime Minister
Jason Barry …. Valentine
Dora Bryan …. Nan
Robert Llewellyn …. Gryphon
Andy Hamilton …. Small Hairy
Stephen Fry …. Librarian
Fiona Reynard …. Receptionist
Nik Robson …. Pingo
The Movie:
Neil Gaiman must love Alice in Wonderland. Quite often in the writer’s landmark series The Sandman, his books would share similar themes with Lewis Carroll’s seminal work of a young girl, already having problems in her day to day life, waking up in a fantasy land with amazing creatures and adventures. She would make friends with the creatures, but the situation would certainly become dire and require sacrifice to be able to make it through. This formula was employed at least twice in Gaiman’s masterpiece series in stories A Doll’s House and A Game of You, but each time, Gaiman was able to make the stories his own somehow. We felt for these characters not because of their archetypes, but because of elements that Gaiman had imbued in them, and in that he was able to keep the stories fresh, even when he borrowed from his famous predecessor.
It is with this same template that Gaiman writes Mirrormask, his first film project. For a director, the film features Gaiman’s longtime colleague Dave McKean, the writer’s collaborator on projects such as Violent Cases, Mr. Punch, and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. McKean himself is renown in his own right in the world of Comics as his surreal artwork on Gaiman’s The Sandman covers, as well as the glorious Batman : Arkham Asylum are masterpieces in and of themselves.
Mixed with the Jim Henson Company, the studio that brought audiences Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, Mirrormask should be a dream of a film for lover’s of Fantasy. Unfortunately, it’s a film that is an absolute visual feast is that merely features a side dish in its narrative properties. Perhaps Mirrormask relies too hard on its formula, as it’s a bit too easy to predict its story route, or maybe the film is just too odd for its own good as its whimsy seems to only tire out its audience instead of enchanting them.
The story revolves around Helena (Stephanie Leonidas), a young girl working in her father’s circus. She’s horribly miserable, as she finds the circus life tedious, but knows that she’s needed by her family to help keep the whole thing afloat. When an argument with her mother turn’s tragic, the film’s story is really set in motion. This early introductory phase is actually one of the best portions of Mirrormask. This may be McKean’s directorial debut, but it’s hard to tell in this early going as he seems to possess as boundless invention with his camera style.
When Helena falls asleep as her mother’s situation turns grim, she enters a fantastic fantasy world, where the entirety of its inhabitants wear masks and fantastic creatures walk and fly about. My favorite creatures of the picture are these odd police officials which walk together to make this centipede-like form that is able to carry Helena around. Also very interesting are these huge, lumbering giants that try to help Helena along her way.
The movie’s plot involves the world’s Queen of Light, who has been put to sleep when her Mirrormask is stolen from her. This is causing the land’s Queen of Darkness to take over and only Helena can stop the world’s destruction.
Too bad that while Mirrormask’s images can be beautiful; the world has no cohesive feel to it. It’s as if you’re walking through someone else’s dream for 95 minutes. The world is made of up free form pictures with no congruity and as Helena keeps going, McKean’s world grows frustrating instead of making you want to see more. It may have still worked if Gaiman’s narrative had been stronger, but that isn’t able to hold up either.
McKean does get points for getting his actors to pull out quality performances despite having all digital backgrounds. Actors can often come off flat due to having to imagine the world around them, but here we do get some spirited turns. Stephanie Leonidas is especially good as the conflicted Helena. She’s spunky enough that we want to follow on her journey, even though Gaiman and McKean go off the rails. Jason Barry’s Valentine is also quite enjoyable as Helena’s guide and friend along the way.
Mirrormask is a classic example of talented people doing mediocre work. Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean get many elements right here, but can’t put it all together to make Mirrormask truly worthwhile. Gaiman is capable of writing wonderful narratives, but here he show’s not enough of the warmth that is typical of his work. McKean is a wonderful artist, but his paintings come to life are more distracting here than inviting. The two will no doubt work together again to create more masterpieces. Mirrormask will just not be among them.
Score: 6.0 /10
The DVD:
The Video
This is the movie’s strong suit and this DVD features it prominently. The print here is wonderful as you get to see all the little touches that the film provides in crystal quality. Mirrormask is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 Widescreen.
The Audio
Also nice is the audio track here, which brings out the highs and lows of the soundtrack with great clarity. The film’s sound is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1.
SPECIAL FEATURES: 7 Featurettes, Question and Answer Section, Commentary
Commentary with Writer Neil Gaiman and Director Dave McKean – This is a decent commentary, but not very spirited. Then again, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard these two very spirited anyway.
Interview with Neil Gaiman – This is a five minute interview with Gaiman talking about the many projects that he and McKean have worked on. He goes in depth about many of the stories and how McKean’s visual style is different from anyone else he’s worked with.
Interview with Dave McKean – This interview is not as interesting as the Gaiman one. McKean talks about his road to directing Mirrormask but takes the long way round getting to it.
Beginnings – This is about the different concepts in the film and how they developed the story.
Cast & Crew – This is a nice little Featurette with the Cast and Crew speaking well of Gaiman and McKean. Stephanie Leonidas seems especially captivated by the creators.
Day 16 – This is an interesting Featurette that has a split screen type of effect showing some finished work on the film along with behind the scenes production and trivia facts. These trivia bits are the best part, telling tidbits such as how many shots were finished as well as how many fish are floating in the scene.
Flight of the Monkeybirds – This is a breakdown of the Monkeybirds sequence in which Helena enlists the help of these weird creatures to help her escape the forces of darkness. It’s pretty neat and shows the scene from filming to the different stages of post production to completion.
Giants Development – This is a look at the Giants used in the film. It goes over the concept of the Giants and how they came about.
Questions & Answers – This runs about 20 minutes or so. The two are pretty funny together and you can tell why they like to work together so often.
Score: 7.5 /10
