Mirrormask

Mirrormask is a marvelous-looking film that's exceptionally dull. The world McKean and his animators have created - a child's doodle-pad come to bizarre life - contains all manner of imaginative, otherworldly design features, but also has no rules nor sense of space nor personality, really. As a piece of animation, it's a wonder. But it's not very exciting to watch.

It kind of reminds me of the early days of computer animation, when it was called 3D Animation and consisted of trippy, alinear shorts shown on late-night cable TV and backed up with industrial music.



Fifteen-year old Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) hates working at the circus run by her parents. She spends her days working on her drawings and ignoring the fact that she lives in a trailer next to a Big Top. When her mother (Gina McKee) collapses during the show and is rushed to the hospital, Helena has a dream that she enters the world of her drawings, a land split between Light and Darkness.

It's kind of like The Neverending Story, except that film gave its hero (Bastian) a real quest, with a definite conclusion and a clear enemy. Helena just kind of wanders around this bizarre fantasyland, in kind of an aimless fashion.

She meets a peculiar man in a mask (everyone in this world covers their face except Helena) named Valentine (Jason Barry) who serves as a guide, and together they bumble around exploring polygonal wonders.

Mirrormask has been described as a family film, and it's reliance on shiny visuals instead of any kind of human drama might appeal to the younger set more than adults, but it's a bit too creepy for kids. There are dogs with human faces on them, that yell and sneer at Helena. And spiders with large, googly eyeballs that spy for a Wicked Queen (also played by McKee). Also, there's an extremely creepy group of robots that sing The Carpenters' "Close to You," in what is surely one of 2005's most unsettling film sequences.

Mirrormask's trippy designs are the work of illustrator Dave McKean, and he does a great job at giving the film a unique look. The live-action scenes, as well, are innovatively shot with some measure of success, particularly a long zoom out through Helena's bedroom early on.

And the script is by Neil Gaiman, whose Sandman comics I have not read, but whose novels American Gods and Good Omens (written with Terry Prachett) I have long admired. I'm afraid its his script that falls down on the job here. Mirrormask is really obvious - we understand from the outset that Helena is dreaming, and that this world is composed of her drawings, even if she doesn't.

So, because it's all a dream, there's no rules to this world. Add to that the fact that Gaiman doesn't really bother to give Helena and Valentine anything to do, and you get one aimless, leisurely movie. Their search for an item called a Mirrormask, which will unite the two worlds and save the Good Queen (also played by McKee), comes up occasionally in conversation but doesn't ever really drive the story forward.

I kind of gave up on it after a while. The movie looks cool, but it wasn't really even trying to entertain me. Just bedazzle me with crazy visuals. Meh.