Muppets and Masks

I have heretofore heard absolutely nothing about a movie called Mirrormask, which premiered earlier this week at the Sundance Film Festival. It's written by Neil Gaiman and directed by Dave McKean, two terrifically talented artists from the world of comic books (and fiction, in the case of Gaiman), and I have to say, the trailer is one of the more incredible I've seen in a good long while. Gaiman's a terrific author in his own right, the animation here look incredible, and much of the design was done by artists from Jim Henson's workshop. Quite a collection of talent. Check it out here.

The story, from what I can gather, seems to be traditional children's fantasy type fare. A young girl wanders into a faraway, magical kingdom and must go through a series of ordeals in order to find her way home. Shades of Alice, Oz and the like. You get where this is going. But the scope, style and vision of this universe looks immensely intriguing, kind of like a Myst game with human characters, or a really trippy feature-length Bjork video.

My thanks to Aint It Cool News, by the way, for the link.

2005 could just be a banner year for unique animated films. We've got Corpse Bride from Tim Burton and Co., A Scanner Darkly from Richard Linklater and the Waking Life team and a new Wallace and Gromit movie from Aardman. Bring it on, I say.