MirrorMask
by Dave McKean
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DVD details
Actor: Andy Hamilton, Dora Bryan, Jason Barry, Rob Brydon, Stephen FryDirector: Dave McKean
Brand: Sony
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Writer: Dave McKean
Producer: Simon Moorhead
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Korean (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Portuguese (Original Language); French (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Portuguese (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-02-14
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of MirrorMask
DVD Review: Can you see Jim Henson's smile from above?
Summary: 5 Stars
MirrorMask, in my eyes, is the quintessential children's story. As I watch children's films that are released in today's Hollywood, I feel that we do not challenge the youth of tomorrow. We give them rather unimaginative stories, bland and overused characters, stories that feel like they have been pulled off a cereal box, and yet we expect them to be creative individuals in the real world. How can our children be creative when we only give them unoriginality to work with? We need more films like MirrorMask to slip into our mainstream cinema culture. I think the works of Gaiman and McKean are allowing this nearly untouched form of entertainment for our children to finally have their moment in the sun. As graphic novels slowly (and respectively) start to become a standard part of our literary world, as artists like Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean continue to be imaginative and provocative, we will only see more films like MirrorMask be released. As I watched this film for the second time in the span of about five hours, I could not help but still be impressed by the colorful world that McKean's paintbrush created, I could not help but be impressed by the simplistic, yet forgotten themes that Gaiman used in weaving his story, and I could not help but be impressed that the Henson Company put their seal of approval on this fine piece of work. This only proved to me that Henson's dark side, his dream side, has not been forgotten and is ready to be experienced by yet another youthful generation.
How did MirrorMask work on both a children's thematic level, but also a vivid storytelling level? I ask this question only because these two-partnered ideas should be a staple to every children's film released. Our young generation should be able to go to the theater and watch a movie while simultaneously being educated and entertained. Is that too much to ask? In MirrorMask I finally had the opportunity to see these paired elements in action. Director and illustrator Dave McKean took great strides to recreate the emotion and power behind the classic 80s children's fantasy stories. The key elements to the fantasy stories that I grew up with as a child were all in place. He gave us a rebellious child that is forced to go on an adventure that will not only jeopardize their own life, but also change their outlook on the world that has been a burden to them (typically due to a misunderstood parent or unfair situation). As I see McKean create this with the simple switch of his creative wrist, I cannot help but ask, "Where are these elements in today's cinema?" They were so important in forging films like The Neverending Story and Labyrinth that somehow it seems that recently we have forgotten our roots and disrespectfully replaced it with bathroom humor, cliché characters, and unimaginative stories. With MirrorMask, Dave McKean has recreated the lost wheel and he has succeeded by creating a film that is a step above anything in the past decade of Disney. McKean finally gives us likeable characters, McKean finally gives us a world that we have never seen (and animation that will leave your jaw on the floor), and McKean finally gives us some honest themes that not only relate to our children, but return us to that moment in the 80s that changed us in that small way.
Dave McKean may have been the director of this film, but from the opening scene you can immediately tell that famed author Neil Gaiman's words are heavily an influence. Gaiman has this powerful ability to give us human characters that are pulled into a fantastic voyage. His characters, like Helena in MirrorMask, somehow seep into our minds and hearts due to their commonplace internal/external struggles. We, as audience members, can relate to a child that is rebellious against her family that escapes to a new, colorful world. This film was like a perfect color by numbers puzzle in the sense that Gaiman gave McKean the numbers to color by. It is due to Gaiman's literary genius that MirrorMask successfully worked both by a visual standpoint, but also by an intellectual standpoint. Gaiman has this amazing ability to pull his audiences closer with each turning page, and while MirrorMask was not a novella of any kind, he still uses his technique by keeping us close to our heroine Helena while continually building a world out of nothing but pure imagination.
You can have McKean's eye and Gaiman's voice, but unless you know what to do with them, the final result will only seem like Saturday's leftovers. What I desperately fell in love with in MirrorMask were the themes. To see our heroine, Helena, battle both internal and external demons within a colorful storyline was a breath of fresh air. We, as audience members, have the honor of watching her grow up in front of our eyes. She transforms from an upset bratty child into one that accepts her parents and enjoys the lifestyle in which she was handed. The way that McKean used her parents both inside and outside the "dream world" brought a familiar, yet darker, Wizard of Oz-esque feel to the story. I thought that her being able to see an "opposite" version of herself through the windows was highly symbolic of a child's rebellious times, or her teenage years. We grew up with Helena, and the way that McKean demonstrated this was phenomenal. Sure, you may be able to witness this in other films, but to have it work perfectly without seeming cliché or old, that is where the real talent of McKean and Gaiman can be seen. I miss the Hollywood stories that structure themselves in this fashion. McKean and Gaiman kept them simple yet paid a huge homage to the Henson 80s storyline. I could not help but remember where I was when I first watched the powerhouse of a film called Labyrinth (a similar tale of teenage angst-and-woe) as I watched this film unfold. Using both imagination and visually stunning colors, this team literally transformed one of their graphic novels into a moving picture.
Overall, this film was spectacular. After my first viewing, I had to immediately watch it again. There are scenes in the film (like the giant boulder like statues that speak slowly and the birdmen named "Bob" and "Malcolm") that I believe have redefined the idea of animation. Not to put to different types of films together, but it is great to see Frank Miller's Sin City then watch MirrorMask behind it. These graphic novelists and artists are slowly creeping into our mainstream culture, and as hard as we will to keep them out, their imaginative stories and amazingly beautiful (and hauntingly original) stories will always creep into. We, as a culture, pride ourselves on our imagination, and to see the originality of McKean and Gaiman burst onto the screen with so much dedication and respect to the genres behind them, I cannot wait to see what is in our graphic novel Hollywood future. Jim Henson would have been very proud of this film!
Grade: ***** out of *****
Description of MirrorMask
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