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| Sony (Australia). Region 4, PAL. 1.85:1 (16:9 enhanced). English DD 5.1, Italian DD 5.1, Spanish DD 5.1. English, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese Subtitles. 96 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Dave McKean
Starring: Jason Barry,
Rob Brydon, Stephanie Leonidas, Gina McKee
Screenplay: Neil Gaiman
Music: Iain Ballamy
Tagline: Enter A World
Where Dreams Are Real
Country: USA |
Damn you Word-of-Mouth! Damn you! Why is it
that as soon as someone mentions Jim Henson and
fantasy in the same sentence, the immediate thought
that comes to most people's minds is Labyrinth?
For me it's The Dark Crystal,
so I'm sort of spared a little in that respect,
but, being among the first of the Y Generation, Labyrinth is still an integral
part of my childhood and cinematic coming of age!
For a film to be in the same league as Labyrinth,
as so many said MirrorMask would
be, it has to be pretty damn good in my books.
Alright, so Labyrinth isn't
exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but it manages
to encapsulate that element of wonder that so
many fantasy films in the 80's had, and
every time I watch it, I get that same feeling
I did when I watched it as a kid. As I was saying,
it's a huge call, and one MirrorMask doesn't quite answer.
Now don't get me wrong, MirrorMask is a good film. It's been very wrongly touted
as something it simply isn't, and in my
opinion won't be. Even for the kids of today, MirrorMask will not have anywhere
near the impact Labyrinth did.
For a kid, it's far too dark and potentially
alienating, so I doubt kids below the age of 8
are going to connect the way we could with the
characters in Labyrinth, and
kids from 9 onwards are likely to find it all
a little boring in spite of it's excellent
visuals.
MirrorMask presents the viewer
with the story of Helena, a teenager brought up
in a circus family, living that romanticised childhood
fantasy, only Helena can't stand it, and
wants to run away to join the 'real world'.
Helena's mother comes down with a serious
illness and winds up in hospital right after a
fight between the two and Helena is racked with
guilt. After waking up one night and finding a
group of bizarre minstrels playing outside her
apartment block, Helena finds herself taken into
a strange new world bearing striking similarities
to her own drawings. Though when she entered this
world, she switched places with The Dark Princess.
In order to restore balance to this strange world
and return to her own, Helena must find the MirrorMask.
Directed by artist Dave McKean in his feature
film debut, and co-written by long time collaborator
Neil Gaiman, MirrorMask is a
solid effort, and artistically brilliant. Everything
has been brought to life perfectly. Initially
I was dubious of the heavy amounts of CGI used
to bring the fantasy elements to life, but after
seeing the film in its entirety, the whole world
set up is completely believable. It's certainly
not as organic as The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth, but I don't
think that was the intention here. The characters,
both live and CGI interact seamlessly in spite
of how obvious the CGI work is, but they all manage
to fit into McKean's visual styling, which
seems to be the actual intention.
Visually the film is absolutely brilliant. The
sphinxes superbly blend live action footage and
the simplistic creature designs, creating what
are creepily the highlights in terms of characters.
The other creatures and characters all look fantastic
as well, they just don't feature anywhere
near as prominently (several times I found myself
wishing incredibly minor characters had larger
roles, just so I could watch them more). For an
adult viewer, the film's dark visuals provide
an intense and evocative atmosphere, but for younger
audiences it may be a little too heavy. Even with
such a simplistic story, the visuals and Alice
In Wonderland progression logic is likely
to confuse children, and The Dark Queen along
with the sphinxes are likely to incite night terrors
(they really are very creepy).
The story itself may prove too simplistic and
(in an odd way) predictable for older audiences.
A lot of reviews tout it as being The
Wizard of Oz for today's children,
something I would disagree with. The "illogical
logic" of it all comes far closer to Alice
In Wonderland than any of the Oz stories.
The biggest problem I had with the whole thing
was that it felt as though it was building to
something big, but when the ending came and went,
I found myself pretty disappointed by such a lacklustre
finish. Sure, something like this is meant to
end happily ever after, but the climax wasn't
exactly the satisfying event you were dealt in
the Dark Crystal or Labyrinth.
The other problem I had with the film was the
musical score. The circus music became really
irritating and didn't seem to go anywhere.
A large amount of the score felt like meandering
sounds that, while sometimes suiting the visuals,
didn't really build moments or events the
way they deserved and often sounded like a four
or five piece orchestra and man with a decent
synth machine. |
| Video |
| There's not a single problem with the visuals,
aside from the artistic problems some may have with
the colours (many of which being too similar to
be distinguishable). With such a large portion of
the film being digitally based, you'd be hard
pressed to find anything wrong with the print. The
film is also presented in the original 1.85:1 format
and is 16x9 enhanced. |
| Audio |
| Once again, given DVD standards these days, MirrorMask doesn't fall behind. All the givens are here,
DD 5.1 surround in English, Spanish and Italian,
you also get an audio commentary by Dave McKean
and Neil Gaiman, which is nothing spectacular, but
still well worth a listen. |
| Extra Features |
| Aside from the commentary, there are eight smaller
featurettes dealing with different aspects of the
making of MirrorMask. They're
all relatively short, most of them being nothing
more than brief, sit-down interviews with Neil Gaiman,
Dave McKean and the rest of key cast and crew. The
most interesting extras being Questions and Answers
at the 2004 San Diego Comic Convention, where Gaiman
and McKean answer questions from fans about the
film, the effects breakdowns of Flight of the Monkeybirds
and Giants Development, and Day 16 which features
a timelapse presentation of an entire day (the sixteenth
obviously) on set. You also get a poster and cover
gallery for Sony's other films they figure
are meant for the same audiences (The Dark
Crystal, Labyrinth, Zathura, Jumanji and Stargate),
which are really thinly veiled ads. |
| The Verdict |
It's a strange one, MirrorMask.
Artistically brilliant, though flawed in terms of
storytelling, it's one that will have a difficult
time finding its audience outside of Gaiman's
and McKean's fanbase. Though I can see its
intentions of being a film for children, it really
strikes me as being too much for a younger audience.
They'll either be bored or confused. Adults
on the other hand may have drastically differing
opinions on the piece, but I must stress that those
expecting a return to the good old days of Jim Henson
are going to be very disappointed.
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