= 2 stars

Starring Stephanie Leonidas, Rob Brydon, Gina McKee
Directed by Dave McKean

Amazon Link

Synopsis

Fifteen year old Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) has parents who are circus entertainers. Her mother (Gina McKee) falls ill and Helena has a dream / nightmare in which she meets all sorts of imaginatively designed creatures and gains a new perspective on her life.

The Good

• Some really imaginative environments and characters designs from the Jim Henson company and Neil Gaiman (author of Sandman graphic novels).
• The young actress at the center of everything is a real trooper.

The Bad

• After the novelty of the cool visuals wore off - I was bored out of my mind. I barely recall what happened in the second half, increasingly distracted by the relative excitement of a peanut butter sandwich.
• The computer animation isn’t on par with recent PIXAR flicks or even Happy Feet. I was reminded of the video game MYST.
• All the crazy dream-world stuff is symbolic of the real world. I’ve seen that plot in many other movies.

Conclusion

MirrorMask reminded me most of Labyrinth which I enjoyed when I was younger (maybe I should re-watch that one). Perhaps I’m just too old for this kind of movie. I also feel it was over-reliant on CGI when a bunch of wacky puppets would have sufficed.

IMDB: MirrorMask
Wikipedia: MirrorMask
Rotten Tomatoes: MirrorMask 51%

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