#mirrormask 2005

[hanastasiana]

I love when fantasy films use unrealistic or uncanny CGI. It always adds to fever dream like feeling of watching those films.

[huffely]

Mirrormask (2005) fanart because there doesn't seem to be alot of it in this world and that should be a crime.

sketch under cut

[kanine-kaz]

This will be funny to about 5 people

[godilyn2001]

A bunch of MirrorMask gifs for fun.

[engale44]

The scene in Mirrormask where Helen basically gets drugged/brainwashed always freaked me out when I was a kid to the point I can’t hear that “why do birds” song w/o feeling immensely uncomfortable. Like would have actual panic attacks during it.

The reason I bring it up is that I hadn’t ever THOUGHT about why it freaks me out so much but do y’all know two of my all time top fears?

1. Dolls/ the uncanny valley (which in this film is like I must have already been on edge as a kid and those weird singing things had very basic doll like faces so that prob didn’t help)

2. Not being in control of my own mind. (My biggest fear ever is being labotimized and much slighter is as I said not being in control of my actions/mind. Someone else being in control or how I think/act is really TERRIFYING to me)

So anyway I guess I’ve figured out why as a kid that scene fucked with me so much.

[steampunkforever]

Neil Gaiman's writing in Mirrormask is the worst part of Mirrormask. I don't say this as some sort of reevaluation after The Truth Comes Out, Kevin Spacey's ability to act didn't suddenly dry up after the allegations surfaced either, but because something about the writing in Mirrormask just didn't work even though much of the same predictable Gaiman formula works so well in other art he's done.

Which is to say that the rest of the film, with all its rough edges, really charmed me for some reason, right down to the bad CGI and an art style pulled from a specific sort of European-leaning sepia-and-very-particular-style-of-linework artistic movement that annoyed me to no end as a child but now I find compelling (*hits the nostalgia buzzer*). It's not a great film but it is artistically relevant, in my opinion, and I'm surprised I hadn't heard of it before I watched it.

I've often wondered when bad 2000s CG will come back around to popularity the way VHS filters and youtube 80s covers did the styles of years past and I'll be honest I think it's starting to happen to me with Mirrormask, a movie where the CG is by no means good but still whimsical enough to pull it off. I get the feeling that the artists behind the film were operating within that golden window of early CG where the possibilities of a soundstage and greenscreen were endless and nobody cared that much about photorealism.

Not that it looks *good* mind you, but that doesn't matter. I've always been a fan of 70s/80s special effects and not a lot of that looks very good either. The biggest crime of Mirrormask isn't this, but rather the flat story and perhaps some of the more wooden performances. One of these two details can be partially attributed to lower budget and actors working opposite CG stand-ins, and I don't think much of this matters for the words on the page.

It's not even really bad, it hits all the notes you expect a normal Gaiman children's story to. Doppelgängers, parental strife, being sent to live with your grandmother, double casting/dark reflections, some sort of singular evil corrupting force the protagonist must stop. For some reason sections that feel poignant or surreal in other Gaiman works just come off as corny and underdeveloped.

Regardless, Mirrormask was still a film I really enjoyed, despite "Children's film with terrible CGI" not really being the sort of movie I really go for ever. I suggest a watch, if only for a time capsule of really fun mid-2000s art direction.

[huffely]

I believe Gerard Way and Dave Mkean would get along nicely.

[huffely]

I need more movies that has the same vibe as Hugo and Mirrormask.