I finally got around to watching Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's movie MirrorMask last night, and it was pretty good! I put off watching it for ages because (and I'm sorry to say it, but it's true) those guys can be unbelievably pretentious, and I don't like too much high-minded-ness fouling up my cinematic entertainment*.

Sure, it was arty and murky and full of circus performers and clunky symbolism. Also, certain aspects of the plot were very similar to Diana Wynne Jones's novel Charmed Life, which also features a selfish girl using a mirror to steal the life of one of her doppelgangers in a parallel world. But, all in all, it was a lot of fun--entertaining and gorgeous to look at.

*Which is why my favorite movie is, and will always be, Army of Darkness.

Labels: MirrorMask, Movie, Neil Gaiman

...although you'd think that the silver screen would, like, sag under the weight of all that brilliantly profound, Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning brilliance, wouldn't you?

The various projects that have been touched by Gaiman's golden hands include in-development film versions of Coraline, Stardust, and Death and Me, as well as Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf (now in post-production). Past Gaiman projects include MirrorMask, his collaboration with Dave McKean, and the English-language script for Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke (which is, oddly, the only Miyazaki film that I dislike...).






<---At left: Brilliantly profound, Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning brilliance at work. Can't you just smell the depth?

Labels: MirrorMask, Movie, Neil Gaiman