Mirrormask

Huh. Neil Gaiman made a movie. And a damn good one at that.

It's creepy, and moody, and very, very good. Very surreal. The mix of computer animation, pupeteering, claymation, artwork, and real actors is quite nifty. The whole dichtomy of things was cool.

It really reminded me of his novel Coraline. More specifically the Black Queen reminded me quite a bit of the Other Mother, right down to offering her new clothes to replace her old rags, and as much ice cream as she can eat.

The idea of the mix between Helena's two personalities was cool. The fact that her Black Country (or whatever it was called) opposite was "anti-Helena" was also quite funny. But it was true. She was a literal, rather than metaphorically, interpretation of the girl with the curl in the middle of her head. At her core, Helena is an essentially good character. Anti-Helena is rotten and spoiled and essentially bad, but not really evil. Really the two characters are Nurture over Nature.

Valentine was a nifty character who's roguish shades-of-grey personality was wonderfully illustrated with his mask and costume. If you notice, his costume and mask are equal parts black and white. He was just a damn fun character, though his outfit and mask kept reminding me of Stark from Farscape (which I've been watching LOTS of since my third season arrived last week).

I'll grab it when it comes out on DVD. Saw it at the only Canadian cinema showing it. If you can, go see it. Its well worth it.