2 days ago I posted about Neil Gaiman’s upcoming new book. Yesterday I revealed my obsession with Labyrinth. Today I tie both of those posts together with a discussion about the upcoming film, Mirrormask.
Mirrormask comes from the creative minds of Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, and the Jim Henson Company. The conventional story is that Gaiman and McKean got together with Lisa Henson, daughter of the late Jim Henson, and were discussing the upcoming 20th anniversary of Labyrinth. The discussion led to the fact that Labyrinth was made with relatively little money at the time and, though not entirely successful at the box office, has been wildly successful over the years in the video/dvd market. They also began to discuss doing a sequel of sorts to Labyrinth which led to the beginning stages of Mirrormask. Mirrormask is not a sequel in the true sense of the word. Mirrormask is more of a sequel in the spirit of Labyrinth.
What Jim Henson strove to do with all his work was to introduce new and innovative ideas to the filmmaking process. He felt like he had succeeded with this on some level with Labyrinth. Gaiman and McKean have continued this spirit of innovation by making a largely digital movie with the look and feel of Dave McKean’s unique artistic style. They have essentially taken McKean’s 2 dimensional artwork and made it 3 dimensional….made it come alive.
Mirrormask centers on Helena, a 15 year old girl in a family of circus entertainers, who often wishes she could run off and join real life. After a fight with her parents about her future plans, her mother falls quite ill and Helena is convinced that it is all her fault. On the eve of her mother’s major surgery, she dreams that she is in a strange world with two opposing queens, bizarre creatures, and masked inhabitants. All is not well in this new world – the white queen has fallen ill and can only be restored by the Mirrormask, and it’s up to Helena to find it. But as her adventures continue, she begins to wonder whether she’s in a dream, or something far more sinister.
Needless to say I’m very excited about this movie. I’ve always been amazed by Dave McKean’s art and, of course, am geeky over Neil Gaiman. The Mirrormask website is amazing and you can check out a trailer for the movie in the Previews section. This is the second trailer that they have done and I liked the first one better. This one does not really have “the voice over guy” and it makes the trailer seem very odd and disjointed. The old trailer tied everything together better. Check it out anyway because it looks fun and bizarre. The movie was shown with critical success at Sundance a few months ago.
So when will Mirrormask hit theatres? . I had that same question which I posted to Mr. Gaiman. My question/statement “I realize that if there was Mirrormask news you’d tell us but we’re getting impatient….” made it onto Neil Gaiman’s journal and can be seen here if you scroll down just a bit. I didn’t put my name on the question this time but was embarrassedly thrilled when I saw it there word for word this morning! I was on Gaiman’s website once before and its a unique thrill to be a small part of that large online world.
I loved “Labyrinth” and “The Never Ending Story” movies! They were so much fun and I felt like those movies were made for kids when I watched them.
This looks a little to dark for my kids but I was probably over 10 when I saw Labyrinth and TNES so I’m sure this movie will give me the same feelings.
It was interesting the first time Tori saw Labyrinth. She really wanted to watch it but I had misgivings. She later admitted that the movie kind of made her scared. A year later she had watched it several times and loved it. Those movies, plus Dark Crystal, are pretty dark and there is definitely a sadness behind them that I’m not sure kids quite get. I haven’t see TNES for YEARS. I need to get that and watch it again.
My siblings and I saw Dark Cyrstal several times and make the occasional reference to it over the years. It was an amazing film at the time.
I can’t believe I forgot to mention Dark Crystal!
Now that was a strange movie.
What are you doing up at 2:56 a.m……what am I doing up at 3:36 a.m.? 🙂
I initially didn’t like the idea of Dark Crystal because it didn’t have any humans in it. I saw Labyrinth many times before I saw Dark Crystal and was, of course, enamored with Jennifer Connelly so the idea of an all Muppets movie like this wasn’t that appealing (hey, I was 17 when this came out! 🙂 ) I loved it when I finally sat down and watched it. We watched it again here recently and it has held up pretty well.
Part of the Labyrinth appeal is also the David Bowie music in the movie. Its haunting and overall very good. I have to admit that I actually have this CD and pull it out every so often.
Nic, over the years Mary and I have often made references to Labyrinth in the same way that you and your siblings do Dark Crystal. I think I could probably say most of the lines from the movie in order since I’ve seen it so many times and different lines from the movie are frequently part of my internal dialogue when I hear people say things that remind me of the movie.
man, my sister & i had The Never Ending Story memorized.. we loved it! … i still do. and i still have it memorized. and it doesn’t matter… i can still watch it over & over again.
TNES was my youth pastor’s favorite movie and I remember watching it at the theatre and later on video with him and the rest of the youth. Its just been so long that watching it again would almost be like watching a new movie so I’ll definitely have to get this again. Anyone seen the sequels? How are they?
I love the line at the end of Labyrinth when Sarah says her line: Give me the child. Through dangers untold and through hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city, to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom as great.
Darn it, I can never remember that part.
You have no power over me.
I noticed you cleaned it up a bit….my little rated “G” baby…you’ve got every one fooled! 🙂
the sequels kind of.. um.. sucked. lol
i haven’t seen “tales of the neverending story” tho.
What is ‘tales’? Never heard of this….
it may have just been a made-for-tv movie, but i saw it for sale in my science fiction book club magazine.
Looks like this is it here and there is more than one volume. Another Netflix possibility…someday.
have been looking forward to Mirrormask from day one. it looks stunning. i wish i could have gone to Sundance to see it.
How is it that no one’s mentioned Willow? alright, there aren’t any muppets in it, but still. it had lots of little people.
“You are mine to toy with!”
Nice! I had forgotten about that!
I have to admit that I do like Willow as well. I was a little disappointed with some of the special effects shots that didn’t look too good. This was one of the few ‘movie adaptations’ that I read before the movie. I was a college student home for summer break and my former high school art teacher was driving from Nebraska to KC to visit a friend. I hopped a ride to come down to see my girlfriend (now my wife) and I grabbed Willow from a Walmart to read on the way down, so Willow obviously has a special place in my heart because of that. I really enjoyed the book and the movie almost lived up to my expectations. I enjoy it more now than I did back then.
Jenn See, don’t know if you’ll get back on here soon or not, but what’s up with blogspot today? Every site I go to won’t let you comment and yours won’t even pull up existing comments?
I absolutely love Labyrinth. Thanks to my brother, I have seen it too many times to count. Whenever I am reminded of this movie, the Magic Dance song becomes lodged in my head. I remember singing this as a kid after watching the move.
You mean the “slap that baby, make him free” song that sounds like “slap that baby, make him pee”? 🙂
Carl, is there anything in TNES that would scare my kids? I need to netflix it and watch it with the fam.
Angela??? I honestly can’t remember. I just PM’d Angela at her site to let you know on here.
we were little when we watched it for the first time…
how old are your kids?
i think the scariest thing is the wolf.. but it’s a children’s story.. so it’s never really scary.
The three oldest girls will watch it. Their ages are 3-6.
Lydia is really excited about Star Wars. Thursday she heard James mention that it was coming soon. Friday morning we loaded up to take Lydia and Jessica to school. When I turned on the van, Star Wars music started playing. She hunted for and found James Star Wars soundtrack and put it in the van cd player. That’s what they’ve wanted to listen to everytime we go somewhere!
That’s fun…I’m hoping for a much darker movie myself but I hope its okay for them to see. Good to be bringing up a new generation of Star Wars fans.
Hehe, little Lydia is a Star Wars geek!
They’re all turning into computer game geeks as well. 🙂
I’m disappointed. Lucas just said on 60 minutes that it will be PG 13. He recommends it for 9 or 10 years old and up. 🙁
They couldn’t really get away with this one being too kid friendly. Too many bad things have to happen to get it set up for A New Hope.
well, the Neverending Story is only rated PG.
i don’t know how a 3yr would would like it, but there are the large muppet things.. it’s visually entertaining.
definitely not as “scary” as labyrinth.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088323/
I went ahead and put it to the top of my netflix list for this week.
I’m kind of excited to get to see it again.
You should be a nice friend and shoot it my way before you send it back!
last time it was on tv, i taped it… i just had to have it! eventually, i’ll buy it on dvd.