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Film #20 of "Scavenger Hunt #3" Challenge!
Task #14 : A film about/featuring a circus!
letterboxd.com/naughty/list/scavenger-hunt-3/
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The exquisite wickedly dark visuals were so breathtakingly beautiful I forgave the extremely weak story and dialogue! I also loved it for best use of the Carpenter's tune "Close To You" in a motion picture film ever!

Director Dave McKean is an artistic genius! He's also a nincompoop for allowing an inferior script to sabotage this visionary masterpiece!

The perfect fantasy world to let yourselves get lost in!
Pure Eye Candy!

Neil Gaiman Films Entry #1

A bizarrely charming "Wonderful Wizard of Oz"/"Alice in Wonderland" style film written by Neil Gaiman. The story follows a young girl transported to dreamlike world where she's coveted by an oppressive mother figure (Gaiman explored similar themes in his book "Coraline" which was adapted into a fantastic film). The film's visuals by director Dave McKeanare switch from dreamlike to nightmarish on the fly. Stephanie Leonidas carries the film convincingly as a teenage Helena despite being in her 20s. A tantalizing escape down the rabbithole film for kids and adults alike.

A critic's thoughts:

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a rating of A-, saying that the film is a "dazzling reverie of a kids-and-adults movie, an unusual collaboration between lord-of-the-cult multimedia artist Dave McKean and king-of-the-comics Neil Gaiman (The Sandman)" and that it "has something to astonish everyone."

Despite being a fan of both Gaiman and McKean I never got on with this adaptation. I was hoping a rewatch, after seven years, would have changed my opinion but unfortunately it just reinforced my original view.

Mirrormask is a twisted fairytale and coming-of-age story that captures the distinctive visuals of Dave McKean (who also directs). Unfortunately, the blend of live action and CGI is a strange and unconvincing mix that often looks quite ugly. For all its visual invention the story is incredibly straightforward, despite the quirky diversions, but it fails to engage on any emotional level whatsoever. The actors also seem to struggle against the green screen backgrounds and interacting with CGI characters too. For those that do like the film you may also like a film called, Taxandria.

Neil Gaiman is one of the most creative writers out there. I have read all his books, comics and watched everything based on his work. This film is, by far, my favourite Gaiman based work. This mainly has to do with the matching of Gaiman's incredible fantasy to the visual art of McKean.
Now, there is a lot of evidence here that this is a first time effort at a full-length feature film. The pacing is off and it has structural problems, but it doesn't matter one tiny bit. It is visually stunning, original and in certain scenes completely unique.
This is Gaiman's Alice in wonderland and he, as always, delivers a truly original story with memorable characters.
So if you love fantasy and can appreciate visual flair, you should defintely check this out!

Mirrormask is one of those movies that I expect to still discover new things about as I see it again and again. The whole movie holds remarkably well on rewatch, with new details of the surreal designs being noticed each time. So many aspects of the movie are also foreshadowed through various drawings and dialogue. It gives the story such a strong connection to the idea of magic and reality coexisting very closely. The whole thing is such a dreamlike experience and I hope to understand a little more the next time I come across it. 

”Real life? You couldn't handle real life.”

A beautiful film that's stuck in limbo between a horrific adult fairy tale and a strange children's movie.

Nah.

I know this doesn't really count as a Muppet production since there aren't that many puppets in it, but it was made by The Jim Henson Company, and it came with the Dark Crystal and Labyrinth when I bought it, so I'm reviewing it anyway.

Anyway, The Jim Henson Company shines through with yet another wildly creative and fun filled adventure, though not as good as The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth.

Not really that much to say, except for the weird CG human faced cats (or whatever they are) in this. While those are a little creepy, I think we can all agree it's a lot better than whatever Cats 2019 crapped out.

Felt oddly depressed when I watched this around age 13, and loved it because of that

Suffers from Neil Gaiman Twee Writing Voice syndrome but still holds up. I always love a good piece of media with carnies in it though. Dave McKean PLEASE direct more films.

Dull, headache inducing nonsense. There’s no reason to watch this

A