Mirrormask is a very nearly blissful movie experience, an almost perfect blend of children’s’ fantasy (with the corresponding lightness and spontaneity) with the more disturbing subtexts of angst, despair, and schizophrenia that characterize the world of adults. For McKean and Gaiman, dream and nightmare aren’t at opposite poles. They meet comfortably in the middle, so you are never sure which way things are going to go. The same applies for “dream” and “reality”: there’s no easy way to say which is which in Mirrormask, because both partake of the same ingredients.

The common thread that runs through all the realms is sorcery. Mirrormask is everything that the Harry Potter films (even at their best) fail to be. It’s a movie that opens doors onto the hidden realms of the psyche, and invites us in to play. If you are going to make a movie about magic, you better know how to cast a spell. Harry Potter is passable stage magic. Gaiman and McKean are real magicians, and Mirrormask is their sorcery at work, and at play.

For my full review of Mirrormask, go to http://movieblues.blogspot.com/

Very interesting review. Welcome to the boards!

I got more of the Wizard of Oz vibe from MirrorMask than a Harry Potter one.

The monkey-birds seemed a tribute to the flying monkeys.

And when she finally found the mask I half expected her to say, "There is no place like home."

Ditto.

You wanna compare Harry Potter and a Neil Gaiman creation, look at The Books of Magic.