MirrorMask (DVD)

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Helena makes it safely through a door with the juggler Valentine (Jason Barry), and as they navigate the surreal landscape they discover that a White Queen, like the girl's mother, lies dying. If she dies, the balance will be thrown off in the dream world, and the Black Queen will reign supreme. The only thing that can save the White Queen and this world is a charm called the Mirrormask, and so the girl and Valentine, like Dorothy and her friends in search of the Wizard, set off to find it, even as the Black Queen tries to stop them. It gets a bit more complicated than that when the girl looks through one of the drawings she's always making and taping to her bedroom walls and sees "herself" fighting with her father. It's the guilt, of course, from her argument with the mother, surfacing in her dream—but here it's literally an evil twin who's responsible. The Black Queen's daughter has run off, and for the moment the girls have switched worlds and places. The emphasis is on doubling, with two stone giants floating like balloons in a Macy's parade—an intertwined male and female—that remind us of the yin-yang symbol and the importance of balance.

The graphics backgrounds and CGI animation are quite well done, and such scenes as when a library of books flutters off like a batch of butterflies are as good as you'll see. Would-be filmmakers may find it inspiring to hear McKean say how "you can do anything with a Mac and some software that anybody in Hollywood is doing." The effects are mind-boggling. Asked how Sony reacted to the film, Gaiman smiled and said that one exec exclaimed, "That was like Jean Cocteau's 'Beauty and the Beast' . . . on acid . . . for kids."

Video: Mastered in High Definition and presented in 1.85:1 anmorphic widescreen, "Mirrormask" is a visual delight: sharp and vivid, even with a bleak or monochromatic palette.

Audio: Interestingly, the soundtrack options are English, Portuguese, and Thai Dolby Digital 5.1, and French Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, which really has a bright treble that brings to life the carnivalesque score. Subtitles are in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai.

Extras: The writer (Gaiman) and director (McKean) commentary is pretty low-key and pretty standard, though fans of fantasy and the duo will certainly appreciate it. There's a better making-of feature that focuses on Gaiman for half the time and McKean for the other half, along with a compilation of edited responses to questions that the pair fielded at Sundance and at the San Diego Comic-Con. There's quite a bit of overlapping and more time spent on concept development than on actual production and problem-solving, but the bonus features are still worthwhile. Rounding out the extras is a poster and art gallery.

Bottom Line: Visually, and as an alternative "Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz," "Mirrormask" is intriguing. But oddly enough, it lacks a strong narrative drive. For all the menace that the various permutations of goop present, there's never a sense of real peril or urgency—same with other creatures met along the way, like the sphinxes (cats with wings and human faces). Perhaps part of the reason for this is that Helena's emotional moments are confined to a few scenes, when during the rest of her journey through the dream world she's as cool and observant as a scientist. In the end, there's no doubt that good will triumph over evil, which means that any tension or surprise must come during the quest itself. Though "Mirrormask" is not without its surprises, they're not of the variety that has viewers on the edge of their seats. It's more a mindfest than an emotionfest, if that makes any sense.