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MirrorMask: The Illustrated Film Script of the Motion Picture from The Jim Henson Company

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In 2001, the Jim Henson Company contacted writer Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean about doing a film. Now, four years later, the product of all their hard work has come to fruition in the form of MirrorMask. While the film is slated for release later this year, Gaiman and McKean have put together a collector's book --- a companion that enhances one's understanding of how a film of this design comes into creation.

Complete with over 1,700 of McKean's storyboards, as well as the full screenplay written by Gaiman, MIRRORMASK is a fairy tale adventure that follows the story of Helena, the daughter of a circus family whose only wish is to abandon her life amongst performers and enter the real world. She engages in a heated discussion with her parents about her future with the circus, and soon after her mother falls gravely ill.

On the night before her mother goes in for surgery, Helena dreams she is in a mysterious and magical new world. In this world of two kingdoms, one land is eternally filled with light while the other is always shrouded in darkness. The balance is shifting in this new world as the daughter of the Dark Queen steals the MirrorMask from the castle of the White Queen. The White Queen then slips into a sleep from which she cannot be awakened. The only way to restore her is to seek out and bring her the MirrorMask.

The question Helena comes to ask is whether it is all a dream or is it something else entirely. She comes to believe that what she changes in the dream world will affect the real world. Thus, using the logic of dream worlds, her mother will be healed if she helps the White Queen. With the aid of the crafty juggler, Valentine, Helena sets out to retrieve the MirrorMask.

Gaiman weaves a beautiful tale where much is familiar and yet wholly new. The cast of characters is colorful and engaging, especially Valentine, who is both hysterically funny and also suspicious enough to be wary of. His writing style always has been one of great visual impact --- when reading a Gaiman work you can close your eyes and see his images in your mind. MIRRORMASK is no exception. Although McKean's artwork accompanies the text, you still can feel the visual component of Gaiman's words calling you to this new world.

Of equal interest are the letters sent between Gaiman and McKean that are included in the back of the book. These 20+ pages offer us insight into how the film came to be, from its creation in Gaiman's mind to its refining in McKean's hands. It also affords the reader the opportunity to see the editorial process as names and actions from Gaiman's initial vision changed by the time the screenplay was complete.

The germs of this tale came to life while Gaiman and McKean stayed in Jim Henson's house. Surrounded by all the magical elements of Jim's world, they set about the writing of the film. In reading the resulting book, they have succeeded in creating a world easily accessible to children and adults, and reawakened the wonder in all of us.
[...]

Writer Neil Gaiman has crafted dozens of dark fantasy books and graphic novels over the years; the only thing to expect from him is stuff that is a bit twisted and bizarre. In a good way, that is.

But in 2001, he embarked on a different kind of creative journey: Penning "Mirrormask," a Carroll-ian fantasy movie, directed by book illustrator (and Gaiman collaborator) Dave McKean. While the movie isn't yet out, the screenplay is a lavish affair with concept art, photos and background information.

Helena is a bored young girl in the circus, wanting a taste of real life. But then real life strikes: During a performance, her mother falls seriously ill and is hospitalized. Unhappy and directionless, Helena falls into another world -- a bizarre place full of masked people, griffins, orbiting giants and malevolent shadows.

She is soon told by the Prime Minister that an evil princess (who resembles her) has stolen a magical charm, sending the Queen of that city into a coma -- and her city into chaos. With the comically mercenary Valentine at her side, Helena finds herself sent on a dangerous quest to find the charm -- the mysterious Mirrormask.

Half of "Mirrormask"'s appeal is the eerie presentation, along with an archetypical heroine and opposing light/dark kingdoms. And it's a credit to both McKean and Gaiman that their screenplay is a good read on its own, letting eager fans know what to expect when the film finally sees the light of day.

What sets "Mirrormask: The Illustrated Film Script" apart from most screenplays? The fact that Gaiman and McKean included storyboard pictures with the dialogue. It's not easy to visualize what's happening in a movie just by reading the script, and so the storyboard images let the readers follow the dialogue more easily.

And of course: the photographs -- weird ones, usually patched together with surreal CGI, computer animation and wild makeup. Valentine's masklike face in particular is odd, but strangely convincing. There are even some behind-the-scenes photographs, including bluescreen shots and faux-aged pictures of anti-Helena.

To add to the wealth of information, the correspondence between McKean and Gaiman about this film, abbreviations and grammatical errors intact. "Fantasy stories rely on cliche too much, fairy stories about fairies I think are pointless, fairy stories about the people who need to believe in fairies I think are fascinating," McKean writes in one letter.

"Mirrormask" seems to be what one would expect from a Gaiman creation: Weird, strange, and surreal, yet also funny and touching. And for anyone anticipating the film, "Mirrormask: the Illustrated Script" is a must-have.

Purchased for myself but my 10 year old daughter has taken it from me. This is one of both of our favorite movies and having the script and the art work is an great additon to our book collection.

It was delightful to read and look at. Since I also enjoy reading movie scripts- it's even better to SEE what's going on in the movie at that time. Plus, there's a load of deleted scenes, and fantastic movie pictures as well. This is a MUST for all MirrorMask fans.

This is a great book, not similar to illustrated graphic novel of McKean or a text book from Gaiman but this book has entire script and storyboards of the film. What a great share what a great book idea thanks. Very useful source for both cinema and design students or professionals beyond to get taste for makin of this magic film.

First of all, i must say that i'm a big fan of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi book's, film's and graphic novel's.
As a painter, short stories writer, and graphic novella's author i may say that the Mirrormask is a great ''drive trough'' the world of magic, fantasy, and imagination of today's acclaimed writer Neil Gaiman, and my favorite painter, photographer, and one of a kind artist Dave McKean.
I'll make this short.
All of you that are interested in a way of making a good scenario, and a great storyboard, you SHOULD have this amazing book!
It helped me to see and to realise how to think, and how to make my own ideas come true!
Dave McKean is one of my favorite artists, and trust me, you'll like this book!
Also, i want to recommend you his earlier work, such as Violent Cases, Black Orchid, and Batman - Arkham Asylum.
So much about this now, and be well my friends!
Greetings from wounded city of magic: Sarajevo!

Fifteen years old Helena works very hard in her family's circus. She hates her life, hoping to one day escape and become part of the real world. However, one day her wish comes true, just not her real world. She has ended up in a fantasy realm filled with mythological creatures in which two kingdoms exist in natural balance side by side. One eternally in light, the other forever in darkness. However, the harmony is gone as Helena and her double from this world beyond her imagination have switched places. To return home, Helena must restore the balance.

Above is an overly simplification of the delightful fairy tale plot that is some ways will remind the audience of the Wizard of Oz. The book is not a novel, but instead the film script with story boards of Mirrormask Motion Picture. This different tome is fun to follow whether Helena is performing as a sock, working at the circus as a juggler or selling tickets, or meeting strange beings in the fantasy realm as she seeks "ruby slippers' to get back home. Interesting but not for everyone, this is an intriguing picture book that tells the fun tale, but keep in mind it is a script not a graphic novel. Appendices add understanding as the MIRRORMASK -- THE ILLUSTRATED FILM SCRIPT OF THE MOTION PICTURE FROM THE JIM HENSON COMPANY is fun family entertainment with a movie to follow in the Fall.

Harriet Klausner

...in black...

If I had to sum up MirrorMask in one sentence, I would describe it as 'an allegory about Individuation'. This was Jung's term for the process by which we integrate or align the personal with the universal consciousness and ultimately become whole.

If Neil's script seems lacking in emotional fluidity at times, it is probably a deliberate mechanism to convey the varying degrees of emotional shutdown that people experience when transitioning between developmental states.

Just as with Alice In Wonderland, Snow White, Peter Pan and The Wizard Of Oz, the story involves a young female's transition to womanhood and all of the pantheon of archetypal combatants that invokes.

While Dorothy needed the mechanism of the ruby slippers (the moonblood of the Sacred Feminine) to get back 'Home' and restore order - the sacrificed Feminine - it is the magic of the MirrorMask itself that enables the healing of spiritual wounds (identity/alienation) in Neil and Dave's visually striking masterpiece.

The bottom line? Oz is Kansas.

Lord knows when I'll get to see the film, but having read this stunning 'guide', I can't wait, damn it. Ten stars.

There's a light, over at the Gaiman place...

I don't read screenplays. So reading Neil Gaiman's screenplay of the forthcoming Dave McKean-directed, Jim Henson Co.-produced MirrorMask left me wanting something more - that something being either the Gaiman novella based on the film (which will be out this fall) or the movie itself (which is without a release date).

I wasn't prepared for the lack of emotion evoked by the text, which, I believe, has less to do with Gaiman's writing than with the medium of screenplays - or, should I say, my aversion to screenplays. With that said, it's clear that Gaiman's text is an effective blueprint to what I believe will be a beautiful and haunting film. And in this book, that blueprint is brought to life by Dave McKean's accompanying storyboards, which serve as both utilitarian and atmospheric visual guides, making one wish that Gaiman and McKean collaborated on a full-blown MirrorMask comic book.

But, quite frankly, this book is more than a screenplay. It's a beautifully bound book object, with 32 color stills that hint at the final product. It's these stills, taken along with Gaiman's text, that make me a believer in this film. Not to mention, in the appendices that appear at the book's end, the Gaiman/McKean creative process is revealed in a series of reproduced e-mail correspondences.

I hope my stolid response to the screenplay is a fault of my own and rectified after the movie's release. But for now, from this book reader's perspective, MirrorMask: The Illustrated Screenplay works better as an object of art than as a moving piece of storytelling.