What it makes up for with sheer visual magic it lacks in coherent plotline.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Chicago Tribune by Allison Benedikt
It's hollow.
Crafted by hand and computer, Mirrormask is as breathtakingly beautiful to behold as it is tedious to slog through.
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
This 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), has something to astonish everyone.
Dallas Observer by Luke Y. Thompson
The movie combines drawings, photos, hazy filters, superimpositions and computer effects into a pastiche both beautiful and disturbing.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
The film galumphs along in static panels, prioritizing flash over thought, hyperextending a story that would barely sustain a children's picture book.
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
At best, Helena's wiggy adventures recall such Jean Cocteau films as "Orpheus" and "Blood of a Poet." At worst, they resemble the Vegas act of Cirque du Soleil.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Watching MirrorMask, I suspected the filmmakers began with a lot of ideas about how the movie should look, but without a clue about pacing, plotting or destination.
The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson
Episodic, detached, and lacking in drive, but packed with amazing, hallucinatory dream-imagery that makes real dreams look flat by comparison.