Longtime collaborators and graphic novelists Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman have swept their fantasies off the page and, with a dash of movie magic courtesy of Jim Henson Company, splashed them onto the big screen for MirrorMask, a dark fairy tale that follows one young woman from this world into… another.

Teenaged Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) is the rare child who wants to run away from the circus and join the real world. Her Dad (Rob Brydon) and Mum (Gina McKee) own a Brit carnival that’s fallen on hard times — and times get tougher when Helena’s mother falls ill and the hospital bills quickly pile up. Many of the circus troupe leaves in search of other employment, and Helena’s once-healthy mode of mental escape from her problems, namely drawing, leads her into a strange alternate universe that is made up of the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Shadow (or “Darklands”).

Early on Helena meets up with masked circus-like performers and acrobats, and becomes friends with Valentine (Jason Barry) who agrees to help her find her way back home. In true quest-fantasy form, Helena must rescue the Light Queen (also played by McKee) from the dream-curse of the Shadow Queen (McKee, again). Along the way, she meets up with many bizarre beasts, quirky characters, and potentially deadly dangers.

There is a lot to like about MirrorMask. It’s well-acted, the special effects and CGI sets are stunning, and the costumes, makeup and various masks are brilliant. The artistic styles run the gamut from Dali to Picasso, with a dash of Barker thrown in. A creepy, tea-dispensing old lady and her clowder of sinister, human-faced felines are especially memorable.

Yes, there is a lot to like about MirrorMask. Unfortunately, there is even more to dislike. The movie is an extremely simplistic cross between Labyrinth and Alice in Wonderland, which is fine if you are 10 years old (and I’m not knocking that — I would have loved this movie were I just entering the double-digit age group). The artistic aspect is undeniably wonderful, but when it comes to story and characters MirrorMask is paper-thin.

For any adult who is not a diehard fantasy fan, MirrorMask will tend to drag on and on; much tighter editing is definitely needed. Some color transitions here and there would have been more than welcome; the drab, dreary real world is understandably shot in low contrast and uses desaturated hues, but so is the fantasy world and there is no discernable difference between the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Shadow.  Using changes in the color palette to help illustrate the migration from place-to-place would have probably helped stimulate the brain and keep the eyes from turning into staring pinwheels (personally, I had a migraine by the end of the film).

MirrorMask is definitely Sci-Fi movie of the week material, but it’s not all bad. As I said, children should love it and as far as the horror aspects go, there are plenty of creepy moments to give younger kids a few nightmares.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson