Only CGI would have worked, and it's something splendid here. Gaiman and McKean's sepia-tone world - imagine a world created of doodles and trash and you're almost there - could not have been created with sets or miniatures or any other sort of physical special-effect. Although blue-screen sets were used to create stylized landscapes in Sin City and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, MirrorMask is the first film to really use computer animation and blue-screen to create an impossible world. In fact, this is one of the few times I can say that CGI has made a movie. It's an insane, creepy style that really fills out the fantasy world which Helena enters.
If you're a fan of comics such as The Sandman or Arkham Asylum, you're probably already familiar with McKean's chaotic, collage style of artwork.
But Gaiman's script is really just a vehicle for Dave McKean's artwork. There are dozens of moments in the film in which the characters are surprised or stunned, but the viewers are already a step ahead. At the same time, the story and the path of the characters is extremely predictable. Gaiman's script is incredibly smart, funny, and very economical in painting fully-formed characters without much exposition. It obviously borrows many motifs and themes from Alice in Wonderland, The Prince and the Pauper, Wizard of Oz, Labyrinth and various other fish-out-of-water stories. Story-wise, MirrorMask isn't particularly innovative. Along the way, she meets the loquacious Valentine (the scene-stealing Jason Barry), malicious sphinxes, and a black queen who's convinced that Helena is actually her run-away daughter. Laying in bed one night, she finds herself suddenly awoken and transported to a mysterious - yet familiar - world in which only she can awaken the white queen and bring balance to the world.
While her father (Rob Brydon) worries and argues with his performers over keeping the circus alive, Helena agonizes over what she said to her mother and her inability to find a way to properly apologize. Of course, during the very next performance, Helena's mother passes out and is rushed to the emergency room.
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