Okay, now this movie is surreal!

Yes, but will you like it?  I guess that depends on how right-brained you're feeling at the time.  But if you're going to get all anal about plot, pacing, and the 'three-act structure' - oooooh, you'll hate it.

 MirrorMask resembles The Wizard of Oz in basic plot - a young girl from our world enters a fantasy world and has to solve problems and overcome obstacles in order to come home.

The young girl is Helena (Stephanie Leonidas), a British teenager whose real life is already fairly surreal.  While most discontented teens might dream of running away to join the circus, Helena dreams of running away from the circus to find 'real life'.  The circus is a small, shabby family operation run by Helena's father (Rob Brydon) and mother (Gina McKee).  But it's like no circus any of us have ever seen; the costuming and masks are downright bizarre. 

Helena is a juggler and when she's not performing she's in her trailer drawing surreal things.  In a fit of teen temper, she tells her mother she wishes she were dead, so when Mom keels over shortly thereafter from some unspecified but obviously serious complaint, Helena is sure it's All Her Fault.

While Mom is hospitalized, Helena is staying with some dotty relative in a slummish apartment building, feeling guilty guilty guilty.  And then one night she wakes up, wanders out, and gradually realizes that she's in another world.

The first person she meets is a juggler named Valentine (Jason Barry), who becomes her companion through most of her journey.  Valentine is wearing a mask, as are most of the humanish inhabitants of the world.  The humans, though, are outnumbered by the bizarre other types of creatures. 

I'm trying to find a way to describe this world, and it's hard.  Think of... The Wizard of Oz being staged by Picasso and Dali.  Only more jagged and darker.  It looks a lot like Helena's drawings.  And it's a world being devoured by encroaching black gunk.

This world consists of a City of Light, which is balanced by a City of Darkness.  But the balance has been interrupted, and the Darkness is overtaking the City of Light.  The Prime Minister of the City of Light (played by Rob Brydon who also plays Helena's father) explains to them that an important charm has been lost, sending the Queen of Light into a deep sleep from which she can't be woken. 

The Queen of Light (as well as the Queen of Darkness whom we meet later) are both played by Gina McKee, who also plays Helena's mother, so it's pretty obvious we're wandering around in Helena's subconscious.   Mother facing important operation which may or may not save her life, Queen of Light plunged into deep sleep while the City around her is destroyed - you get the picture.  Helena needs to find the missing charm, the titular MirrorMask, to restore the balance of the world. 

But this is all an excuse to wander around this skewed dream landscape, where you go to the library with butterfly nets to catch the books, or climb the spiral stairs to talk to the Orbiting Giants.  Or meet the monkeybirds, named Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob - and Malcolm. 

MirrorMask is scripted by Neil Gaiman (you might be familiar with his fantasy and graphic novels), directed by David McKean, and produced by the Jim Henson Company.  It's a mixture of live action, puppetry and computer animation. 

I liked it - I was in the mood for This Sort of Thing.

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