Neil Gaiman: My Favourite Work

Neil Gaiman’s work is my life. But when I’m asked what my favourite project is by him… Most people question my sanity.

When you think of Gaiman, you think:

American Gods, Coraline, Stardust, The Sandman, and Good Omens.

For me, I think of something a little different…

I think of MirrorMask.
This is a film that Gaimen and Dave McKean wrote and created together, it came out in 2005 and potentially has one of my favourite casts.

The problem I have is, when I say MirrorMask, people ask what I’m talking about…

The film was created with an extremely small budget! Just $4 million, in fact. For context, Coraline had a $60 million budget.

Besides the small budget, it had a fantastic cast but it officially flopped.
MirrorMask, with a budget of $4 million, only brought in $973,613 in the box office…

Personally, I think it was down to marketing. The marketing for the film was minimal from what I can remember, it seemed like they relied a little too heavily on its premier at Sundance and the trailer doesn’t sell it well.

Overall, it got a good response from audiences, but critics were mixed.

The aesthetic of the film was praised greatly, but the story was put down.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never watched or read anything by Neil Gaiman that has ever been terrible – and MirrorMask was no different.
McKean and Gaiman created a beautiful mirrored world in this film, so much so that it became my hyperfixation for at least five years…

If you like the idea of watching a film based around a circus teen falling into an imaginary world of her creation, meeting a number of masked individuals, and ultimately trying to save two kingdoms and the real world: MirrorMask is for you.