Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Good old teen rebellion

Just to give me an idea of the potential trials which lie ahead when The Little Madam becomes a (hopefull un-spotty) teenager, we watched Mirror Mask on DVD last night.

It's a story co-written by Neil Gaiman, famous for his fantastical graphic novels (the name of which I can't remember, because I don't remember much these days) and novels.

There's a teenage girl who is utterly dissatisfied with her life in a circus, where she performs with her family. In her spare time she draws, creating an amazing surreal world on the walls of her Brighton bedroom. Her mum gets sick, ending up in hospital, and the girl is both terrified and guilty. The last thing she and her mum did before the mum got sick, was argue over the girl's wish to leave the circus life and live like a normal teenager.

The night before her mum's surgery, the girl falls asleep and dreams that she has entered the world on her bedroom wall. She meets weird creatures and attempts to save the White Queen, who has fallen into a deep sleep (and who is the spitting image of her mum), whilst at the same time avoid being captured by the Black Queen (also a spitting image of her mum).

It's a bit of a coming-of-age story, like Labyrinth but without the rock star. It also reminds me of a children's story which I once saw dramatised on the telly, Marianne Dreams (about a girl who, in her dreams, enters the world she draws during the day).

It's a lot weirder than either, with a world peopled by impressively alien inhabitants (such as orbiting giants and cat-like sphinxes who are terrible at guessing the answers to riddles). I give it an 8/10 :-)

5 comments:

flying kiwi said...

Sandman graphic novels.

I haven't seen Mirror Mask yet (thanks for reminding me to put it on my list), but the Sphinx who's terrible at riddles sounds so very familiar - is that in one of his novels also? It was definitely in a book I read recently. That's going to bug me now.

Pink Cupcakes said...

LABYRINTH - I can't believe people still remember that movie wasn't David Bowie's hair terrible!?

Violet said...

flying kiwi: oh yeah that's right. I've only read two of them, but they're two of the only three graphic novels I've ever bothered to finish (the other was a Buffy graphic novel).

pink cupcakes: yeah, I even found a whole website devoted to this movie, by a fan whose life it changed. Bowie hair has always been terrible ;-)

Jon said...

Hmmm, I only read Japanese graphic novels (manga) with subject matter not really appropriate for a mom blog V^_^V peace sign

Violet said...

jon: izzat what you call those gay porn magazines, eh?