i do not really hate mirrormask . i just really want more from a movie than pretty visuals . the movie begin with a young girl name helana who work in a circus . but while other child ( supposedly ) want to run away to the circus she only want to run away from the circus . during a heated argument with her mother and helana wish she would drop dead . bad move . the mother get ill with . something ( presumably cancer ) and need surgery . on the night before surgery she dream she travel to a wonderful world compose of her her dream and nightmare where she find herself . personally the movie get crap for me as soon a she start dream . the early scene show the weird and wonderful world of the circus and then contrast it with the bleakness of the hospital and the filth of an apartment block . but a soon a she dream the whole film shift to cgi land where nearly everything be a computer image . the problem be that this dream world have none of the mystery and wonder it should have . while film like the wizard of oz seem entice to explore mirrormask shove image in our face and then snatch them away to give u another image . there little rhyme or reason to the design in this film and even though some thing be very pretty ( the librarian be a masterpiece ) they just disappear so quickly that theyre soon forgotten . helana and her sidekick valentine be annoy at best and unbearable at bad . overall mirrormask be like a pretty stake that you bite and find out be actually ash . stick to the real world kid .