Welcome back to Movie Shortens.
Follow us today to a 2005 fantasy film called: MirrorMask.
Before we start, be aware: there are spoilers!
The movie begins with a scene of a busy circus.
Helena Campbell, a young girl who is supposed to help her parents with the career in the
family circus, is locking herself in a van playing with puppets, while her mother, Joanne
Campbell, is looking for her.
The mother and daughter begin to quarrel as Helena is getting sick of the job.
Joanne, on the other hand, thinks her daughter is selfish and behaving unreasonably.
Helena gets out of the van just in time her dad, Morris Campbell, is hosting the show.
As a routine, Joanne performs cloud swing as the opening, followed by the juggling performance
of Helena and her dad.
After finishing the opening, Joanne goes to the back of the stage to change her costumes
but unfortunately faints and collapses.
She is quickly brought to the hospital.
Helena has to stay with her grandmother.
One morning, she goes to the hospital to visit her mom giving her multiple cards to cheer
her up.
Here, Joanne says Helena is a good girl, and Helena also apologizes for what she said to
her mom earlier.
Coming back from the hospital, Helena sees her dad and everyone in the circus.
They are having a meeting as the show has been suspended for weeks, some performers
want to leave the crew.
Then, she is told the breaking news: her mother is about to have an operation soon.
There is nothing the poor Helena could do but to blame herself for shouting at her mother
earlier while her dad is calming her down and says it's not her fault at all.
At night, while lying on bed, a flash of a weird dream about her mother in the operation
and a sound of violin wake her up.
As Helena walks outside and follows the violin sound downstairs, she approaches three masked
performers.
She first thinks one of them was her friend.
But when she is about to join them, a shadow comes from above and consumes two performers.
She and the other one manage to escape to a room.
In the room, Helena sees the surreal scene around and still believes what has happened
is just a dream.
An aggressive sphinx approaches and she throws a book towards, attempting to distract it.
After a while, the guy who is with her suggests throwing two big books onto the floor, they
immediately turn into two floating skateboards helping them leave the room.
Just like that, they wander on the street as a spider with a big eye watching them.
The spider then goes back to an evil woman and reports about Helena.
Stopping by on the street, the guy introduces himself as Valentine, he also thinks Helena
is weird as she doesn’t have a mask just like everyone else in the city.
While Valentine is upset because his juggler friend has been eaten, Helena cheers him up
and shows that she is also a talented juggler.
Valentine and Helena become friends.
During this time, Helena also learns that most of the subjects of the areas are leaving
because of the invasion of the shadow.
Shortly after that, a bunch of soldiers come and mistake her with The Princess and take
her to the Palace while the spider is watching them from afar.
On the way, Helena looks into a random window and sees herself sleeping in her room.
Yet she convinces herself that she is in a dream.
Soon enough, she is brought to the Prime Minister, who is diligently looking for the charm.
After realizing that Helena is not The Princess, he then takes her to a room where the Queen
of Light is sleeping.
Here, Helena is told that this is the City of Light, where it used to be full of joy
and light and happiness.
Across the border, the Land of Shadow is ruled by their own Queen as well.
One day, The Princess from the Land of Shadow came and had a party with The Queen but she
took the charm and vanished after that.
Without the charm, they couldn’t wake the Queen of Light up.
The city of light is now vulnerable to the invasion of shadows.
Helena asks about the charm but the Prime Minister doesn’t seem to know how it looks,
he only knows it is a gateway, a scale where the whole world balances on it.
After noticing the resemblance between her parents with the Prime Minister and the Queen
of Light, Helena decides to help the City of Light to wake the Queen up.
Leaving the Palace, Helena tells her plan to Valentine and they go to the library seeking
for the definition of the charm.
Here, to find a book, they have to use a net to catch the books flying around like butterflies.
Soon, a book, called “The Really Useful Book” lands on Helena’s head and shows
her the way to the blinking light in the border between the Land of Shadow and the City of
Light to take the charm.
Helena and Valentine continue to look for the charm.
While Helena is curious about it, Valentine doesn’t seem to care much but the rewards.
On the way, when looking into a random window, Helena sees her bedroom with many drawings
on the wall but Valentine can’t.
Based on the drawing on her wall, the duo head to a square.
In the gate of the square, they encounter a big sphinx and have to solve its riddle
to get in.
They find two giant people floating in the air, one male and one female holding a tiny
shiny box.
Helena decides to stop by and ask for help.
While the duo are managing to ask about the charm, a shadow comes and starts to consume
the male giant.
Finally, Helena and Valentine can take the box and learn that the charm is a “Mirror
mask”.
They run away before being killed by the shadow.
Back at the entrance of the square, they open the box and find a key in it but are unaware
that a spider from the land of Shadow is watching them.
To learn more about the MirrorMask, they stop by a mask shop.
Here, they are invited to a tea party by the shop owner.
In the bathroom, Helena looks through a window and sees a doppelgänger of herself in her
bedroom arguing with her dad but then the doppelgänger is soon aware of her as well.
Back at the tea party, the owner reveals to the duo that a mirror mask concentrates on
its user’s dream and desire.
It will give them what they need.
While Valentine is asking the lady for more cakes, Helena opens “the really useful book”.
It tells them not to let the sphinxes know they are afraid.
When the friends get out of the mask shop, they immediately get surrounded by a lot of
aggressive sphinxes.
Helena has to sacrifice the book to distract them and run away with Valentine.
Meanwhile, at the land of shadow, the evil woman at the beginning turns out to be The
Queen, and is ordering her servants to get Helena.
In the meantime, while Helena is telling Valentine about the doppelgänger she saw in the mask
shop, they run into a palace that resembles the key they have.
Here, Helena accidentally falls into a room and gets surrounded by many muscular birds,
all named Bob.
While she is attempting to ask about the mirror mask, a flock of black birds from the land
of shadow arrive and take her away.
Some of the Bobs manage to save Helena and Valentine and fly to the sky, where they can
see the city from above.
The Bobs drop them down to the border between City of Light and Land of Shadow, where the
flash of light is.
While looking at a window on the street, Helena sees her doppelgänger kissing a bad guy,
she angrily knocks the door as she has messed her life up.
She also sees a wanted sign of her with rewards by the Queen of Shadow.
Later on, Helena is immersed into a dream where she sees her mom encourage her to keep
looking for the charm.
She is determined to create a room in front of her face as she is in her own dream.
The duo get into the room and see a wardrobe with a lot of locks on it.
At the time she is about to open it by trying one by one, the room is terribly shaken as
the doppelgänger is tearing her drawing off the wall, causing a part of the fantasy world
to collapse.
Meanwhile, Valentine, after seeing Helena is hurt, takes the key and promises to find
the charm while Helena is waiting for him.
In the room, Helena once again looks through the window and sees the doppelgänger is arguing
with her dad and burning things in the room, which Helena would never do, she determines
to get back to the real world.
In a matter of time, a shadow from nowhere brings Helena to the Queen of Shadow, who
mistakes Helena for The Princess, her lost daughter.
Here, Helena learns that Valentine has betrayed her in exchange for jewels.
Then, she is taken to a chamber with many clocks on the wall, where the servants of
the Queen warp her mind and make her think she is the real Princess.
Slowly, they change Helena’s clothes and appearance, making her The Princess.
Meanwhile, Valentine comes back to the wardrobe and opens it by trying out all the locks one
by one.
He finally finds a letter that The Princess wrote for the Queen of Shadow.
In the letter, she says she already found the charm and ran away, but soon she will
destroy the fantasy world.
While the Queen of Shadow is having dinner with Helena, the ground starts shaking.
Helena says it's because The Princess is destroying her world, which angers the Queen.
Later on, Valentine comes back to the Shadow Palace to see Helena, he starts to play juggler
with her and breaks the spell on her then sneaks into her room.
Here, they try to figure out a way to find the mirror mask.
But where can the princess hide the mirror mask?
An idea pops out and Helena puts her face onto the mirror, the charm reveals itself
as a mirror mask.
The duo, after having the charm, hastily run away from the Palace of Shadow.
On the way, Helena needs to find a window to go back to the real world as The Princess
has destroyed most of the windows and is winning.
Valentine stops by and eats fruits of the future, which reveals his face without the
mask and his life in the real world as a waiter.
Chasing after them is the Queen of Shadow.
She orders Helena to return to be her princess but the duo refuse to, so the Queen starts
to attack them with her scary shadows.
In the intense situation, Valentine retrieves his castle and the friends get away from the
pursuit of the Queen.
When they get into the castle of Valentine, Helena realizes her doppelgänger, the Princess,
is destroying every drawing on the wall to erase this dream-like world.
She takes all of the drawings to the rooftop and throws them away to avoid Helena returning
back.
But when she looks at the door behind, where lies one more drawing of Helena.
Shequickly uses the mirror mask to get back to the real world.
In a nick of time, the Princess is swallowed into the window, in return, the Queen of light
wakes up, the two cities are restored to their balance again.
Helena eventually gets back to her world.
Later on, Helena’s father wakes her up while she is lying on the rooftop.
Helena embraces her father, both are deliriously happy as they receive a call from the hospital
announcing that her mom is fine.
The Campbells all go back to their old pace of life with the family circus.
Morris is hosting the show while Joanna is checking tickets, Helena continues juggling.
One night, she accidentally runs into a guy, who has close resemblance to Valentine.
Both are fascinated with each other.
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