Mirrormask (2005)

Stephanie Leonidas: Helena, Anti-Helena

Photos 

Quotes 

• Valentine : You're hurt. Wait here.

  Helena : What about you?

  Valentine : Oh, I'm a panther. I shall slip unnoticed through the darkness... like a dark, unnoticeable slippy thing.

• Valentine : I'm an important person you see. I have a tower, a wonderful tower it was, tall and grand.

  Helena : Are you?

  Valentine : Of course.

  Helena : Where is your tower then?

  Valentine : We aren't talking... We had an argument, you see.

• Helena : Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

  Valentine : Absolutely. If we put little wheels on the bottoms of our shoes, we could just roll around everywhere...

• Helena : You pathetic creep!

  Valentine : Rocks and logs can bite like dogs, but words will never hurt me!

• Helena : I want to run away and join real life.

  Joanne : Real life? You couldn't handle real life.

• [last lines] 

  Valentine : You know, I've always wanted to work in the circus.

  Helena : Um, good. You'd have made a lousy waiter.

  [laughing] 

  Valentine : [laughing]  Yeah... What?

• Helena : Riddle? Riddle. So have you thought of an answer yet?

  Gryphon : You can't pass. I give up, I think, no wait, wait... Fine. What's the answer?

  Helena : Okay. It's a herring.

  Gryphon : But a herring isn't green.

  Helena : You can paint it green.

  Gryphon : But a herring doesn't hang on a wall.

  Helena : You can nail it to a wall.

  Gryphon : But a herring doesn't whistle!

  Helena : Oh, come on. I just put that in to stop it from being too obvious.

• Helena : If I tell you something weird... will you think I'm crazy?

  Valentine : Yes. I expect so.

• Valentine : Right... this is where I stop.

  Helena : Giants Orbiting?

  Valentine : Sounds a bit iffy, doesn't it? I'll be here when you get back. If you get back.

• Black Queen : You need a pretty frock and a happy smile.

  Helena : A smile?

  Black Queen : With a smile on your face everything will seem brighter because from now on we are... what?

  Helena : I don't know.

  Black Queen : Tell her.

  Black Queen's Guard : Uh, not at home to Mr. Grumpy, your majesty.

  Black Queen : Exactly.

• Helena : You are not my boyfriend, you know, even if this is my mom's dream.

• Helena : [of the Shadow Princess, her double in the real world, who's probably having a good time]  Yeah, eating chips and snogging boys and smoking and everything!

• Helena : [Trying to summon Valentine's tower to stop from being consumed by shadow swarm]  You know, sometimes it helps to apologize to others, even if it isn't your fault.

  Valentine : I'M SORRY.

• Joanne : All those kids in there want to run away and join the circus.

  Helena : Great, they can have my life. I want to run away and join real life.

• Helena : [during opening credits, playing with sock puppets]  Ha! You may think I'm a hardhearted black sock, but underneath this dark woolly exterior is a naked pink foot.

• Helena : You useless, cake-hogging coward!

  Valentine : I did not hog that cake!

• Helena : I'm not anyone

  [pause] 

  Helena : I'm... me!

• Anti-Helena : Of course, if I use the Mirrormask it may upset things a bit. But you can't run away from home without destroying somone's world.

• Valentine : What did you say your name was?

  Helena : Helena.

  Valentine : Helena. Helen. Helen-nun-nuh... it's a bit drab, isn't it? You know, you should think about changing that. Go for something with a bit of dignity and style, mixed with a bit of romance. Something like... 'Valentine'.

  Helena : Why? What's your name?

  Valentine : Valentine.

• Helena : [talking about the charm]  What does it look like?

  Prime Minister : I don't know.

  Helena : Well... how big is it?

  Prime Minister : I don't know.

  Helena : Well... what kind of places could it be in?

  Prime Minister : I don't know.

  Helena : What do you know?

  Prime Minister : I think I'd know it if I saw it.

  Helena : Would you?

  Prime Minister : I don't know... What if I have seen it and I didn't know it. What if it was the chicken!

• Valentine : No no no, it's really gotta feel like it's being rejected. Grr, horrible, offensive, badly constructed book.

  [flies away on book] 

  Helena : Right, umm... Nasty... Poorly paced book, with a soppy ending that I didn't believe in FOR ONE MINUTE!

  [flies after Valentine] 

• Helena : It's not your dream, mom, it's mine.

  Joanne : [giggles]  That's the kind of thing people say in dreams.

• Nurse : Listen, I don't want you tiring her out.

  Helena : What do you think I'm going to do? Take her dancing?

• Helena : Where's your fruit? I brought you fruit yesterday.

  [looks over at other patient; leans in close to Joanne] 

  Helena : She didn't take it, did she? Did she?

  Joanne : [looks over; chuckles]  No.

• Helena : She lost her teeth yesterday. I said: "If Mum were here, she'd find them. She's amazing at finding things." She said: "If your Mum could find them, she must be a miracle worker."

  Joanne : They'll be staring her in the face. They always are.

  Helena : They were in the fridge.

• Valentine : This place is ready to collapse into a heap of rubble. It can't be safe.

  Helena : You're such a coward. It's perfectly- WAAAAHH!

  [she falls through a hole in the floor] 

  Valentine : [looking down the hole]  Coward, eh? I prefer to think of myself as... Prudent. Cautious. And unlike some people I could mention, STILL UP HERE!