History Main / MagicMirror

[[caption-width-right:270:Outlook doubtful, ask again later.]]

** In ''WesternAnimation/BroomstickBunny'', Witch Hazel, who is "deathly afraid" of getting pretty as she grows older, is always asking the genie of her magic mirror who's the ugliest one of all. When WesternAnimation/BugsBunny, who's trick-or-treating in a hideous witch costume, knocks at her door, she mistakes him for a real witch and immediately consults the mirror again.

* The 1939 ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cartoon "WesternAnimation/TheLoneStrangerAndPorky" has the title hero consulting a magic mirror when he's alerted for trouble (in this case, a masked villain is holding up Porky Pig's stagecoach).
-->'''Lone Stranger:''' Magic mirror on the wall...who needs my help the most of all?

** The Mirror of Erised shows you YourHeartsDesire. This can border on LotusEaterMachine in some cases - Harry sees his deceased parents and extended family, and Dumbledore has to warn him not to spend all his nights staring at it.

** When the Fellowship visit Lórien, Galadriel has a mirror that shows things related to the viewer in some way, things that either happened, happen right at the moment or could possibly happen in the future, however it is impossible for even the yielder to predict what will see each individual see. To the Ringbearer and Sam it shows the Shire right at that moment, as well as glimpses to the history of the Ring. The Mirror itself is in the form of water in a [[SilverHasMysticPowers silver]] bowl. In particular, the light of the star Eärendil is also caught in the water of the spring, which Galadriel also uses to fill the crystal vial she later gives to Frodo, so presumably it has mystical properties.

* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': Villain Mirror Master doesn't so much have "magic" mirrors but he uses a technology-based "mirror gun" that allows him to channel power from a Mirror Dimension; it effectively gives him control over an entire AlternateUniverse that he can bend to his will any way he pleases, not matter how vaguely it connects to mirrors. With this, he can do all sorts of different things up to and including instant teleportation via 'mirror portals', shapeshifting, power deflection, creating artificial doppelgangers of himself or others, releasing creatures made of broken glass, and even create entirely fabricated alternate universes. The original Mirror Master, Sam Scudder, was brainy but unimaginative so he never made full use of it, but his SuperiorSuccessor Evan [=McCulloch=] was an uneducated but ''highly'' imaginative person, and kept coming up with and imaginative uses of the power. Wally West once had an ImagineSpot where he realised that if Evan ever ''truly'' realised the full scope of what he could do, he'd be a PhysicalGod that nobody could touch.

** Hippolyta sometimes has a srycing mirror, such as the one she used in the Golden Age to keep track of political and technological news from the outside world, or the one she has in ''ComicBook/SensationComicsFeaturingWonderWoman: Generations'', however whether the mirror is magical, technological or a combination of both is up to the whims of the writers.

* In the Dynamite comic ''ComicBook/TheBloodQueen'', the eponymous character gets her revenge on the wizard Valusia, after discovering that she can't absorb his powers through her blood magic due to the magic runes on his body, by imprisoning his soul inside a mirror so he can continue to council her.

** The mirror from "Literature/SnowWhite" is a recurring character, and yes, "recurring character" is the right description; it appears to have human-level intelligence. It can show whoever asks it almost anything they ask for, but seems to prefer that the request be in the form "Mirror, mirror, [description of mirror]/[Question that rhymes with the first line]." We see it getting snippy with Jack at one point for not bothering to make his request rhyme (Jack tries to defend himself, saying it's free verse but the mirror doesn't buy it).

** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': The sorceress Porcina, in addition to a great deal of regular mirrors to admire herself in, owns a hand mirror that she can use to look at anything happening in the world.

[[folder:Film — Animated]]

* The magic mirror in ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' shows Lord Farquaad prospective princesses to marry, in the style of a [[TheSeventies 70s dating game show]]. In the first sequel, it's used as a television set. Its appearance is the same as in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', or a parody thereof.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
* As in the original book, Alice travels through a few of these in Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/AliceThroughTheLookingGlass''.

* In ''Literature/ThroughTheLookingGlass'', the sequel to ''[[Literature/AliceInWonderland Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'', Alice enters another world magically through a mirror.

** The episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E71TheMirror The Mirror]]" features a mirror that supposedly shows a reflection of a man's assassins. A Central American dictator leaves it to the man who overthrew him, who becomes paranoid when he sees visions of his companions trying to do him in. Ultimately, [[spoiler: he ends up killing himself]].
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E39NervousManInAFourDollarRoom Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room]]" and "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E125TheLastNightOfAJockey The Last Night of a Jockey]]" feature the main characters talking to their alter-egos through a mirror.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Cavewoman}}: A Wizard, A Sorceress and Meriem'', Teegan uses a magic mrirror to bring Meriem and Carrie through to her dimension.

* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': Villain Mirror Master doesn't so much have "magic" mirrors but he uses a technology-based "mirror gun" that allows him to channel power from a Mirror Dimension; it effectively gives him control over an entire AlternateUniverse that he can bend to his will any way he pleases, not matter how vaguely it connects to mirrors. With this, he can do all sorts of different things up to and including instant teleportation via 'mirror portals', shapeshifting, power deflection, creating artificial doppelgangers of himself or others, releasing creatures made of broken glass, and even create entirely fabricated alternate universes. The original Mirror Master, Sam Scudder, was brainy but unimaginative so he never made full use of it, but his SuperiorSuccessor Evan [=McCulloch=] was an uneducated but ''highly'' imaginative person, and kept coming up with and imaginative uses of the power. Wally West once had an ImagineSpot where he realised that if Evan ever ''trully'' realised the full scope of what he could do, he'd be a PhysicalGod that nobody could touch.

* The ''Film/{{Mirrors}}'' of the eponymous 2008 film, being the (rather halfassed) [[SealedEvilInACan prison for some sort of demonic force]], tend to manifest reflections which can make PeoplePuppets of their real-world counterparts, controlling, harming, or killing them, or sucking them into the mirror world.

* The symbolism and occult qualities of mirrors crops up in songs by the Music/BlueOysterCult. The long arcane track "Astronomy" from the ''Music/SecretTreaties'' album suggests that mirrors are the route to the [[InnBetweenTheWorlds four Winds Bar]] standing outside space and time, and that mirror-magic sustains the place. The later album ''Music/{{Mirrors}}'' has a title track which hints at the same thing.

** The BigBad in the novel ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'' has a mirrors-facing-each-other setup which multiplies her images, also multiplying her power, but with nasty effects on her sanity and, it is implied, her soul. In general, Discworld Witches have a rule about not getting between two mirrors for this reason.