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Phil Tippett's stop-motion film "Mad God" was a long time in the making. Barely started around the time Jurassic Park - which (in?)famously made his art form "extinct" - it sat for a few decades before some of his studio workers inspired him to resume work. Funded by Kickstarter, staffed by a group of professionals, amateurs, volunteers, and students learning digital compositing, and free from the usual production deadlines, Phil Tippett's magnum opus labor of love has been completed. The Shudder streaming service hosts this movie and they did publish the movie on a limited blu-ray/DVD steelbook release with a very nice selection of bonuses.
It's important to note that this movie is very much made for the art's sake, not the story. The "plot", such as it is, is sparse and unclear; more of an experience than a story. It involves a live action man (the Last Man, as he is credited) sending gas-mask clad agents called Assassins down through hellish subterranean locations to deliver a bomb to a certain place where they all insofar have failed and been captured, upon which they are part of a cycle of universe creation and violent destruction, that, but it's nature, has no real conclusion. Also, there is no dialog.
One of those -it's not supposed to make sense- movies. Certainly the sort of thing some can find pretentious, given its frequent, but vague imagery of societal collapse, war, anarchy, and totalitarianism. It even starts with the fall of the Tower of Babylon and an excerpt from the book of Leviticus where God warns of His vengeance. There isn't even a character or plotline that refers to a god and whether it may or may not be mad. Tippett himself has said the titular Mad God was the compulsion he had to make this nightmare a reality. If you are into surreal horror movies like Begotten, or animated films like Angel's Egg and The Thief and the Cobbler, not to mention 2001: A Space Odyssey (which has its famous monoliths referenced in Mad God), then you'll probably be quicker to appreciate what this movie is going for. Others will likely be impressed by the craftsmanship, but turned off by the seemingly unfocused narrative and visceral, scatological visuals. Not joking about the scatological parts.
No joke about the craftsmanship, either. The amount of detail packed in every frame is staggering. So many clusters of things tightly put together, painted and stained to realize hauntingly gorgeous sets of desolation, ruin, and pain. Virtually all effects were performed in-camera, little is digital, and it's really difficult to do it justice through text descriptions alone. The expert animators on the crew were several people who never got to use what they learned as soon as the CGI revolution hit, and despite the grotesque artwork, you can see the love and dedication in every hand-crafted asset on screen. Monster fans will also relish the disgustingly well built and animated abominations that wander these hellscapes. It's a movie I think is best appreciated upon multiple viewings, since the sheer volume of decoration makes it difficult to fully take in on a single watch. One background set took four women about three years of working on weekends to make it, and it only appears for a few seconds. That alone should tell you about the level of detail this movie has.
The bonuses included on disc consist of a good deal of Tippett talking about his distinct artistic influences that all culminated into this film. There's a behind the scenes piece of him building a ravaged wall to be used as a set piece for one of the handful of live-action scenes. And, of course, interviews with the animators and production designers who brought this movie to life, as well as a group of university students who got the chance to cut their teeth doing the compositing work for the film, making for very excellent portfolio pieces.
Then, there are the two audio commentaries: one by Tippett with his crew giving anecdotal commentary on the making of the film, and the other has Tippett joined by another film director, Guillermo del Toro. Mr. del Toro definitely takes the opportunity to fanboy over one of his heroes, but this track largely consists of talking about inspirations, career reflections, and praising the thematic elements in this and other movies Tippett has worked on. It's more buddy-buddy, and it's a good listen because of it. Not so casual as the Tarantino/Wright commentary on Hot Fuzz, and a bit more professional than Kevin Smith/Richard Kelly on Donnie Darko.
My only complaint has to do with the packaging. The back cover is on a piece of cardboard that isn't connected to the steelbook case at all, and it just falls right off after unwrapping it from the plastic. I'm going to get something to stick it on these since there's not a lot of these, and it's too small to fit inside the case in the slip holders.
It'll be a shame if this is the only physical run of this movie. More animation fans like myself would love to have it in their collections. I got it while the getting was good, and I'm happy. And I hope more people give this film the attention and respect it deserves. It's easy to just say "it's not for everyone" due to the narrative style and repulsive aesthetic, but it never was for everyone. It was for Phil Tippett, who wanted to make a grand tour-de-force of creative visuals that way he always wanted to. If you ask me, he succeeded.
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Héctor Carrillo Navarro
MARAVILLOSA PELÍCULA, EXCELENTE BLURAY/STEELBOOK
Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on December 17, 2022
