Mad God

Product Information

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Located in London, FilmJuice in 2011, it has a remit to provide high quality, up-to-date easily accessible wealth of information for the film fan. On the other hand, we have the illuminating featurette on the relationship formed between Tippett’s production studio and the Academy of Art University that led to students working on shots that ended up in the finished film. It simply but effectively conveys the severe levels of exploitation that forms the messy and cruel foundations upon which the grand tower we briefly see in the beginning is built.

You may not know his work by name, but you’ve seen loads of it—he’s an absolute master, who invented Go-Motion, his own version of stop-motion animation. As behind the scenes documentaries on this film attest, he was a stop-motion artist who, when it was revealed that some of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park would be created visually, essentially hung up his skeleton-dusting brush, aware that his way of life had just become extinct. To finish, it is interesting to note how physical releases of films initially only on streaming services like Shudder have become a more pressing concern following the controversy around HBO Max and Warner Bros.

The rest of the disc’s bonus material is more in-depth details about topics and ideas discussed in the audio commentaries. And these things that scamper, or wail, or lurk, they often defy description or logic, plucked from Tippett’s mind and presented on screen with great care and detail – often, in fact, far more than would have been requested. Tippett has allegedly cited the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch as an influence on the film’s world and watching it feels like being dropped into one of them. Then we see a figure in what looks like an old-fashioned diving bell being slowly lowered down a shaft filled with fossilized bones.

SAY YOUR prayers to Mad God – a dazzling, delirious, and dystopian masterpiece directed by two-time Academy Award-winning artist, animator, and filmmaker – the legendary Phil Tippett (Star Wars, Jurassic Park, RoboCop, Starship Troopers). By using this service you thereby indemnify this Company, its employees, agents and affiliates against any loss or damage, in whatever manner, howsoever caused. Products labelled '*item fulfilled by Exertis on behalf of hmv' will be supplied to you directly by Exertis via their approved couriers. Tippett describes seeing a gigantic dark being lurking behind a screen – “its intentions were very bad,” but “instead of running away, I imagined that what I had to do to confront the demon was to be worse than the demon.

To me, this was no more of a problem than it is in something like 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I feel Mad God is the equivalent of for the horror genre with very clear similarities in their final acts. A figure known as "The Assasin" as descends from the heavens into a nightmarish pit full of monsters, titans and cruelty. Whether he ultimately reaches his objective is another matter, as he's captured and subjected to torture. There’s a lot of bonus stuff on the disc, starting with a commentary with Tippett and Guillermo del Toro, a cast and crew commentary, a couple of interviews with Tippett, and a fun segment where the director lists his influences—and forgets a couple until right at the end. material that fans of stop-motion and practical effects will certainly enjoy, elevating the end result comfortably above most in this narrow genre.In addition to one of the most beautifully horrific movies ever made, the Mad God Steelbook release also comes packaged with a bunch of special features. But that is not our protagonist’s immediate concern as they are lowered deeper and deeper into the ground, past skeletons and stone effigies, deeper and deeper into the depths of a world where monsters mutilate each other, with only a map that is increasingly falling apart to guide them.

Mad God is a film that is easy to recommend since it has something for everyone: it is a stop motion animation; an ambitious personal project over thirty years in the making; a gross horror film; a shining example of pure visual storytelling; a particularly squelchy take on dystopia; and rich with damning anti-capitalist themes. So is the world they inhabit, incredibly detailed backgrounds filled with familiar figures and items from R2D2 and Robby the Robot to a bust of Beethoven. As with the film itself, visual storytelling is the primary source of information, where not much is verbally explained, and simply being able to see these talented artists at work reveals so much – the care, the attention to detail, the patience. The comparatively short running time (less than ninety minutes) means that Mad God is less ponderous in comparison which results in an onslaught of images including but by no means limited to scurrying sentient reptiles; baby babbling through fascistic PA systems; woollen people literally falling apart at the seams; towers made from piles of abandoned suitcases; bulging eyes of torture victims; card playing shrimps; nuclear explosions; and even a minotaur. A row of giant humanoids with bagged heads and flashing electric wiring writhe painfully as pinkish fluid gushes incessantly from them, funnelled into the gaping maw of some… thing making accordion sounds with exposed, expanding balloon udders.Starting in August, 2021 - MAD GOD debuted as a Feature Film, combining the earlier chapters and adding 30+ additional minutes of content to fulfill Phil Tippett's 30-year vision. It's a film that took three decades to complete and, one assumes, probably brought its creator to the brink of madness on more than one occasion (three decades, people). Shadows are deep, but lots of atmospherics have been employed here, so don’t expect too much detail in the depths. This is really a kind of intimate profile of the artist and his origins, as seen by and revealed to someone close to him. The highlight of the extras is the commentary with Tippett and filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro ( Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water).