This truly visionary dark masterpiece comes from the mind and hands of legendary visual effects and stop-motion craftsman Phil Tippett, who animated and designed special effects sequences from Robocop, Jurassic Park, and the original Star Wars trilogy, among many others.
Mad God is a 2021 American stop-motion adult animated experimental horror film written, produced, and directed by Phil Tippett. Completed in 2021, it was produced over a period of 30 years.
The meticulous stop motion animation that is currently selling the film to contemporary audiences was something that Tippet believed he could not market to studios back in the 90s - a time when cutting-edge CGI was on the rise. As such, the project was shelved by Tippett for the better part of 30 years until recently.
There is no dialogue in Mad God; however, baby sounds were incorporated into the sound design. “That was all Richard Beggs,” Tippett reveals. “I had no idea that he was going to do that.
An animator's perspective (and a special bonus excerpt from befores & afters magazine). It took 30 years to make, and it's hard to describe, but Phil Tippett's MAD GOD is truly unlike almost anything people have seen before.
Mad God leans on Biblical ideas to drive home its images of hell. Its prologue, quoting Leviticus, is a promise of retribution for sin. Tippett ties his images directly back to the original sin: the consumption of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
“I didn't know it at the time but my mind was churning and I was working through ideas [from when] I was very young,” says Tippett. “It can take many years of formulation, coming up with ideas and storyboards until something comes together sometimes. You could call it research, but for an artist it's like dreaming.”
It's equally bizarre, grotesque, dreary, and horrifying, but it's also compelling from start to finish. It's not for the faint of heart with some truly nasty imagery, but it is a masterpiece of visual storytelling.
Mad God is a disturbing testament to why we love horror. It's honest, brutal, and unrelenting; it often depicts the underbelly of humanity and the world around us, practically begging us to look for hope in a mad, mad world.
Conceived and directed by our founder, legendary visual effects and stop-motion craftsman Phil Tippett, all sets, creatures and environments in Mad God are handcrafted and shot at the Berkeley studio stage. Mad God is a mature film made with technology that spans the history of cinema.
Computer generated effects. In 1991, Tippett was hired to create the dinosaur effects for the Steven Spielberg blockbuster Jurassic Park using his go motion technique made famous in the film Dragonslayer.
A blend of stop-motion puppetry and live action—though probably not in the ways you might expect—Mad God is a mostly-silent film set in a post-apocalyptic “atompunk” hellscape that may or may not be some actual version of Hell.
Berkeley special effects genius started filming his new stop-motion masterpiece in 1987. The parade of primordial horrors in Phil Tippett's 'Mad God' will blow your little mind to pieces.
At the end though, after all the efforts of the alchemist and plague doctor fail - spirituality and science/philosophy, literally the most powerful tools we have to try to address if life and this world has any meaning - this world delves back into its hopelessness, stuck on this futile path of just destruction.
There is little digestible plot in Mad God, the story that takes place on screen is almost incomprehensible. The film feels like it is much more focused on trying to capture a nauseating and unrelenting experience that offers a glimpse into the depths of cinematic depravity.
And with whom was God angry for forty years? He was angry with those who sinned, who died in the desert. And to whom was God talking when he promised that they would never enter his rest? He was talking to those who did not obey him.
There are five instances recorded in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) where Jesus got angry. He was angry at those who refused to help someone with a shriveled hand. He got angry at his disciples for believing that children were second-class citizens.
"Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, `This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD. I will add fifteen years to your life.
Players control characters who have been transported to the realm of Oryx (the titular Mad God) to become food for his many minions and abominations, which the players must dispatch. Central to the design of the game is the fact that character death is permanent.
Fame can be used to buy certain items in-game, and also a requirement for completing Class Quests. Fame can be used to feed and fuse pets, upgrade the Pet Yard, purchase low-tier gear and blueprints in the Nexus, and occasionally roll certain Mystery Boxes.
