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Film Review: MAD GOD: Phil Tippett’s Decades-In-The-Making Animated Oddity is Impressive, But a Bit Hollow [Locarno 2021]

 

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Mad God Review

Mad God (2021) Film Review from the 74th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Phil Tippett, starring Alex Cox, Niketa Roman, Satish Ratakonda, Harper Taylor, and Brynn Taylor.

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After working with names such as Lucas, Spielberg, and Verhoeven, and garnering two Oscars to his name in the meantime, the legendary animator, effects artist, and reluctantly resigned meme subject Phil Tippett has released his own feature-length animated spectacle: Mad God, a stop-motion apocalyptic gross-out with a production so long it gives the late Richard Williams a run for his money.

Crafted between 1987 and 2020 and partially funded by Kickstarter backers, Mad God is a dialogue-free fever dream of a grimy dieselpunk world overrun by mutant-like creatures enslaved by big and cumbersome pieces of machinery. The world is full of muck and death, with these oppressive technological structures somehow managing all the chaos.

From somewhere unseen in the dark clouds above the earth (or whatever godforsaken planet we find ourselves on), a diving bell descends past the guns and other war machines, continuing on down underground. Occupied by the Assassin, a person suited up in some sort of hazmat/diving suit combo complete with an obscuring gas mask, the wordless venturer descends with nothing but a solitary piece of luggage by their side. Upon reaching rock bottom (seemingly after going through nearly all seven circles of Hell to do so), the Assassin consults a ragged map and begins trekking off into the unknown, passing by more grotesque machinery run by whole civilizations of monstrous creatures engaging in genetically modified slavery, automated sorcery, and other kinds of freakish acts. Less important is who or what the Assassin is after than whether they’ll make in through these wastelands in one piece.

Trying to deny Tippett’s artistry or even straight-up gumption would be a foolish exercise. The man has contributed to some of the most memorable film franchises of the past 30-odd years, from Star Wars to Jurassic Park, and his work in the starkly independent Mad God (produced mostly with the help of volunteers) shows just as intricately as it does in any of those big-studio blockbusters. I’ve long been a champion of the idea that there can be beauty within the disgusting – especially within animation – and Tippett takes that mantra to an extreme degree: giant biped monsters swing pipe as they land wallops stab each other’s eyes out, wrinkly nipple-assed monsters spray shit at their ensuing attackers, and a bunch of blood-covered demon ladies crank off a minotaur. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg!

These moments that make Mad God so audacious are also what serve as its crux, as it begins to feel like an endurance test in the form of an extended animation reel. While Tippett might be tempting you to get up and leave out of disgust, you might be tempted to do so out of sheer boredom instead.

There’s little plot and barely any discernible dialogue, with the runtime mainly filled out by references to other cultural mainstays and Biblical imagery (the film does open with a lengthy text-scroll of a Leviticus quote, after all). Nothing’s wrong with a minimalist approach to narrative, but Tippett seems less interested in doing anything with these topics besides utilizing them in service of bland shock. Mad God shows us an incredibly expansive world filled with corruption, environmental destruction, and ideological paranoia but uses it only as set-dressing for a mutated cyborg to digest some other creature’s shit and use it to create faceless moss-people that’ll be pummeled to death by a steamroller or a flying metallic obelisk. This tiny glimpse leaves us wanting, but for more than just the scatological.

It’s still a wonder to watch with all the various moving parts (especially when Tippett combines live-action and CGI with the stop-motion bits), and there are some non-gross-out scenes that are terrifying on their own (the ephemeral plague doctor that carries a crying “child” to its demise in the final act will be seared into my nightmares for a while). Yet Mad God never quite extends past its edgy limit as a nasty and nihilistic curiosity, and even at 80 minutes feels plays rather tiresome and hollow.

Still, the sucker for animation that I am cannot help but give Tippett a light pass, and hope that there will always be some audience – niche as it may be – that will eat this sort of independent animation right on up. It’s truly inspiring to see Tippett finally finish his magnum opus, but it might’ve played better in its original short-films format.

Rating: 6/10

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Jacob Mouradian

A Midwest transplant in the Big Apple, Jacob can never stop talking about movies (it’s a curse, really). Although a video editor and sound mixer by trade, he’s always watching and writing about movies in his spare time. However, when not obsessing over Ken Russell films or delving into some niche corner of avant-garde cinema, he loves going on bike rides, drawing in his sketchbook, exploring all that New York City has to offer, and enjoying a nice cup of coffee.
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