#phil tippet

[machetelanding]

Dennis Muren & Phil Tippett posing with the Rancor puppet behind the scenes of Return of the Jedi (1983)

[sinisterexaggerator]

thanks to @allsystemsblue for the find!

[pigsinferno]

📽️ Mad God (2021), by Phil Tippett.

[zigsgifs]

[facts-i-just-made-up]

should i go watch mad god and is it a perfectly normal and sane movie? would i be mentally affected if i watched it on acid?

Mad God by Phil Tippett is by far the most normal movie ever made. Devoid of any confusing, strange, surreal or dark content, the film is an entirely inoffensive and plain movie that will not give anyone nightmares nor inspire any artists to achieve new heights in their own work. It is truly a celebration of conventional storytelling, and an homage to the delights of normality and unassuming plainness.

More seriously though, it is my new favorite movie. I haven't seen such dark creativity and grotesquery since the best days of the Quays, Svankmajer, Tool and Caro/Jeunet. I'd call it Metropolis meets Street of Crocodiles. But it's really something new. It's original and phenomenal in its design, pseudo-narrative and imagery. And it's likely the last time we will see anything quite like it. Like a last gasp of a dying art form by the grand master of it, made over 30 years as a true passion project.

I don't know why anyone would watch it on drugs, it seems like that would be redundant.

[jones-friend]

I’ve had something on my mind

Mad God is a stop motion/multimedia film by Phil Tippet, also known for being the dinosaur supervisor on Jurassic Park. This movie began somewhere in the 80’s and has been a work in progress until 2021.

This is a movie made by a special effects master. That means its going to be heavy in incredible visuals and imagination, lighter when it comes to story. Its going to be a bit more experimental. This is also a dark piece of media. Talking about it with a coworker while in development the feedback he got was “that’s pretty fucked”. As Phil put it, its meant to be a nightmare you remember after waking up. And it really is.

Mad God was the movie I needed as the pandemic exits the worst of it (bc its certainly not over writing this 1/25/23). It hurts. It hurts bad in places I didn’t think it could hurt. Several times while blind watching this I thought to myself “I’m gonna throw up” but didn’t stop watching. Its equal parts horrifying and entrancing. From the massive opening shot that has an incredible level of coordination to the workings and design of the hell-world we dive into. Special mention to the score, nothing makes me feel like I’m walking over a mound of bones created by a 9/11 every day than this theme. It does amazing tricks with scale and makes me forget I’m watching stop motion with what its able to pull off.

Its dark, its violent, its nihilistic, its creative, its emotional, it is fascinating. If you enjoy “stalker in the zone” media, stop motion as an art, effects, experimental media, or you just want to fuck yourself up Mad God is the way to go. I highly recommend this one. Like Eraserhead, this will always remain in some dark corner of your mind.

[christianstepmoms]

I was extremely let down by Mad God, it's first 20 minutes are a visual masterpiece, completely marred by a disjointed attempt at making a linear anthology, with the other parts making up faaar less impressive scenes visually.

Definitely would have been much more effective as a short film.

The live action segments, not advertised at all, reminded me of a youtube fan project, awkward green screen that may have stood as their own separate short films, completely clashing with the unparalleled stop motion the film opened with.

Additionally there was literally no moments of levity in the film. This is an artistic choice and thus subjective, sure. But it's just punch after punch after punch of just grime and gore and disjointed thematics I felt like I had no room to breath and digest segments.

And don't get me wrong I love that kind of shit but something about this just didn't feel fine.

I'm hard pressed to compare this to Takahide Hori's JUNKHEAD (2017), but I believe enough thematic and visual similarities exist to warrant this. Both were stop motion passion projects with a very similar visual style including themes of class disparity. Both had next to no dialogue. Neither pulled punches when it came to gore and visceral visuals. But even in it's darkest moments, Junkhead was able to bring moments of levity through both ironic and sincere humor at the situations themself, that in my opinion improved the pacing of the narrative.

That and Junkhead was a single narrative with minimal, if any, deviations from the presented visual style that made it feel faaar less disjointed than Mad God, even with it's smaller budget and development team.

I don't think I hate Mad God, there are certainly redeeming aspects, it would deeply benefit from a fan edit.

That said there are some portrayals of fascist imagery that come almost immediately with the introduction of the live action segments that have me going 😬😬😬

Everything good about the movie comes to a screeching halt at this part, I feel like I was on a high speed train that ran headfirst into a brick wall.

I dont think it was intentionally fascist, as interviews with Tippet seem to indicate he has no idea what he's talking about ever.

I think this is just another case of "IT TOOK _X_ YEARS TO MAKE", which at this point, I am convinced is the exact opposite of the stamp of quality they try to advertise it as.

Idk if it takes you 10+ years to make a feature, maybe the idea is just not that good dude.

Everything that wasn't the opener clashed with the openers visual style, it felt rushed, it felt like it carried different themes. And would have stood better as a clear cut anthology, instead they tried to mash it together as one single narrative and, man it just didn't work.

[stillsmybeatingheart]