After decades of design and development, legendary effects master Phil Tippett’s stop-motion masterwork has finally been unleashed. I managed to catch the film earlier this year at the Overlook Film Festival (check out my review here) and can attest that it was worth every second of the wait. Existing somewhere between Fantasia, Heavy Metal, Fantastic Planet, and the most fucked up nightmare you’ve ever had, Mad God is an indescribably unique work of pure imagination spawned from the mind of a living legend. With nary a piece of dialogue nor a centimeter of frame unpopulated, it is cinema at its most pure. And having now seen the film three times, I can attest that there’s a wealth of new things to discover with every new viewing, and as physical media purists know, even the highest quality stream can’t replicate the detail provided by a tangible release (although please, stream it on Shudder if that’s your mojo!).
Mad God is now available on blu-ray and DVD, as well as in a gorgeous steelbook release. And unlike so many slap-it-on-a-disc-and-call-it-a-day releases, this one is positively stacked with bonus materials. Check out the stats below:
- Commentary with Phil Tippett and Guillermo del Toro
- Commentary by cast & crew
- Interview with writer/director Phil Tippett
- Mad God infliuences & inspirations
- Maya Tippett’s The Making of Mad God
- Maya Tippett’s Worse Than the Demon
- Academy of Art University & Mad God
- Behind-the-scenes Montage
- Behind-the-scenes photo gallery
The behind-the-scenes material cannot be missed. Everyone knows the how painstaking the stop-motion process can be, and the montage makes it clear how much work went into the film, even when spread out over decades. Maya Tippett’s The Making of Mad God adds to this by giving it a more personal touch. She’s an extremely talented filmmaker in her own right, plus her personal connection to Mad God (she’s Phil’s daughter, if you haven’t put that together) exhibits how the film truly was a labor of love. Tippett infamously suffered a breakdown during its making, and Maya’s reel shows that her father’s inhuman abilities as a filmmaker are matched only by his flesh and blood humanity. It’s a remarkable little documentary amidst a sea of extras, alone worth the asking price.
The standout bonus material comes in the form of the commentary from Tippett and Guillermo del Toro. It is, without a doubt, one of the best commentaries put on record. The two filmmakers are quite similar, in their own unique ways, but it’s clear when listening to them chat that they are mutual inspirations to one another. And looking back on their individual work, their symbiotic relationship becomes very clear. Moreover, both seem to approach cinema with a sense of reverence and wonder that is as refreshing as it is infectious. Give it a listen and tell me you don’t want to go make a movie of your own. I dare you! Together they speak of Harryhausen, Howard the Duck, Picasso, and about a million other obvious and diverse influences. They muse on life, loss, family, and the time when Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame asserted that Phil Tippett’s cat being present during an acid trip was key to preventing a bugout. The whole thing is a cinephile’s dream.
There’s even a moment where it starts to sound like del Toro’s long-gestating/dormant adaptation of In the Mountains of Madness could finally find life…in a new form.
Mad God is available for purchase right now, and is worth any amount of money you throw at it. From both a bonus feature and rewatchability standpoint, you simply do not want to pass up having this one in your collection. And as I said before, it’s also on Shudder, where you can check it out and inevitably reach the conclusion that you want to buy it anyway.
