When I saw the 1958 film The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Phil TippettThe life of was changed forever. Fascinated by the film’s stop-motion animation effects, courtesy of the legendary Ray Harryhausenthe impressionable seven-year-old was inspired to try his hand at filmmaking and began experimenting with a Super 8 camera. After years of learning and developing his skills, Tippett moved up to the big leagues of visual effects when he got a job as a stop-motion effects designer for a science fiction film that few people believed had potential: war of stars.

After the great success of the film, Tippett was well on his way and made his talent available for The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, RobocopAnd Spaceship Toopers – among many others – in a prolific career that spanned decades, but he eventually found himself at a crossroads as traditional approaches to visual effects were largely eclipsed by digital technology. In the early 1990s, however, he began work on what would become Crazy Godan ambitious cinematic endeavor realized entirely in stop-motion animation. Although it would take three decades to complete, Crazy God saw Tippett proudly return to his roots as an artist and filmmakerand the result is a unique viewing experience that reveals the imagination of a once-in-a-generation mastermind.

Crazy God

The Assassin travels through a nightmarish underworld of tormented souls, ruined cities and wretched monstrosities, forged from the primordial horrors of the subconscious of Phil Tippett, the world-famous stop-motion animator.

Release date

16 June 2022

Pour

Alex Cox, Niketa Roman, Satish Ratakonda, Harper Taylor

Duration

83 minutes

Studio

Tippett Studio, Shudder

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What is “Mad God” about?

It is driven less by a coherent story than by vivid imagery, an unsettling soundtrack, and a dark atmosphere. Crazy God is a wonderfully disturbing yet undeniable feast for the senses and the imagination. With a running time of 84 minutes The stop-motion odyssey follows a faceless protagonist, referred to only as “The Assassin,” on a journey into the terrifying depths of an underground apocalyptic wasteland. Equipped with a map and a mission with unclear objectives, the Assassin, dressed in a uniform reminiscent of World War I trench warfare clothing – complete with helmet and gas mask – encounters a hellish hierarchy of predatory creatures, mindless and oppressed masses, and a brutal industrial system caught in a cycle of creation and destruction.

Thematically influenced by the works of Dante, John Milton, Carl Jungand the book of Leviticus, Crazy God is filled with a palpable sense of nihilism and existential dread as its protagonist delves ever deeper into the realm of the surreal. Captured by hostile forces, the Assassin undergoes an operation in which his captors extract a grotesque life form from his body, which is used to set in motion a new cosmic cycle of life and death. If all of this seems speculative and cryptic, that’s because it is. Ultimately, the film defies conventional explanations and analyses and instead explores the depths of the human subconscious to create a purely sensual experiencean idea that did not escape Tippett when he told Empire that “the final form of Crazy God is not the film itself, but the memory you have after watching it. It takes you to that moment when you wake up from a dream, frozen, exploring fragments of your wild mind before fading back into the shadows. That’s the moment. Crazy God is just one way to get you there.”

The production of “Mad God” took three decades

When designing visual effects for Robocop 2and faced with the possibility that the rise of digital technology could at some point pose a threat to the design of traditional effects, Phil Tippett began experimenting with ideas that eventually culminated in Crazy God. “Years ago, I shot about six minutes of footage, back in the late ’80s,” he told Variety in 2021. Admittedly overwhelmed by its unwieldy scope and scale, however, he put his ambitious stop-animation project on hold for years, though he never forgot about it. After years of working on other films, evolving and adapting to a radically changing visual effects landscape thanks to groundbreaking films like Terminator 2: Judgment Day And Jurassic Park, Tippett returned to Crazy God at the urging of enthusiastic employees.

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In an interview with The Guardian, Tippett said of his colleagues’ interest: “These were the guys who grew up on Robocop and all that stuff, and that’s what they wanted to do: work with lights and models and tangible things.” He continued where he left off with Crazy Godand with a cohort of creative allies who did not necessarily have expertise in stop-motion animation, Tippett gathered enough support – partly through generous donations via Kickstarter – to edit the film relatively smoothly and improvisationally over the yearsTippett became disillusioned with the increasing dominance of digital technologies in film production and his dedicated team, often working on weekends, helped him bring his vision to life using miniatures, models and the tried-and-tested but incredibly time-consuming method of stop-motion animation.

After 30 years of development and careful work Crazy God finally premiered in its 84-minute form at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, marking Tippett’s feature-length debut as a director. Praised for its visuals, imagination and creative ambition, the long-awaited film proved to be a welcome return to form for its creator, sparking an appreciation for a bygone era of traditional approaches to animation and special effects. But Crazy Godrevived Tippet’s legendary reputation as an artist of bold, experimental filmmaking, but also confronted him with personal challenges that he had not overcome for years.

Filming “Mad God” took a psychological toll on Phil Tippett

By spending decades exploring the depths of his subconscious to Crazy God to the screen, Phil Tippett’s creative mind was tested. Although he hoped to complete the film, finding the motivation to continue on such an abstract, confusing and disturbing project was neither an easy nor particularly pleasant process, as it dragged on and eventually led the embattled filmmaker down a path of mental instability. “I became something of a method director and was just completely lost,” he told the Guardian. “I hated working on it and I went down a rat hole of mental breakdown.” As a result of his breakdown, Tippett was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and began taking medication..

During manufacture Crazy God was no picnic, but the decades of experience seem to have revived Tippett’s passion for pure filmmaking, as it has been confirmed that he will set about writing and directing another feature-length film. Officially announced for 2024 and titled GuardianThe new project is said to involve a combination of visual effects technologies, from stop-motion animation to CGI and AI. The narrative inspiration is rumored to come from literature, including William Golding‘S Pincher Martin And Ambrose Bierce‘S An incident at the Owl Creek BridgeTippett has confirmed that the project is in development and will take a more conventional approach to storytelling than Crazy God. “It took a lifetime for me to understand enough about cinema to do it,” he modestly admitted. For fans of Tippett’s work and especially traditional visual effects: The legendary artist’s re-emergence as a creative force has proven to be an exciting new chapter in his decades-long influence and legacy.

Crazy God can be streamed in the US on Shudder

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