6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MOVIE REVIEW 'Mad God' is not for the faint of heart Like many people, I find myself thoroughly impressed whenever I reflect on the seemingly infinite capabilities humankind demonstrates through an endless list of accomplishments throughout the ages — from its inventions of necessity, observations of reality, mathematical truths and of course, the ability of conveying the imagination through artistic expression. Despite the fact that we’ve been at such practices for quite some time, it remains easy to be awed at what we have created in our world. Not very long ago, I was amazed to learn that the human imagination is so powerful, so complex, that figments of my dreams could actually be entities with their own independent sentience. This left me thinking I’m either crazy or that humankind hasn’t even begun to scratch the surface of understanding our untapped potential. Going back to our talent of bringing the imagination to life through the medium of artistic expression, there are some who have birthed words beyond our wildest dreams — and our nightmares. This article reviews a film I stumbled across where I anticipated something different, a film which is certainly nowhere near the usual shallow, JAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 simplistic and generic cash grab Hollywood genre. At first glance one would think it occupied the realm of horror, but it held a deeper philosophical outlook that changed my ability to list it as any known genre of storytelling. In fact, saying it follows a cohesive and solid storyline is unnecessarily generous. Oh, there’s a structure, but it’s more like a marker for direction so you don’t get hopelessly lost. Nonetheless, this film blew me away. I especially enjoyed the fearlessness with which the movie was made — the total disregard for the judgements and comfort of the viewers. At least for myself, it is a very important part of creative expression. Set your mind and imagination free of the restraining chains of appropriateness and every other reasoning or excuse to limit the mind’s potential. So this film I’ve done my best to justify the existence — and even necessity — of is simply titled “Mad God.” One blaring, ironic thing about this movie I said was not intended as another Hollywood blockbuster is the fact that it is directed by Phil Tippett. It’s ironic that though he’s not exactly a household name, he was a special effects expert on some of Hollywood’s great films such as “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” and “Jurassic Park,” to name a few. So already the creation of this film has an interesting back-story. I won’t cover the entire story of how it came to be, but I can tell you this was an on and off project that was 30 years in the making. This was indeed partly because this film was made using stop-motion animation, which Tippett was working on for the “Jurassic Park” computer animation, and which was becoming good enough to begin replacing traditional special effects. This made Tippett, who had begun this independent side project, recognize that, inevitably, reliance on computer generated movies would make a stop-motion film obsolete. So he shelved the project and it sat JUNE 30, 2023 Mad God movie poster. in storage for years, until discovered by one of his colleagues. I’m not sure if stop-motion film never fully died due in part to the popularity of Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” and other such films having enough of a fan base to keep the style in practice, see MAD GOD page 10 THANK YOU WASHTENAW COUNTY For providing peer SuppoRT VALERIE BASS, PEER SUPPORT SPECIALIST, WASHTENAW COUNTY COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH 24/7 CALL FOR MENTAL HEALTH OR SUBSTANCE USE SUPPORT 734-544-3050 Brought to you by the 2019 - 2026 Washtenaw County Public Safety and Mental Health Preservation Millage washtenaw.org/millage
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