The Craziest Animated Movie of 2022 Is Now Streaming

Disney-Pixar’s Lightyear may be opening in theaters this weekend but the actual craziest animated movie of the year is streaming right now, Phil Tippett’s stop-motion opus Mad God. The mastermind of special effects seen in films like the original Star Wars trilogy, Jurassic Park, RoboCop, and Starship Troopers directed the project over the course of thirty years, mixing his trademark animation techniques with live-action to create a wild ride that must be seen to be believed. A previously released description for Mad God described it as follows: “A corroded diving bell descends amidst a ruined city and the Assassin emerges from it to explore a labyrinth of bizarre landscapes inhabited by freakish denizens.”

“Mad God came to me over 30 years ago as a flash, and I wrote out a treatment that was mostly just tone,” Tippett recently revealed in a chat on Letterboxd. “It didn’t specify characters or anything like that. And that was my jumping-off point. I had shot about three minutes of footage after we completed RoboCop 2. I had a crew and we shot on 35mm film. I realized the scale of the project was way too big, and I lost my crew. And so it went on hiatus for the next twenty years.” Mad God was revived in that time leading to a successful Kickstarter campaign to help finish it, something Tippett completed in the first part of 2020.  

ComicBook.com previously gave the film a perfect 5 out of 5 rating out of last year’s Fantasia Festival, writing in part: “Mad God seems to have a lot going on from the subtextual and surface level, but it being a spectacle for Phil Tippett’s multi-hyphenated talents should have everyone excited. That Mad God is an animated movie may perhaps fool some audience members down the road but it should be stated that this is not for kids. There’s a shocking amount of blood, guts, and even feces, that might make stomachs churn. But there’s also a twisted sense of humor that takes glee in punishment, deadly sound effects, and moments like a Minotaur being sexually serviced. This is not a film for everyone, but it will be the film for some.”

As of this writing Mad God has a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a “Certified Fresh” distinction as well. The critical consensus reads: “A rich visual treat for film fans, Mad God proves that even in the age of CGI, the cinematic allure of stop-motion animation remains strong.