After decades of production, Phil Tippett's Mad God has released finally on Shudder, amazing audiences with its stop-motion animation and creative premise. Tippett is no stranger to animated effects, just like many other directors that have created stop-motion films possessing a dark, eerie tone.
The sub-genre has seen the likes of comedy, romance, and drama, but are all connected through the long process of image capturing. From family-friendly efforts to mature and complex outings, there are several movies that make excellent pairings with the unique horror film that is Mad God.
James And The Giant Peach (1996)
The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993. Based on Roald Dahl's beloved novel, the film follows a young boy named James who embarks on a giant peach to New York City, aided by a plethora of talking, giant bugs.
While the film's target audience is primarily families (unlike Mad God), there are a number of sequences within this film that take time to instill fear, such as James having a nightmare and being chased by warped caricatures of his evil aunts. The work of Selick and Tippett brings a balance of scares and light-hearted charm, making James and the Giant Peach a perfect pairing.
Consuming Spirits (2012)
Consuming Sprits is one of the few autobiographical films in the stop-motion sub-genre, weaving a story of three different protagonists experiencing similar hardships. Throughout the film, each narrative begins to intertwine and a larger study about collective guilt and sadness.
Like Mad God, Consuming Spirits features a palpable sense of sadness, as well as thematic darkness. This helps both films create the striking, grotesque imagery on display and makes the emotion of each scene extremely powerful.
Isle Of Dogs (2018)
Fantastic Mr. Fox, which established him as one of the most notable stop-motion directors in this generation. The film takes place in a dystopian island where talking, quarantined dogs roam the wasteland and find a young boy searching for his missing canine.
Like Mad God, the film takes place in a forsaken setting, where the only inhabitants are non-human. The isolated aesthetic gives each film a unique sense of personality, and while Isle of Dogs is ittedly more playful, it shares an equally dark sense of humor fueled by the snarky cast, which includes Bryan Cranston and Bill Murray.
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005)
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride is a Dracula and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Burton collaborated with co-director Mike Johnson to tell the story of a young man named Victor who unwittingly raises a corpse from the dead while reciting his wedding vows.
The film is steeped in dark colors similar to Mad God, with a black color palette and visually uneasy presentation. As Tim Burton made his film with a younger audience in mind, there are fun songs and dancing to offset the disturbing premise, while Mad God lacks a musical touch.
Hell & Back (2015)
Although Hell & Back made very little mark at the box office during its initial release in 2015, it hosted an all-star cast including Susan Sarandon, Mila Kunis, and Bob Odenkirk. Taking place in the titular hellscape, the story is about two carnival workers who accidentally summon a portal to Hell and must escape from the demons that await them.
The most similar aspect of Mad God and Hell & Back can be attributed to the creature design, while both primary settings are filled with evil monsters. While this film utilizes the demonic characters for comedic set-pieces, Mad God is alternatively a much more serious offering with little humor to be found.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
The Nightmare Before Christmas is arguably the most popular and celebrated stop-motion films to ever release, providing horror icons like Jack Skellington, Sally, and Oogie Boogie. A romantic drama, musical, and horror story wrapped up into one, this Oscar-nominated film tells the story of a skeleton named Jack who attempts to break free of societal norms and pursue a life in Christmas Town.
Interestingly, Mad God began its production process before The Nightmare Before Christmas even released, but both films can be compared for their commitment to creating original fantasy worlds rich in ideas and complex in structure. Whimsical and frightening in equal measure, these two films stretch the limits of what is possible in the stop-motion genre.
The Wolf House (2018)
The Wolf House is a foreign stop-motion film from Chile, directed by Chilean directors Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña. The story revolves around a young woman named María, who, after escaping from a group of religious extremists, finds herself in a house that begins to transform in mysterious, threatening ways.
Like Mad God, The Wolf House is a film filled with sequences that blend horror with surreal, dreamy visuals. This film takes a more grounded approach, basing itself on a real-life setting, Colonia Dignidad, which was a Nazi-occupied territory during World War II. While the film contains an important message of ing freedom and free will, Tippett takes an escapist approach to the material of Mad God.
Coraline (2009)
Alice in Wonderland, weaving the story of a young girl named Coraline who embarks on an adventure to a separate dimension that introduces her to versions of her parents that have buttons for eyes.
Coraline and Mad God both share the theme of evil lurking under the surface. In Coraline, this notion is taken metaphorically, with her alternate parents revealing themselves to be darker representations of Coraline's real family. In Mad God, the monsters literally reign under the surface of the light and do not possess the nuance of Selick's characters.
Frankenweenie (2012)
Tim Burton's most recent stop-motion film combines Frankenweenie tells the story of Victor and his beloved dog Sparky, who is brought back from the dead after being killed in a car accident.
Frankenweenie harkens back to creature features of the 1930s, shot in black-and-white and referencing Universal Monsters such as The Bride of Frankenstein and Igor. The creatures of Mad God also feel reminiscent of the classic monsters, with similar characteristics of sudden violence and screeching noise.
Fantastic Planet (1973)
Cut-out stop-motion is a unique form of animation in which paper is used to create the illusion of movement rather than plastic or clay character models. That technique was used in Fantastic Planet, an experimental effort from French director René Laloux. It's loose on plot, yet it seems to focus on a group of blue creatures called the Traags, who become embroiled in a tense relationship with the Oms, human-like creatures who are kept as pets by the Traags.
Fantastic Planet and Mad God are both experimental films in their own way, replacing certain expectations of story structure, dialogue, and character development. The "three-act-structure" (used by many films today) is nowhere to be found in Mad God or Fantastic Planet, immersing audiences in the world rather than a linear narrative.
