Review: Phil Tippett: Mad Dreams and Monsters

One for the film buffs, this 2019 documentary from Gilles Penso and Alexandre Poncet concerns stop-motion animation expert Phil Tippett, who has likely worked on several of your favourite films. Whether it be creature design, stop-motion or computer-assisted animation, Tippett has been involved in some pretty big films over the years. Among his credits includes working on the “Star Wars” trilogy, “Dragonslayer”, “RoboCop”, “Dragonheart”, and “Starship Troopers”. Is this really a glorified DVD extra? Yes, but like “Elstree 1976” (about some of the lesser-known people involved in making “Star Wars: A New Hope”), it’s my kind of glorified DVD extra. It’s a bit slight and certainly very niche, but film buffs will enjoy this one, especially sci-fi/fantasy fans.

 

The stuff dealing with “Star Wars” and the early days of ILM is fascinating, with Tippett and colleague Dennis Muren working on the cantina scene and even getting to play some of the creatures they created masks for. I wasn’t aware of the latter. In fact, I learned quite a few things in the film, not knowing that Tippett worked on the fish design in Joe Dante’s “Piranha” and that “The Rocketeer” director Joe Johnston designed the AT-AT from “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi”. More important to me, Tippett was also someone who worked on the infamous chess game in the series. I love that thing.

 

Tippett himself comes across as a pretty humble guy, an animation nerd with a Santa Claus beard. And of course, he’s a Ray Harryhausen fan, being inspired by his stop-motion animation work. We get lots of talking heads throughout, and in a film full of seemingly likeable people, producer Jon Davison comes across as a particularly fun guy. He’s kinda like director John Landis but without the obnoxiousness being turned up to 11. He also voiced ED209 in “RoboCop”, which is pretty awesome. Personally I was more interested in the section devoted to “Starship Troopers” than the rather overrated “Jurassic Park”, but let’s be honest – the former wouldn’t exist as a motion picture without the latter. That said, Tippett’s short film “Prehistoric Beast” looks much more interesting, despite the obviously lower-grade tech involved.

 

This is simple documentary-making, but it’s my kind of subject: a documentary about an important figure in cinema, particularly genre cinema. Well recommended to those inclined, of little interest to others perhaps.

 

Rating: B-