Forbidden Zone

I first discovered this one during my early mania for the band Oingo Boingo back in the early 1980's. I was expecting anything other than what I got: a live-action Max Fleischer cartoon brimming with low-budget insanity! FORBIDDEN ZONE is balls-out strange, and a hell of a lot of fun for those with a taste for the odd. Truly unique in every way, it is sad to see that more films like this will probably never be made again in this era of big-budget drivel and rampaging political correctness.

FORBIDDEN ZONE follows the adventures of the almost indescribably weird Hercules family who have recently moved into a house whose basement contains the doorway to the 6th dimension. When their bathrobe-clad daughter Susan (who has been studying abroad in France, returning home with an outrageous French accent and now goes by the totally original nickname of "Frenchy") falls into the 6th dimension, all manner of looniness ensues. A tuxedoed frog-man, jockstrap wearing goons, animation that looks like it was done by an acidhead, a wonderful soundtrack that blends oddball rock and big band classics, the worst blackface makeup in film history, Squeezit "Chicken-boy" Henderson and his "sister" Renee, the funniest elementary school sequence in memory, Herve Villechaize as King Fausto, the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo and Danny Elfman as the devil himself...All this and more (!!!) in a ninety minute tour de force of unbridled imagination. HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!

"Forbidden Zone" is an utterly certifiable fantasy-musical that unsurprisingly has picked up a cult following in the 40 plus years since its release. It deals with a young woman, "Frenchy" (Marie-Pascale Elfman), who disappears into the title dimension through a door in her houses' basement. Her brother Flash (Phil Gordon) and grandfather (Hyman Diamond) embark on a quest to rescue her. Presiding over this dimension are diminutive king Fausto (Herve Villechaize) and his tyrannical queen (Susan Tyrrell).

The talented Richard Elfman co-wrote this with Martin Nicholson, Nicholas James, and another under-appreciated talent, Matthew Bright (who also appears on screen as Squeezit and Rene), and Richards' younger brother, pop star turned film composer Danny Elfman, wrote the tuneful soundtrack. Elfman, too, acts in front of the camera as Satan, and Marie-Pascale, to whom Richard was married at the time, served as production designer.

They clearly put a fair amount of effort into this genuinely strange feature that is packed to the brim with assorted, inspired bits of random weirdness (like a butler with a frogs' head named Bust Rod). The whole look of the film, in fact, has a really appreciable visual tackiness about it. This viewer saw the black & white theatrical version, and it's rich the way that it combines its outre sets with animation. All the performances tend towards the utterly flamboyant, but they definitely fit this material. Appearing in cameos are Warhol Factory veteran Viva (as the former queen) and the great character actor Joe Spinell (as a lusty sailor).

All in all, "Forbidden Zone" is truly like nothing else that this viewer has seen before. It actually outdoes films like "Phantom of the Paradise" and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in terms of utter zaniness (however low-budget it may be).

Six out of 10.

I was so excited that this finally came out on DVD. My dad took us to see it ages ago when it first came out in theaters and it became an instant family favorite. That might sound weird since it's a bit on the racy side, but most of the sexuality is done in a very silly and, I think, innocent way, so it never made me feel awkward showing it to anyone.

I think it's the best musical ever and the low budget production works perfectly into the surreal plot. The actors are brilliant, a crazy cast that makes me laugh until it hurts.

Rent it! Buy it! Give a copy to a friend and blow their mind!

Danny Elfman's outlandish 1980 film "Forbidden Zone" has to be seen to be believed, and if you are not at least slightly demented you should probably pass on the seeing part. Imagine a cross between "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", with lots of animation in the style Monty Python's Flying Circus and the rubbery Max Fleischer cartoons of the 1930's (which probably inspired much of the original Monty Python stuff anyway). Also deserving mention is the fact that this relatively low budget black and white film is a musical.

There are a lot of characters and the story is somewhat hard to follow so here is what I hope is a helpful summary. The Hercules family (father, mother, son, daughter, and grandfather) live in a house with a door to the Sixth Dimension a/k/a The Forbidden Zone (think Wonderland). Their daughter Frenchy (think Alice) and son Flash (who looks like third stooge Joe Besser in a cub scout uniform) go to school one day. When a gunfight erupts in the classroom Frenchy runs home.

Tripping on a roller skate she tumbles through the door into a large intestine and ends up in the sixth dimension, which is ruled by a King and Queen of dice-used instead of wonderland's playing cards. There are a lot of half-dressed wonderland type characters down there although only the Frog Footman looks the same. There is a shapely princess who runs around topless, a living chandelier that eventually decays into just a skeleton, a devil (Elfman) who is like Cab Calloway playing the Cheshire Cat, and a rival queen.

Frenchy's family and one of her classmates go into the Forbidden Zone to attempt a rescue. The film is a mix of live action and animation. The editor deserves a lot of credit because the whole thing is sequenced quite well and even has a strange unity. There are racist stereotypes (generally too silly to be offensive), lively swing music, and sets that look to have been painted and constructed by a third grade art class.

If this whole wacky concept sounds interesting you should check it out.

I used to own a VHS copy of this movie but didn't own a VHS player. When I finally watched it, I couldn't imagine why anyone would make a movie like this. And, maybe more importantly, who would watch it? It's like the dreams you might have with a 104 degree fever while taking shrooms. If John Waters and David Lynch made a live action cartoon with Max Fleischer, it might look something like this. And yet, as weird as it is, it's watchable and has an interesting score by Danny Elfman. I could only give a 6 because so much of this made no sense that I wasn't quite sure what I was reviewing.