(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Forbidden Zone"
Where You Can Stream It: Tubi, Kanopy, Night Flight, Plex, Flixfling
The Pitch: Back in 1972, one Richard Elfman, then only a lad of 23, founded a musical theater troupe on the streets of Los Angeles called the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. This was after performing music in Paris and being involved in numerous theater projects throughout his youth. The Mystic Knights were a massive band, consisting of 15 members, and dedicated to performing old songs from the 1920s through the 1940s. For an early glimpse of what kind of act the Mystic Knights performed, check out their appearance on "The Gong Show" in 1976. Richard is the one in the miniature rocket ship playing the train whistle.
The Movie: "Forbidden Zone"
Where You Can Stream It: Tubi, Kanopy, Night Flight, Plex, Flixfling
The Pitch: Back in 1972, one Richard Elfman, then only a lad of 23, founded a musical theater troupe on the streets of Los Angeles called the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. This was after performing music in Paris and being involved in numerous theater projects throughout his youth. The Mystic Knights were a massive band, consisting of 15 members, and dedicated to performing old songs from the 1920s through the 1940s. For an early glimpse of what kind of act the Mystic Knights performed, check out their appearance on "The Gong Show" in 1976. Richard is the one in the miniature rocket ship playing the train whistle.
- 3/5/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Tony Sokol Mar 21, 2019
You think you’ve seen one-of-a-kind movies? Banana oil! Forbidden Zone, there’s nothing like it.
The world of motion pictures is loaded with brilliant films and original visions, but few are without precedent. Forbidden Zone is a one of a kind movie that is both highly intelligent and unafraid to be broadly stupid. It mixes the most nightmarish elements of hundreds of film moments, unintentionally of course, with some of the most emotionally stirring music ever to prop up celluloid. If it weren’t for the snatches of dialogue, it might be considered the greatest prog rock opera.
Forbidden Zone is a work of pure originality. It is a fever dream from the mind of a musical interloper that has no peer. Characterizations mean nothing in Forbidden Zone. Neither does storyline or continuity. The basic laws of physics don’t apply so why should the rules of cinema?...
You think you’ve seen one-of-a-kind movies? Banana oil! Forbidden Zone, there’s nothing like it.
The world of motion pictures is loaded with brilliant films and original visions, but few are without precedent. Forbidden Zone is a one of a kind movie that is both highly intelligent and unafraid to be broadly stupid. It mixes the most nightmarish elements of hundreds of film moments, unintentionally of course, with some of the most emotionally stirring music ever to prop up celluloid. If it weren’t for the snatches of dialogue, it might be considered the greatest prog rock opera.
Forbidden Zone is a work of pure originality. It is a fever dream from the mind of a musical interloper that has no peer. Characterizations mean nothing in Forbidden Zone. Neither does storyline or continuity. The basic laws of physics don’t apply so why should the rules of cinema?...
- 7/2/2016
- Den of Geek
Long before he wrote the wild, dramatic score for Batman and the twisted song cycle that runs through the beloved Nightmare Before Christmas, Danny Elfman's original claim to cinematic fame was far quirkier than anything he'd ever dream up for Tim Burton: He portrayed Satan, dressed in a long-tail white tux, conducting an orchestra of goblins in a run-through of every "hidey-hidey-hidey-ho" in Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher." The episode, in the campy 1980 cult hit Forbidden Zone, found the redheaded composer wiggling, shimmying and writhing as he...
- 11/6/2015
- Rollingstone.com
Forbidden Zone
Stars: Hervé Villechaize, Susan Tyrrell, Gisele Lindley, Jan Stuart Schwartz, Marie-Pascale Elfman, Joe Spinell | Written and Directed by Richard Elfman
The question is when looking at Forbidden Zone where to start? I guess to say an attack on the senses would be one way to describe it when you first watch it. Putting in the Blu-Ray I will admit I was not prepared for the film and it did take some time to get used to its style. I will admit that my first reaction was that I would not like it, but surprisingly by the end of the film and on the second watch (to listen to the commentary track) any negativity was gone as I was fully in the Forbidden Zone.
In the Hercules house there is a doorway in the basement that leads to the sixth dimension, a crazy place of song and torture where...
Stars: Hervé Villechaize, Susan Tyrrell, Gisele Lindley, Jan Stuart Schwartz, Marie-Pascale Elfman, Joe Spinell | Written and Directed by Richard Elfman
The question is when looking at Forbidden Zone where to start? I guess to say an attack on the senses would be one way to describe it when you first watch it. Putting in the Blu-Ray I will admit I was not prepared for the film and it did take some time to get used to its style. I will admit that my first reaction was that I would not like it, but surprisingly by the end of the film and on the second watch (to listen to the commentary track) any negativity was gone as I was fully in the Forbidden Zone.
In the Hercules house there is a doorway in the basement that leads to the sixth dimension, a crazy place of song and torture where...
- 5/11/2012
- by Pzomb
- Nerdly
Year: 2009
Directors: Richard Elfman
Writers: Richard Elfman & Matthew Bright & Nick James & Nick L. Martinson
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Hal MacDermot
Rating: 8.8 out of 10
The Forbidden Zone is a master piece of insanity that defies description, but I’ll give it a go. Richard Elfman’s film is the ultimate midnight movie, an raucous energy filled mixture of giant frogs, dice, an always topless princess, people who speak in French accents, cut-out Gilliamesque animation, Expressionism, a midget King played by Herve Villechaize (yes, from TV’s Fantasy Island), the music is by (the) Danny Elfman (Tim Burton’s movies) and the Elfman Bros’s band Oingo Boingo with tracks from Cab Calloway and Josephine Baker, and then of course there’s…The Sixth Dimension!
The film was originally shot in black and white, a kind of tribute to the 1920s/30s cartoons of the Fleischer Brothers (Out of the Inkwell,...
Directors: Richard Elfman
Writers: Richard Elfman & Matthew Bright & Nick James & Nick L. Martinson
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Hal MacDermot
Rating: 8.8 out of 10
The Forbidden Zone is a master piece of insanity that defies description, but I’ll give it a go. Richard Elfman’s film is the ultimate midnight movie, an raucous energy filled mixture of giant frogs, dice, an always topless princess, people who speak in French accents, cut-out Gilliamesque animation, Expressionism, a midget King played by Herve Villechaize (yes, from TV’s Fantasy Island), the music is by (the) Danny Elfman (Tim Burton’s movies) and the Elfman Bros’s band Oingo Boingo with tracks from Cab Calloway and Josephine Baker, and then of course there’s…The Sixth Dimension!
The film was originally shot in black and white, a kind of tribute to the 1920s/30s cartoons of the Fleischer Brothers (Out of the Inkwell,...
- 7/20/2009
- QuietEarth.us
When I first saw this I thought "oh snap, George Lucas got to Richard Elfman! This sucks!" then I watched the footage.. and it isn't bad, in fact it's pretty damn awesome. It brings a whole new spin to one of my top ten favorite films of all time. For those not familiar with this gem, you know those times when you're alone and you do weird things or make weird noises to amuse yourself? This Entire Film Is Like That! Even better, Richard's brother Danny Elfman (yeah that Danny) scored the entire thing and even plays Satan.. it's brilliant to say the least. Part comedy, part fantasy, and heavy on the musical it's like nothing you'll ever see. Here's a synopsis:
In an absurd, cartoony world, a dufus family’s basement leads to the Sixth Dimension. Beautiful young “Frenchy” (Marie-Pascale Elfman) doesn’t heed her father’s admonishment and...
In an absurd, cartoony world, a dufus family’s basement leads to the Sixth Dimension. Beautiful young “Frenchy” (Marie-Pascale Elfman) doesn’t heed her father’s admonishment and...
- 6/29/2009
- QuietEarth.us
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