Forbidden Zone (1980)

The bizarre and musical tale of a girl who travels to another dimension through the gateway found in her family's basement.

Director:

Richard Elfman

Writers:

Richard Elfman (story), Richard Elfman (screenplay)

Stars:

Hervé Villechaize, Susan Tyrrell, Gisele Lindley

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hervé Villechaize	...	King Fausto of the Sixth Dimension
Susan Tyrrell	...	Queen Doris of the Sixth Dimension / Ruth Henderson
Gisele Lindley	...	The Princess
Jan Stuart Schwartz	...	Bust Rod, the Servant Frog
Marie-Pascale Elfman	...	Susan B. 'Frenchy' Hercules
Virginia Rose	...	Ma Hercules
Gene Cunningham	...	Huckleberry P. Jones / Pa Hercules (as Ugh-Fudge Bwana)
Phil Gordon	...	Flash Hercules
Hyman Diamond	...	Grampa Hercules
Matthew Bright	...	Squeezit & René Henderson (as Toshiro Boloney)
Danny Elfman	...	Satan
Viva	...	Ex-Queen
Joe Spinell	...	Squeezit's Father
Brian Routh	...	Harry Kipper (as The Kipper Kids)
Martin von Haselberg	...	Harry Kipper (as The Kipper Kids)

Storyline

A mysterious door in the basement of the Hercules house leads to the Sixth Dimension by way of a gigantic set of intestine. When Frenchy slips through the door, King Fausto falls in love with her. The jealous Queen Doris takes Frenchy prisoner, and it is up to the Hercules family and friend Squeezit Henderson to rescue her.

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Plot Keywords:

dysfunctional family | some scenes animated | animated sequence | animated segments | cult film | 

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Taglines:

A chaotic musical fantasy.

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Genres:

Comedy | Fantasy | Musical

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English French German

Release Date:

21 March 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tiltott zóna

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hercules Films Ltd.

Technical Specs

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The alphabet song in the classroom scene is a mutated version of "Swinging the Alphabet," a classic number from the Three Stooges short _Violent is the Word for Curly (1938)_.

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Quotes

King Fausto: Just wait until those dead babies start marching, then you'll be eating your words!

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Alternate Versions

Premiere long version running time is: 76 mins., 38 secs. Theatrical Version is: 73 mins., 11 sec. The colorized version runs 74 mins., 14 secs., restoring René Henderson's verse in "Queen's Revenge," which previously only appeared as a "deleted scene" in the special features section of the Fantomas DVD edition. This is the version preferred by the director.

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Connections

References Minnie the Moocher (1932)

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Soundtracks

Grand Finale
Performed Oingo Boingo
Composed by Danny Elfman
Additional Lyrics by Richard Elfman and Nicholas James
Arranged by Steve Bartek

User Reviews

Extremely Original

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.