History Film / ForbiddenZone

* LittlePeopleAreSurreal

* AdultsDressedAsChildren

''Forbidden Zone'' is a [[MindScrew completely bonkers]] 1980 musical directed and written by Richard Elfman and Matthew Bright (who would later direct ''Film/{{Freeway}}'') as a vehicle for the antics of their band, The Mystic Knights Of The OingoBoingo. At the time, the band was a stage art troupe that would later become a successful [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] and {{Ska}} band, with Richard's little brother Music/DannyElfman as its frontman.

This movie is groundbreaking for being the first film that Music/DannyElfman ever composed a soundtrack for (no surprise considering his brother is the director and screenwriter, his brother's wife is the protagonist, and their father and grandfather both play characters in the film). Danny himself plays the devil while the rest of the original OingoBoingo band (when it was known as ''The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo'') are here as his minions. The film also includes a post-''FantasyIsland'' Hervé Villechaize and pre-''Film/CryBaby'' Susan Tyrell.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/_images_ForbiddenZoneArt_home5.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:You have been warned.]]

* CutSong: "Johnny" and "Giter Brider Itzik"

--> "The ''queen'' said she was going to ''ream'' us with twelve-inch cattle prods... and ''I'm'' still ''waiting!''"

''Forbidden Zone'' is a [[MindScrew completely bonkers]] 1980 musical directed and written by Richard Elfman and Matthew Bright (who would later direct ''{{Freeway}}'') as a vehicle for the antics of their band, The Mystic Knights Of The OingoBoingo. At the time, the band was a stage art troupe that would later become a successful [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] and {{Ska}} band, with Richard's little brother Music/DannyElfman as its frontman.

* CoverVersion: About a third of the songs are covers of 1930's songs, especially Cab Calloway ones.

** Frenchy "sings" a Creator/JosephineBaker song, and Pa "sings" a Creator/CabCalloway song.

* TheDanza: Herman Bernstein[[note]]Richard and Danny's grandfather[[/note]] as "Mr. Bernstein, the Old Yiddish Man".
* DawsonCasting: Phil Gordon, clearly well past middle age, playing the 10-year-old Flash. All his classmates are also examples of this.

* DeletedScene: A scene where Gramps sings about his days as a wrestler.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Susan Tyrell and the actress playing the Ex-Queen hated each other; according to Elfman, they actually started fighting during the CatFight scene.

* NoBudget

* TalkingToHimself: Several actors play two or more roles in the film; perhaps most memorable is Matthew Bright as the Henderson twins, Squeezit and Renee.

''Forbidden Zone'' is a a [[MindScrew completely bonkers]] musical directed and written by Richard Elfman and Matthew Bright (who would later direct ''{{Freeway}}'') as a vehicle for the antics of their band, The Mystic Knights Of The OingoBoingo. At the time, the band was a stage art troupe that would later become a successful [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] and {{Ska}} band, with Richard's little brother DannyElfman as its frontman.

The movie's story focuses on a family that moves in a house that has in the basement a door to the sixth dimension that they pretty much try to ignore, but when the eldest daughter returns from her studies in France, curiosity attracts her to investigate. Heavily inspired by CabCalloway, ''BettyBoop'' cartoons and UndergroundComics.

This movie is groundbreaking for being the first film that DannyElfman ever composed a soundtrack for (no surprise considering his brother is the director and screenwriter, his brother's wife is the protagonist, and their father and grandfather both play characters in the film). Danny himself plays the devil while the rest of the original OingoBoingo band (when it was known as ''The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo'') are here as his minions. The film also includes a post-''FantasyIsland'' Hervé Villechaize and pre-''Film/CryBaby'' Susan Tyrell.

The film had a ''huge'' influence on both Creator/TimBurton and Creator/PaulReubens, who first met while working on ''PeeWeesBigAdventure''. The decision was quickly made to base much of their film's visuals on ''Forbidden Zone'', and to hire DannyElfman to write the score. The rest is history.

* ShoutOut: The whole Satan sequence is one on BettyBoop's ''Minnie The Moocher'' cartoon, as well as "Bimbo's Initiation" (when Squeezit opens a door and gets punched in the face by a waiting boxer).

** Frenchy "sings" a Josephine Baker song, and Pa "sings" a Cab Calloway song.

''Forbidden Zone'' is a a [[MindScrew completely bonkers]] musical directed and written by Richard Elfman and Matthew Bright (who would later direct ''{{Freeway}}'') as a vehicle for the antics of their band, The Mystic Knights Of The OingoBoingo. At the time, the band was a stage art troupe that would later become a successful Music/NewWave and {{Ska}} band, with Richard's little brother DannyElfman as its frontman.

This movie is groundbreaking for being the first film that DannyElfman ever composed a soundtrack for (no surprise considering his brother is the director and screenwriter, his brother's wife is the protagonist, and their father and grandfather both play characters in the film). Danny himself plays the devil while the rest of the original OingoBoingo band (when it was known as ''The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo'') are here as his minions. The film also includes a post-''FantasyIsland'' Hervé Villechaize and pre-''Film/{{Cry-Baby}}'' Susan Tyrell.

The film had a ''huge'' influence on both TimBurton and Creator/PaulReubens, who first met while working on ''PeeWeesBigAdventure''. The decision was quickly made to base much of their film's visuals on ''Forbidden Zone'', and to hire DannyElfman to write the score. The rest is history.

* {{Atlantis}}: Ruins of greek columns and a temple with the banner "Atlantis" are seen at the initial animation.
* BadassGrandpa: More like mentally-distubed violent grandpa.

* DawsonCasting: The actor playing 10 years-old Flash was in his early 70's, at least. All his classmates are also examples of this.

* GroinAttack: The frog manservant gets this a ''lot''.
* IGotBetter: Johnny shoots Billy to death in the classroom for cheating at cards, and gets into a protracted gunfight with the teacher, who presumably kills him with the machine gun she keeps under her desk. Both of them still somehow come to class the next day.

* ShoutOut: The whole Satan sequence is one on BettyBoop's ''Minnie The Moocher'' cartoon.

* TalkingToHimself: Several actors play two roles in the film, more memorable are the Henderson twins (Squeezit and Renneé)
* ThoseTwoGuys: The boxer... mook... twins (?) whatever those two are.
** Why, they're the Kipper Kids, bizarre British performance artists! They actually made a moderate career doing exactly what they did in the movie.
*** They also appeared on Bette Midler's "Mondo Beyondo" (one of them, Martin Rochus Sebastian von Haselberg, married Midler in 1984) and briefly, dressed as Uncle Sam (both of them), in another cult favorite movie, ''Film/{{UHF}}''.
*** And you can hear them singing "Playmates" in the first [[Series/TheAddamsFamily Addams Family]] movie.

* WatchItStoned: In no way am I condoning it, but for some, the only way to understand ANY of it is to partake in it with some kind of outside influence...
* WeirdnessCensor: Do you have a gate to other dimensions in your basement? Just ignore it, and tie up grandpa to make sure he doesn't fall in.
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Squeezit can talk with chickens, which gives him the confidence to become a hero...well, [[DealWithTheDevil not without its consequences]].

* TheDanza: Herman Bernstein[[hottip:*:Richard and Danny's grandfather]] as "Mr. Bernstein, the Old Yiddish Man".

*** And you can hear them singing "Playmate" in the first [[Series/TheAddamsFamily Addams Family]] movie.

*** They also appeared on Bette Midler's "Mondo Beyondo" and breifly, dressed as Uncle Sam (both of them), in another cult favorite movie, "UHF."

--> "The ''queen'' said she was going to ''ream'' us with twelve-inch cattle prods... and ''I'm'' still ''waiting!''"

* TheDanza: Herman Bernstein [[hottip:*:Richard and Danny's grandfather]] as "Mr. Bernstein, the Old Yiddish Man".