A Non-review by Professor Popinjay
(1980)
I could easily go off on the bizarre nature of this film but it’s what I’ve just come to expect from a band movie. Slice it however you like, that’s pretty much what this is.
Lots of people watch movies for different reasons and I don’t want to be an elitist gatekeeper but if you have no idea who Danny Elfman is, you don’t deserve to watch movies and you’re not a true fan. I’m kidding, but just in case, let me educate you a bit.
Starting as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo and eventually evolving into just Oingo Boingo, this band consisted of (among several others) Steve Bartek, Richard Elfman, and his younger brother Danny Elfman.
Oingo Boingo’s musical style is almost undefinable but has elements of ska-punk/new-wave to name a few of the many genres they’ve encompassed throughout the decades. At first listen, they might remind you of Devo or The B-52s. Eclectic and sometimes a bit goofy (see their appearance on The Gong Show on which they clearly appeared intending to get Gonged), Oingo Boingo seemed unconcerned with the fact they’ve never produced a chart topping hit, content to create their own style which you are welcome take or leave depending on your own musical tastes.
Regardless of the ebb and flow of their fame, their songs are featured in several films, including the film Weird Science (1985) for which Oingo Boingo created the theme.
Richard Elfman directed several Oingo Boingo’s music videos and eventually went on to direct his first movie The Forbidden Zone. While not a band film in the true sense of the word (like The Who’s rock opera Tommy 1975, or Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same 1976), the score for The Forbidden Zone featured songs from Oingo Boingo but also several instrumental compositions specifically from Danny. This would be Danny’s first foray into score composing. Danny himself would appear in the film as the white clad “Cab Calloway-esque” devil.
Of course, Danny would go on to do score composing and songwriting regularly for movies like Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), The Corpse Bride (2005), Beetlejuice (1988), and Batman (1989) to list a very small selection from his now vast decades-spanning repertoire.
If you’re an aspiring Elfman/Oingo Boingo aficionado, you’ll definitely enjoy the music and Danny’s performance but I’ll tell you right now, this film hasn’t aged well. It’s rife with slurs, depictions of domestic abuse played for laughs, and bizarre unbidden sexual overtones. The creators themselves I do not consider racist or homophobic. Heck the majority of this very film will ultimately cancel out such suspicions but some characters toss around some faux pas terms now and then.
I’ll say there’s nary a casual conversation that happens where the two participants aren’t pretending to have sex in a humorous fashion. Whatever; except frequently it’s being perpetrated by a character who is supposed to be a 10-12 year old Boy Scout, albeit he is played by Phil Gordon who was in his early 60s throughout the multi-year production. This being a surreal expressionistic film satirizing American sexual taboos, it’s up for interpretation what this all was meant to represent, but I personally did not find it amusing. In fact, I think that description is nothing but a bunch of trumped up hoo-ha to rationalize filming whatever crazy crap they felt like that day no matter how lewd or offensive. As always, I support their freedom to make the film and I support my freedom to not watch it if I choose. Incidentally, I chose to watch it.
The plot was not especially strong, serving primarily as a disjointed catalyst for the songs or some other outrageous performance piece as you may expect from a sort of band driven film. With that in mind It’s no surprise to find The Kipper Kids in it.
The Kipper Kids.
If you’ve not heard of them, I envy you. Seen on Weird Al’s film UHF (1989), and heard during the “vault slide” scene in The Addams Family (1991), these “comedy” performance artists do weird things to each other, often while singing playground songs, or making fart noises. One of them has actually been married to Bette Midler since 1984. Don’t ask me which one though. I don’t think even THEY know. Frankly, I’m not sure which is more of a surprise: that relationship or the fact that Danny has been married to Henry Fonda’s granddaughter since 2003.
Amazingly, Hervé Villechaize would play King Fausto in this. It’s great to see him play something besides a diminutive henchman. Considering the obvious shoestring budget they (Richard Elfman) had, this must have been a charity on Villechaize’s part. Regardless, he did not phone this performance in. Hervé was quite the actor and despite this weird film, he is acting his heart out in it.
I listened to the soundtrack all the way through in addition to watching the film. I’m sure there are those who swear The Forbidden Zone film is an avant garde masterpiece. Call me uncultured but I don’t art that way. That’s just me though. Nevertheless, the soundtrack is quirky and very prototypical of Danny Elfman’s later work. It’s a fascinating listen if you’re already familiar with his later film scores. I just wish I hadn’t wasted my time with the film other than Danny’s brief appearance. While he is fascinating to watch, the rest of this is nonsense in my opinion.
Most interesting to me is what I came to realize right at the beginning of the film. It turns out Danny Elfman revisited the theme song originally created for The Forbidden Zone and reworked it as the theme song for the short-lived Dilbert cartoon series based on the newspaper comic, dubbing it “The Dilbert Zone.” Despite the show never really hitting its mark (not to mention the overnight cancellation of its creator, Scott Adams) the remix of The Forbidden Zone’s opening theme song is pretty cool.
All my research for this article has inspired me to binge Oingo Boingo’s many albums which has been quite the enjoyable endeavor so far. Danny officially broke up the group in 1995 but some remaining members eventually formed into the rather derivative-titled band “Oingo Boingo Former Members”. Only in recent years has Danny commenced solo tours, presenting his orchestral scores and a selection of highly reworked versions of older Oingo Boingo songs. I’ve seen snippets of these performances on YouTube. They’re pretty wild.
Poster art!
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