Baby Snakes

Ambitious, way too long, sometimes funny and sometimes puerile, and filled with music that entertains, challenges, and merely bores, Baby Snakes pretty much embodies its creator, the late composer-bandleader-guitarist Frank Zappa. Filmed in the late ‘70s (the DVD was executive produced by Zappa's widow, Gail, with son Dweezil handling the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio sound), it's billed as “a movie for people who do stuff that is not normal.” Zappa certainly fit that description: a trained musician who relentlessly drilled his band in the many complexities of his own compositions, Zappa also delighted in his role as a subversive (hence the DVD's mock memoranda from the “Department of Entertainment Security,” identifying him as a danger to society). Baby Snakes spotlights the bizarre stop-motion clay animation of Bruce Bickford, along with lots of Zappa music from a Halloween 1978 concert. As usual, he had great musicians (like guitarist Adrian Belew, and especially the powerhouse young drummer Terry Bozzio), and the quality of the tunes (drawing on sources as diverse as doo-wop, hard rock, and classical avant-garde) ranges from fun and engaging (“Dinah-Moe Humm,” “City of Tiny Lites”) to inane (“Broken Hearts Are for Assholes”) and gratuitously condescending (including jabs at harmless figures like Peter Frampton and an obscure hard rock hair god named Punky Meadows). Basically, Baby Snakes is all over the place, but there's enough good stuff to more than satisfy the faithful, making this a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (S. Graham)