Back in 1985 Billy Ocean released the song Loverboy, and it was promoted with a music video that ripped off the cantina scene from Star Wars. As a then 13 year old I naturally thought the video was pretty great, and given that VH1 Classic played it last night on their 1980’s show I can only add that it has aged well.
The story, in a nutshell, is that the lizardy dude in the above shot wanders into a rough looking bar, spots a pretty lass, and shoots her companion to take her for himself.
The best thing is the bar itself is a blatant cantina ripoff, and many of the patrons are only an evolutionary step or two away from the denizens of the Mos Eisley cantina. Some are not so removed:
The space lizard guy himself is actually well done, with a convincing mask which is well animated. He reminds me a lot of something which I couldn’t quite put my finger on. The back half of his head is very Sea Devilish (<- Dr Who reference) but his snout...
< Space Lizard Dude
The girl is a blatant ripoff of the female Gelfling appearance (from Dark Crystal):
< Pretty Lass
And Billy Ocean himself is done up like Han Solo (shouldn't he be Lando), and grooving out as he sings on a set which strongly resembles Tattooine (notice the moisture vaporator behind him):
< He wants to be your loverboy
Ever since we started watching the music shows (which we still watch hours of every week) there has been a short list of videos we both were hoping to see again. Loverboy was on my list, because I remembered the video as an entertaining and not-as-bad-as-one-may-expect Star Wars ripoff. And it is. But looking at it these days, as an adult, it’s mind boggling how it was able to be released without someone jumping all over someone for copyright infringement.
I seem to recall the song is pretty good too… but then I’ve not heard it for years.