When I saw this show (which had the director’s cut ending rather then the theater ending where Seymour kills the plant in the end and Audrey lives) - they gave us a plant when we left the theater!
A cocaine fueled fever dream, is what best describes this movie. I'm always excited to see which version of this movie people pick to watch. Fun Fact: As part of the film's promotion, the "Audrey II" plant was occasionally interviewed, in character, by the press. On at least one occasion, the interview concluded with Audrey II "eating" the interviewer. Editor's Nightmare Fact: Bill Murray's scene in the waiting room was filmed as scripted, but there was virtually no written dialogue when his character got into the dentist's chair, except for ecstatic cries of pleasure. Over the course of the two days that he filmed, Murray kept riffing various ad-libs, which presented a challenge for the editor to assemble a coherent version of the scene. Rainbow Connection Fact: The puppeteers who designed and operated Audrey II were veterans of the Jim Henson company. One of the operators was Brian Henson, Jim's son. The young girl leaving the dentist's office before Bill Murray's scene is Heather Henson, daughter of Jim Henson.
I got to see this show performed onstage in New York City before the movie version came out. So much fun! At the end AudreyII moved menacingly toward the audience as "vines" fell from the ceiling. The movie is fun -- but nothing beats a good live production.
My friend lived one block away from the Orphiem(sp) Theatre and will always regret not seeing the original production in stage. I have watched three other stage productions (and bought an Audrey II bank at the one in Nebraska), but for the movie, I think the happy version works better because the audience became so devoted to his character and Audrey's.
When my dad and stepmother were dating early on in their relationship, they went down to the city to see this. They still talk about how incredible Ellen Greene was as Audrey and how great a show it was. It's become a really special experience to them and they go see Little Shop performed live whenever they can, even high school productions.
You will know Levi Stubbs best for him part of the Motown group thr Four Tops like listed in the credits and the song “Sugar Pie Honey Bunch”, Okay so the legacy of Little Shop of Horrors started as a low budget Roger Korman film of the 60’s where Jack Nicholson had one of his first film appearances as the patient who enjoys pain, then in the 1980’s it turned into an off broadway musical and Ellen Greene who played Audrey in the stage show reprised her role in the film and the best way to describe the film and show is a Musical Horror Comedy, The film’s director Frank Oz had a long history with Puppets and was a longtime friend and coworker with the legendary Jim Henson some other films Frank did outside of work on the Muppets I recommend watching include: Bowfinger (Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Steve Martin and Michael Caine), Indian in the Cupboard, The Dark Crystal, In & Out, Death at a Funeral (2007 film), The scene of Mr. Mushnik and Seymour had to end up with the actors doing the scenes separately as Vincent Gardenia flubbed the line of “Secret gardening tips” as “Secret Dining tips” and both of them kept cracking up after that, So in order for the scenes of Audrey II and Seymour to work and others where Twooey talks to someone the actors had to say their lines slowly while the puppeteers worked the plant at regular speed so when it was post they speed up the dialogue of the actors to match with the puppet, The music is by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman who would go on to do the music for Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, The girl trio is basically a greek chorus like the one in Hercules where they tell the story through song and nobody knows of the appearance and they are named after three girl groups of the 60’s- The Krystals, The Ronettes, The Chiffons and it makes sense that Alan Menken did this here and would do it again with the Muses in Hercules, One deleted song that should have stayed in is the full version of “Meek Shall Inherit” where Seymour starts to voice his regret of feeding people to the plant and actually thinks about the killing the plant, but thinks that if the plant is gone then Audrey will no longer love him and so he takes the offers and signs the contracts. Here is a link to the video if you are interested: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3-IrrrDbOzs.html When this ending is actually the originally planned one that was made for the film and shown to test audiences they reacted negatively to it so a new ending was made where Seymour defeats the plant and marries Audrey, For the longest time it was thought that the original ending was lost, but a miracle occured where it was found in one of Warner Brothers film vaults and so Frank Oz was able to have a director’s cut of the film made with the ending put back together. The only main difference is after Seymour save Audrey from The plant she gets back up and they start to go into a reprise of Suddenly Seymour when the salesman who comes in is played by Jim Belushi. Seymour tells him to scram and the rest happens the same up to the end of the song Mean Green Mother. Again if you are interested in watching the alternate happy ending here is a link to it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UtJtYayW4VQ.html The song Mean Green Mother From Outer Space was nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars, but unfortunately did not win, but was the first song with coarse language in it to be nominated,
I always thought they should have kept both versions after the neg screening, just make the negative ending a dream Seymour has near the end, he wakes up from it, and they have the real happy ending.
Little Shop of Horrors is one of my favorite musicals! From the genius minds of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken! I remember my first-year seminar in college was “Representations of the American Family.” When we came around to focusing on the representation of American families during the ‘50s, my professors played a clip of "Somewhere That's Green" in class since the song is a deconstruction/satire on what the American Ideal was around the time this musical takes place.
Hi. Great reaction. Thank you for honoring my request. I used to sing along with the off Broadway album over and over when I was a kid. Speaking of merchandise, I had an Audrey II battery operated bank. Feed it a penny and the jaws open and close a few times as the plant eats it.
“Little Shop of Horrors is a 1986 American horror comedy musical film directed by Frank Oz. It is an adaptation of the 1982 off-Broadway musical of the same name by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, which is itself an adaptation of the 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors by director Roger Corman. The film, which centers on a floral shop worker who discovers a sentient carnivorous plant that feeds on human blood, stars Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, and Levi Stubbs. The film also features special appearances by Jim Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Guest and Bill Murray. It was produced by David Geffen through The Geffen Company and released by Warner Bros. on December 19, 1986.”
the film making behind this was absolutely incredible.. To get Audrey II to perform in "real time", the actors had to do all their movements and singing at 1/2 speed. You'll catch little imperfections here and there if you watch with a sharp eye..
Yes, I believe that the creators wanted to make the dentist give the feel of Elvis- like that's the first person who popped into my head when I first saw him (in the musical)
Have you seen 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids"? It's a Rick Moranis ( Seymour) movie that came out a few years after this. This movie has loads of cameos, and both endings are fun.
This was one of my favorite movies as a kid (in the 80s)... but even then I thought the "happy ending" felt tacked on. Id never seen the play but the soundtrack had the original ending numbers on it so I knew something was up. So glad Frank Oz and David Geffin restored it. I get it, people like a happy ending, but sometimes you have to go with the 'appropriate' ending. That said they could've cut the city destruction by a minute or 2.
Thank you for reacting to the *correct* version of the film, not the insipid ‘Hollywood happy ending’ ending, this is the same ending as the original movie and stage play.
Ah, always great to see reactions to this movie, it's such a weird but wonderful story with great music, and truly fantastic puppetwork - the older I get and the more movies I see, the more I come to appreciate the practical effects in this movie. Quick funny story regarding the whole director's cut/theatrical cut thing - I was in college when I first bought a bluray copy of the movie that had both the director's and theatrical cut on it, and I was really good friends with my roommate and was introducing him to a lot of movies, so I decided to play a little prank on him. I showed him the theatrical cut of the movie without telling him that a different cut existed, then, a month or so later, casually suggested watching the film again, and put the director's cut without telling him. Cue confusion once Audrey started dying. XD As for my preference for one or the other, I personally like having both available, it's kind of like a "pick your own ending" where you can watch whichever one you're in the mood for. XD But at the end of the day, I do prefer to imagine that movie!Seymour and Audrey got their happy ending and their 2.5 kids and a white picket fence somewhere that's green. ^^ I think the discussion at the end of this reaction I watched recently breaks down why the sad ending doesn't work quite as well for the movie as it does for the play really well: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_7Y2PehETL8.html The main gist of it is, several of the changes made in translating from stage to screen have made Seymour more sympathetic in the film than he was in the play - several key moments where he deliberately chose to let someone die were changed to make him more passive and less culpable in the deaths, and the song where he actively decided to keep killing people to keep the plant alive because he thought it was the only way to keep Audrey's love was cut. The Seymour who made those choices felt more deserving of the fate the play doles out to him, while Audrey is the innocent victim who suffers because of the selfish choices Seymour makes. Since he comes off as less culpable in the bloody fates of those around him in the film, his gruesome death feels less karmic and more just depressing. But the puppetwork in the final "invasion of the Audrey II's" scene in the director's cut is awesome, so I'm glad it wasn't lost entirely and can still be appreciated. :D I haven't actually seen a proper professional production of this on stage before (I'd really love to one day though, if for no other reason than to see what cool stuff they do with the plant puppet), only a production my high school did, and I was in one myself in middle school (I had a bunch of bit parts - I was the deep-voiced homeless man in the Skid Row song, the "When you go" one, I was one of the customers coming in to see the plant the first time, and I was Patrick Martin, the plant salesman at the end - I'm a girl, but we didn't have a lot of guys in the play, or in most of the plays/shows I was in as a kid, so I ended up playing a guy a lot :P), but from my understanding, during the "Don't feed the plants" sequence at the end, when the greek chorus gets to the part "And new york... and where you live!", instead of "and where you live", the line is, "and this theater!", and a bunch of vines and stuff start descending from the ceiling towards the audience, as if a bunch of giant Audrey II's have attacked the theater and are reaching for audience members to munch on. I really wanna see that live someday. :D
So glad that you saw the original ending, it’s honestly one of the best movie endings ever. The studio pussied out on not having a happy ending and made them do a different one for cinematic release😝
@@latenightswithsammy the 2nd is more fun but the original is happier and I think the should put the good one in a blind viewing with the alternate tacked on like it was Clue.
Great movie, but I do prefer the theatrical ending better where Seymour and Audrey end up together in "a place that's green." Thanks again for your review and reaction.
I almost wish the director's cut didn't exist, as it seems to be the one many people are choosing when they watch the movie for the first time. The theatrical version I'll take any day.
Although they do end up together “somewhere that’s green” in the directors cut, too. Thats how the stage musical ends as well. I think we prefer what we know first. It’s cool to see it both ways
@@KJ-tz7vc That's fair, though I'm glad the director's cut exists if for no other reason than the hard work they clearly put into all of the puppetwork in the end sequence didn't go to waste - plus, I kinda like having a "choose your own ending" based on what I'm in the mood for. ^^ But I definitely prefer to imagine things ended happily for movie!Seymour and Audrey at the end of the day.
For most of the late 80's/90's, it was impossible to get a Broadway movie musical going, and '86's Little Shop was the last one until 2002's "Chicago" jumpstarted things again. (Not counting Disney's "High School Musical", or, ahem, '01's "Moulin Rouge", 'nuff said. 🙄) So if you get reactor fans saying "Oh, you have to see Little Shop!", it's usually because of Steve Martin, Bill Murray, or because it's literally the ONLY other movie they grew up on discovering where people sang in public. 😅
great reaction and the end you saw was totally different to the ending i saw....I never seen that ending before so that was interesting haha keep up the good work on the vids much love from uk
Yup, I was informed that what I saw was the Director's Cut. So ... it kind of explains the non-Hollywood ending, and a great one at that 😄 Thanks for writing in Rosita!
The original ending doesn't work the same way on film. It's a different medium, a different experience, a different relationship to the characters. Not a bad ending, but the theatrical ending is better for the flim version.
It's not that it's film instead of live theatre, it's that they went out of their way to keep Seymour's hands clean. In the play, he is culpable in each of those deaths, but also actively involved in trying to stop Audrey at the end, so his death is a heroic one.
The 2020 revival of _Little Shop_ is still running at the Westside Theatre in New York. It won the Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards for Best Musical Revival. Premiering in 1982 _Little Shop_ ran for five years. The success of the musical brought Howard Ashman and Alan Mencken to the notice of Disney. Sadly, Ashman, the lyricist, passed away in 1991 in the midst of writing the score for _Alladin_ and he was replaced by Tim Rice. In that film you can easily tell which lyrics are Ashman's and which are Rice's: Ashman's are the wittier ones.
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It is interesting that the ending which worked on the stage but did so badly in the first showing (causing the rewrite with the happy ending). One theory is that because everybody comes out and bows at the end on stage, the deaths aren’t as final and so are deemed more acceptable by the audience.
@@einvermont1907 Plus the line "we'll have tomorrow" sung by the actors for Seymour and Audrey, offering that ray of hope, which was also cut from the movie version.
I recommend that you do a first time on the watch of the original movie known as Little shop of horrors this one is a remake to it if you want to know why the original movie is horror film related and you might like that one since you enjoyed the new enhanced version of it And I would like for you to take this as a request I don’t know if you done the new enhanced version of what I story I like just need to to do as well if you have not done it yet I would like to see you to do that Anda and this is also another request regarding to my first video watch of you doing the original West side story so if you have done that then you can easily can’t take a request by me by doing the new enhanced version of one side story and I would also like for you to do another request by me and I want to see you to do do the other version of little shop of horrors and that one is actually the original film before it was more modern ice in the 1980s with Rick Moranis and Bill Murray and Steve Martin and other cast members like John Candy and whatever else but I like to see you too to do the original movie of Little shop of horrors so I would like to see that happen or maybe you can do ghost fever if you like you can find it here on RU-vid as well and yes you can find the original Little shop of horrors you might like that one too as a fact you’ll love this one because this one is also casted with jack Nicholson and if you like you’re free to go out for some movie watch of Little shop of horrors the original and you can also have the option of doing the new enhanced version of West side story that’s if if you’re a dinner or not but other than that is my comment to you and you wanna join them
