History of the Story

It should be noted that The Little Shop Of Horrors was first made in 1960, and directed by none other than Roger Corman. (I'll get around to reviewing that version later.) Then it became an off-off Broadway play, which was the basis for the movie I'm about to review.

Cast

Rick Moranis as Seymour Krelborn.
Ellen Greene as Audrey.
Vincent Gardenia as Mr. Mushnik.
Steve Martin as Orin Scrivello, D.D.S.
Levi Stubbs as Audrey II.
Tichina Arnold as Crystal.
Michelle Weeks as Ronette.
Tisha Campbell as Chiffon.

Cameos and Smaller Roles

Bill Murray as Arthur Denton.
John Candy as Wink Wilkinson.
James Belushi as Patrick Martin.
Christopher Guest as the First Customer.

Crew

Written by Howard Ashman, based on his script for the off-off Broadway play, which was in turn based on the script to the original movie, written by Charles B. Griffith.
Directed by Frank Oz.
Numerous others who should be mentioned. They are listed on the IMDB page here.

Synopsis

As the introduction states, ``On the twenty-third day of the month of September, in an early year of a decade not too long before our own, the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence. And this terrifying enemy surfaced, as such enemies often do, in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places...''

This enemy, in fact, is a carnivorous plant from outer space. It arrived on our world during a completely unexpected total eclipse of the Sun. (I'll try not to penalize them for having the special effects guys make it an annular eclipse.) Seymour Krelborn found this plant, and placed it in the window of Mushnik's flower shop. Mushnik's flower shop was struggling financially, and Seymour's plant proved interesting enough to keep customers coming in the door.

It was around this time that Seymour discovered the plant was a carnivore, and required blood to live. Seymour began by feeding it his blood from pricks of his fingers, but that soon wasn't enough.

Seymour had named the plant the Audrey II, after Mushnik's other employee, who Seymour happened to be in love with. Unfortunately, she was dating Orin Scrivello, D.D.S., a semi-sadist who mistreated Audrey physically and emotionally. The plant soon convinced Seymour to use Orin as plant food.

Seymour went to kill Orin at his work, but Orin overdosed on laughing gas before Seymour could work up the nerve to shoot him. Seymour brought the corpse to Mushnik's, where he chopped it up and fed it to the Audrey II.

The next day, the police questioned Audrey, suspecting foul play in Orin's disappearance. Seymour didn't tell her what happened, but they did talk about Orin long enough to realize that Audrey wanted out of that relationship. Audrey and Seymour finally realized that their love was mutual.

Unfortunately for Seymour, Mr. Mushnik had seen him chop up Orin, and had found blood on the floor. Mushnik was willing to let Seymour leave town, in exchange for learning how to care for the profitable plant, but the Audrey II ate him first.

Seymour was ready to leave, and was planning to escape with Audrey the next day, using money he'd be paid for his public appearances with the plant. Then he was approached by a representative of the World Botanical Enterprises, who wanted to take cuttings of the Audrey II and sell them worldwide, and Seymour realized the plant needed to be stopped. After a final confrontation that destroyed Mushnik's flower shop and the Audrey II, Seymour and Audrey escaped to live happily ever after.

High Point

There are a couple of moments that can be chosen as high points. Bill Murray's guest role is possibly the funniest part he's ever played. On the other hand, I can never stop laughing at the back-up singers during the final scene.

Did I mention this is a musical?

Low Point

I'd have to say that Orin Scrivello's corpse was not at all convincing. I used to think that was intentional, but Frank Oz has the same complaint in the DVD commentary track.

Facts You Probably Didn't Know

No, I'm not going to talk about the alternate ending. That's not a well kept secret. What I am going to talk about are some of the little facts about the way some of these effects were done. I had no idea that the latex rubber used for the plant couldn't move as fast as was required, so Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene were forced to walk, talk, sing, and dance in slow motion so the film could be sped up later. (Any scene in which the large plants move their mouths were filmed at 16 frames per second, rather than the usual 24.) To make things even harder, they had to lip sync to the vocals they'd recorded three months earlier. I have far more respect for Rick Moranis now than I did before I listened to the commentary.

I have more respect for Ellen Greene, too. I didn't realize that she was singing poorly on purpose; she won Tony awards on Broadway. One of her roles was playing Audrey in the stage production, which is why she played the part.

One final note to DVD owners: there are two versions of the DVD. The first version contained the full footage of the original ending, but was recalled because that footage was not legally included on the disk. The second version contains the storyboards to that ending, but not the footage itself. If you have the original version, it's a collectors item.

The Review

The 1960 version of this movie, and the off-off Broadway play were original. However, this movie was incredibly similar to the play, so I'm afraid I can't rate it very highly for originality. I do have to give it credit for some originality, though. It was, after all, a musical science fiction comedy. I give it 3 out of 6.

The effects in this version far surpass those of the other incarnations, on the other hand. The only two effects that didn't seem real to me were the scene in which the plant grew, and the explosion at the end. It turns out that the plant growth is a physical effect. (A single plant was moved toward the camera on a track.) The explosion still bothers me, though. I give the effects 4 out of 6.

The story and writing were very well done. There are some wonderful lines, and some highly entertaining songs. I give the story and writing 5 out of 6.

The acting was well done, and even better in retrospect, now that I know how much was done in slow motion. This is an incredibly talented group of people, who worked extremely hard to make this look like a cheap, low-budget play. They had to play over the top, but still make it seem like the events were real to the characters involved. Part of the acting job is to maintain the comedic pacing and delivery, which was done flawlessly. That's not easy given the subject matter. I give the acting 5 out of 6.

In terms of emotional response, this movie did well. I was feeling Seymour's fury as he watched Orin mistreat Audrey, and I truly wanted him to emerge victorious after his fight with the plant. (This is a better ending than the original.) I give it 4 out of 6.

The production value was very high, even though they were trying to make it look cheap. There was great transitions from one scene to another, the photography was beautifully chosen to hide the wires and puppeteers, and the pace was maintained as high as it needs to be in a comedy. I give it 4 out of 6.

Overall, this is a very entertaining movie, provided you don't want to think too hard. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total, this gets 28 out of 42.