Plot Details: This opinion reveals everything about the movie's plot.

I have to admit that I have a biased opinion of Little Shop of Horrors, being in a stage production of it. Tons of fans of this movie have no idea a stage production even exists, and is actually based on a movie of the same title that came out years ago that had Jack Nicholson in it.

The movie is based pretty closely on the stage production. Fortunately, not much is different besides the absense of a few (pretty pointless) songs, some dialogue, certain character developments, additions of scenes (to feature special guest stars), and certain concept that are not even mentioned in the movie. But the biggest and easily worst difference is the ending of the movie compared to the play's. But we'll get to that at the end.

Rick Moranis plays Seymour Krelborn, a loser who works in a florist shop in a downtown area of a big city (which could even be called a ghetto), that is dubbed Skid Row. Seymour pursues his coworker Audrey (Ellen Greene), who is just as much of a loser. Audrey, who has a self-esteem problem, is dating Orin Scrivello, D.D.S. (Steve Martin), a dentist who is also a semi-sadist. Both of the losers are under the supervision of another loser, Mr. Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia), the money-grubbing owner of Mushnik's Skid Row Florists. Things are all going downhill for Seymour until he comes upon a plant, dubbed Audrey II (Levi Stubbs), who can make all his dreams come true. Only one problem: it feeds on blood. The story is narrarated by Ronette (Tichina Arnold), Crystal (Michelle Weeks), and Chiffon (Tisha Campbell), three ragamuffins turned divas.

The casting is brilliant in this movie. Rick Moranis must be a born loser, as he makes a perfect Seymour. For those who don't know, Ellen Green played Audrey in the original production on stage. No one could do this better than her. (One question - was she in anything else?) Vincent Gardenia pulls off Mushnik well as a heartless jerk. Steve Martin is absolutely brilliant as the dentist (unfortunately one of his songs was cut). Levi Stubbs is spectacular at both singing and voicing for Audrey II. Michelle Weeks, Tichina Arnold, and Tisha Campbell are great Shoo-Wop Girls. Even the guest stars (Jim Belushi, John Candy, Bill Murray) are amazing additions to the movie.

Also the effects in this movie are incredible, considering it was made in 1986 anyway. The plant is absolutely brilliant. No wonder Muppet-master Frank Oz directed this movie because this puppet is absolutely amazing. Rick Moranis is also given my kudos for being able to act out the scenes with the plant in slow motion so the plant looked as good as it does. 60 puppetteers were used to make Audrey II move fluently, and obviously they did a stupendous job. The direction of camera shots in this movie are also great, as there are some interesting and successful shots. At the end of Somewhere That's Green, Audrey poses in her window, the camera zooms out of the window as a bum passes by and ascends to the top of the roof, where the Shoo-Wop girls are hanging out. The admirable camera sequence during Suddenly Seymour in which both characters remain in the same shot even when one is standing and the other is sitting or one is ascending a staircase.

Now, onto the music. The Prologue is enhanced in the movie by adlibbing and a very admirable shot zooming past the Shoo-Wop girls to Seymour, then zooming out again to have them missing from the scene. The effects are pretty good during this, especially when the girls walk through the rain and remain dry.

Next on the agenda is the girls' encounter with Mr. Mushnik, and an intro to Skid Row, probably the show stealer of the movie. Many songs could have stolen the show (Don't Feed The Plants, Dentist, Mushnik and Son), but the movie version of it is absolutely spectacular, with the Skid Row residents' presense being so valuable you can't imagine it without them. The most memorable moment is during Seymour's solo when they all walk slowly and stomp on the same beat. I think our stage production of it would have been better if we'd used this element (the background characters all just froze). This song is obviously not solely about Seymour or Audrey, but about everyone on Skid Row and really gives us a feel of the setting, with an awesome set. Great.

Da-Doo is spectacular compared to a stage version of this song. There is so much more you can do with movies than on stage, and this sequence really proves that. Which is normally a dead spot for any actors who have to endure this song, the movie makes it great. This is probably the best comparison to the stage production, as this song is really livened up as the sequence is acted out. The addition of a barber shop quartet is also helpful in this, as it adds to the Shoo-Wop atmosphere of the song. The Shoo-Wop girls also look great as Geishas in this song.

I never actually watched our version of Grow For Me, but I can't imagine it being as good as the movie's considering our budget was a lot cheaper (aka, we didn't have a basement of the shop full of books and stuff), and Rick Moranis did dang good on this. I was really impressed with the growing of the plant as well. Kudos.

A song that is not exactly cut is Ya Never Know, which has been replaced with Some Fun Now following Somewhere That's Green. In the stage show, the girls and Mushnik all listen to Seymour on Skid Row Radio and Mushnik sings a little diddy about "What a blessing this wonderful plant should exist and rake in the bucks for me hand over fist!" Seymour then shows up and the girls tell the story of his sudden success. "Observe him, here's a chap. Everything is landing in his lap." This song could have been really cool on screen, but I understand why Some Fun Now has replaced it as its an easier song to put in and didn't involve Seymour confronting the divaized Shoo-Wop girls, which wouldn't make much sense.

Audrey then goes into her solo of her dream home Somewhere That's Green. Unfortunately one of my favorite parts of the play has been cut out, where the Shoo-Wop girls nag Audrey about missing the radio interview. "Dump the chump, get a new guy, and let him protect you! We got one all picked out for you! A little botanical GENIUS! She ain't talkin' bout no George Washington Carver, neitha!" It's great. Anyhoo, the movie allows much more creativity and they really show it off during Audrey's aria. The sequence is complete with animated birds, tupperwear, and astroturf, completing this great sequence.

Then is Some Fun Now, where the girls sing of Seymour becoming an overnight sensation, and how he must be having a great deal of fun becoming anemic. Anyway, this song isn't as good as Ya Never Know, but as I mentioned, it makes sense why it is used.

Another song is cut from the movie, which is Closed For Renovation, a song Seymour, Audrey, and Mushnik sing about how the shop is closed to renovate. It's a pretty pointless song, but a fun little diddy that leaves a kind of whole in the plot.

Following this is Dentist. This is another show stealer as it's much better than the stage production can be because of the present dentist's office. We featured one in Now (It's Just The Gas), but did not have time to open it up in this number. Steve Martin is absolutely brilliant as the dentist, and our Shoo-Wop girls are hilarious as dental assistants. Another admirable shot is from the inside of one of Orin's victim's, with Shoo-Wop girls holding dental tools and a pulsating tongue. This is a real show stealer, although wasn't as good in our production.

My favorite song in the show is cut next, Mushnik & Son, where Mushnik decides he is going to adopt Seymour to use family ties to keep his hands on the money Audrey II brings in. This song was my favorite because our two actors added their own choreography and things to it, including Mushnik and Seymour engaging in a can-can line and a kiss, as well as Seymour jumping into Mushnik's arms at the end of the number. It was hard to be sitting on a stoop and not be singing along with this great song. Originally this song seemed kind of pointless, but putting our own concepts in it made it a real show stealer. The concept of Seymour's adoption isn't even mentioned in the movie.

Next up is Feed Me (Git It!) which is another amazing scene in the movie. This is Audrey II's introduction as a talking plant, and this scene is shot brilliantly. Yet again, I have to hand it to Rick Moranis and all the puppetteers for making Audrey II and Seymour look like they were really interacting and singing to each other. You can't even tell this was shot in slow motion (I didn't know until I read it somewhere). This song has so much energy and backstage we couldn't help jumping up and down and singing along. This is an awesome song and Levi Stubbs and Rick Moranis do awesome together. Spectacular.

Another song is cut, which is Now (It's Just The Gas), which is not even a very good song, so I didn't mind it being absent. By now Seymour decides he is going to knock off Orin and feed him to the plant. The concept is of course featured, where Seymour goes to the dentist office intending to murder Orin, but kills him with "simple laissez-faire" when he puts on his nitris oxide mask and can't get it off. This is a quite humerous scene in all of its darkness. A hilarious but morbid scene of Seymour dragging Orin's body to the shop is not featured in the play unfortunately, but Seymour feeding bloody body parts to Audrey II would close out Act I of the play.

Of course since the movie doesn't have acts, it goes on with Audrey finding out about the "disappearance" of Orin, where Seymour finally declares his love for her with the "anthem" of the show, Suddenly Seymour. A pretty pointless song called Call Back In The Morning is before this in the play, but our production did not feature this song as its pretty much filling space. Suddenly Seymour is a brilliantly shot sequence and the actors do a brilliant job singing and acting out this song. The Shoo-Wop girls of course appear in the background to back them up, which adds to the energy of this song. It is remarkable.

Next, of course, Mr. Mushnik finds out about them and starts to suspect something, considering he saw Seymour chopping something up, little red dots all over the linoleum, and now Seymour kissing the dentist's girlfriend. Audrey II tells Seymour he should just knock off Mushnik considering he would be the sole owner of the shop if he was gone. The Shoo-Wop girls have almost a creepy appearance in this song as they barely appear in sequined gowns. Seymour, of course, submits to the plant and Mushnik is eaten by the plant. This part is actually quite funny to see two pretty fake looking legs hanging out of Audrey II's mouth as he chomps Mushnik into plant food.

The next is The Meek Shall Inherit, a song which everyone in the stage production absolutely hated. The movie version is actually not that bad, except I hate this song. I understand why it's necessary, but I hate this song! I can't quite remember how many of the sales pitchers the movie features, but I don't think it's three, which the stage production has. Eugh, I hate this song.

Okay, now here's when the movie gets bad. I'll tell you right now I love the movie up to this point. Okay.... Here we go... Okay.

Mean Green Mother From Outerspace - pointless. You know, I actually kind of thought Audrey II was cool until this stupid and not funny whatsoever song! Okay, so Audrey II brags about how he's come to take over the world and then Seymour kills him and him and Audrey get married. Yippee kai yay. It's retarded! I don't even want to describe to you all this crap that happened in the horrible ending of this movie. That's all you need to know - it's retarded. We'll get to why in just a moment. But first of all, let's review what happens in the good ending.

In the good ending, aka the play, Seymour leaves Audrey II alone and Audrey comes into to check on Seymour. The plant tricks her into giving him a drink and munches her. Seymour walks in, pulls her out of the plant, and she tells him she is going to die. Seymour says he will not let her, but she tells him when she does die, she wants to be fed to the plant so it can flourish and give Seymour everything he deserves. After a short singing part, Seymour majestically places her inside Audrey II's mouth with the chorus singing emotional oohs and aahs.

Seymour is then harrassed by yet another money-grubbing sales pitcher who asks him if he would let them take clippings of the plant so every household in America can own their own Audrey II. As the salesmen leaves to go pull the truck around, Seymour and Audrey II have a not very clean confrontation where Seymour tries everything to kill Audrey II and decides he will get in the plant and chop him to bits from the inside. This fails and Seymour succumbs to Audrey II, as he hilariously spits the mechede onto the floor of the shop. The businessman and Shoo-Wop girls then enter, take clippings from the plant to make little Audrey II's all over the world. In the last sequence, our four dead characters come back for the energetic Finale (Don't Feed The Plants) where they beg the audience to not feed the plants, no matter what they offer you.

This ending was originally shot for the movie with a big budget scene of Audrey IIs eating New York City. This was a spectacular ending. The movie, of course was shown to preview audiences to get a glimpse of how it would do and what people would think. I would like to state if you were in this preview audience, e-mail me and I will kill you. The preview audience of the movie decided they didn't like that Audrey and Seymour died. CRY ME A FRICKIN' RIVER. Okay, maybe Audrey didn't deserve to die (although she was pretty annoying), but Seymour did horrible things. He killed people he cared about. Are you telling me that Seymour could get away with killing people and not have to pay any price whatsoever just because it's sad that he died? So Orin Scrivello and Mr. Mushnik were not exactly good people, but you can't say they deserved to die for doing bad things because that would in turn subject Seymour and many of us to death as well. Seymour killed people and in the end, he got everything he wanted with no price to pay. Frank Oz and Howard Ashman wanted the original ending, but of course people are stupid. The revised ending of this movie, in simple man's terms, torques me off.

Otherwise, though, this is a great movie. As I've already stated, the casting, direction, manipulation of Audrey II, singing, staging, sets - this movie is great until after The Meek Shall Inherit. I would recommend getting this movie, watching up to The Meek Shall Inherit, stopping it, and coming and reading my review so you know how the good ending goes.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older