A funny thing about Rick Moranis fighting a giant alien puppet: during filming, Moranis would have lunch with Sigourney Weaver, whom he knew from _Ghostbusters_ and was filming _Aliens_ across the street, *fighting a giant alien puppet.*
I would have paid real money for Frank Oz to have filmed a scene with Audrey II eating Audrey I, and then Ellen Ripley rolls up with a flamethrower yelling "Get away from her, you BITCH!"
The entire dentist scene is golden from start to finish, and to have a sadist meet his nemesis in a masochist is brilliant. Martin's disgust at Murray is perfectly on point.
It really is such an excellent concept. Like the sadistic dentist by itself is funny enough that I'm surprised it's not been more of a trope (besides maybe that one "house of lies" in that one Simpsons episode.) Plus, to be quite honest I just love to see a masochist having a good time. It's like anti-whomp
The Director's Cut vs. the Theatrical ending of the movie feels like a game where the main character forgot to do an important sidequest that helps him beat the final boss.
Somewhere that's Green seems so satirical when you're young and so poignant as an adult. Her most ambitious dream is just not to be abused. 10/10 film, a total classic
That's what a lot of people missed. Her life is so shitty that she aspires to the kind of suburban homemaker lifestyle that's usually held up in pop culture as the pinnacle of monotony and soul-crushing ennui.
@@MilesjDoyle Just a word of advice. If you want to convert people to your religion, don't be a complete lunatic who writes 2,000 word comments on youtube videos totally unrelated to your case.
@@MilesjDoyle I was down in Hollywood for Halloween, and there were these street preachers taking turns yelling at everyone, into what looked like one of those portable karaoke machines. Sitting right next to them on either side were homeless people begging for spare change. I walked past several times on both sides of the street, and never saw these hypocrites so much as acknowledge them once. If anything, blocking anyone from being able to, because we were all trying to avoid getting screamed at with nonsense. I can't even think of a better analogy to describe modern religious nutbags like yourself.
The use of real-life puppets with slowed down video as a means to speed it up and make the musical numbers seamless is beyond spectacular. I still consider this one of the greatest special effects/puppet work accomplishments in the history of film.
Then you find out that one of the aliens was being shot across the lot and Sigorney and Rick would often get together to lament making films with giant puppets and getting tired of moving at half speed.
What is funny is how any scene that had both Audrey 2 and Rick Moranis singing he dubbed his own voice and it almost perfectly done only off by a fraction of a second because he was playing off the puppet
@@emperortrevornorton3119 I always think about how the veins in Rick Moranis' neck pop out at the end of the scene where Audrey II convinces him to kill Steve Martin's character. The lines "He's so nasty treating her rough." "Yeah! Smackin' her around and always talkin' so tough!" "You need blood and he's got more than enouuuugh...!" "So go get it!" - That moment when Seymour is riled up... I still can't believe that the scene was most likely played out at half speed. The intensity and realistic appearance of Seymour during that scene is flawless.
Rick Moranis was untouchable in the 80s. Such a uniqe character. God bless him for takimg care of his children over acting. I still hope too see him on the big screen again one day
There is an old expression about musicals and stage play about how you can get away with more stuff like characters dying and not getting a happy ending because after the dark ending the characters come out and give a bow while that movie story ends when it ends.
I think the stage audience having had to travel to a theater and see that everything’s taking place within a set is what differentiates their expectations more, but it’s quite the true expression. There’s plenty of inverse wisdom about how the camera lies.
What's the expression? You never actually said the expression, only explained the meaning behind it. What is the proverb/expression youre referring to?
@@Messylinks2The 60’s movie ends with Audrey rejecting Seymour and him dying trying to stab the plant, only to end up another bloom. Not that his mom or Audrey seemed that bothered 😂
You're correct about how the theatrical cut kneecapped itself by making Seymour too sympathetic. But if you compare it to the Corman original, there's also an issue of tonnage: in the 1986 film Seymour is indirectly responsible for at most, three deaths. In the 1960 film, he's going out *every night* and feeding the plant vagrants from Skid Row and it's a whole gruesome joke that the neighborhood is improving because there's no more vagrants. That's a much easier path to the audience agreeing with "yeah, he should get eaten."
Corman's version has a lot more problems than just the tone. I'm not a big fan of Oz's take on the story either, but at least it has a lot of visual appeal and Steve Martin.
Howard Ashman’s musical book (and the movie adaptation to an extent) is really a lot darker than the Corman movie, in that it’s so much more emotionally investing whereas everything is a joke in Corman’s version. I couldn’t believe when I finally saw Corman’s movie that Audrey survives (and also isn’t much of a character to begin with). She’s such a tragic doomed character in the musical and that was completely Ashman’s creation.
My friend Jeremy worked on this. It was one of his first ever examples of his film work. He sculpted and painted all the inside mouths of the 'baby' Audreys. lol
Well, it's one of many example that we don't need CGI for everything, and there are plenty examples that Hollywood is lieing when they say CGI is cheaper, but its all businessmen and they're stupid so you're lucky when it all works out. Really they just want movies to be made faster. So that it becomes a factory for content. They really don't care if it's good. But that has always been true.
I am pro practical effects, only dumb people can't tell when something is CGI'ed, that being said it sadly is here to say. I've always said that modern movies overuse it, it should be a tool, movies should only use CGI when nothing else is available to make the vision come to life. CGI should be used sparingly, unless your doing a strictly animated film. Combining the two techniques is what is needed, instead movies both mainstream and independent are just lathering it on and it takes the audience member out of the world their trying to create.
@@RockLibertyWarriorand it’s even worse when you have studio executives who don’t care about craftsmanship, trying to pump out CGI loaded movies as fast as possible, forcing artists to rush out bad work that breaks the movie.
Never knew how incredible those puppets were. The articulation in the lips synced with the audio COMPLETLY sells the illusion of the plant speaking/singing. My brain is completely fooled even knowing how they did it. PS yes redlettermedia, people do still read the descriptions, all 4 of us
Phew I thought I was the only one reading descriptions, we should find the other two. It's very easy to see if either Mike or Jay wrote it, since Mike's descriptions in the last years is him vomiting on a keyboard for our amusement
Here's a quote from Howard Ashman regarding the "somewhere That's Green"/"Part of Your World" similarities: "In almost every musical ever written there's a place usually early in the show where the leading lady sits down on something - in Brigadoon it's a tree stump; in Little Shop of Horrors it's a trash can - and sings about what she wants most in life. We borrowed this classic rule of Broadway musical construction for 'Part of Your World' because Jodie Benson (the voice of Ariel) is an actress who also sings and she was able to convey a tremendous amount of soul and specificity in her performance." I believe I've read an interview with either Menken or Ashman where they referred to this type of scene as the "Dorothy on a Hay Bale" scene. The songwriters were conscious of this type of moment as a trope, maybe it was intentional they reused bits of music from Little Shop. Also, Menken has spoken about their inexperience with film score vs. stage at the time, so leaning on a trope and reusing a bit of melody in Disney's The Little Mermaid (whether they were aware they did it or not) might've been how they got through the process.
I really like the Jay and Colin from Canada combination for Re:View episodes. Whenever Mike is on it feels like Jay is arguing about which movie to rent with his grandpa for 40 mins.
Whenever Mike is in one of these it feels like half the review is him trying to rewrite the movie or writing a sequel rather than talking about the movie. That's entertaining in its own right but I do prefer when they're talking about the film itself rather than what ifs
Howard Ashman is the one to thank for Little Shop of Horrors existing the way it is as a musical and there's plenty of archival interviews and documentaries about him where he details certain elements of the show/film and how he was satirizing standard musical theater formula. Somewhere That's Green for instance to Howard is more a satire on "heroine sings a song of what she desires" scenes in musicals past than 50's family values, even before helping shepherd the modern Disney formula and their "want songs" years after. Also, Howard while working on Little Mermaid also playfully nicknamed Part of Your World as "Somewhere That's Wet".
This movie has my absolute favorite character introduction of all time, where Steve Martin comes flying out of the air on his motorcycle, screaming and lands in the street. Total awesomeness.
I saw it when I was 12 and it was my favorite movie besides Lord of the Rings for the longest time, but it is a Dad movie and an extremely southern movie also! We need that Re:View Edit: But I’m a dapper Dan man so yea
There's an alternate universe where, instead of being snatched up by Disney and being responsible for Millennials' childhoods, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken just kept making musical comedies based on old Roger Corman movies. I want to live in that universe.
I realize we’ve covered a bunch of his films via BOTW but a Corman retrospective Re:view would be a fun time, I keep being surprised at the length and breadth of his career.
When my 12 year old watched Little Shop of Horrors, he thought the plant was CGI because it looked so good. He was astonished when I told him it was a puppet.
Usually if something “looks CGI” it means it sticks out like a sore thumb though I don’t think any CG can ever match the tangible realism practical effects offer. Much like comparing The Thing 1982 vs The Thing 2011, even if CGI effects are 30 years “newer”, having the actual effects on camera will always look better.
@@RobotacularRoBob For this movie though it really tends to "look CGI" in the sense that it's hard to comprehend that it's done manually. Even my film buff friends were pretty shocked it was _all_ puppetry.
My father is a theater actor and has played the plant in the past. Special place in my heart, that silly little thing. (btw typically we did the Bad Ending)
@@featherelfstrom8405 He was the voice of the plant, and he played also Mr. Mushnick. In scenes in which both the plant and Mushnick talked parallel, like in "It's Suppertime" they used a recording of his, otherwise he would sing live using stage speakers. First puppet, just had a speaker and mouth remote. Second puppet, he might have been inside, or it was somebody else - It were like 4 puppets total, but in the end he walked out of the final one for the bow and applause. I think there was like a hole in the back of it- also, so the puppet could "eat". It was like 20 years ago and I was a kid, so my memory of the behind the scenes is not perfect. But I do remember all the songs- from the theater play- didn't even know a movie existed for the longest time.
This seems an appropriate place to share: I used to be in a band with my friend while we were in school. He's a wonderful bass player and had a lot of connections outside of just playing metal shows. He came to me one day and asked if I wanted to get paid to play drums in Little Shop (my absolute favorite musical). Of course I accepted and I got to be a professional with my buddy for a few months. He would come over and we'd jam Suppertime absolutely every day. It was the just fun I ever had playing music. Unfortunately, I was going through the gnarliest breakup at that time, so it kind of put a ceiling on everything. In hindsight, I only think about the good times. I know nobody cares about any of that, but I'm stoned and this makes me feel better. Lol
Alan Menken wrote the music, but the late Howard Ashman was the genius behind the lyrics off the music. He and Menken were the secret weapon at Disney during their renaissance until Ashman's passing from AIDS just prior to the release of Beauty and the Beast. Disney attempted to fill his role with Tim Rice but the music never quite felt the same. Ashman wasn't just a musician and lyricist, he was a student of music in a way that allowed him to understand the structure of a musical to know what type of song was needed instead off just trying to fill time with a song.
@@captaintoyota3171 Funny because as the said this video is a follow up to their Robocop 2 video and Robocop 2 was (probably) the last big Hollywood movie to do extensive stop motion effects (although Robocop 3 probably has a couple small scenes too?), with a great 3rd act end battle. And Robocop 2 wouldn’t be the same either if it was done with cgi. I like the rough quality of the stop motion.
One documentary covered how Aliens was being filmed next door. Rick would talk to Sigourney over lunches over both having to act in slow motion to accommodate large puppets.
I had only heard it referenced and knew it was a musical, so I figured it wouldn't be my cup of tea. Definitely gonna watch it this weekend now. Thanks RLM!
I also adored this movie as a kid. Learned the script, word for word! Never knew there was a director's cut until about 4 years ago so I bought the blu-ray and my jaw was on the floor when the ending came. It felt like I was experiencing a mandela effect.
I had a big gap of watching it between childhood and adulthood and was surprised by how much of the songs I remembered. As a tiny kid, I watched it so much.
I saw it Off Broadway at the Orpheum Theater in 1982 with Ellen Greene so it always had a special place in my heart. Right at the finale they had these huge vines rigged up across the ceiling of the theater to drop down on the audience as a fun little jump scare.
Based on this video I'd love to have the guys talk about The Dark Crystal. The whole production and ambition of it is astounding and I think it's a movie that has a pretty interesting story when it comes to the production and struggles to find someone who understood what Jim Henson wanted to do.
Brian Henson was principal puppeteer of Audrey II - you'll remember his performance as Hoggle in Labyrinth. He's a master at that kind of highly technical animatronic puppeteering.
It is my opinion that Brian Henson is very talented in his own right and a phenomenal underrated director. And Farscape was a great show. Better than Firefly. Even with Crichton yelling all his lines 😄
Really interesting thing the actual directors cut (which has only surfaced on a videotape workprint copy) cuts the ending down way more than the 2012 released version. The studio referenced the wrong material (an earlier workprint, which was much longer) than the final intended edit when doing the restoration. There were also more changes through the rest the movie to lighten the tone and a reshot reprise, which all got missed in the restoration. Overall the intended version has a darker tone in those moments where Seymour is doing the plant's wishes which helps setup the original ending. I wish the restoration had restored these other changes for the directors cut. Unfortunately Frank Oz seemed to completely forget when they consulted him for it!
From the little I can remember they combed through a tonne of archival footage to get the restored ending so maybe stuff like meek shall inherit or the extended axe scene wasn’t in the archive . I would be cool to see it full restored in 2026 for the 40th. I think they just focused on making a shot for shot reconstruction of the work print because that was what people were wanting for over 20 years. This and a cut of dark crystal with the og skesis language would be a great release
I hope one day they find more behind the scenes footage aswell one day . I mean dark crystal again had an hour long documentary about the process to create the film .
Thank you for recognizing Tisha Campbell and Tichina Arnold. I watched Hack the Movies review of this and it drove me nuts that they where picking out random ass people who where cameos but overlooked these two powerful talents as they work today.
Goddamnit, this is why I love RLM. These cinephiles are just so knowledgeable about some lesser-obsessed films and really make their idiosyncrasies understandable and re-loved by casual fans. Their retelling of the BTS and making of films make me really appreciate both the movie and RLM even more. Fantastic ReView. A-fucking-plus.
This movie was playing at my local video store as a kid and freaked me out so bad I didn't end up watching it until I was a teenager, then the directors cut blew my mind again as an adult. What a treasure.
One thing to mention is the completely missing song that was recorded and is on the workprint and blooper reel. The Meek Shall Inherit was fully recorded and is on the movie soundtrack but was both absent on the theatrical and directors cut of the film. I don't know why (aside from it possibly not existing on film anymore) but I feel it adds more to the character arc of Seymour, why he holds off killing the plant for so long.
Director's Cut in name only. As someone with access to the reshoot list from the production, I can tell you that the Blu-Ray fails to accurately recreate the intended version. Some of the other alternate scenes are on my channel
Honestly I feel like Frank Oz would probably agree with you that The Meek Shall Inherit improves the movie, it’s just that it sounds like they never found a print of it in the same quality as the original ending.
@@BoxoSpoons According to the guy who headed finding the original footage for the ending, content from the dream sequence never turned up while they were looking, but he wants to find it for the next release
@@BoxoSpoons It's been widely reported that Frank Oz himself decided to cut most of the sequence, which was absent by the time of the first test screening. I agree that it should have remained, but Oz apparently felt that it disrupted the film's pacing.
@@seymourkrelborn4780 I recall viewing your uploads, which provided a much better understanding of the changes made. It's unfortunate that the other reshot footage wasn't replaced as well, as this would have addressed Jay's criticism that Seymour remained too sympathetic. (Additionally, his criticism that the final sequence was excessively long reflects the fact that it duplicates an early cut - not the much shorter version screened for test audiences.)
I was surprised you guys didn't mention the genius of Audrey's voice actually changing during her "Seymour" song. In all her singing scenes, she sings in the mousey voice, but when she sings "Suddenly Seymour" in the alley, her voice drops and opens up and the actress sings in *almost* her natural singing voice, indicating that Audrey feels free. Was surprised that you guys mentioned her singing in the high-pitched voice then showed footage from that song but didn't mention that at all.
it isn't entirely the director's cut, because The Meek Shall Inherit wasn't able to be restored which sucks, but the original ending is something to behold.
This was a favourite of mine growing up! We even did the stage play version at my school. As awesome as the Directors cut is, I was glad to be able to see a happy end for Audrey and Seymour in the Theatrical cut, which I do think fits much better with the tone of the film vs the stage play.
Ashman and Menken were very aware of how much they were cribbing from themselves for Little Mermaid. The joke working title for "Part of Your World" was "Somewhere That's Wet" because of how similar an I Want Song it is to "Somewhere That's Green."
Finally! Someone else who noticed immediately that Somewhere That's Green is musically identical to Part of Your World from Little Mermaid. I always wanted to hear them side by side, so thanks, Editing Jay!
@@idleoz21 Actually yes. It can be plagiarism if you reference yourself without citing or acknowledging it... at least academically (like writing reports, scientific papers, etc). Significance varies though. I don't quite know how it works in the world of music. I feel composers do tend to have a particular themes they return to when writing music for particular instruments that kinda gives them their signature sounds and feel though. There are also staples of particular genres and common emotional peaks and resolutions of songs that also give someone writing music some wiggle room.
When people speak of the greatest in camera VFX films they usually bring up the Thing, the John Carpenter version obviously, but man it's amazing how many people forget this film and how GOOD it really is. It still holds up! Personally I like both endings but I like the theatrical ending a little more, probably because that's the one I grew up with, but I will always pay real respect to the Director's Cut ending. That was brilliant with only a few minor composite issues, mainly with adding smoke and dust effects as those are always difficult to layer over live action without looking added.
You see how great the animatronics are in this movie, and then take a look at how stilted and weird all the new Star Wars animatronics are. Even on characters that get a lot of screen time, like Grogu (baby Yoda). We've actually backslid significantly in this artform in 35 years.
Ya that's the thing. This movie is textbook example of people going above and beyond for their craft. Nowadays everything is phoned in and cranked out fast to appease the streaming platforms needs of new content.
I'm surprised they didn't bring up Star Wars. RotJ and ESB had some pretty good animatronics. Not Little Shop good but still good. Phantom Menace does too but if they utter a single good word about that Mike will burn the studio down with everyone inside.
Like everything it comes down to the bottom line. The money men saw how expensive practical effects were and tried to claw back some of the money and so the quality went down.
You need to keep things in perspective a little, though. It's one thing to create a very complex, extremely expensive animatronic for a creature that is the central attraction of an entire movie *and* is supposed to look impressive and scary. Doing the same excessive work for dozens of sci-fi creatures that are only onscreen for a few seconds, as scenery fluff, would be borderline insane. Same applies to a baby alien that's just supposed to be cute, not creepy or scary. Don't forget that the uncanny valley is always close by when you're trying for more realism.
A Frank Oz masterpiece! Ellen Greene’s voice in Suddenly Seymour still gives me chills with how perfect she sings. Rick Moranis is incredible in what is easily his best role! Criminal that Steve Martin was not nominated for his show stealing performance. Love this film, it’s one of my favorite movie musicals. A marvelous picture!
This is an insanely warm way to start my day. Little Shop has always hit the middle with film and theater people but regardless it's cool to hear about it in detail on this channel. Thank you!
I was introduced to Levi Stubbs through his voice-role as Mother Brain on Captain N: The Game Master, and I love that he just reprised the Audrey II voice. Even if you hate the show, Mother Brain was hysterical.
I one hundred percent believe that they went to the lengths of casting Levi Stubbs just because they wanted to make a Mean Mother from Outer Space joke
(27:04) They also slowed down the music when filming to make it a wee bit easier for the puppeteers to keep up. I remember seeing that technique used on Primus's Winona's Big Brown Beaver music video. The behind the scenes video of that is actually on RUclips, if anyone wants to see it. 😎
The Audrey II animatronic in this film is literally flawless in how it moves and operates. Its so smooth and lifelike that you'd think its actually a living, breathing thing.
Possibly my favorite of Menken and Ashman's movie work. I find the changes made from the stage version to movie version - alterations, additions, removals, and shuffling of songs - endlessly fascinating.
This is my favorite movie of all time and I wish it was more talked about. One thing that didn’t carry over from both the Corman movie and the stage play was that Audrey II’s flowers had the faces of its victims. It was really freak (though _very_ phony looking) in the first movie and it was hilarious in the play, but I can’t imagine how they could have made it work in the Frank Oz version.
I knew this movie was a cult classic, but never got around to watch it until recently. I happened to catch the movie while zapping right during the "Skid Row" song and just got stuck. It's such a great and catchy song with awesome visuals. I also absolutely love how the movie builds up Audrey's abusive boyfriend, the revelation that it's Steve Martin playing some biker greaser. . . and then it reveals he's a dentist in one of the best songs of the movie (in my opinion). It's just perfection and watching Steve Martin have fun with his role is something else.
This movie is still fucking incredible for so many reasons Audry 2 is the most impressive puppet ever made even more than the alien queen, every vocal performance down to the little nuances of the characters and every single song it was made in an era where everyone cared about their work
Spotted Danny John-Jules is one of the doo-wop singers, he played The Cat in Red Dwarf, which makes him a legend to me, the moment he appeared on screen I recognised him. I have met him once and he is a very sweet guy.
Rewatched this recently and am surprised it doesn’t get mentioned more for best practical effects of all time, at least for puppetry/animatronics. Glad that this video will help it get more recognition!
This movie never fails to crack me up. Especially every time Audrey says “Dauktah” and her entire dream life sequence where her ideal life is just a nice version of the terrible family life from Mathilda, the line delivery of the npc characters, the entire dentist sequence, Bill Murray being a sex pest. Probably my favorite musical ever made (and I don’t really like musicals)
The original movie is one of my favorite B&W horror movies and I'm slightly amazed that a film that was literally made in 2 days bred this movie and a popular stage play.
I watched the “movies that made us” on Netflix and Sigourney Weaver mentioned she was working on aliens at the same time Rick was doing little shop in the same town. She talked about both of them having to moving slowly for each of their giant puppets
I swear Audrey is just Olive Oyl brought to life. And not just born for the role like Shelley Duvall, I mean the costuming even, I think they wrapped her up to uh, look the part, and paid attention to her physical performance.
@@robwalsh9843 Absolutely a lot of sharp nasty teeth for a plant. I wouldn’t want to end up in the jaws of the skull in your avatar either, what is that? A bear, canine? Genuinely curious
Fun Fact: The director's cut ending is what landed Audrey II the role of Godzilla's sister Biollante in 1989's "Godzilla vs Biollante", thus ensuring a steady revenue stream on both sides of the Pacific, allowing her to go into full retirement.
Being a fan of Corman's original, I was a little disappointed that they didn't get anyone from that movie to do a remake cameo. Dick Miller would've been perfect for that. In the original, he plays a customer of the flower shop who eats flowers (get it?....he's a person who eats flowers, and then there's a flower who eats people! Isn't it ironic?).
Steve Martin's is easily the funniest performance in the history of all time in this movie. I remember laughing so hard when LSoH came out. And yet he didn't totally steal the movie, a testiment to how good this show is.
Loved this movie for the Steve Martin & Bill Murray scene, these two were at the top of their game back then and to have them both in such a funny and disturbing scene, on top of Martin being insanely dark for the first time was great. As a kid it kinda disturbed me considering I saw 3 Amigos first, as it came out like a week before Little Shop of Horrors came out.. and it was a 180 for Steve Martin to go from goofy hero to sadist dentist (my worse fear as a child) in 1 week.
Went to the movies with a friend in 8th grade and insisted we watch this because the cast was so great. He never let me live it down. I love the RLM crew so much that this re:View actually soothes my cringe a little bit.
@@lucystoner yes, I find it hard to enjoy musicals, but my friend acted like I violated him for making him watch it, lol. You are correct it is a genius movie
one thing on the director's cut ending: i remember reading somewhere that a reason the test audiences didn't respond well to the tragic ending could have to do with medium. if you're going to see the musical in-person, everybody dies and the plants win, but you still get to clap for audrey and seymour at curtain call and see their smiling faces. when they die in the movie, credits roll and you're sitting in the dark and that's it. obviously everyone's aware this is fictional, but the effect of a tragic play ending is so different.
Note: Even the "director's cut" Blu-Ray disc is missing some critical scenes that were filmed, but not found or accidentally left out. You'll get a lot from the movie's soundtrack CD.
Now that the "Rick Moranis Musical" band-aid has been torn off I need to see a Re:View on the film Streets of Fire starring both Rick Moranis AND Willem DeFoe
I'm so happy now! I loved this movie since I first saw it as a kid like 30 years ago. It's amazing. I have the soundtrack on vinyl, I play this movie for any friend that doesn't know it, I'm kinda obsessed :D And I just ADORE the director's cut ending. It's... just awezome.
You touched on the main problem with the original ending: It would've almost certainly worked as intended if they'd just made Seymour more complicit in the deaths of Orin and Mr. Mushnick like he was supposed to be. As it is, I kind of agree with the test audience that, for as great a spectacle as it is, the original ending is much too cruel and nihilistic when weighed against how Seymour is much more innocent and less deserving of his fate in the film adaptation. That, and as Frank Oz himself explained, the live theater convention of actors returning for the "curtain call" removes the grim finality of character deaths, so it carries far less of an emotional gut punch in the stage version. Of course, it's completely fair to ask _why_ Yoda chose to make Seymour a more innocent character in the first place, if he was expecting the audience to not get attached to him nor want to see him earn a happy ending.
My highschool did a production of little shop! I got to play Seymour, im so glad we kept the director cut version with the plants taking over the world, such a heartwarming ending!
This was so good to come back to as someone who portrayed Seymour in a local production of Little Shop. I always think of an old fan-theory that each instance of Little Shop is the perspective of each character. The Corman original is a dry, straight B-movie where Seymour is the only one who bites it. The musical is Seymour's perspective, where he personally gets to warn the audience at the end "Don't Feed The Plants" and the situation is mostly the truth. The theatrical cut is Audrey's perspective, deluding herself that being eaten by Seymour *is* "Somewhere That's Green". The director's cut is Twoey's perspective, envisioning his take-over-the-world scenario should humanity fail their morals. Fun to think about.
Can't believe the boys didn't mention Rocky Horror, especially since they are both shot very much like movies instead of flat stage plays. Rocky horror did it first. They definitely complement each other as a double feature.
@@Crunchy_Punch yeah I'm not sure, I think Colin would definitely talk about it. Maybe Jay. But I don't think RLM are huge fans otherwise it would have been referenced a bit more before now.
I'm working on the Little Mermaid stage musical and Little Shop has been looming large in my memory. Guess I need to see it again, now, after decades. Jeez, *everyone* is in this.
This is one of those movies where you catch more and more as you get older and see it again. I loved it as a kid, and I love it as an adult. The puppets were so damned good.
A funny thing about Rick Moranis fighting a giant alien puppet: during filming, Moranis would have lunch with Sigourney Weaver, whom he knew from _Ghostbusters_ and was filming _Aliens_ across the street, *fighting a giant alien puppet.*
Were both films being filmed in London?
No shit?!
Well that kind of blows my mind...
I would have paid real money for Frank Oz to have filmed a scene with Audrey II eating Audrey I, and then Ellen Ripley rolls up with a flamethrower yelling "Get away from her, you BITCH!"
Did they....?
@@mdh1875 You can't keep the keymaster & the gatekeeper apart.
The entire dentist scene is golden from start to finish, and to have a sadist meet his nemesis in a masochist is brilliant. Martin's disgust at Murray is perfectly on point.
It's so perfect. It also explains how Martin got himself so worked up afterwards that he winds up overdosing on Nitrous Oxide.
It really is such an excellent concept. Like the sadistic dentist by itself is funny enough that I'm surprised it's not been more of a trope (besides maybe that one "house of lies" in that one Simpsons episode.) Plus, to be quite honest I just love to see a masochist having a good time. It's like anti-whomp
Who wants their teeth done by the Marque DeSad...
The Director's Cut vs. the Theatrical ending of the movie feels like a game where the main character forgot to do an important sidequest that helps him beat the final boss.
Somewhere that's Green seems so satirical when you're young and so poignant as an adult. Her most ambitious dream is just not to be abused. 10/10 film, a total classic
That's what a lot of people missed. Her life is so shitty that she aspires to the kind of suburban homemaker lifestyle that's usually held up in pop culture as the pinnacle of monotony and soul-crushing ennui.
@@MilesjDoyle Just a word of advice. If you want to convert people to your religion, don't be a complete lunatic who writes 2,000 word comments on youtube videos totally unrelated to your case.
What tha?
people ar deranged, aren't they?
This is a fun movie, have fun with it!
@@IVthHorseman
Just don't date assholes - simple as.
But then again, we are talking about women here, so simple is rarely an option ^^
@@MilesjDoyle I was down in Hollywood for Halloween, and there were these street preachers taking turns yelling at everyone, into what looked like one of those portable karaoke machines. Sitting right next to them on either side were homeless people begging for spare change. I walked past several times on both sides of the street, and never saw these hypocrites so much as acknowledge them once. If anything, blocking anyone from being able to, because we were all trying to avoid getting screamed at with nonsense.
I can't even think of a better analogy to describe modern religious nutbags like yourself.
The use of real-life puppets with slowed down video as a means to speed it up and make the musical numbers seamless is beyond spectacular. I still consider this one of the greatest special effects/puppet work accomplishments in the history of film.
oh is that YOUR opinion
Then you find out that one of the aliens was being shot across the lot and Sigorney and Rick would often get together to lament making films with giant puppets and getting tired of moving at half speed.
What is funny is how any scene that had both Audrey 2 and Rick Moranis singing he dubbed his own voice and it almost perfectly done only off by a fraction of a second because he was playing off the puppet
@@emperortrevornorton3119 I always think about how the veins in Rick Moranis' neck pop out at the end of the scene where Audrey II convinces him to kill Steve Martin's character. The lines "He's so nasty treating her rough."
"Yeah! Smackin' her around and always talkin' so tough!"
"You need blood and he's got more than enouuuugh...!"
"So go get it!" - That moment when Seymour is riled up... I still can't believe that the scene was most likely played out at half speed. The intensity and realistic appearance of Seymour during that scene is flawless.
The
Rick Moranis was untouchable in the 80s. Such a uniqe character. God bless him for takimg care of his children over acting. I still hope too see him on the big screen again one day
According to Wikipedia he will be in "Shrunk", an upcoming installment of the "Honey, I Shrunk..." movies. We will see if it pans out.
@@shadymodnation5781if Disney doesn't collapse in on itself first.
@@cornbredxcxxxx 😊😅😅
😅
@@shadymodnation5781😅
There is an old expression about musicals and stage play about how you can get away with more stuff like characters dying and not getting a happy ending because after the dark ending the characters come out and give a bow while that movie story ends when it ends.
I think the stage audience having had to travel to a theater and see that everything’s taking place within a set is what differentiates their expectations more, but it’s quite the true expression. There’s plenty of inverse wisdom about how the camera lies.
so even back in the 80s people were already snowflakes smh bruh
@@angel_of_rustI know you’re joking, but the original movie in the 60s (the one the musical was based off of) ended how the 80’s movie ended.
What's the expression? You never actually said the expression, only explained the meaning behind it. What is the proverb/expression youre referring to?
@@Messylinks2The 60’s movie ends with Audrey rejecting Seymour and him dying trying to stab the plant, only to end up another bloom. Not that his mom or Audrey seemed that bothered 😂
You're correct about how the theatrical cut kneecapped itself by making Seymour too sympathetic. But if you compare it to the Corman original, there's also an issue of tonnage: in the 1986 film Seymour is indirectly responsible for at most, three deaths. In the 1960 film, he's going out *every night* and feeding the plant vagrants from Skid Row and it's a whole gruesome joke that the neighborhood is improving because there's no more vagrants. That's a much easier path to the audience agreeing with "yeah, he should get eaten."
Corman's version has a lot more problems than just the tone. I'm not a big fan of Oz's take on the story either, but at least it has a lot of visual appeal and Steve Martin.
Howard Ashman’s musical book (and the movie adaptation to an extent) is really a lot darker than the Corman movie, in that it’s so much more emotionally investing whereas everything is a joke in Corman’s version. I couldn’t believe when I finally saw Corman’s movie that Audrey survives (and also isn’t much of a character to begin with). She’s such a tragic doomed character in the musical and that was completely Ashman’s creation.
I mean, that would improve the neighbourhood like nobody's business...
I rewatched this recently and was blown away by bill Murray and steve martins scene. Totally over my head as a kid
Right?
Pure sm gay porn 🍻
Yes but even as a child there voices still had us laughing even though we had no idea what they were on about
Of coarse they did but what was going on shows how much smarter the writing was back then. For all ages
"A long... slow... root canal."
My friend Jeremy worked on this. It was one of his first ever examples of his film work. He sculpted and painted all the inside mouths of the 'baby' Audreys. lol
Nice lol
Does he have any materials from the film still?
@@seymourkrelborn4780 A few photos taken of the directors cut ending models, but apart from that no. He has a lot from his other movies though. :)
@@Silver-rx1mh It'd be awesome if those could get uploaded!
My old work colleague, Danny, was one of the blonde haired singers. Top fella.
@@ElectronicWitchcraft Ooooh, nice one! :)
Steve singing
" i am your dentist "
Into the guys mouth
And you hear his own echo as backing vocal is just ... inspired.
My favourite Steve Martin performance
Its not his echo. The backing vocal is the person whose mouth he is working on which is even more inspired.
The backing vocal is the guy saying "Goodness gracious"
That puppet is insane. Compared to the absolute embarrassments of CGI we get in modern movies. Unreal.
It's a real work of art and craftsmanship and acting rolled into one!
20 years of active development with a focused team will do that. CGI being introduced really broke the generational transfer of the tech evolving
Well, it's one of many example that we don't need CGI for everything, and there are plenty examples that Hollywood is lieing when they say CGI is cheaper, but its all businessmen and they're stupid so you're lucky when it all works out. Really they just want movies to be made faster. So that it becomes a factory for content. They really don't care if it's good.
But that has always been true.
I am pro practical effects, only dumb people can't tell when something is CGI'ed, that being said it sadly is here to say. I've always said that modern movies overuse it, it should be a tool, movies should only use CGI when nothing else is available to make the vision come to life. CGI should be used sparingly, unless your doing a strictly animated film. Combining the two techniques is what is needed, instead movies both mainstream and independent are just lathering it on and it takes the audience member out of the world their trying to create.
@@RockLibertyWarriorand it’s even worse when you have studio executives who don’t care about craftsmanship, trying to pump out CGI loaded movies as fast as possible, forcing artists to rush out bad work that breaks the movie.
Never knew how incredible those puppets were. The articulation in the lips synced with the audio COMPLETLY sells the illusion of the plant speaking/singing. My brain is completely fooled even knowing how they did it.
PS yes redlettermedia, people do still read the descriptions, all 4 of us
Phew I thought I was the only one reading descriptions, we should find the other two.
It's very easy to see if either Mike or Jay wrote it, since Mike's descriptions in the last years is him vomiting on a keyboard for our amusement
I LOVE the descriptions
Hi it's me, description lore man here to transcribe all of you favorite descriptions
Here's a quote from Howard Ashman regarding the "somewhere That's Green"/"Part of Your World" similarities:
"In almost every musical ever written there's a place usually early in the show where the leading lady sits down on something - in Brigadoon it's a tree stump; in Little Shop of Horrors it's a trash can - and sings about what she wants most in life. We borrowed this classic rule of Broadway musical construction for 'Part of Your World' because Jodie Benson (the voice of Ariel) is an actress who also sings and she was able to convey a tremendous amount of soul and specificity in her performance."
I believe I've read an interview with either Menken or Ashman where they referred to this type of scene as the "Dorothy on a Hay Bale" scene. The songwriters were conscious of this type of moment as a trope, maybe it was intentional they reused bits of music from Little Shop. Also, Menken has spoken about their inexperience with film score vs. stage at the time, so leaning on a trope and reusing a bit of melody in Disney's The Little Mermaid (whether they were aware they did it or not) might've been how they got through the process.
Also known as the "I want" song!
I really like the Jay and Colin from Canada combination for Re:View episodes. Whenever Mike is on it feels like Jay is arguing about which movie to rent with his grandpa for 40 mins.
You say that like Mike and Jay arguing about movies is not the peak of audiovisual entertainment.
Whenever Mike is in one of these it feels like half the review is him trying to rewrite the movie or writing a sequel rather than talking about the movie.
That's entertaining in its own right but I do prefer when they're talking about the film itself rather than what ifs
These old man Mike jokes are starting to not make sense anymore, Mike is incredibly in depth with his analysis lol
Howard Ashman is the one to thank for Little Shop of Horrors existing the way it is as a musical and there's plenty of archival interviews and documentaries about him where he details certain elements of the show/film and how he was satirizing standard musical theater formula. Somewhere That's Green for instance to Howard is more a satire on "heroine sings a song of what she desires" scenes in musicals past than 50's family values, even before helping shepherd the modern Disney formula and their "want songs" years after. Also, Howard while working on Little Mermaid also playfully nicknamed Part of Your World as "Somewhere That's Wet".
Shouldn't it have been "Somewhere that's Dry"? Lol
@@tveye363 Not once you realize it's a double entendre.
This movie has my absolute favorite character introduction of all time, where Steve Martin comes flying out of the air on his motorcycle, screaming and lands in the street. Total awesomeness.
That's what dentists do yknow
My brothers and I almost died laughing the first time we saw that. We kept rewinding the tape and playing it over and over.
That and when he arrives at his office and the bike just stops when he looks at it, crack me up
The bike stops by itself because even it is terrified of him.
This was my dad's favorite movie until O Brother Where Art Thou came out. 30 years later he would still randomly throw out a "feed me, Seymour".
I think O Brother Where Art Thou may be the quintessential dad movie. I think it’s a great film but men over the age of 35 absolutely adore it.
I saw it when I was 12 and it was my favorite movie besides Lord of the Rings for the longest time, but it is a Dad movie and an extremely southern movie also! We need that Re:View
Edit: But I’m a dapper Dan man so yea
Honestly sounds like my dad, lol.
I'm 27 and I throw out a "Feed me, Seymour!" every so often
Your dad has great tastes in movies. If you could only like two movies those are up there with perfect choices
There's an alternate universe where, instead of being snatched up by Disney and being responsible for Millennials' childhoods, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken just kept making musical comedies based on old Roger Corman movies. I want to live in that universe.
Deathstalker: The Musical
Female lead sings a song about overacting with her eyebrows.
Bucket of Blood would actually be a good one
Carnosaur the musical!
I realize we’ve covered a bunch of his films via BOTW but a Corman retrospective Re:view would be a fun time, I keep being surprised at the length and breadth of his career.
I agree it would be neat to review his body of work he's done some interesting work for sure.
Love to see RLM do their own Corman retrospective.
The Intruder (or Shame) with Shatner as a white supremacist is genuinely great.
Every Rodger Corman movie ranked
Hasn't their entire catalogue been a Corman retrospective
When my 12 year old watched Little Shop of Horrors, he thought the plant was CGI because it looked so good. He was astonished when I told him it was a puppet.
When I first saw this as a kid, CGI wasn't even a thing yet!
Usually if something “looks CGI” it means it sticks out like a sore thumb though I don’t think any CG can ever match the tangible realism practical effects offer.
Much like comparing The Thing 1982 vs The Thing 2011, even if CGI effects are 30 years “newer”, having the actual effects on camera will always look better.
@@RobotacularRoBobyup. 83 Jabba >>> 99 Jabba
@@RobotacularRoBob For this movie though it really tends to "look CGI" in the sense that it's hard to comprehend that it's done manually. Even my film buff friends were pretty shocked it was _all_ puppetry.
@@JDelwynn It was a thing, it just looked like shit. "Tron" came out before this.
My father is a theater actor and has played the plant in the past. Special place in my heart, that silly little thing. (btw typically we did the Bad Ending)
My mom played one of the Doo Whop girls.
Was he the Voice, or was he the person inside the puppet?
@@featherelfstrom8405 He was the voice of the plant, and he played also Mr. Mushnick. In scenes in which both the plant and Mushnick talked parallel, like in "It's Suppertime" they used a recording of his, otherwise he would sing live using stage speakers.
First puppet, just had a speaker and mouth remote. Second puppet, he might have been inside, or it was somebody else - It were like 4 puppets total, but in the end he walked out of the final one for the bow and applause. I think there was like a hole in the back of it- also, so the puppet could "eat". It was like 20 years ago and I was a kid, so my memory of the behind the scenes is not perfect. But I do remember all the songs- from the theater play- didn't even know a movie existed for the longest time.
The bassline on Suppertime is probably my favorite in musical movie history
This seems an appropriate place to share: I used to be in a band with my friend while we were in school. He's a wonderful bass player and had a lot of connections outside of just playing metal shows.
He came to me one day and asked if I wanted to get paid to play drums in Little Shop (my absolute favorite musical). Of course I accepted and I got to be a professional with my buddy for a few months. He would come over and we'd jam Suppertime absolutely every day. It was the just fun I ever had playing music.
Unfortunately, I was going through the gnarliest breakup at that time, so it kind of put a ceiling on everything. In hindsight, I only think about the good times.
I know nobody cares about any of that, but I'm stoned and this makes me feel better. Lol
Alan Menken wrote the music, but the late Howard Ashman was the genius behind the lyrics off the music. He and Menken were the secret weapon at Disney during their renaissance until Ashman's passing from AIDS just prior to the release of Beauty and the Beast. Disney attempted to fill his role with Tim Rice but the music never quite felt the same. Ashman wasn't just a musician and lyricist, he was a student of music in a way that allowed him to understand the structure of a musical to know what type of song was needed instead off just trying to fill time with a song.
Preach!
The SFX for Audrey II are still insane to me, the way it moves so realistically and fluently is uncanny to this day
SFX
I'm always going to prefer practical effects over cgi's. But this one has a special place in my heart for sure.
Yup this was the end of perfecting real effects, a lost art 2day
It makes star wars look like a 2 dollar shop of whores
@@captaintoyota3171
Funny because as the said this video is a follow up to their Robocop 2 video and Robocop 2 was (probably) the last big Hollywood movie to do extensive stop motion effects (although Robocop 3 probably has a couple small scenes too?), with a great 3rd act end battle. And Robocop 2 wouldn’t be the same either if it was done with cgi. I like the rough quality of the stop motion.
One documentary covered how Aliens was being filmed next door. Rick would talk to Sigourney over lunches over both having to act in slow motion to accommodate large puppets.
I LOVED this as a child. I would insist on renting it over and over. Thank you for hopefully exposing more people to this masterpiece.
I had only heard it referenced and knew it was a musical, so I figured it wouldn't be my cup of tea. Definitely gonna watch it this weekend now. Thanks RLM!
I also adored this movie as a kid. Learned the script, word for word! Never knew there was a director's cut until about 4 years ago so I bought the blu-ray and my jaw was on the floor when the ending came. It felt like I was experiencing a mandela effect.
I've been meaning to watch it for years. Half way through this RLM I paused it to finally go watch the film!
same. i forced my mum rent it all the time and when shop was closed i buy it and i still had that VHS
I had a big gap of watching it between childhood and adulthood and was surprised by how much of the songs I remembered. As a tiny kid, I watched it so much.
I saw it Off Broadway at the Orpheum Theater in 1982 with Ellen Greene so it always had a special place in my heart. Right at the finale they had these huge vines rigged up across the ceiling of the theater to drop down on the audience as a fun little jump scare.
one of those movies where they didnt have to go that hard for it but they did and its awesome
Those motherfuckers went HAM AF
Based on this video I'd love to have the guys talk about The Dark Crystal. The whole production and ambition of it is astounding and I think it's a movie that has a pretty interesting story when it comes to the production and struggles to find someone who understood what Jim Henson wanted to do.
Brian Henson was principal puppeteer of Audrey II - you'll remember his performance as Hoggle in Labyrinth. He's a master at that kind of highly technical animatronic puppeteering.
Related to Jim Henson?
@@alexp601yes he is Jim Hensons son
It is my opinion that Brian Henson is very talented in his own right and a phenomenal underrated director.
And Farscape was a great show. Better than Firefly. Even with Crichton yelling all his lines 😄
Really interesting thing the actual directors cut (which has only surfaced on a videotape workprint copy) cuts the ending down way more than the 2012 released version. The studio referenced the wrong material (an earlier workprint, which was much longer) than the final intended edit when doing the restoration. There were also more changes through the rest the movie to lighten the tone and a reshot reprise, which all got missed in the restoration. Overall the intended version has a darker tone in those moments where Seymour is doing the plant's wishes which helps setup the original ending.
I wish the restoration had restored these other changes for the directors cut. Unfortunately Frank Oz seemed to completely forget when they consulted him for it!
Well now the guys really have to get that VCR fixed so they can watch it
@@solvseus OOOOOHHHH FFUUUUUCCCCKKKK!!!!!
From the little I can remember they combed through a tonne of archival footage to get the restored ending so maybe stuff like meek shall inherit or the extended axe scene wasn’t in the archive . I would be cool to see it full restored in 2026 for the 40th. I think they just focused on making a shot for shot reconstruction of the work print because that was what people were wanting for over 20 years. This and a cut of dark crystal with the og skesis language would be a great release
I hope one day they find more behind the scenes footage aswell one day . I mean dark crystal again had an hour long documentary about the process to create the film .
Thank you for recognizing Tisha Campbell and Tichina Arnold. I watched Hack the Movies review of this and it drove me nuts that they where picking out random ass people who where cameos but overlooked these two powerful talents as they work today.
The Greek Chorus Doo Wop Girls have always been my favorite part of LSOH.
"shang-a-lang, feel the sturm & drang" is an inspired bit of lyrical wit.
When I was a kid Levi Stubbs came to our school and sang songs. He did the voice for us a lot. We loved it.
Goddamnit, this is why I love RLM. These cinephiles are just so knowledgeable about some lesser-obsessed films and really make their idiosyncrasies understandable and re-loved by casual fans. Their retelling of the BTS and making of films make me really appreciate both the movie and RLM even more.
Fantastic ReView. A-fucking-plus.
Amen
Love to see Jay and Candian Jay talk about movies together, a very wholesome bonding time between changing Mike's diapers.
YES!!! ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL TIME!. I would rewatch this so many times on a portable DVD player
SAME. I jumped out of my seat with a big smile on my face upon seeing Audrey 2 in the thumbnail.
SAME
im so glad that this movie is loved
I played Seymour in a live version of this musical and it was SO FUN. Definitely cemented my love for the movie too
This movie was playing at my local video store as a kid and freaked me out so bad I didn't end up watching it until I was a teenager, then the directors cut blew my mind again as an adult. What a treasure.
One thing to mention is the completely missing song that was recorded and is on the workprint and blooper reel. The Meek Shall Inherit was fully recorded and is on the movie soundtrack but was both absent on the theatrical and directors cut of the film. I don't know why (aside from it possibly not existing on film anymore) but I feel it adds more to the character arc of Seymour, why he holds off killing the plant for so long.
Director's Cut in name only. As someone with access to the reshoot list from the production, I can tell you that the Blu-Ray fails to accurately recreate the intended version.
Some of the other alternate scenes are on my channel
Honestly I feel like Frank Oz would probably agree with you that The Meek Shall Inherit improves the movie, it’s just that it sounds like they never found a print of it in the same quality as the original ending.
@@BoxoSpoons According to the guy who headed finding the original footage for the ending, content from the dream sequence never turned up while they were looking, but he wants to find it for the next release
@@BoxoSpoons It's been widely reported that Frank Oz himself decided to cut most of the sequence, which was absent by the time of the first test screening. I agree that it should have remained, but Oz apparently felt that it disrupted the film's pacing.
@@seymourkrelborn4780 I recall viewing your uploads, which provided a much better understanding of the changes made. It's unfortunate that the other reshot footage wasn't replaced as well, as this would have addressed Jay's criticism that Seymour remained too sympathetic. (Additionally, his criticism that the final sequence was excessively long reflects the fact that it duplicates an early cut - not the much shorter version screened for test audiences.)
I was surprised you guys didn't mention the genius of Audrey's voice actually changing during her "Seymour" song.
In all her singing scenes, she sings in the mousey voice, but when she sings "Suddenly Seymour" in the alley, her voice drops and opens up and the actress sings in *almost* her natural singing voice, indicating that Audrey feels free.
Was surprised that you guys mentioned her singing in the high-pitched voice then showed footage from that song but didn't mention that at all.
There's a director's cut?! You've made my whole week.
It has the best ending, which is the original cut and playfully dark that fits in tone with the whole movie :-)
@@SamM_Scot Just saw it. Marvelous. A rare perfect film.
it isn't entirely the director's cut, because The Meek Shall Inherit wasn't able to be restored which sucks, but the original ending is something to behold.
This was a favourite of mine growing up! We even did the stage play version at my school. As awesome as the Directors cut is, I was glad to be able to see a happy end for Audrey and Seymour in the Theatrical cut, which I do think fits much better with the tone of the film vs the stage play.
Ashman and Menken were very aware of how much they were cribbing from themselves for Little Mermaid. The joke working title for "Part of Your World" was "Somewhere That's Wet" because of how similar an I Want Song it is to "Somewhere That's Green."
These last uploads being practically consecutive reminds me of when Bruce Willis went senile and then made like a hundred movies. I hope Mike is okay.
Omg!!! Haha haha!!!! TFF
Fair play 👏👏
Gotta milk that cow - with its sweet, sweet blue milk.
He's fine. He's just trying to finally get that VCR fixed. Corp would be pissed if it still existed.
Finally! Someone else who noticed immediately that Somewhere That's Green is musically identical to Part of Your World from Little Mermaid. I always wanted to hear them side by side, so thanks, Editing Jay!
Written by the same duo, so is it plagiarism if you're ripping off your own work? 🤔
I think you mean "Somewhere that's green"
@@idleoz21 Actually yes. It can be plagiarism if you reference yourself without citing or acknowledging it... at least academically (like writing reports, scientific papers, etc). Significance varies though.
I don't quite know how it works in the world of music. I feel composers do tend to have a particular themes they return to when writing music for particular instruments that kinda gives them their signature sounds and feel though. There are also staples of particular genres and common emotional peaks and resolutions of songs that also give someone writing music some wiggle room.
@@BRD0211 In this sort of case it feels more like "quoting" the earlier work, in a musical sense.
My autistic son calls it the Alien Plant Movie and we all love it. Steve Martin is absolutely legendary in this.
When people speak of the greatest in camera VFX films they usually bring up the Thing, the John Carpenter version obviously, but man it's amazing how many people forget this film and how GOOD it really is. It still holds up! Personally I like both endings but I like the theatrical ending a little more, probably because that's the one I grew up with, but I will always pay real respect to the Director's Cut ending. That was brilliant with only a few minor composite issues, mainly with adding smoke and dust effects as those are always difficult to layer over live action without looking added.
You see how great the animatronics are in this movie, and then take a look at how stilted and weird all the new Star Wars animatronics are. Even on characters that get a lot of screen time, like Grogu (baby Yoda). We've actually backslid significantly in this artform in 35 years.
They could easily make something even better but why bother people are gonna eat it up anyways
Ya that's the thing. This movie is textbook example of people going above and beyond for their craft. Nowadays everything is phoned in and cranked out fast to appease the streaming platforms needs of new content.
I'm surprised they didn't bring up Star Wars. RotJ and ESB had some pretty good animatronics. Not Little Shop good but still good.
Phantom Menace does too but if they utter a single good word about that Mike will burn the studio down with everyone inside.
Like everything it comes down to the bottom line. The money men saw how expensive practical effects were and tried to claw back some of the money and so the quality went down.
You need to keep things in perspective a little, though.
It's one thing to create a very complex, extremely expensive animatronic for a creature that is the central attraction of an entire movie *and* is supposed to look impressive and scary.
Doing the same excessive work for dozens of sci-fi creatures that are only onscreen for a few seconds, as scenery fluff, would be borderline insane.
Same applies to a baby alien that's just supposed to be cute, not creepy or scary. Don't forget that the uncanny valley is always close by when you're trying for more realism.
A Frank Oz masterpiece! Ellen Greene’s voice in Suddenly Seymour still gives me chills with how perfect she sings. Rick Moranis is incredible in what is easily his best role! Criminal that Steve Martin was not nominated for his show stealing performance. Love this film, it’s one of my favorite movie musicals. A marvelous picture!
This is an insanely warm way to start my day. Little Shop has always hit the middle with film and theater people but regardless it's cool to hear about it in detail on this channel. Thank you!
I was introduced to Levi Stubbs through his voice-role as Mother Brain on Captain N: The Game Master, and I love that he just reprised the Audrey II voice. Even if you hate the show, Mother Brain was hysterical.
That show was dope.
I one hundred percent believe that they went to the lengths of casting Levi Stubbs just because they wanted to make a Mean Mother from Outer Space joke
Vincent gardenia is also known for Moonstruck, which came out around the same time. That’s another great movie worth Reviewing.
(27:04) They also slowed down the music when filming to make it a wee bit easier for the puppeteers to keep up. I remember seeing that technique used on Primus's Winona's Big Brown Beaver music video. The behind the scenes video of that is actually on RUclips, if anyone wants to see it. 😎
The Audrey II animatronic in this film is literally flawless in how it moves and operates. Its so smooth and lifelike that you'd think its actually a living, breathing thing.
my favorite film of all time, captures every genre in fiction, and sings
I've certainly watched the whole video and it was great
After only a minute after it posted? Great!
I liked the part at the end when it ended. Great RLM content.
😂😂😂😂😂😅
Me personally, it was okay 10/10
Possibly my favorite of Menken and Ashman's movie work. I find the changes made from the stage version to movie version - alterations, additions, removals, and shuffling of songs - endlessly fascinating.
I don't think any-one could have directed this movie other than Frank Oz. So very rarely has a skillset fitted a project so perfectly.
This is my favorite movie of all time and I wish it was more talked about.
One thing that didn’t carry over from both the Corman movie and the stage play was that Audrey II’s flowers had the faces of its victims. It was really freak (though _very_ phony looking) in the first movie and it was hilarious in the play, but I can’t imagine how they could have made it work in the Frank Oz version.
Unironically a better movie musical than the latest les mis movie
Why would that be ironic? Tom Hooper hasn’t got a clue.
That's not a high bar, though. Little Shop is better than most movie musicals made in the last forty years and the Les Mis movie is hot garbage.
I knew this movie was a cult classic, but never got around to watch it until recently. I happened to catch the movie while zapping right during the "Skid Row" song and just got stuck. It's such a great and catchy song with awesome visuals.
I also absolutely love how the movie builds up Audrey's abusive boyfriend, the revelation that it's Steve Martin playing some biker greaser. . . and then it reveals he's a dentist in one of the best songs of the movie (in my opinion). It's just perfection and watching Steve Martin have fun with his role is something else.
This movie is still fucking incredible for so many reasons Audry 2 is the most impressive puppet ever made even more than the alien queen, every vocal performance down to the little nuances of the characters and every single song it was made in an era where everyone cared about their work
Spotted Danny John-Jules is one of the doo-wop singers, he played The Cat in Red Dwarf, which makes him a legend to me, the moment he appeared on screen I recognised him. I have met him once and he is a very sweet guy.
Rewatched this recently and am surprised it doesn’t get mentioned more for best practical effects of all time, at least for puppetry/animatronics.
Glad that this video will help it get more recognition!
This movie never fails to crack me up. Especially every time Audrey says “Dauktah” and her entire dream life sequence where her ideal life is just a nice version of the terrible family life from Mathilda, the line delivery of the npc characters, the entire dentist sequence, Bill Murray being a sex pest. Probably my favorite musical ever made (and I don’t really like musicals)
Audrey's little squeak when Seymour says he named the plant after her is inhumanly perfect.
I dont either and its totally cheesy and cornball but still tugs your heartstrings. The duo behind the buildings you just feel for her
It's definitely my favorite adaptation of a stage musical.
npc characters lol
calling minor background charcaters NPCs is retarded.
The original movie is one of my favorite B&W horror movies and I'm slightly amazed that a film that was literally made in 2 days bred this movie and a popular stage play.
I watched the “movies that made us” on Netflix and Sigourney Weaver mentioned she was working on aliens at the same time Rick was doing little shop in the same town. She talked about both of them having to moving slowly for each of their giant puppets
The animatronic effects coupled with camera work are astonishing. And the original kaiju movie ending was pretty badass.
Audrey reminds me of Biollante just more goofy instead of hauntingly beautiful.
I swear Audrey is just Olive Oyl brought to life. And not just born for the role like Shelley Duvall, I mean the costuming even, I think they wrapped her up to uh, look the part, and paid attention to her physical performance.
@@lorddevilfish5868 both are terrifying though. I wouldn't want to end up in those jaws
@@robwalsh9843 Absolutely a lot of sharp nasty teeth for a plant. I wouldn’t want to end up in the jaws of the skull in your avatar either, what is that? A bear, canine? Genuinely curious
@@lorddevilfish5868 leopard seal skull
This and Westside Story are the two greatest musical adaptations imo. Perfectly captures the essence of the theatre play.
Fun Fact: The director's cut ending is what landed Audrey II the role of Godzilla's sister Biollante in 1989's "Godzilla vs Biollante", thus ensuring a steady revenue stream on both sides of the Pacific, allowing her to go into full retirement.
This is easily the best comment under this video good job, I hope we get more Biollante in a future Godzilla movie.
This reView was amazing, half hour passed like it was 10 min. Amazing work guys!
Audrey II is one of the greatest practical effects ever.
For the Red Dwarf fans, the Cat makes a small appearance as a doo-wop singer at 30:57.
I have randomly gotten “Suddenly Seymour” stuck in my head over the years. These songs are some banger ear worms for sure 😁
I don’t think I’ve clicked as fast, I never expected RLM to cover this of all movies
Really? Have you not been watching them long?
@@versebuchanan512 I have, it’s just a matter of basic disbelief over a musical and a movie I grew up with showing up on the show in general
Ohh, gotcha gotcha @@cacomeatballmarinara2014
I used to fear Steve Martin in this. I still do, but I used to as well.
Being a fan of Corman's original, I was a little disappointed that they didn't get anyone from that movie to do a remake cameo. Dick Miller would've been perfect for that. In the original, he plays a customer of the flower shop who eats flowers (get it?....he's a person who eats flowers, and then there's a flower who eats people! Isn't it ironic?).
Steve Martin's is easily the funniest performance in the history of all time in this movie. I remember laughing so hard when LSoH came out. And yet he didn't totally steal the movie, a testiment to how good this show is.
Loved this movie for the Steve Martin & Bill Murray scene, these two were at the top of their game back then and to have them both in such a funny and disturbing scene, on top of Martin being insanely dark for the first time was great.
As a kid it kinda disturbed me considering I saw 3 Amigos first, as it came out like a week before Little Shop of Horrors came out.. and it was a 180 for Steve Martin to go from goofy hero to sadist dentist (my worse fear as a child) in 1 week.
Steve Martin first played an evil singing doctor (Dr. Maxwell) in 1978 in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
POOR ALL MY LIFE IVE ALWAYS BEEN POOR I KEEP ASKING GOD WHAT IM FOR- some of the most relatable lyrics ever written for a musical.
"And He tells me, 'Gee, I'm not sure'" is the even more relatable part.
_"...treats me like dirt and calls me a Slob, which I am!"_
“Sweep that floor, kid” completely uncaring, most relatable
Went to the movies with a friend in 8th grade and insisted we watch this because the cast was so great. He never let me live it down. I love the RLM crew so much that this re:View actually soothes my cringe a little bit.
Why was it cringe? Because it's a musical? Because it's a pretty hilarious movie!
@@lucystoner yes, I find it hard to enjoy musicals, but my friend acted like I violated him for making him watch it, lol. You are correct it is a genius movie
one thing on the director's cut ending: i remember reading somewhere that a reason the test audiences didn't respond well to the tragic ending could have to do with medium. if you're going to see the musical in-person, everybody dies and the plants win, but you still get to clap for audrey and seymour at curtain call and see their smiling faces. when they die in the movie, credits roll and you're sitting in the dark and that's it. obviously everyone's aware this is fictional, but the effect of a tragic play ending is so different.
This is one of those, "wait, they haven't done this yet?" Episodes
We need the Jay edit. Best of both worlds.
Two favorites. Please give us more Jay and Colin. Thank you.
Note: Even the "director's cut" Blu-Ray disc is missing some critical scenes that were filmed, but not found or accidentally left out. You'll get a lot from the movie's soundtrack CD.
Always a vibe when the lads strap us to chairs and force us to watch their videos
Now that the "Rick Moranis Musical" band-aid has been torn off I need to see a Re:View on the film Streets of Fire starring both Rick Moranis AND Willem DeFoe
Really glad to see you guys covering this. Little Shop of Horrors was a staple of my childhood.
I'm so happy now! I loved this movie since I first saw it as a kid like 30 years ago. It's amazing. I have the soundtrack on vinyl, I play this movie for any friend that doesn't know it, I'm kinda obsessed :D And I just ADORE the director's cut ending. It's... just awezome.
You touched on the main problem with the original ending: It would've almost certainly worked as intended if they'd just made Seymour more complicit in the deaths of Orin and Mr. Mushnick like he was supposed to be. As it is, I kind of agree with the test audience that, for as great a spectacle as it is, the original ending is much too cruel and nihilistic when weighed against how Seymour is much more innocent and less deserving of his fate in the film adaptation. That, and as Frank Oz himself explained, the live theater convention of actors returning for the "curtain call" removes the grim finality of character deaths, so it carries far less of an emotional gut punch in the stage version.
Of course, it's completely fair to ask _why_ Yoda chose to make Seymour a more innocent character in the first place, if he was expecting the audience to not get attached to him nor want to see him earn a happy ending.
I loved when Jay and Colin sat in the chairs. Truly a moment of all time.
My highschool did a production of little shop! I got to play Seymour, im so glad we kept the director cut version with the plants taking over the world, such a heartwarming ending!
This was so good to come back to as someone who portrayed Seymour in a local production of Little Shop.
I always think of an old fan-theory that each instance of Little Shop is the perspective of each character.
The Corman original is a dry, straight B-movie where Seymour is the only one who bites it.
The musical is Seymour's perspective, where he personally gets to warn the audience at the end "Don't Feed The Plants" and the situation is mostly the truth.
The theatrical cut is Audrey's perspective, deluding herself that being eaten by Seymour *is* "Somewhere That's Green".
The director's cut is Twoey's perspective, envisioning his take-over-the-world scenario should humanity fail their morals.
Fun to think about.
Can't believe the boys didn't mention Rocky Horror, especially since they are both shot very much like movies instead of flat stage plays. Rocky horror did it first. They definitely complement each other as a double feature.
You mean a "science fiction double feature"?
I've recently wondered if they'll cover Rocky Horror Picture Show, or if it's even their vibe.
@@Crunchy_Punchpretty sure Amat has said he understands why people love the movie but it’s not his vibe.
@@Crunchy_Punch yeah I'm not sure, I think Colin would definitely talk about it. Maybe Jay. But I don't think RLM are huge fans otherwise it would have been referenced a bit more before now.
@@Crunchy_Punch can't believe I didn't say science fiction double feature... alas
and if you want a triple feature, too it off with Phantom of the Paradise!
I'm working on the Little Mermaid stage musical and Little Shop has been looming large in my memory. Guess I need to see it again, now, after decades. Jeez, *everyone* is in this.
This will always be my favorite musical. The puppeteering effects are still absolutely flawless
This is one of those movies where you catch more and more as you get older and see it again. I loved it as a kid, and I love it as an adult. The puppets were so damned good.
Steve Martin punching the nurse in the face is one of the most shocking movie moments I remember as a kid