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 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.
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.
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 😂
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
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.
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
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".
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
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.
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.
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 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.
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
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.
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
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 😄
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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!
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.
(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. 😎
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 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!
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.
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
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."
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.
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
Loved this episode. The shooting in lower frame rate and speeding it back up is a massively interesting aspect of this movie a lot of people don’t know about. Also, 30:57 the guy on the left of the singing troop, a young Danny John Jules who played Cat in Red Dwarf!
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.
IIRC the changes to the theatrical cut got the world record for most expensive reshoot at the time thanks to how much money they burned not using the original sequence.
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.
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.
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.
Awesome slice of Psychotronia. I saw the original 3 day Corman wonder as a kid. But seeing the stage musical at Westwood's Geffen theater (I had a seat in front of Don Rickles and Bob Newhart) I got William Castle vibes when its ending had tentacles drop from the ceiling ala "Phantom of the Opera" and its chandelier. When I saw the film version's sappy studio ending I was pissed. So happy they actually expanded the stage ending to epic proportions. Respect to Frank Oz.
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!
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 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.
glad to see this amazing underappreciated gem on re:view, thanks guys. I've never been much for musicals but i could watch this movie every year. I wonder how many people who saw this years ago still have no idea about the "true ending"
That plant has some of the best looking effects i have ever seen. It looks so convincing to me and everytime i see it I'm just amazed on how extremely good it looks in action.
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.
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.
I saw this as a kid but I was too rambunctious, my brothers & I, so I barely remember it. Great to know there is a Director’s Cut & cannot wait to check it out. Thanks for the re:View, Jay & Colin, always a pleasure. Best, Jimmy James from Toronto 😊
All-time classic movie with a superb soundtrack. Even to this day, the puppetry and techniques that brought Audrey 2 to life is still amazing and holds up.
Would love to see more musicals covered in the future. This is one of my favorite movies! I actually watched the play first and was so obsessed that I went and watched the movie.
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 remember watching it on some free movie site many years ago not knowing it was the directors cut having already seen the theatrical version and seeing the different ending was so trippy. I felt like I stepped into another dimension. Though, I do remember seeing that ending in black and white even before the official cut was released.
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.
In "Suppertime" (the musical number that ends with Mushnik getting eaten) the puppet for the mid-sized Audrey II got busted. Instead of trying to build a whole new one, they re-skinned the rig from "Feed Me" and built a scaled-down version of the corner of the flower shop for his solo number on the opposite side of the door from the human actors
They never built a fully-articulate Suppertime plant, realising that they only needed lip-syncing when no other human actors were present, and having already shot Feed Me and got used to that puppet.
God this takes me back to doing this show my senior year of highschool and just thinking of the casting we had and the amazing puppets my classmate built. I’d love to go back and see that again.
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.
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.
Another Frank Oz gem is The Indian In the Cupboard. It was a box office failure but is a great showcase for Frank's talent with miniatures, forced perspective, and special effects.
I saw my local high-school drama club (when I was in 2nd grade) perform this qa their spring musical and it literally changed my life. Then I had my mom order the DVD and I still enjoy it to this day
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 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
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.
I feel cheated all these years
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 😂
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"
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...
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
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.
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
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."
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!
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.
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.
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.
@@arsenelupin9697 oof. Don't date you I guess
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
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
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
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.
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 😄
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
I played Seymour in a live version of this musical and it was SO FUN. Definitely cemented my love for the movie too
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.
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.
Love to see Jay and Candian Jay talk about movies together, a very wholesome bonding time between changing Mike's diapers.
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.)
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.
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!
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
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
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
(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. 😎
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 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!
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.
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
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."
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.
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
Really glad to see you guys covering this. Little Shop of Horrors was a staple of my childhood.
This reView was amazing, half hour passed like it was 10 min. Amazing work guys!
Loved this episode. The shooting in lower frame rate and speeding it back up is a massively interesting aspect of this movie a lot of people don’t know about. Also, 30:57 the guy on the left of the singing troop, a young Danny John Jules who played Cat in Red Dwarf!
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.
Two favorites. Please give us more Jay and Colin. Thank you.
Vincent gardenia is also known for Moonstruck, which came out around the same time. That’s another great movie worth Reviewing.
IIRC the changes to the theatrical cut got the world record for most expensive reshoot at the time thanks to how much money they burned not using the original sequence.
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.
No wayyyyy! Been waiting for a RE:View of this for so long!
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 have randomly gotten “Suddenly Seymour” stuck in my head over the years. These songs are some banger ear worms for sure 😁
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.
Love this play/film since I was a kid. Absolutely overjoyed that you guys covered it on Re:View.
Awesome slice of Psychotronia. I saw the original 3 day Corman wonder as a kid. But seeing the stage musical at Westwood's Geffen theater (I had a seat in front of Don Rickles and Bob Newhart) I got William Castle vibes when its ending had tentacles drop from the ceiling ala "Phantom of the Opera" and its chandelier. When I saw the film version's sappy studio ending I was pissed. So happy they actually expanded the stage ending to epic proportions. Respect to Frank Oz.
It's one of my favorite films of all time! I literally watched it two nights ago and then you talked about it!!
This and Westside Story are the two greatest musical adaptations imo. Perfectly captures the essence of the theatre play.
Yes, I read the description everytime. It never disappoints. 😊
my favorite film of all time, captures every genre in fiction, and sings
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 will always be my favorite musical. The puppeteering effects are still absolutely flawless
Thas for your amazing reviews. hugs from Brazil.
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 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!
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.
glad to see this amazing underappreciated gem on re:view, thanks guys. I've never been much for musicals but i could watch this movie every year.
I wonder how many people who saw this years ago still have no idea about the "true ending"
Always a vibe when the lads strap us to chairs and force us to watch their videos
That plant has some of the best looking effects i have ever seen.
It looks so convincing to me and everytime i see it I'm just amazed on how extremely good it looks in action.
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.
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.
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 saw this as a kid but I was too rambunctious, my brothers & I, so I barely remember it. Great to know there is a Director’s Cut & cannot wait to check it out. Thanks for the re:View, Jay & Colin, always a pleasure.
Best,
Jimmy James from Toronto 😊
All-time classic movie with a superb soundtrack. Even to this day, the puppetry and techniques that brought Audrey 2 to life is still amazing and holds up.
Would love to see more musicals covered in the future. This is one of my favorite movies! I actually watched the play first and was so obsessed that I went and watched the movie.
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 remember watching it on some free movie site many years ago not knowing it was the directors cut having already seen the theatrical version and seeing the different ending was so trippy. I felt like I stepped into another dimension. Though, I do remember seeing that ending in black and white even before the official cut was released.
The lightning does not strike a plant and mutate it. The plant travels to earth via that lightning. It explains that in the song.
We need the Jay edit. Best of both worlds.
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.
Once again, thanks a lot guys for giving me the urge to rewatch movies I saw nearly 40 years ago...
In "Suppertime" (the musical number that ends with Mushnik getting eaten) the puppet for the mid-sized Audrey II got busted. Instead of trying to build a whole new one, they re-skinned the rig from "Feed Me" and built a scaled-down version of the corner of the flower shop for his solo number on the opposite side of the door from the human actors
They never built a fully-articulate Suppertime plant, realising that they only needed lip-syncing when no other human actors were present, and having already shot Feed Me and got used to that puppet.
Ahhh, thank you, think I got some bad info (or misremembered)
God this takes me back to doing this show my senior year of highschool and just thinking of the casting we had and the amazing puppets my classmate built. I’d love to go back and see that again.
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.
didn't know there was a directors cut that was so different, ill have to check that out. thanks guys!
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.
Another Frank Oz gem is The Indian In the Cupboard. It was a box office failure but is a great showcase for Frank's talent with miniatures, forced perspective, and special effects.
I saw my local high-school drama club (when I was in 2nd grade) perform this qa their spring musical and it literally changed my life. Then I had my mom order the DVD and I still enjoy it to this day
This movie means so much to me on so many levels and it's very hard to explain to people why it's so good unironically; thanks for this