Somehow I missed seeing Little Shop Of Horrors when it was in theaters back in 1986, and subsequently on home video for the ensuing decades. Of all the oddball and quirky films to have missed, one would think this film would not have been one of them, given my penchant for these types of things.
Getting the Blu-ray of the film in its 16th year anniversary I have finally rectified this. I have always heard good things about the film, which is based on the off-Broadway musical, which in turn was based on the 1960 Roger Corman film. The basic plot has Seymour (Rick Moranis) finding an unusual plant under unusual circumstances. The plant, it turns out, feeds off of blood. Audrey (Ellen Greene), a co-worker at the florist shot where Seymour works, has a bad man for a boyfriend (Steve Martin). This guy, a sadistic dentist, winds up plant food.
And that’s not the half of the story.
What was fun about the original 1960 film was it’s dark sense of humor. What Howard Ashman and Alan Menkin did was turn that into a musical that may not have had the same success as others at the same time, but it simply wouldn’t go away. Eventually the songwriting duo would work with Disney on other projects (such as The Little Mermaid) while their original stage production got a film treatment of its own, helmed by Frank Oz.
Some of the songs are memorable, and apparently one was even nominated for an Oscar. That’s part of the charm of this version of the story. Sure, it’s got some of the more traditional trappings of a stage musical, but it is such a twisted story Little Shop Of Horrors is anything but your typical musical fare.
For this Blu-ray release we are getting the film in two versions. There is the original theatrical version, which features a reshot ending, and then the director’s preferred original ending which more closely matches the stage production. I can understand why test audiences didn’t like the original ending. I like the original ending myself, but felt it went on far too long.
The ending really is significantly different. I don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it (you can predict the ending almost at the beginning of the film) but it required not only reshoots but recasting as well.
On Blu-ray we get both endings, available as an option to watch the film either way. Then there are a number of special features, all housed in a book style case. Most of these books are pointless with little other than fluff, but this one actually has a bit of substance, which is nice. There is an error about which letters are flashing off and on. It’s a small thing, but details matter.
As for “regular” special features, we get a short featurette on why the original ending was cut and the aftermath. There’s audio commentary from an old DVD over the original ending – making references to how it isn’t finished, which is weird. Apparently Frank Oz wasn’t available to make a new audio commentary or some such thing. We also get a few outtakes and deleted scenes with optional commentary and a featurette on the movie. It’s a decent package, but a newer retrospective would have been nice, perhaps a picture in picture commentary track with storyboards and behind the scenes footage with Rick Moranis, Steve Martin, Ellen Green, ALan Menken, or even Roger Corman.
Little Shop Of Horrors is a decent and fun film. The original ending is better, thematically, but it does go on to long. The reworked ending for the initial theatrical release is also solid. Either way, we are getting a good presentation of a film that is loved by many, and still manages to slip under the radar for some.