Happy June! Since it
is my birth month, I am being self-indulgent and writing about all of my
favourite movies. For some of the more
well-known movies out there, I will be mostly reflecting on the why it
is one of my favourites, as opposed to the usual format of a plot rundown and a
wee little bit of reflection. Not all of
my favourite movies are classics – some fall into the guilty pleasure category
– but whatever. It’s my birthday month,
deal with it. OK, disclaimer out of the
way, let us begin…
Oh, and from this post out, the movies are pretty much at
random. The first three were my three
all-time absolute faves. After that,
it’s just movies I really, really love.
#349: Little Shop of Horrors (1986). OK, if you follow my other blog, The Next Step?,
or know me personally, you know that I have a borderline inappropriate crush on
Rick Moranis. That is not why this is
here. This is here because it is made of
awesome. Besides, my obsession crush
is starting to wane a little, anyway… So, here we go!
The Players:
Mushnik: Played by Vincent Gardenia. Mr. Mushnick owns the flower shop, and is a
father figure to Seymour . He’s also a bit of a father figure to Audrey,
as he knows exactly what is going on with her, and worries
about/lectures her regularly. He also
gets real greedy real fast when the shop becomes suddenly successful.
Orin Scrivello – D.D.S.: Played by Steve Martin. He’s a sadistic dentist who loves inflicting
pain on everyone, from his patients to Audrey.
He’s also not very bright. What
did Audrey see in him?
 |
| Michelle Weeks as Ronette, Tisha Campbell-Martin as Chiffon, Tichina Arnold as Crystal |
The Doo-Wop Girls:
Played by Tichina Arnold, Michelle Weeks, and Tisha
Campbell-Martin. These ladies are the
“Greek Chorus” of the film. They sing
the opening number, and are present throughout, offering sassy commentary and
kickass back-up vocals. I had the
pleasure of playing one of the Doo-Wop Girls in college when we put this show
on in 24 hours… more about that later.
The girls are named after popular girl-groups of the 1960s: Crystal ,
Ronette, and Chiffon.
Audrey II: Voiced by Levi Stubbs. Audrey starts off as a cute little fly-trap
looking thing, but in order to grow big and strong, it needs human blood. As the plant grows, sucking the blood out of Seymour ’s
fingers isn’t enough. People start
mysteriously disappearing…
CAMEOS GALORE! We’ve
got John Candy, Christopher Guest, Jim Belushi, Bill Murray, and a handful
more. Like, seriously. So many people in this movie…
The Rundown:
So, I realize not everyone has seen this, but really? OK…
Seymour, Audrey and Mr. Mushnik work at Mushnik’s Flower
Shop on Skid Row. Business sucks. So, Seymour
(with a little prodding from Audrey, aw) suggests that they put this “strange
and interesting new plant” in the window to draw customers in. We learn through song (hey, it is a musical)
that the plant mysteriously appeared during a total eclipse of the sun the week
before.
Well, putting the plant (Audrey II) in the window works, and
they have an awesome sales day. Now,
I’ve seen this movie a million times, and upon the latest viewing, something
occurred to me: they show this mini-montage of people popping in the store door
and inquiring about the plant. They are
all dressed up super fancy-like. This is
day one of Audrey II in the store. Why
are all these fancy rich people shopping for flowers on SKID ROW?! I mean, I understand when the show gets
really successful, but this is still early on.
I blame costuming for putting sparkles and fur on the ladies…
Anyway, Mushnik is super pumped that customers do exist! He offers to buy Audrey and Seymour
dinner, but Audrey has a date, and Audrey II suddenly keels over. Seymour
is given the task of nursing the plant back to health. Cue the erectile dysfunction song!
Audrey II grows, and Seymour
appears on the radio with it. Great
scene with John Candy here, nice little SCTV reunion!
Audrey missed the radio broadcast, and gets an earful from
the Doo-Wop girls about how bad her boyfriend is for her. She’s in a sling, by the way. She shoos them away, denying she deserves
anything better than this jerk who beats her and makes her wear handcuffs
(well, the handcuffs thing isn’t that bad, Audrey!). She retreats to her cute little ruffle-filled
apartment, and sings about the life she wants, “Somewhere that’s Green”. It is beautiful and heartbreaking. Just like Audrey. Aww…
Cue song/montage of Audrey II getting bigger at the expense
of Seymour ’s health. Suddenly, the plant is huge, and the shop is
busy, and poor little anemic Seymour
forgot an order. While Audrey helps him
put it together, they bond some more, but then she brings up her stupid
boyfriend. Which leads to the best thing
Steve Martin has ever done:
So, the Dentist meets Seymour
while he’s picking up Audrey for their date, is a dumb asshole, and they ride
off. Then it is revealed that the Audrey
II can speak! And in a sexy, deep
African American voice. After the song
“Feed Me”, and a brief scene of Orin beating on Audrey (which is witnessed by
Seymour and Audrey II), it is determined that Orin has to die. And be fed to the plant. Dude, I’d kill people for Levi Stubbs, too.
So, Seymour goes
to shoot Orin, but he accidentally kills himself by O.D.-ing on laughing
gas. Well, ok, then! I mean, he’s dead already, might as well just
chop him up and feed him to a plant!
The next day, Seymour
sees the police outside Audrey’s apartment, and he rushes over to make sure
he’s not wanted for murder. After a
really beautifully done scene (Ellen Greene kicks major ass in this role), we
have this song. (And this song
completely justifies my love for Rick Moranis, BTW):
Side Note: I have watched this movie a lot, and only
on a more recent viewing, did I notice something really subtle and well-done
here: throughout the film, Seymour and Audrey have scenes together, but they
never make physical contact until the very end of this song, when they are
ready to make the jump together. Well
done, Frank Oz.
Now Seymour is
super famous and successful. The plant
is freaking ridiculous at this point. He
tries to get away, but the plant tries to eat Audrey, and after a little scene
in the alley with a guy played by Jim Belushi offering to sell cuttings of the
Audrey II, thus making it “Bigger than hula-hoops” (probably my favourite line
in the whole movie, don’t ask me why).
Realizing that this is what the plant wanted all along, Seymour
decides to go in and kill his best friend.
Aw, sad…
So, it is then revealed that the Audrey II is “A Mean Green
Mother from Outer Space”. Well,
duh! OK, so here’s the song:
That’s ALL PUPPETRY, MOTHERFUCKERS. Back to that point in a sec…
So, we have our
happy ending with Seymour defeating the monster, and he and Audrey go live in her little suburban
dreamhouse. And a tiny little Audrey II
(III?) hidden in their garden…
OK, so this is one
of my all-time faves for a few resons:
The story. It’s just.
Fun! It’s an homage to the 1950s It Came from Outer Space type B-movies. Which is funny, because it’s a musical
re-imagining of a 1960 Roger Corman movie of the same name. Which was shot, by the way, in two days. So cool!
Anyway, it’s a quirky story, and I like it.
The
characters. They are all so distinct,
and all of them are flawed in one way or another; Mushnik is greedy, Seymour is easily influenced and success-obsessed,
Audrey is in some ways very broken and has low self-esteem, Orin is a
sadomasochist, the Audrey II is a fucking alien plant form who eats people. And yet, they are all enjoyable
on some level.
 |
| Ashman and Menken |
The music. Ashman and Menken were the best musical team
in the 1980s/’90s, most well-known by many for their work on the Disney flicks
of the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. Sadly, we
lost Howard Ashman to AIDS shortly before Aladdin. He was a masterful lyricist, and I am forever
grateful to him for giving me “Somewhere that’s Green”.
 |
| Frank Oz |
The effects. OK, I know I went off a little about special
effects when I talked about The
Wizard of Oz. Well, here we go again. This film had about 3 optical effects
throughout. Everything else was
practical, on-set effects and puppetry.
Like, holy shit. That plant is
fucking awesome, and you know when they remake this (there
are serious talks. I might have to
protest) the powers that be will most likely opt for an at least partial CG
Audrey II. Which is fucking
cheating. Now, of course, the director
for this was Frank Oz, of Muppets fame, so he kinda knows his way around
puppets, but of this size? Damn. There was some miniature work and cheating
angles done, but mostly with the medium Audrey II. The big one we saw in “Mean Green Mother…” is
legit. They shot everything at a
slowed-down tempo and sped up the film later.
So, when you see the plant on screen interacting with Seymour ?
Rick Moranis was acting in slow-mo so the plant looks real. That amount of effort is astounding,
especially when you see the final effect.
It’s just so damn impressive.
 |
| PUPPETS. THEY KICKS CGIs ASS! |
OK, off my
soapbox. This is a terrific movie, and
everyone should check it out. Totally
worth watching. I was lucky to have been
in a production of it in college, in which we cast, rehearsed and put the show
up in 24 hours. I was Crystal, one of
the Doo-Wop Girls, and it was a blast!
If you ever have a chance to see the stage production, do it! There are extended versions of songs, songs
that were left out, and the ending is quite different.
I will now leave
you with one of my most favourite things ever: a video of a bloopers/gag reel
from the set. It’s also found on the
DVD.
Well, that’s a wrap
for today! Yet another musical tomorrow!
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