I wouldn’t mind a Little Shop remake for just one specific reason

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 5/9/20 at 1:53pm

Watching the directors cut of the movie....

Somehow even it being like the stage show it still doesnt work.
Theres just something not hitting.

Its too long for one thing, Mean Green Mother just shouldnt exist at all, and it all building to him just killing Seymour anyway, means we just wasted all this time for the song.

Audreys death to the end should feel like the pace is increasing.
The pacing just gets so off after she dies.

And omg Dont Feed the Plants while impressive also goes on too long.

Yeah, I just wanna see a director honor the ending of the show but do it better than the movie did it.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 5/9/20 at 3:41pm

rattleNwoolypenguin said: "
Watching the directors cut of the movie....

Somehow even it being like the stage show it still doesnt work.
Theres just something not hitting.

Its too long for one thing, Mean Green Mother just shouldnt exist at all, and it all building to him just killing Seymour anyway, means we just wasted all this time for the song.

Audreys death to the end should feel like the pace is increasing.
The pacing just gets so off after she dies.

And omg Dont Feed the Plants while impressive also goes on too long.

Yeah, I just wanna see a director honor the ending of the show but do it better than the movie did it."

I always liked the slower pacing near the end. The stuff up to that is played pretty fast, like the kind of screwball comedy the movie was emulating. Once Mr. Mushnik gets eaten, the movie takes a much darker tone, with the stakes getting much higher. Once Audrey dies, all hope is lost for Seymour, so it's like the world loses meaning. I don't know if I like him contemplating suicide like he does in the movie. I think it works well enough to have him just mourning by the plant like he does in the stage show.

While I really love "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space", I agree it does futz with the tone at the end. I think the Da-Doo reprise worked better.

If this is remade, I want to see a director find a better way to utilize "Don't Feed The Plants". It's such a theatrical finale, with the plant pretty much taking over the world offstage, and descending upon the theatre the musical is performed in.

I agree that the effects for the end were really impressive (pretty much all the visuals in the movie still hold up impeccably), but it doesn't really work to just have nobody in particular sing the ending over shots of the plant destroying the world.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 5/9/20 at 3:59pm

Honestly my biggest issue with the movie has always been that Audrey 2 works best with a big booming baritone. If they correct that (and give a proper The Meek Shall Inherit) I’ll be happy

[seaweedjstubbs]

Posted: 5/9/20 at 4:35pm

jonartdesigns said: "Honestly my biggest issue with the movie has always been that Audrey 2 works best with a big booming baritone. If they correct that (and give a proper The Meek Shall Inherit) I’ll be happy"

Levi Stubbs IS Audrey II to me. I’m shocked that anyone disliked his voice in the movie.

As for the Director’s Cut, it’s really not the way Frank Oz intended it. While the color footage of “Don’t Feed The Plants” is fantastic, and they did a great job restoring it, Warner Bros didn’t edit the footage down the way Frank Oz wanted it originally. If you watch the Director’s Cut with the commentary turned on, Frank Oz talks about how the ending would’ve been a lot shorter if it had ever been finished. There are SO many random shots that would’ve been taken out, like the dog running down the street twice. 

But I agree, as much as I love “Mean Green Mother From Outerspace,” it truly just doesn’t fit the mood of that last scene. I also think Seymour is just too darn likeable in the final cut of the film, which is why his death just feels so wrong. That could be attributed to Rick Moranis’ great performance, but there are also some changes from the musical to the movie that makes what Seymour does seem like he’s just getting caught up in Audrey II’s madness instead of him clearly making deliberate choices to continue keeping Twoey alive like in the stage version. The deletion of “The Meek Shall Inherit” (which you can find in full on YouTube) definitely adds to that.

Regardless, I still think the film version is one of the best stage to screen adaptations of all time. If a remake ever does get make, the filmmakers will have to truly make it unique to stack up to the 1986 film.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 5/9/20 at 5:26pm

you're in luck, i'm pretty sure they're remaking the movie

[Smaxie]

Posted: 5/9/20 at 5:38pm

I feel there is one major and unavoidable flaw of the film version, or any possible film remake: when Audrey II is a stage puppet, you are pretty willing to go along with the storyline to its Faustian conclusion because of its knowing silliness and artificiality. The Audrey II of the film is a more realistic, more sinister creation, and it's really not as much fun in the film's last third, even with the revised ending. Also, I remember when the film opened, a critic cited the prominent lips of Audrey II as indulging in classic racist stereotypes and imagery, and I found it hard to disagree, even recognizing we're talking about a man-eating plant from outer space.  

[seaweedjstubbs]

Posted: 5/9/20 at 5:48pm

gypsy101 said: "you're in luck, i'm pretty sure they're remaking the movie"

The remake has been in development hell for nearly a decade now, so until the movie begins filming, I’ll believe it when I see it.

As for Audrey II’s lips, as a black man I never really viewed them as racist. They were kinda necessary in order to make the lip sync believable, which kinda goes back to your first point about the plant being too realistic. I personally love Twoey’s design in the movie - it’s amazing how much personality the plant has when it’s basically just a mouth. I’ll be very sad if a remake happens and the plant is completely CGI.

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 5/9/20 at 6:46pm

I also think Seymour’s death is just done wrong in the movie cause it just feels like torturous.

I prefer his valiant effort in the musical to try to hack up the plant from the inside and you as the audience wait to see if he’s effective, and then the plant just burps up a pair of glasses.

Also I agree while I GET the idea behind making Don’t Feed the Plants a Godzilla type thing.....I still don’t think it’s the BEST route you could go with that song

I love seeing the plants all be bought in surplus during the song
I just think there’s an eerier idea somewhere...

Honestly Don’t feed the plants could just be the end credits with like vines wrapping around the screen or something

[Globefan]

Posted: 5/9/20 at 6:51pm

I want the remake to have less cuts to the stage production. 

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 5/9/20 at 6:58pm

Globefan said: "I want the remake to have less cuts to the stage production."

Closed for Renovation, Call Back in the Morning, Mushnik and Song and It’s Just the Gas are good cuts I think. They also aren’t any of the standout greats either imo

some things just don’t work great on film and I love that without them every song in the movie version for the most part is stylistically cohesive.

also dropping the Mushnik son subplot...not much changes to the story without it

Updated On: 5/9/20 at 06:58 PM

[joevitus]

Posted: 5/9/20 at 7:16pm

I was a big fan of the movie when it came out (I was a sophomore in high school), but not now.


Sitting in a movie house in 1988 watching Hairspay, I instantly thought, that's the look the movie version of Little Shop should have gone for: the almost comic book colors and the small, low budget (but appealing) sets.


Little Shop started out as a low-low-low-budget feature and the stage version has generally stayed true to the spirit of its origins, opting for small houses and one set a few in-one scenes with a scrim (or retracting half-circle wall in the original production design), a plant that is clearly ludicrous but interesting and fun.
When you make everything big and the plant is more animatronically complex than the shark in Jaws, all lot of the wit is lost. 


But I don't want to see a remake. No one is going to top Ellen Greene, and unless you can come up with a better or at least equal Audrey, don't waste your time.

Updated On: 5/9/20 at 07:16 PM