Little Shop of Horrors: The Intended Edition

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/latest-mpaa-ratings-bulletin-no-2205/

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD I NEED TO CHANGE MY PANTS

Cool. I hope the original ending doesn't feel less special when it's officially endorsed.

Well, it would be in COLOR when released, I'd hope. Great news for fans of the musical, in any case.

I believe that the reason the original cut DVD was quickly withdrawn was because it was in black and white and done without David Geffen's authorisation. He said he had the full colour version, so I assume that's what they're using this time around.

I hope that the blu release has both cuts as an option in the film, and not just one of the endings listed as a special feature.

I knew that this was coming to blu in the UK in 2012, but didn't know about releases anywhere else. Looks like it might be a worldwide thing then.

edited 13th Jan '12 2:56:29 AM by Fiwen9430

Was there anything wrong with the changed ending? It wasn't a PERFECTLY happy ending

Yeah, but it wasn't the ending that the story was written to lead up to.

Really? When I first saw the film, I wasn't thinking "EVERYONE needs to die and there MUST be a Downer Ending for this to work"

The way I think about it is that if a story's a person, then the way it ends is its gender. Some people are women, and some stories have happy endings. Some people are men, and some stories have downer endings. Some people refuse to let themselves be defined by society's standards. Some stories have bittersweet endings. Some people are dissatisfied with the sex they're born with, and have to be changed. Some stories have endings that just don't fit (the original The Little Mermaid story, for instance), and they have to be changed.

But there was absolutely nothing wrong with Little Shop of Horrors, as it was written by Howard Ashman. What happened to it is the equivalent of if a studio forced one of their actors into an unwilling sex change because they'd rather have another actress.

As an extreme fan of Little Shop, I'd like to say that I don't think Seymour and Audrey needed to die for the story to work. That's just the direction Howard Ashman chose to took. The ending just needs to show that there are ramifications for Seymour's actions.

The story is about Seymour murdering two people and feeding them to a plant in order to get the girl and leave Skid Row.

In the movie as released, Seymour gets everything he ever wanted at the end, all using the money that he made from the plant.

That completely contradicts the moral.

I think they could've found away to deliver the moral in a more appealing way without driving the audience mad. It wouldn't have been as good as the cry-your-eyes out death of [SPOILER], or the SFX sequence that was one of the best at the time the film was made, but it would've gotten the point of the story across, which the film as released did not.

Also, I'm trying to get the news spread all over the internet. The sooner everyone knows, the sooner Warner Home Video will have to reveal details about the release. If anyone knows of any home video sites that let you submit news, please submit this blog entry from Vinnie Rattolle.

http://vinnierattolle.blogspot.com/2012/01/somethings-coming-to-eat-world-whole.html

edited 19th Jan '12 6:01:01 AM by TacoWiz

But they made it a lot more ambiguous whether the deaths of Orin and Mushnik were actually Seymour's deliberate choice or not, thus changing the original story, giving a lot more sympathy to Seymour and making his death at the end of the film feel much less justified.

I think that any balance between the two endings we got would still cause problems (since the more you punish Seymour the more it affects Audrey, and she really deserves a break after what she's been through), and I'm glad that we will get both so people can choose their favourite.

Frank Oz announced this during his on-stage interview at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, where the Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibit is being held. I am also excited!

Aw, here I was hoping for a remake, so there would be a better Audrey-the-human. Still, not too shabby.

As has been said, the changed ending works because Seymour's actions are toned down considerably from the original play, presumably so the new ending didn't feel cheap. In the film, he's paralyzed with shock when Orin dies, and Mushnik was an accident - he backed into the plant and the plant ate him. Apart from chopping up Orin after he was already dead, Seymour didn't really do anything wrong.

I agree that Seymour's actions in the film are less reprehensible than his actions in the play. But that doesn't make the changed ending any more dramatically satisfying. The story was written by Howard Ashman to work a certain way. If the film's Seymour doesn't deserve the intended ending, then that doesn't mean that the film should change Seymour's ending - it means that the film has failed to correctly characterize Seymour.

Also, Ellen Greene is awesome as Audrey, what the hell are you on, man?

edited 19th Jan '12 9:28:42 PM by PDown

It's an adaptation, there's no point in blindly following the source material if you've already changed it to the point where the original ending no longer works.

I went to see a stage performance of LSOH and in that, I'll readily admit, Seymour deserved what he got, but in the film version, the original ending just came across as being too mean-spirited.

Also, the alternate ending was not completely happy. Audrey 2 was still alive

I'm saying that I think that the adaptation is overall less entertaining and that the changes lead to massive examples of The Artifact because it was adapted by someone who wasn't looking at the real big picture. It's Adaptation Decay, is what I'm saying. Not just the ending - the whole thing. Having the ending restored should make it somewhat more acceptable as a bare-minimum film version of the story.

edited 21st Jan '12 12:13:11 AM by PDown

My main complaint is about the inconsistency of her singing voice. All the stage Audreys I've seen were subdued '50s-style sopranos through-and-through, and I could see her deeper, throatier tones working too, but both at a go is just kind of off.

Side note: the best Audrey II I ever saw was a beltariffic contralto. C'mon, the guys can't have all the fun.

Guys can have all the fun with parts written for guys. My father thinks the best dentist he's seen was female, too, but I don't buy it.

edited 22nd Jan '12 10:49:17 AM by PDown

Wait, a female Orin? Did she try to act like a male? What gender was Audrey? I'm confused.

Yeah, she tried to act like a male. Audrey was normal.

I've seen a female Mushnik. And Mrs. Luce is apparently usually portrayed by a man. I have no idea why, as she was actually quite pretty in real life◊.

I'm fine with a female Mushnik - the gender isn't really important to the feel of the character.

Also Mrs. Luce is usually portrayed by a man because she's usually portrayed by the same guy who does all the minor characters.

edited 24th Jan '12 6:20:07 PM by PDown

Yeah, it's meant to be the same guy going in and out for that entire song.

I didn't like the movie, but I'll probably take a look at this. I like the finale song, so I hope it's good.

The guy who plays Orin usually plays her because all the small solo parts in the stage version of Meek Shall Inherit are supposed to be played by him. I always got the feeling that the show was trying to convey the past was starting to catch up and haunt Seymour—which is why I think he says "Do I know you?" when he first meets Bernstein (In which case why isn't Mushnik's actor given the same treatment? I dunno. It could also just have been something the original cast did for practical reasons or something.)

On a different note, I feel like maybe the death scenes of Orin and Mushnik were a little different before the Test Screenings. But this is just what I think; at this point, only Frank Oz or other members of the production team can confirm what was in the Original Cut of the film. Hopefully The Intended Cut will rectify the film to something really close to the Original Cut :) I look forward to it!