There were some casualties before sunflower got the starring role...
PvZ Song Audition Failures is a series by Rfm VS Games
. It consists of Hilarious Outtakes of the Plants vs. Zombies credits theme before Sunflower got the part. It started with Squash's audition, released on December 12, 2011. As of 2014, no new episodes have been released.
View the playlist with all of the episodes here.
"Action!" Tropes:
- An Arm and a Leg: Yeti Zombie gets his arm cut off by a Jedi Peashooter in his audition, referencing The Empire Strikes Back.
- An Ice Person: True to the source game, Ice-shroom; he freezes over the entire audition set.
- Attention Whore: Yeti Zombie skates into Chomper's audition as if to say "Look at me!" It ends horribly.
- Battle Discretion Shot: Bonk Choy punching out the zombie crowd is never seen; it's blocked by his Imagine Spot.
- Call-Back: In Balloon Zombie's audition, the Nyan Cattail (from Cattail's audition) returns and ruins his audition by shooting a needle at his balloon.
- Camera Abuse:
- Happens in The Stinger of Starfruit's audition when Jack-In-The-Box Zombie's jack-in-the-box explodes.
- Ice-shroom's powers causes the screen to break.
- The screen breaks once again when an Imp is thrown at the credits of Imp's audition.
- Chainsaw Good: Pumpkin uses a chainsaw to kill the director after he fails his audition.
- Christmas Episode: Winter Melon's audition, complete with Christmas decorations and music.
- Circling Birdies: These appear above Imp after he gets knocked out cold from being thrown to the stage in his audition.
- Creative Closing Credits: The credits get additional scenes starting with Starfruit's audition.
- Digging to China: More like stretching all the way down to China. Tangle Kelp pulls himself all the way to the other side of the world in his audition.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Grave Buster eats the director alive just because he didn't like his voice.
- Pumpkin uses a chainsaw on the director when he fails his audition.
- Downer Ending: Every character fails their audition as part of an Every Episode Ending.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first two auditions lack credits.
- Eaten Alive:
- Happens to Yeti Zombie when he ruins Chomper's audition, with just his foot being left over.
- Grave Buster eats the director for cutting him from the auditions.
- "Everybody Dies" Ending: Everyone except Cob Cannon (and maybe Crazy Dave) die as a result of Cob Cannon's cob creating a massive explosion in his audition.
- Gasshole: Digger Zombie for his burping, and Garlic for his stench, which drives the crowd of zombies away.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Crazy Dave and Dr. Zomboss are shown together in the pool in Cattail's audition.
- Halloween Episode: Pumpkin's audition, featuring a Halloween setting and a spooky ending.
- High-Voltage Death: Gargantuar ends up getting electrocuted by smashing the stage equipment.
- Hilarious Outtakes: The entire point of the series.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Kernel-pult tries to catapult butter to a Yeti Zombie family on the roof, only for it to land on the stage instead (and on himself, during the "FAIL" screen).
- Imagine Spot:
- Imitater has one of a date with Sunflower during his audition.
- Bonk Choy has one in the form of a Training Montage.
- Magnetism Manipulation: Magnet Shroom's and Gold Magnet's powers end up attracting things to them (stage equipment and coins, respectively).
- Mushroom Samba: Hypno-Shroom experiences a bizarre space-based one in his audition as he is smoking.
- Off with His Head!:
- In his audition, Football Zombie gets a football thrown to his head, which knocks it off.
- Several crowd zombies lose their heads in Wall-nut's and Gold Magnet's auditions.
- Oh, Crap!: Peashooter's reaction before he gets squashed in his audition; doubles as a Precision F-Strike
- Once an Episode: Three gags happen each episode: The director saying "action", the director shouting "CUT, CUT CUT, CUT!" after the character fails the audition, and the character with a tear on their face with a sad trombone playing immediately afterwards. Starting from Ice-shroom's audition, a fourth gag is added: a red "FAIL" sign appears over the character with an explosion sound effect.
- Some episodes avert this, like Cherry Bomb's audition, where he explodes, so we don't get to hear the director or see Cherry Bomb at the end.
- Precision F-Strike: Occurs in Peashooter's audition:"One, two, oh shit-"
- "Psycho" Strings: Plays in the Halloween Episode when Pumpkin murders the director.
- Retraux: Imitater's audition is in the style of an old black-and-white film.
- Shark Fin of Doom: A shark appears in Lily Pad's audition, but it actually turns out to be Crazy Dave.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Gatling Pea, who has war flashbacks that cause him to fail his audition.
- Shout-Out:
- A Boo appears in Scaredy-Shroom's audition while the Ghost House theme from Super Mario World plays, and the sad trombone music is replaced with the Super Mario game over theme.
- The moon in Hypno-Shroom's Mushroom Samba resembles Mac Tonight.
- Nyan Cat gets referenced thrice: once in Hypno-Shroom's audition during a visual gag, once in Cattail's audition, which is based on the meme, and once in Balloon Zombie's audition, where the Nyan Cattail returns.
- The Jaws theme plays when what seems to be a shark appears in Lily Pad's audition.
- Yeti Zombie's audition is one big reference to The Empire Strikes Back.
- In her audition, Marigold sings "Money" by Pink Floyd.
- Sun Shroom sings "Here Comes the Sun" in his audition.
- Cactus's audition features the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
- In his audition, Ducky Tube Zombie sings "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" as sung by Donald Duck.
- Bonk Choy's Imagine Spot is portrayed as a training montage a la Rocky.
- Another Star Wars occurs in Pianist Zombie's auditions, where he plays piano to the tune of the Cantina Band theme (with the band even present).
- Sleepyhead: Doom Shroom, who falls asleep during his audition.
- Squashed Flat: Peashooter gets squashed by a Gargantuar in his audition.
- Strictly Formula: The plot of each episode is as follows: character auditions for the credits theme, things don't go as intended, and the character doesn't get the part.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Happens to the characters that explode in the game, such as Cherry Bomb or Doom Shroom.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Jack-In-The-Box Zombie's mannerisms and playing of his jack-in-the-box at his audition get him sent to a mental hospital.
- Synthetic Voice Actor: Provides most of the voices that aren't originally in the game, from the director, or a character singing someone else's song.
- Toilet Humour:
- Digger Zombie burps when trying to start the countdown, which makes him fail the audition.
- Newspaper Zombie is flushing his brain down a toilet during his audition.
- Training Montage: Bonk Choy's Imagine Spot, as a Shout-Out to Rocky.
- Unexplained Recovery: After Gargantuar's High-Voltage Death, he comes back for the credits.
"CUT, CUT CUT, CUT!" (sad trombone}
