Little Shop of Horrors (film)/YMMV


 * Adaptation Displacement: Fans of this movie are not aware of the Roger Corman movie it was based on, and are disappointed when they rent or download the original, and find out which one they're watching. To an arguably lesser extent, it has displaced the stage musical.
 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Seymour Krelbourn. Is his letting Orin suffocate from laughing gas revenge, or is it due to him being in shock? Is him letting Mushnik being eaten by the plant because Seymour forced him to walk into the plant, or was Mushnik's backing up into the plant's mouth an action on his own accord?
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: Just shy of twenty-five years after the film's release, Frank Oz revealed in an interview in late October 2011 that a Blu-Ray version of Little Shop of Horrors (which would contain a Blu-Ray and DVD version) was in the works. Contained in this BD-DVD would be the original version of the film with the original ending intact and presumably colorized in some way (whether it be through the Ted Turner method or it be the color ending Producer David Geffen supposedly owns). This version of the film, tentatively titled Little Shop of Horrors: The Intended Cut by the MPAA (implying more than just the ending will be changed to fit Oz's original vision), is scheduled for release in late October of 2012. And it will be awesome.
 * Broken Base: The Focus Group Ending has practically split the fandom into two separate ones.
 * Ear Worm: The musical contains among the most memorable songs inspired by 1950's gospel and Motown movement in Broadway history, and nearly all of them are catchy.
 * Executive Meddling: The original ending was faithful to the stage musical, with the classic Greek Tragedy arc: Seymour kills his enemy, kills his father-figure, kills his love, then kills himself, and then gigantic Audrey II's go on a Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever rampage and take over the world. After preview audiences lambasted this ending for being "too disturbing", Howard Ashman wrote a happier one.
 * Karma Houdini: Seymour killed two people (he let Orin die despite making it clear that he could have helped him and he backed Mushnik into the plant) and considered going even further (he signed the contracts in "The Meek Shall Inherit", implicitly agreeing to kill others in the future. This is made clearer in the play where the song is extended, but the actions remain the same in the film.) but he gets away with absolutely no punishment whatsoever-Audrey likely never even learns that he is a murderer. Audrey II is a Karma Houdini in the original ending as well, but that is treated as a Downer Ending rather than a Happily Ever After, so that would be a case of They Plotted a Perfectly Good Waste.
 * Your Mileage May Vary: It can be argued that Seymour pretty much makes up for the world being less one sadistic dentist (which WASN'T his fault, despite intentions to the contrary) and one greedy, albeit somewhat kind, shopkeep (which may not have been entirely on purpose whatever the plant said).
 * Orin's death was an accident, but backing Mushnik into the plant was definitely intentional. It even says so in the screenplay posted on Mondo Musicals. I mean, why else does Seymour stall with his instructions on how to take care of the plant? Also, Seymour uses the money that he made off of feeding the plant to escape to the suburbs with the love of his life, which is ironically what was promised to him in the first place.
 * And you can argue that Seymour had enough time to save Orin, considering he has that "No, for her" line just as Orin dies. Your Mileage May Vary indeed.
 * Large Ham: Levi Stubbs as Audrey II and Steve Martin as Orin the dentist.
 * Well, everyone becomes this at some point during the outtakes. See for yourself.
 * Mood Whiplash: When you see the original ending, it can be hard for some to believe they were going to brand this movie as a comedy- The ending seems so much darker than the rest of the film that it's almost ridiculous. After Audrey dies in his arms, a distraught and pessimistic Seymour dashes out of the shop and is about to commit suicide off of the roof of Audrey's apartment complex when Patrick Martin finds him and tells him about taking cuttings from Audrey II. Poor Seymour then confronts the plant, but is instead trapped inside the shop as he tries to get away, helplessly tries to stop the plant with various non-working weapons, and has his goddamn pants pulled down before getting slowly and gruesomely swallowed whole by the plant all to the tune of an upbeat villain song. The movie then ends on a not-so-happy note with various shots of humongous Audrey II plants attacking the earth.
 * One-Scene Wonder: Bill Murray as the masochistic patient.
 * Retroactive Recognition: Two members of the film's Greek Chorus went on to play the main female characters on Martin. Then one went on to play Damon Wayans' wife on My Wife and Kids, and the other went on to play young Chris Rock's mom on Everybody Hates Chris. Also, one of them was in Zack and Miri Make a Porno as Delaney's Jerkass wife.
 * The Muses from Hercules (the Disney version, for which Alan Menken also did the music) are remarkably similar to the chorus from this movie.
 * Tastes Like Diabetes: The ending.
 * Some may get this feeling whenever Audrey opens her mouth due the extremely high pitch of her voice
 * Unfortunate Implications: Audrey II, voiced by a black man, is essentially a pair of giant lips. According to a fansite long abandoned and deleted, Levi Stubbs responded to these comments by saying "Yes, the plant has nigger lips, but that doesn't make it a nigger!"
 * Particularly funny in that the lips on Audrey II were actually modeled off of those of ELLEN GREENE-a white woman, actually the one playing Audrey I.
 * Visual Effects of Awesome: The Audrey II puppet is possibly one of the most complex animatronics of its kind, and still holds up to this day. Frank Oz wanted to direct this film for a reason!
 * What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: Through the haze of the years, it's easy to think this movie as a little less grim than it actually is - you remember the songs and the jokes, and the fact that the ending is happy. But parents who haven't watched the movie recently should beware:
 * If your child is afraid of the dentist, you may want to skip that part.
 * The scene where Seymour chops up Orin and feeds him to the plant, which laughs with its mouth full of Orin...
 * We actually see the plant swallow Mr. Mushnik whole and later attempt to do so with Audrey.
 * This applies even moreso to the play, where the protagonist actually murders multiple people, all of the main characters die at the end, and the world ends. The play probably wouldn't get so much of this trope if not for the movie.
 * I'd actually say that the film is even more family unfriendly than the play, because Seymour murders Mushnik in order to get the girl and the dream life, and despite finding out the plant is evil and killing it, still gets the girl and the dream life using the money he made off of murdering Mushnik. While both the play and the film are violent, the play at least shows repercussions for Seymour's actions, while the film strongly implies that murder is okay if you're likable and are doing it for love.