Little Shop of Horrors (film)/WMG

Audrey II was, at one point, in the possession of the E.T.s
It's an alien plant. The ET's must have been carrying it until they found out just how bad it was. They jettisoned it into deep space, but its survival instincts kicked in and it steered itself towards Earth. Which leads to...

Audrey II is part of a species of plants which includes the Krynoids and the Triffids.
They all have either a solipsistic survival mechanism or a really massive hate-on for humanity, so...

Audrey II was testing Seymour.
Audrey II was testing Seymour to see if he wouldn't give into temptations, and gave him several chances, seeing the greed in humanity, Audrey II figured that Humans Are Bastards, so, Audrey II decided to take over the world because Seymour gave into temptation.
 * Nah, Audrey II wanted to take over the world anyway. Seymour was just the patsy it needed.

The Focus Group Ending was a hallucination of Seymour while he was being digested.
Sorta self explanatory if you've seen the original ending.

Audrey II could manipulate pheromones to a degree.
Why was everyone so obsessed with the plant in the first place? At the beginning, when they placed the plant on the windowsill, a man came up and was fascinated with it right away. It was played so unrealistically that it seemed to be just a joke, but... Scientists find new species all the time, but people rarely ever react as the people in Little Shop did. Then, later in the play, Audrey sings a song about the voices in her head telling her to visit Seymour. This could obviously be her concerned over Seymour's weird behavior, but still...
 * How often does one see such a strange and interesting plant such as that growing in a skid row florists shop. Anyway, the original movie was alot less realistic having the plant sit on a table in the middle of the shop.
 * Further evidence to support this theory:
 * In the original movie, the plant could hypnotize people into going out and finding it food. In the "Little Shop" cartoon, it has the power to temporarily "plant" the "seeds" of ideas into people's heads. So that's two incarnations against one where the plant is explicitly able to control minds.
 * The entire "Suppertime" song is heard by Seymour only--because it's all in his head.
 * In the dialogue prior to "Feed Me (Git It)", Audrey II says, "You think this is all coincidence, baby? The sudden success around here? Your adoption papers?" (It then sings about being able to get Seymour anything--including whatever girl he wants--and Seymour believes every word.)
 * In the film, Seymour tells Audrey, "I never meant to hurt anybody. It's just that, somehow, [Audrey II] makes things happen--terrible things."

A film-hating wizard created a curse to switch the endings of Little Shop of Horrors and A Troll in Central Park.
Of course this doesn't really make A Troll in Central Park any better, as the true ending involves Stanley almost losing to Gnorga after an awesome Villain Song, only for Gnorga to be electrocuted to death by a stray wire, and Stanley and Rosie go and live in the suburbs somewhere.
 * No, no, because to do that the one who dies would have to be the one who covers New York in plant life. The true ending, then, would involve Gnorga almost losing to Stanley after an awesome Villain Song, only for Stanley to be electrocuted to death by a stray wire.

A Troll in Central Park is a Future Imperfect retelling of the events of Little Shop of Horrors.
The characters themselves were wiped out by the plantocalypse, and when the Audrey IIs left the Earth they only took their pods, leaving immobile vines. A Troll in Central Park is an attempt by the survivors to explain what happened, years later, although they have somewhat forgotten of the violence of the plantocalypse.

Every version of the story is a retelling of the story from a different point of view.

 * The Roger Corman film is from Mushnik's point of view. The plant name is wrong because frankly Mushnik doesn't care what the name of the plant is so long as it makes him money. The reason that large numbers of the murders are not in any of the other versions, and the murder of the dentist is not the same as in any of the other versions is that when Mushnik saw Seymour chopping up the body, his imagination went wild. Mushnik was smart enough to determine that the murders might have something to do with the plant, hence the fact that that appears, but he didn't tell Seymour because he didn't want to sound insane. The ending is Mushnik's idea of poetic justice towards Seymour-Audrey doesn't die because she did nothing wrong and Mushnik was constructing his idea of the ending based entirely on what he thought was right. The girls are rich and white because Mushnik sees them as irritating nuisances, and he sees rich white people as irritating nuisances, so voila! Mushnik doesn't die because he imagined everything before he died, although as Seymour tricked Mushnik into the plant, he incorporated the dialogue into his imagination, blaming himself (hence the scene with the robber). This version is not a musical because Mushnik is not a very cheerful person, and cheer is the quality that makes one imagine music.
 * This also explains the emphasis given to the customers (like Mrs. Shiva, who is mentioned by Mushnik but doesn't appear in the musical versions): Mr. Mushnik knows them better than the others because he really cares about getting their money.
 * The stage version is from Seymour's point of view. Seymour has the most complete view of the story, hence this version being the most complete version in terms of the story's chronology. This is the only version of the story where Mushnik doesn't see Seymour feeding Orin to the plant, because Seymour didn't see Mushnik watching. Seymour blames himself, which is why this is the version of the story where he is perhaps the most immoral. Factual accounts of things in the story come most accurately from this version of the story.
 * The unreleased but shot version of the 1986 film, abandoned due to test audience reaction, is from Audrey II's point of view. Audrey II cuts straight to the point, so he removed several of the songs that weren't necesarry. The reason that it uses "Some Fun Now" instead of "Ya Never Know" is that they are both success songs- "Ya Never Know" from the stage version is about Seymour's financial success due to the plant, and "Some Fun Now" from the film is about Audrey II's success at getting blood out of Seymour. "Now (It's Just The Gas)" was removed because Audrey II wasn't actually there, so all he knows is what Seymour told him-the dentist asphyxiated. "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" is added because Audrey II enjoys bragging about how awesome he is. "Don't Feed The Plants" is extended because for Audrey II, this is what the story has been leading up to-this is the real story, Audrey II's takeover of the world.
 * The reason Audrey II calls Audrey on the phone (instead of her just showing up at the shop) is that he likes to think that he cleverly planned to have her come and lured her in so he could kill her. Alternatively, if you believe the theory that he can control minds/plant thoughts into people's heads, the telephone merely symbolizes the mental connection he sets up with Audrey to get her to come to the shop--from his perspective, it's like dialing a phone.
 * The released version of the 1986 film is from Audrey's point of view. The reason that it is most similar to Audrey II's point of view is that after being assimilated into the plant, Audrey underwent Stockholm Syndrome and assumed most of its perceptions of the previous events. However, there is some major Fridge Horror here-the reason that this film has a happy ending where Seymour and Audrey move Somewhere That's Green is because Audrey undergoes major cognitive dissonance and convinces herself that being eaten by a plant really is the same thing.
 * Addendum: The YouTube video "REALLY Little Shop of Horrors" is the story from Orin's point of view. Psychologically, Orin's sadistic outlook on the world is likely related to the way he sees the world in abridged farcé. This would explain why he's played by Steve Martin in the film. The similarities to Audrey II's viewpoint and Audrey's viewpoint is similarly because of his assimilation into the plant.
 * The "Little Shop" cartoon series is from the point of view of Crystal, Chiffon and Ronette. The reason Seymour, Audrey and Orin are all roughly thirteen is that, for the three girls, time stopped after fifth grade ("We went to school until the fifth grade, then we split"), which they presumably attended on Skid Row. As evidenced by the dialogue in the musical, they don't really know Orin's name, so they call him Paine Driller to make fun of him and imagine him with huge goofy braces. They imagine Audrey as a well-adjusted girl with a loving dad (Mushnik) because that's what they want for her, and they imagine themselves as singing flowers and add plenty of musical numbers because, for them, it's all about the singing. Lots of emphasis is given to Seymour's crush on Audrey because the girls are Audrey/Seymour shippers. The plant keeps his personality because the girls, as the play's Greek Chorus, know all about him--but he's harmless and cartoony, because to them, he is. He can't eat them because they're partly outside the story.

The doo-wop singers of the musical movie are witches.
Compare to that play about the Scottish King... Three women... prophesising... acknowledged but more or less ignored by most of the characters...

The Doo-wop singers are agents of Audrey II
Come on - they sing "Suppertime", then they pop straight into "The Meek Shall Inherit" They sing about how much Skid Row sucks and they support all of the things Seymour has because of Audrey II. They were there the day Seymour got Audrey II, and at the end they pass by as Seymour enters the house with Audrey - how do we know they didn't place that plant in the garden?
 * Holy...I was just going on here to add this. They totally orchestrated the entire thing. Further evidence:
 * They (very cheerfully) sing the title song--"Shing-a-ling, what a creepy thing to be happening", etc.--as if they know what's going to happen before it happens.
 * They're the ones who get all the agents in "The Meek Shall Inherit" to tempt Seymour with their contracts. (They even show them where Seymour is.)
 * As already stated, they support everything that Seymour gains because of Audrey II. They're determined to set Audrey up with Seymour, and it's because of her that he murders Orin and, later, decides not to kill the plant.
 * When they're questioned at the beginning of the show, their backgrounds go unexplained, and they just hang around on the streets for no particular reason.
 * The girls and Audrey II are typically played and voiced as Sassy Black Women and a Scary Black Man, respectively. Plus, in the "Little Shop" cartoon, the girls are, not human beings, but singing plants. Makes you wonder if they're somehow members of Audrey II's species...
 * Alternatively...

The Urchins are dead, and are telling the story of how they died.
Every scene containing the Urchins can be classified as either "narration" or "actually doing something". In the latter scenes, they are actually there, but in the former, the Urchins are ghosts leading the audience through their last months alive. "Where did the girls go? Where are they now? ...How can the magic disappear and be gone, Like Crystal, Ronette and Chiffon?"
 * In the title song, they're dead.
 * In Skid Row, they're probably alive, at least most of the time.
 * In Da Doo, they're definitely dead.
 * In Ya Never Know, they're almost certainly alive. Somewhere That's Green, too, and at least the beginning of Dentist!. They might be dead during the main bulk of Dentist!, when they're backing Orin up, though.
 * In Feed Me, they're dead. Coda, too.
 * In the scene that starts Act Two, they're alive, but in Suddenly Seymour, they're probably dead. In Suppertime, they're dead too.
 * They're alive during most of The Meek Shall Inherit (this would suggest that they're evil, but remember, they don't know that the plant's carnivorous at this point) but they're dead in the last verse.
 * They're alive in the scene prior to Don't Feed The Plants, but when the song actually starts, they're dead.
 * If you want further evidence for that, there's the deleted song that was supposed to be in the film's end credits, "Crystal, Ronette and Chiffon":

Audrey II was sold to Seymour by Count D
Seymour got Audrey II from a Chinese guy who sometimes sold him weird and exotic cuttings. Considering who Count D is it makes sense that he would know what Audrey II was and when it was going to appear. Also considering how Anvilicious D is he would probably still sell it to Seymour even though he knew it would try to eat the entire human race.

Seymour wasn't being Too Dumb to Live in the original Broadway ending
He's a Death Seeker. After all, he's already lost Audrey. Hell, in the original 86 ending, he's about to commit suicide when he finds out about the clippings about to be taken. When he can't kill Audrey II, he figures he's got nothing else to do and gets eaten, figuring he probably can't kill it period and doesn't deserve to live, anyway ("You're a monster, and so am I!"). At least this way he gets to be with Audrey.

Audrey II is no more intelligent than a simple animal and can not talk. His dialogue symbolizes the desires of the people around him.
Okay, let's go through his appearances.
 * Appearance One:He's just an immobile plant, until he senses blood and opens his pod. Hell, this is barely more intelligent than some real plants.
 * Appearance Two:Lunging at moving objects. This is a fairly simple action for a predator to perform.
 * Appearance Three:This is his first talking appearance, but his demands that Seymour feed him could merely be Seymour thinking about how he should feed him. His descriptions of the success Seymour will get could simply be Seymour thinking about the success he could get, and his suggestion of murdering Orin could just be Seymour devising the plan and deciding to do it.
 * Appearance Four:Here he's telling Seymour that he needs to kill Mushnik to avoid arrest, but this could easily be Seymour's own stress over this fact.
 * Appearance Five:Here he whines at Seymour to feed him, but Seymour doesn't want to. This is just Seymour's angst over the fact that he needs to feed it if he wants his success to continue.
 * Appearance Six:Ditto to Appearance Five, and then Seymour leaves and Audrey comes in. Audrey tries to feed the plant not because it's screaming at her and she's sleepy, but because she wanders into the shop and notices how dry and unhealthy the plant looks. The plant attacks her not as part of a plan, but merely because it's really hungry and she got too close to it.
 * Appearance Seven:In the stage version, the plant doesn't really do anything here. It does gloat at Seymour, but this could just be Seymour's horror at realizing what he's done. In the film, it gloats at Seymour and attacks him, so same thing.

Seymour and Audrey are unknowingly incestuous.
Seymour never knew his parents, and everything overwhelmingly points out that this was abandonment, not death. Further, Audrey's "daddy left early, mama was poor". The narrative that this forms in my head is that Audrey's father begrudgingly stayed around after his first child, but when Audrey's mother got pregnant again, he left, because he didn't want to take care of two children. Audrey's mother didn't either, so when her second child, a son, was born, she dropped him at the doorstep of the Skid Row Home For Boys. That child was Seymour. This adds yet another layer of irony to their tragic relationship.

Adding to the above theory, Mushnik is their dad.
Seymour really is his son, but he doesn't know. He knows that Audrey is his daughter, which is why he's so protective of her, but she has no idea. (The cartoon series explicitly has Audrey as Mushnik's daughter.)

The "Little Shop" cartoon series takes place after the film's Focus Group Ending, and the characters are Spin Offspring.
The "Seymour Krelborn" of the cartoon is Seymour Krelborn Jr., the son of Seymour and Audrey. The cartoon's Audrey Jr. is one of the tiny plants that Audrey II unleashed after he. (Not being sure where he came from, Audrey Jr. just made something up about being a prehistoric plant and lying dormant for centuries.) "Mushnik" is some relative of the original Mushnik, who inherited the shop. Since the shop is still famous as the former home of the Audrey II, this Mushnik named his daughter Audrey in honor of the plant.

Seymour and Audrey never wanted to talk to their son about their terrible experiences with the Audrey II--he's a little young to know about them, after all. As a result, he doesn't realize that it's a bad idea to befriend strange talking plants. Fortunately, Audrey Jr. is friendly--or is he?

Seymour snapped after "The Meek Shall Inherit".
Audrey was right to be worried about Seymour's sanity. The plant's constant demands for food, combined with the stress from all the public attention and the guilt of the two murders, drove him crazy. He convinced himself that, since Audrey really loved him and really wanted to be somewhere green, she must want to die and be fed to the plant so she could be with him forever and bring him everything he'd ever wanted. When she entered the shop, he killed her and fed her to the plant. Then, in a My God, What Have I Done? moment of clarity, he attacked the plant and got himself eaten, too.

The scene where he pulls out "a gun...and bullets, and rat poison, and a machete" really sounds as if he's planning a dementedly impractical double suicide for him and Audrey.

Audrey II was created by an invading race of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens to clear Earth of its existing population.
Once all the humans are gone, they'll move right in. Incidentally, the Audrey II might not be the only such plant out there--they've probably dropped similar creatures all over the galaxy. Please, whatever they offer you, don't feed the plants!

Audrey II isn't as much of a Magnificent Bastard as he would have you believe.
Actually, he just wanted food. Full-scale plant-based invasion of the earth was not on his immediate agenda, but since it worked out that way, he just went with it and acted as though it was his plan all along.

The entire musical takes place in the afterlife.

 * Skid Row is Hell/purgatory. As in C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce, Hell and Purgatory are the same place (the "Gray Town"); whether you eventually leave or not determines which one it is for you. Notice how everyone wants to leave, but no one does, except by getting eaten. Also notice the sense of self-hatred and guilt all around; Audrey and Seymour both feel that they "deserve" their unhappiness.
 * Audrey II is the devil, obviously! By trying to make Seymour believe that the pleasures of Heaven are attainable in Hell, he seeks to keep him from ever leaving. Paradoxically, Audrey II is also the gates of Hell; in other words, the only way out is through his jaws. Orin leaves after "dying" (he's finished his quota of suffering), Audrey makes a Heroic Sacrifice and goes to Heaven ("Somewhere That's Green"), and Seymour gets out by finally fighting the plant. (At some point he yells "Open up! Open up!", indicating that the plant is closing its jaws. The plant doesn't want to let him out of Hell so easily, you see.)
 * Mushnik is Seymour's personal vision of what God is like. Notice the lyrics of Seymour's solo in Skid Row. ("I keep asking God what I'm for/And he tells me, "Gee, I'm not sure/Sweep that floor, kid!" ... / He took me in, gave me shelter, a bed..." He doesn't separate Mushnik from God in his mind at all.) Bitter because of his bad luck and difficult life, Seymour views God, not as a loving father, but as a distant, controlling, abusive figure who only acknowledges him as a son when things begin to work out. When God confronts him about the wrong he's done and attempts to have him punished, Seymour crosses the Moral Event Horizon by deciding to commit deicide, egged on by the plant. The catch is that this isn't God--how could God be in Hell?--but a false impression created by Audrey II to further separate Seymour from the real God. Mushnik is stereotypically Jewish because Seymour himself is Jewish (with a name like "Seymour Krelborn", how could he not be?), and he strongly associates God with the quirks of the religion he was raised in.

In the movie, Audrey II wasn't actually trying to eat Audrey.
We saw from the Mr. Mushnik incident that it can devour a person in seconds. It had longer than that with her, I'm sure, but she's just pinned and struggling in its jaws when Seymour comes in. The plant is laughing as he carries her out of there, which doesn't suggest it's just been thwarted. Also, Audrey isn't even hurt, just tattered and really, really shaken up. That wasn't a genuine attempt on her life; it was a warning to Seymour of what Audrey II COULD do if he persisted in being uncooperative.

If Audrey II had not come to earth, the characters would not have become rich, but the story would be happy in all other regards.
Orin died from events unrelated to Audrey II. Yes, he was wearing his "special gas mask" specifically because Seymour was there, but odds are that he would have found an excuse to wear it at some point even if Seymour was not there. Thus, if Audrey II had not appeared, Orin would have died by himself, no-one else accountable. Seymour and Audrey were already building chemistry before the scene in which Audrey II is introduced, (and they seem to be good friends, so they wouldn't have lost contact when the shop closed down), so it's far from out of the question that they could wind up together in such a scenario. And, unless Audrey II used some kind of magic to dazzle everyone and make them forget that Seymour was uneducated, Seymour was apparently personable and intelligent enough to get himself a variety of business deals. Without the asset that is Audrey II, he wouldn't have had such success, but he could surely put his skills to use, if removed from the shop, to gain some kind of better station in life by himself.