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Review #113: Little Shop Of Horrors (1986)
Seymour Krelborn, a local florist in Mr Mushnik's failing flower business, comes into possession of a strange an unearthly looking little plant that resembles a Venus Fly Trap.
Trying his best to keep the little plant alive, as its oddness seems to draw customers into the shop, he realises a disturbing truth... the plant needs fresh blood to survive.
But as the plant (now dubbed Audrey II, named after Seymour's love interest) gets bigger and bigger, Seymour realises another disturbing truth... it needs more and more blood in each sitting, and then Audrey II finally shows its real intentions and begins to actually talk.
What an absolutely spell binding movie... I'm not a fan of musicals at all, but Little Shop is an immensly well made movie.
It's extremely comicbook in design, from the humour to the horror and to the set design as well.
There's lashings of visual styling and even more lashings of comic styling in the extremely well written musical and dance numbers.
The acting is also top notch.
Comedic and acting genius Rick Moranis as Seymour is brilliantly geeky and nerdy, eventually doing what he can to save the world and the woman he loves. Moranis also shows his worth as a singer.
Ellen Greene is almost unrecognisable as Audrey, Seymours love interest. She's absolutely fantastic, especially her voice.
Steve Martin makes a brilliant turn as Dentist Orin Scrivello, Audrey's sadistic boyfriend and side-villain to the movie.
Support from Vincent Gardenia and cameos from Bill Murray, James Belushi, Christopher Guest and John Candy keep things rolling along nicely.
What really makes its mark on me though, every single time I watch... is the puppetry of Audrey II.
Utilising animatronics and trickery with various camera speeds, the filmmakers have managed to create a genuine character out of something that's made of rubber and wires.
I have yet to see any movie with any kind of animatronics, or even any modern CGI movie that has such a reality about it.
Voiced by the enigmatic Levi Stubbs (R&B Lead Vocalist with Four Tops), Audrey II is by far the best overall 'creature in a feature' I have ever seen.
It's with Audrey II that most of the action comes into play too, and it's very well put together in choreography and puppetry... if a little lacking in actual quantity.
All in all, wonderfully written in story, screenplay and musical numbers... brilliantly choreographed in dance and action... the finest puppetry I have ever seen and is simply just a load of fun to watch.
Undoubtedly a classic.
My rating 100%
Seymour Krelborn, a local florist in Mr Mushnik's failing flower business, comes into possession of a strange an unearthly looking little plant that resembles a Venus Fly Trap.
Trying his best to keep the little plant alive, as its oddness seems to draw customers into the shop, he realises a disturbing truth... the plant needs fresh blood to survive.
But as the plant (now dubbed Audrey II, named after Seymour's love interest) gets bigger and bigger, Seymour realises another disturbing truth... it needs more and more blood in each sitting, and then Audrey II finally shows its real intentions and begins to actually talk.
What an absolutely spell binding movie... I'm not a fan of musicals at all, but Little Shop is an immensly well made movie.
It's extremely comicbook in design, from the humour to the horror and to the set design as well.
There's lashings of visual styling and even more lashings of comic styling in the extremely well written musical and dance numbers.
The acting is also top notch.
Comedic and acting genius Rick Moranis as Seymour is brilliantly geeky and nerdy, eventually doing what he can to save the world and the woman he loves. Moranis also shows his worth as a singer.
Ellen Greene is almost unrecognisable as Audrey, Seymours love interest. She's absolutely fantastic, especially her voice.
Steve Martin makes a brilliant turn as Dentist Orin Scrivello, Audrey's sadistic boyfriend and side-villain to the movie.
Support from Vincent Gardenia and cameos from Bill Murray, James Belushi, Christopher Guest and John Candy keep things rolling along nicely.
What really makes its mark on me though, every single time I watch... is the puppetry of Audrey II.
Utilising animatronics and trickery with various camera speeds, the filmmakers have managed to create a genuine character out of something that's made of rubber and wires.
I have yet to see any movie with any kind of animatronics, or even any modern CGI movie that has such a reality about it.
Voiced by the enigmatic Levi Stubbs (R&B Lead Vocalist with Four Tops), Audrey II is by far the best overall 'creature in a feature' I have ever seen.
It's with Audrey II that most of the action comes into play too, and it's very well put together in choreography and puppetry... if a little lacking in actual quantity.
All in all, wonderfully written in story, screenplay and musical numbers... brilliantly choreographed in dance and action... the finest puppetry I have ever seen and is simply just a load of fun to watch.
Undoubtedly a classic.
My rating 100%
