Little Shop of Horror
The Horror is Not Seeing This Movie
Little Shop of Horror, the movie that made me fall in love with musicals. Before watching this movie I thought of musicals as plays on film, with long drawn out singing segments you struggled not to nap during. In my eyes musicals weren’t even on the same level as regular movies with all of its high tech effects, fast paced plots and trendy soundtracks. The movie Little Shop of Horrors changed my narrow minded way of thinking into dare I say, a movie musical believer.
Interestingly enough the movie “started as a 1960 Roger Corman horror comedy, filmed in two days; it then inspired a lavish 1982 Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Finally in 1986, Little Shop of Horrors (1960) graduated into a multimillion-dollar, all-star film musical (Rotten)”. Although the movie has childlike qualities and innocence, and very animated characters – I would rate it a PG-13 movie because of various content.
So, ironically it was just as I had perceived it to be, a play on film, only there were no long drawn out singing scenes that allowed you to nap for five or more minutes. The songs where upbeat and very danceable, soulful, and yeah they did throw in 1 or 2 slow prolonged songs, but even they had their moments.
Let’s take a moment to introduce ourselves to the movie’s main characters: Semour Krelborn played by Rick Moranis, once an orphan, he was taken in by the shop owner Mushnik and has now grown into a timid, geeky man who is lives in the basement of the florist. The florist shop owner is Mr. Mushnik played by Vincent Gardenia, who is a money hungry, unsympathetic man who treats Seymour as a slave. The florist arranger and (as the older folks would say) “loose looking” Audrey played by Ellen Greene who dresses like a “slut” and suffers from very low self-esteem, but who Semour loves deeply. Little does Seymour know, Audrey privately dreams about the two of the together as man and wife with two kids
Little Shop of Horror, the movie that made me fall in love with musicals. Before watching this movie I thought of musicals as plays on film, with long drawn out singing segments you struggled not to nap during. In my eyes musicals weren’t even on the same level as regular movies with all of its high tech effects, fast paced plots and trendy soundtracks. The movie Little Shop of Horrors changed my narrow minded way of thinking into dare I say, a movie musical believer.
Interestingly enough the movie “started as a 1960 Roger Corman horror comedy, filmed in two days; it then inspired a lavish 1982 Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Finally in 1986, Little Shop of Horrors (1960) graduated into a multimillion-dollar, all-star film musical (Rotten)”. Although the movie has childlike qualities and innocence, and very animated characters – I would rate it a PG-13 movie because of various content.
So, ironically it was just as I had perceived it to be, a play on film, only there were no long drawn out singing scenes that allowed you to nap for five or more minutes. The songs where upbeat and very danceable, soulful, and yeah they did throw in 1 or 2 slow prolonged songs, but even they had their moments.
Let’s take a moment to introduce ourselves to the movie’s main characters: Semour Krelborn played by Rick Moranis, once an orphan, he was taken in by the shop owner Mushnik and has now grown into a timid, geeky man who is lives in the basement of the florist. The florist shop owner is Mr. Mushnik played by Vincent Gardenia, who is a money hungry, unsympathetic man who treats Seymour as a slave. The florist arranger and (as the older folks would say) “loose looking” Audrey played by Ellen Greene who dresses like a “slut” and suffers from very low self-esteem, but who Semour loves deeply. Little does Seymour know, Audrey privately dreams about the two of the together as man and wife with two kids
Cited: Berardinelli, James. Reelviews.net. Review: Little Shop of Horrors (1986). 9 June 2011. < www.reelviews.net/movies/l/little_shop.html> Jensen, Marc. “"Feed Me!": Power Struggles and the Portrayal of Race in Little Shop of Horrors”. Cinema Journal; Fall2008, Vol. 48 Issue 1, p51-67, 17p Academic Search Premier. _Little Shop of Horror_. Dir. Frank Oz. Warner Brothers Pictures, 1986. Streaming Netflix Maslin, Janet. “The Screen: ‘Little Shop of Horrors’.”New York Times 19 Dec 1986. P5 Academic Search Premier. Rottentomatoes.com. Little Shop of Horrors (1986). Flixster. 9 June 2011. <www.rottentomatoes.com/.../1012515-little_shop_of_horrors/>.