What A Cartoon Movie! - Little Shop of Horrors

Just heard my 6 year old say to my 4 year old “I’m mr Mushnik & you’re Seymour” lol I think it was the right choice to show them this movie!!!!

YancySr

Aw! I think you two were a bit harsh on the theatrical ending. I do agree, the original ending (director's cut) IS better. As a huge musical theater fan, I think some of the worst movie musical adaptations are when they try too hard to make what works in a theater, work on stage. Some shouldn't be made at all, such as Dear Evan Hansen where the terrible thing he does works in the sanctity of a theater does NOT translate well into a movie. As a kid I definitely would’ve been a bit more scared of the original version, so I understand why they were forced to change it for family viewing. Rather, I wonder if they could have done something similar Clue, where multiple endings were made. But perhaps instead of a randomization, they could be played consecutively – like in the home media releases of Clue – and the viewer got to choose which ending they wanted to believe. To your other conversation about the Broadway cast playing the characters in movies, I’ve heard good argument on times when this should be done (don’t confuse this is a defense for Hepburn over Andrews). Let’s keep picking on the Dear Evan Hansen movie because it deserves it. Part of the problem of Ben Platt playing the role in the film, other than that he just looked ridiculous, is that he was too used to playing the character big for the back of the house. On screen his emotions and singing were just too much energy.

I remember watching this movie as a kid and loving it. I was excited to see my friends watching it on Discord and jumped in around halfway through. I had no idea that a director's cut even exist, so you can imagine my slow dawning horror that things wouldn't end nearly as happy as I remembered as a child. It felt like one of those creepy pastas where a guy plays Mario and Bowser's dead at the end of some shit

Understandable. I find it even more bizarre that it’s something that exists even more than those kids cartoons in the 80s based on rated R movies like Robocop and Rambo.

Phillip

I was a huge fan of SCTV and Rick Moranis. I even have the Bob and Doug McKenzie action figures. Yes, they exist. When my kids were young, they thought he was a huge star because of Ghostbusters, the Shrunk movies. They love this movie too. I'm not sure how they would react to the original ending. I'm not sure how I would at the time. Rick Moranis was one of my favorite actors in the 80s. I wanted to see him get the girl in the end or the beer truck full of Elsinore.

Kevin Nash

The risk being I was scared of the murder aspect

YancySr

I took the risk and showed my 6 year old twins. They absolutely loved it and have watched it 3 times in 48 hours. A couple of cute Talking Simpsons network listeners I think lol.

YancySr

Movie is fine for kids.

Frank Grimes

Another interesting casting note you guys might have missed: One of the doo-wop singers during the Total Eclipse of the Sun song (in fact, the one that Rick Moranis leans against to join in) is Danny John-Jules, who would later be cast as the Cat on Red Dwarf. I believe hes also does backup singing in Skid Row. I was very surprised when I was rewatching Little Shop and saw him!

Zachary McClure

That Jake Gyllenhaal movie you're talking about is called guy Ritchie's the covenant. It's set in 2018. It's guy Ritchie's most non guy Ritchie film. And both leads, Jake and Dar are acting their asses off.

Frank Grimes

Honestly, there's not much worth mentioning other than "it exists." We wouldn't waste a WAC month on it; it's based on the Corman movie and has very little to do with the musical—which is why I thought it was pretty dull as a kid. - Bob

Talking Simpsons

I sat in on some Smokey Robinson sessions when I was four but I didn't want to brag. - Bob

Talking Simpsons

Bought the Blu-ray to show my kids. Could be poor parenting, or I could be cultivating some great taste! We shall see

YancySr

I will add regarding the ending, the song's rhythm is identical to "Gimmie Some Lovin" from from the Spencer Davis group. I assume there is some Geffen magic going on behind the scenes, because it isn't different in a 'legally distinct' sense.

Sean Riley

Hahahaha

Nathanial Miller

Mid 80s to early 90s

Phillip

When were the California Raisins ads on the air?

Bradford A Barker

It just feels like there’s been an increasing amount of “I was never exposed to this as a kid” talk on the podcast lately, just served as an example of the extremely different upbringings you and Bob had compared with those of us growing up on the coasts where a lot of these references and jokes that you guys didn’t get as kids were not obscure at all to kids living in California.

Phillip

I know the theme for the month was “live action cartoon” so the What a Cartoon episode was Mr. Show. But it was a missed opportunity to cover or even bring up at all during the movie episode the existence of the Little Shop cartoon that was on Fox Kids in the 90s.

Phillip

I saw a limited stage performance of Little Shop in San Francisco at like a dinner theater style place, but I remember they were careful not to advertise it as Little Shop because of some legal issue where they weren't able to secure the rights to perform it officially or something. It was a lot of fun and it was cool to see a live Audrey II puppet. It was also the first time I found out there was a tragic ending to it since I had only seen the film up until that point.

Jonathon

Ficus trees are also rubber trees so at least i can feel safe having several around the house in case I fall

Theo Flood

I am very white and was raised on motown to the point that I thought it was Peak Digestible White Kid Music

Theo Flood

There's a variety of houseplant fig tree they've dubbed "ficus audrey". I worked in a plant store for years and kept avoiding looking up if that moniker was from this, couldn't tell if id be happier one way or the other. Anyway eventually I learned the real names- ficus benghalensis, and it's a BANYAN TREE the beautiful rooty sacred trees of areas of South Asia! I bought one the second I learned that, have had it for two years and it is robust and lovely. I still haven't looked up the Audrey link. I like little shop, just some part of me doesn't like a bunch of apartment houseplant ppl thinking this beautiful historically important plant is "teehee Audrey" Esp bc they probably wouldntt even know the show.

Theo Flood

Somewhere that’s green has been stuck in my head all day

Bryce Lavender

Lmao my parents listened to motown since before i was born, it was the music i heard all the time well before i was five from my father,my mother and my grandparents . i think that would be true of many of your black or chicano listeners lol. Im LITERALLY shocked neither of you had the same experience, im not dunking on you .

Nathanial Miller

I watched this for the first time a couple of years back, and had two big takeaways from it: 1) Rick Moranis is so fucking DREAMY in this role, my god. By no means before hand did I think he was an ugly guy, but during this movie I kind of fell in love with him and couldn't believe I hadn't seen this side of him before. I'm a sucker for a good singer. 2) I watched the director's cut, not KNOWING it was the director's cut, so when the two leads of the movie fucking DIED and the world pretty much ends, I couldn't believe that the producers were okay with this. Obviously, as you guys discuss on the episode, they were hesitant about it but went ahead because of the play, and then backed down from it after a test screening. I did not have any of that context for it, and was just astounded at the gall of it, and loved it so much. Really happy y'all decided to do this for the podcast because I rewatched it and loved it just as much, and am going to have to get the blu-ray now.

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

for the highschool productions of the show, from when i was in high school in the early 2000s, the teacher wanted me to be the voice of the plant because i can do funny voices, but i am not a singer so i declined. when i saw the show later the actor (who did a really nice job) replaced the swearing with "tough toenails" or "no spit!", which if i were in his place i honestly wouldnt be able to resist saying the bad words

Sean Riley

Did you hear the part of the story where we are very very young in 1988 when it’s airing on HBO? “Look at this dumb five-year old. I bet he’s never even heard track one of A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector!” - Henry

Talking Simpsons

This was your first exposure to motown? Jesus you two are white lol.

Nathanial Miller