Warners gives Little Shop of Horrors a terrific 4K upgrade for its 40th anniversaryby Jim Bray One of the best Hollywood musicals of recent decades is back with a brand-new suit of clothes and sporting a lovely new look and sound that really does this off-beat masterpiece justice. As you probably learned from the title of this piece, it's Frank Oz' Little Shop of Horrors, the film version of the off-Broadway hit written by the great Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, the writing team also responsible for the music of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and others. I'm a fan of Ashman/Menken and am of the opinion that, if Ashman hadn't succumbed to AIDS in the early 1990's, they could very well have reached the heights of such composing teams as Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe. That's heady company! Alas, Ashman was cut down before finishing his work on Disney's Aladdin and so the rest is not history. He is. But Little Shop is the musical that put them on the map and from its stage-based roots it became a fantastic movie thanks to Ashman (lyrics and screenplay), Menken (music) and, of course, Frank Oz, who created a movie that's lovely to look at, funny, and has such fantastic craftsmanship in it that I believe it should be used in cinema courses as an example. The story follows Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis), a nerdy orphan who lives in the basement of and works for a florist shop owner (Vincent Gardenia) and secretly loves co-worker Audrey (Ellen Greene). She secretly loves him, too, but feels unworthy of his affection. Besides, she has a fella, a professional man – dentist Orin Scrivello (a scenery-chewing Steve Martin), though he's very abusive. Mushnik's store isn't doing well until Seymour introduces a special exotic plant he discovered. That plant, however (which Seymour names Audrey II, for obvious reasons), is an alien invader who seduces Seymour with visions of success – visions that come true once Seymour sells his soul. It's a fantastic story, silly in many ways, but between the outstanding performances, Oz' magnificent direction, outstanding sets, and Ashman and Menken's great music and songs what results is a movie whose whole really does exceed its many parts. I love it! This new 4K disc really does it justice, too. The UHD picture, with Dolby Vision/HDR10 is a huge upgrade from the Blu-ray, which I found a tad grainy back in the day. Now, that grain has been smoothed out – or whatever it is they do – but not at the expense of sharpness, colour and detail. Fine details are appropriately fine, whether it be in the sets, clothing, costumes, whatever. It all looks really great! The audio, which is particularly important in a musical, is presented in a couple of choices. There's a new, remastered Dolby Atmos track that I really liked, or you can choose the original theatrical audio in DTS-HD MA. Its also good, but doesn't have the presence of the newly remastered one. On the Director's Cut (more about that later), you only get the Dolby Atmos track. Extras abound, too. You get the original stuff from the old Blu-ray release, but there's also a couple of new ones that are well worth your time. The new retrospective (To Feed or Not to Feed) is a wonderful look back, featuring mostly Frank Oz and Ellen Greene in new interviews. There's also ″Mean Green Mother″ which is a really interesting look at how they created Audrey II in its various generations. You also get a look at why the director's cut (which is also included on this disc, of course) had to be changed after filming was completed. It turns out that preview audiences – despite loving the film overall – hated the original ending so much that they had to go back and redo the climax. I'm glad they did. I'm familiar with the original ending and while I like it (it has been restored for this disc, too) I also prefer the new, happier ever after, ending. But you don't have to agree with me, since you get both versions here. Also on tap is an old audio commentary track with Frank Oz. It's extremely interesting as he tells you about how they managed to put the film together despite its difficulties. One of those difficulties with getting Audrey II to sing and talk. As it turns out, they had to shoot at 16 frames per second (instead of the normal 24 fps) to make the mouth movements believable. Fair enough – where it gets really fascinating is learning that Rick Moranis (of whom I've been a fan since his SCTV days) had to act slowly in order for the shots to work. That must have been really tough! The result, however, is flawless. I'd have never guessed that's how they pulled it off. Heck, I've been watching this movie for decades and never had a clue. Other extras include a nearly half hour ″A Story of Little Shop of Horrors″ and there are some outtakes/deleted scenes with or without commentary. I've been a fan of Frank Oz' Little Shop of Horrors since I first saw it (I can't remember if that was VHS or DVD – but it's been a while!). It's a far more entertaining film than Roger Corman's original (which was pretty silly for a supposed horror film, though it did feature a very young Jack Nicholson in the part played in the musical by Bill Murray), and it introduced me to Ashman and Menken, on whose music I've been hooked ever since (not that there's a lot of it, since Ashman passed away so young). It's also nice to see Rick Moranis in a starring role. Hollywood really wasted his talents and even though this is yet another nerdy part for him, he pulls it off beautifully. Ellen Greene is also very good as Audrey I and besides Martin there's a steady stream of guess stars doing cameos – people such as Christopher Guest and Jim Belushi. Warner Brothers has truly done justice to this wonderful Hollywood musical. The new 4K disc looks and sounds great and the extras (even the older ones) are well worth your time If you love this movie and don't yet own it (and, of course, have a 4K disc player and compatible home theatre components), this is definitely the one to purchase. Copyright 2026 Jim Bray |
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