The Best Movie Ever, and How it was Ruined

[audreyii]

The best movie ever made...was horribly mismarketed.

A musical with Rick Moranis and Steve Martin. You wouldn't expect any philosophical elements. Nor would you expect anything that wasn't intended to be humorous. Well, the humor was practically ONLY to lighten the mood. When the nice, likable, relatable guy is turned into a homicidal maniac by the end of the story, there needs to be as much mood-lightening as there can be without affecting the plot. Thanks to a stupid test audience, the ending was changed to be "happier". Luckily, the original ending is still on YouTube. Go see this with the original ending for the greatest film ever made.

I have a scene-by-scene analysis of the would-be BEST FILM EVER on my blog. There are spoilers, though.

www.exclusive-cheese.deviantart.com/journal/30367958/

And here, from one of the most intelligent bloggers ever, is why the ending shouldn't have been changed.

mondomusicals.blogspot.com/2008/09/little-shop-mary-poppins-of-80s.html

[Don Quixote]

If I may contribute:

The Original Ending. It's in Black and White, but man, this would've been such a better movie if they had kept this.

[audreyii]

That's an understatement. The original ending, IMHO, was what everything else in the film was building up to. There are lots of double entendres and set-ups that are ruined in the theatrical version of the film.

[GProopdog]

Another thing that killed it was the release date, right in the middle of the over preforming The Golden Child and Star Trek IV.

[audreyii]

I'm not quite sure what that has to do with the ending. We're not talking about killing it financially. We're speaking of how changing the ending ruined everything the film stood for.

[Chuck]

This is why I usually never like the movie adaptation of a musical. (Chicago was an exception, as was Fosse's Cabaret.)

[GProopdog]

Apr 3, 2010 0:04:46 GMT -5 @audreyii said:

I'm not quite sure what that has to do with the ending. We're not talking about killing it financially. We're speaking of how changing the ending ruined everything the film stood for.

it was another contributing factor to the movie underperforming.

A crappy "happy ending" pasted onto it, and people were being drawn away by other movies to boot.

[Don Quixote]

I'm still trying to figure out why The Golden Child did so well.

But yeah, this movie had virtually everything going against it. Crappy marketing, insane studio meddling, poor release timing...

I just wish they had let Oz make his damn movie.

[GProopdog]

Apr 3, 2010 11:43:21 GMT -5 Don Quixote said:

I'm still trying to figure out why The Golden Child did so well.

But yeah, this movie had virtually everything going against it. Crappy marketing, insane studio meddling, poor release timing...

I just wish they had let Oz make his damn movie.

It really is a shame, as Little Shop, IMO, is one of the top 5 funniest, greatest musicals of all time.

[audreyii]

I just can't believe a Director's Cut release has yet to materialize. I guess it might've if Oz FOUGHT for it, instead of saying that he believes in "giving the audience what they want". Does he really think the audience wanted a movie with no purpose? I believe in the theory that the ending of a film is truly its core, and everything else must be written to build up to it. With that in mind, Little Shop of Horrors stops around Act 3, and instead we get a Disney film.

[Don Quixote]

Well, Frank is probably still a little pissed at the events surrounding the movie's release.

I think there were some legal issues too. I seem to recall hearing about an older DVD that had the actual ending on it, but it was pulled for one reason or another.

[audreyii]

The version on the DVD was black and white. David Geffen had a color print, and wanted to use it. So he had it recalled so he could put the proper version of the ending on DVD...but it never happened.

Life sucks.