Little Shop (found Fox Kids animated series based on horror comedy film; 1991)

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Little Shop title card, featuring Junior.

Status: Found

Date found: 02 Nov 2023

Found by: Various people

Little Shop was a French-American animated television series that aired on Fox and La Cinq (a now-defunct French television network) in 1991, inspired by the original 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors and the 1982 off-broadway musical (and the 1986 musical film adaptation of the same name).[1]

Premise

The show follows Seymour Krelborn, an adolescent, a self-proclaimed nerd who works in a little flower shop owned by Mr. Mushnik. His daughter, Audrey, is the love of Seymour's life, yet she doesn't seem to notice or even understand his affection. Also, there's a bully named Paine Driller, who constantly targets Seymour in his bullying.

Seymour has a pet flytrap named Junior. Junior was once a 200 million-year-old seed until Seymour found him in a junkyard. Once he was cared for by Seymour, he sprouted into a Venus Flytrap that raps and talks in hip-hop dialect. Unlike the films and the musical, where Junior (there named "Audrey II") is an antagonist who forces Seymour to commit murders to satisfy his hunger for human blood, the TV series depicts Junior as a protagonist who sides with Seymour.

The horror elements that were in the previous musical and films were cut in favour of a more child-friendly tone.[2]

Staff

While the credit for the concept for this adaptation is given to Ellen Levy and Mark Edward Edens, the show was created by Jean Chalopin (best known as the founder of DIC Entertainment and the co-creator of Inspector Gadget) and was produced by animator Tom Tataranowicz (who first did the animation for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe) and producer Haim Saban (who would later go on to create Mighty Morphin Power Rangers). The music for the series was written by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy.

The series stars Jana Lexxa as Seymour Krelborn, Jennie Kwan as Audrey Mushnik, Michael Rawl as Mr. Mushnik, Terry McGee as Audrey Junior, and Mark Ryan-Martin as Paine Driller. Lisa Paulette is credited as Seymour's singing voice.

Roger Corman, the writer and director of the original 1960 film, is also credited as a creative consultant for the series.

Availability

Little Shop first ran for only 13 half-hour episodes, from September 7th to November 30th, 1991. It was rerun until September 5th, 1992. It was later on the Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy) as part of Cartoon Quest and The Animation Station block until 1997.

In January 2015, only three episodes of the show (the pilot episode, titled "Bad Seed," the fourth episode "Unfair Science," and the sixth episode "I Loathe a Parade") were known to be publicly available due to VHS recordings that were subsequently uploaded to YouTube.

On September 19th, 2015, YouTuber Joey Bridgehouse uploaded a VHS quality rip of the German dub of episode nine, "It's a Wonderful Leaf" (re-titled "Ein Schlimmer Traum," translated into English as "A Bad Dream"). The premise is a typical spoof of Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. Nearly a week afterward, the YouTube channel VHS Land of Videos uploaded an incomplete VHS quality rip of "Air Junior," including some of the original commercial breaks. An Italian video can be found here.

More recently, in late December 2016, three additional episodes (the second episode "Real Men Aren't Made Of Quiche," the third episode "Back to the Fuchsia" and the fifth episode "Stage Blight") were uploaded by The Little Shop Archive YouTube account. This was closely followed on January 1st, 2017, by the entirety of "Air Junior" and the eighth episode "Untitled Halloween Story." The remaining episodes were uploaded on January 2nd, 2017. The only episode not uploaded was the English version of "It's a Wonderful Leaf," as the DVD copy given to The Little Shop Archive YouTube account was damaged. A mirror upload of the German dub of this episode was uploaded in its place.

On October 6, 2023, The Little Shop Archive announced on Twitter that they would be releasing the English version of "It's a Wonderful Leaf" on November 2, 2023, the 32 anniversary of its original airing,[3] releasing the opening scene as an unlisted video soon after. (Though in subsequent YouTube comments, the channel stated that the English recording of the song "Yogurt" is incomplete.[4]) On October 9, 2023, the song "I'm Just a Doormat" was posted on the channel.

Episode List

# Episode Title Status Found by
1 Bad Seed Found 1 2 3, Alt, Alt 2 Unknown, Wumo, Scuttleman1127, The Little Shop Archive
2 Real Men Aren't Made Of Quiche Found The Little Shop Archive
3 Back to the Fuchsia Found The Little Shop Archive
4 Unfair Science Found Comixbear, The Little Shop Archive
5 Stage Blight Found Wumo, The Little Shop Archive
6 I Loathe a Parade Found Betamax King, The Little Shop Archive
7 Air Junior Found The Little Shop Archive
8 Untitled Halloween Story Found The Little Shop Archive
9 It's a Wonderful Leaf Found The Little Shop Archive
10 Tooth or Consequences Found The Little Shop Archive
11 Walk Like a Nerd Found The Little Shop Archive
12 Pulp Fiction Found The Little Shop Archive
13 Married to the Mush Found The Little Shop Archive

Gallery

Promo for the show showing "Untitled Halloween Story."

See Also

Little Shop of Horrors

Fox Kids

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Bloody-disgusting article on the show. Retrieved 01 Dec '18
  2. ↑ Retro Ranting article on the show. Retrieved 01 Dec '18
  3. ↑ "November 2. 10:30 AM EST. 32 years later. Link to YouTube premiere below." - The Little Shop Archive (@littleshoparc). X. Posted October 6, 2023. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  4. ↑ YouTube comment by The Little Shop Archive referring to missing audio in the song "Yogurt."
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