In the original ending of both the Alan Menken/Howard Ashman musical (based on the 1960 Roger Corman film), and the 1986 Frank Oz film based on the musical, Seymour and Audrey certainly did not live happily ever after “somewhere that’s green”.
In the original, downbeat ending (which was changed in the film due to negative audience reception in test screenings), after Audrey is attacked by the Audrey II, Seymour rescues her, and confesses feeding Orin Scrivello and Mr. Mushnik to the ravenous plant. In her last, dying breath, Audrey requests that Seymour feed her to the plant as well, and earn the accolades that he deserves.
After fulfilling Audrey’s dying wish, Seymour attempts to commit suicide by jumping from the roof of the building, only to be stopped by Patrick Martin, who offers to mass-produce and market the Audrey II from clippings he had secretly harvested, also issuing the warning that Seymour’s consent to the deal isn’t 100% necessary, as plants are considered “public domain”. Realizing this to be the plant’s plan all along, Seymour confronts Audrey II, attempting to destroy it, only to be swallowed whole.
Martin goes on to sell the plants in mass quantities to the public, who unknowingly buy up the little stinkers en masse, allowing the overgrown, delinquent dandelions to conquer the world.
The 2012 Blu-ray Director’s Cut release of the film includes this ending, fully restored to the same level of quality as the rest of the film (as opposed to the recalled DVD release that included the raw, unpolished footage without sound, and in black and white, due to the color print of the footage being lost in a studio fire). With the discovery of color negatives of the sequence, along with notes from Frank Oz, the film can finally be seen as it was originally intended.
A sample clip from the restored ending can be seen here (the colors are absolutely gorgeous). Downbeat or not, I don’t know how this isn’t still a highly-enjoyable sequence. Test audiences in the 80’s apparently had no taste.
The recalled, black and white footage of the complete ending can still be viewed on Youtube, with some sound restored:
pixelskylines
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