11 Classic 80s Movies With Awesome Animated TV Shows You Forgot Existed

11. Little Shop

Little Shop may have technically been based on Roger Corman’s original 1960 B-movie outing The Little Shop of Horrors, but this unusual animated outing was also undoubtedly inspired by the success of the 1986 remake starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin.

The horror elements of the original were removed for this family friendly outing - including, quite literally, the word “horrors” from the title. The premise still centered on flower shop worker Seymour Krelborn though, now a 13-year-old boy rather than a young man, and his relationship with a talking Venus flytrap called Audrey Junior who retained the ability to talk and hypnotise but no longer ate people on screen.

Together, they embarked on a series of imaginatively outlandish adventures that usually included several musical numbers, mostly led by Junior, and often ended with a moral message. Seymour’s love interest, Audrey, was still present, while the popular character of crazed dentist Orin Scrivello, played by Martin in the 1986 movie, was transposed to that of brace-wearing local bully and main antagonist Paine Driller.

Memorable for Audrey Junior’s use of early ‘90s hip-hop dialect and occasionally surreal raps, notable storylines included one in which Seymour purchased a new pair of shoes that gave him the ability to fly and another in which the world’s oldest tree led an army of used paper products in a revolt against humanity.

Developed by Mark Edward Edens, who went on to write for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-Men animated series, Little Shop ran for just one series and 13 episodes before disappearing without a trace.