Steve Martin has done everything. Wild and crazy guy comedy, prestige dramas, banjo albums, a novel or two. But ask a certain kind of movie fan about their favorite Steve Martin performance and you'll get one answer more often than you'd expect: the sadistic dentist in Little Shop of Horrors. And now the 1986 horror-comedy musical is finally, finally getting its first-ever 4K Ultra HD release, per AOL, with a release date officially set.

If you've never seen it, this is the movie version of the off-Broadway smash, the one directed by Frank Oz, the one where Rick Moranis plays a schlubby flower shop employee who discovers his weird little plant has a taste for human blood and an appetite that only grows. Ellen Greene reprised her stage role as Audrey and basically owns every scene she's in, and the doo-wop Greek chorus of street urchins narrating the whole thing is still one of the great musical-comedy devices ever put on film.

And then there's Steve Martin. He shows up for maybe ten minutes total as Orin Scrivello, DDS, a leather-jacketed dentist who gets his kicks from pain, and he devours the screen so completely that people have been quoting "Dentist!" for forty years. It's a masterclass in committing to the bit. Bill Murray has a cameo too, one of the strangest and funniest of his career, and I'll say no more about it.

The big question with any Little Shop home video release is always the ending. If you know, you know. The original director's cut ending, the one that cost millions and tested so badly it got replaced, has circulated for years and even showed up on a previous Blu-ray as an extra. Whether this 4K edition carries it over hasn't been fully spelled out yet, but a release like this is the natural home for it. Warner Bros. has generally done right by the film on physical media, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

What I can tell you is the film has earned this. The puppet work on Audrey II is still staggering, practical effects done at a scale nobody attempts anymore, and the color palette of Skid Row, all neon and grime, is exactly what 4K was made for. This is a movie that looks better the more resolution you throw at it.

No firm street date details beyond what's in the source report, but it's coming, and it's been a long wait. First The Monster Squad, now this. Physical media collectors are eating well this year.

If you need me I'll be preordering and rewatching the "Mesothelioma" audition scene on a loop until it arrives. Some habits never die.