u/Tiguy789

A few years ago, I had an idea for a Plants vs. Zombies musical. I never ended up finishing it because life and other projects got in the way. But since I don't have as much stuff going on, and I've had time to improve my skills as a writer, I think I'm in a good place to revive the project and hopefully write it in its entirety

I still like the overall plot I originally wrote, though I'll definitely go through and adjust it. The show has two acts with a time jump in between. The first act shows the events before and during the zombie takeover of Neighborville, with a pretty dark and serious tone. The second act follows the events of PvZ1 and leans more into the wackiness and absurdity PvZ is known for. This is my take on a PvZ story and, in my opinion, the series should have leaned into more serious territory as opposed to the overly silly bs we ended up with. I've found that, for me at least, PvZ works best when it's not afraid to get dark

I've added the shows outline below, and if anyone has suggestions on how to improve or add onto this idea, I'd be happy to hear them. Keep in mind I originally came up with this around 5 or 6 years ago and for some reason I didn't feel the need to actually write the plot points down, so this outline is just from memory. If it feels a bit rough, that's probably why

OUTLINE:
Act 1:

• Dave leads a tour group and introduces them to the town of Neighborville. He highlights the town's interesting residents and culture during the opening number, but is hesitant to tell the group what he does outside of being a tour guide
• After the tour, Dave returns to his home, where we learn that he's a struggling scientist who feels ashamed to present his work in botany. He's trying to create a serum that could make intelligent/sentient plants. We also meet his niece, Patrice, her friend, Nate, and Dave's friend from college, Edgar. Edgar is quite different from Dave, being more outgoing and willing to take risks
• We see Edgar in his lab with his assistant, whom he has nicknamed Tugboat, preparing to test a brain augmentation machine. Edgar, yearning to be the most intelligent and successful scientist in the world, tests it on himself, which ends up killing him. However, not only does the brain augmentation work, but it grows his brain so much that he becomes "too smart to die," transforming him into Dr. Zomboss. Despite this, he still desires more brainpower and eats Tugboat's brain, turning Tugboat into the first browncoat zombie
• Zomboss sends Tugboat to go find more brains, which begins the takeover of Neighborville. One zombie becomes two, then four, then many. People, understandably, panic and hastily scramble to come up with solutions to the emerging apocalypse. Some flee, while others, like Nate, opt for a guns-blazing war approach
• Dave and Patrice realize that in order to defeat the zombies, they'll need an seemingly infinite supply of resources, as they'll eventually run out of guns and bombs. And the only thing they could really produce infinitely, and promptly, is plants. So, Dave and Patrice begin to work on Dave's serum that could make plants sentient. Nate, however, thinks this idea is ridiculous, crazy even, and leaves them to work on it
• We follow the progress of the serum's development. Progress is slow, but there is potential. We see signs that plants might be able to feel and think. Unfortunately, the time it's taking to develop the serum is coming at the cost of many lives
• Dave and Patrice believe they have created the perfect formula, and are about to test it when Nate bursts into their makeshift lab in a sweat. A horde of zombies is nearby, and he's desperate to fend them off. Nate, in a blind panic, grabs the serum and throws it at the zombies, destroying any hope of creating a plant army. In a fit of betrayal and anger, Patrice shoves him into a horde of zombies, resulting in his death. With no more resources and no time left to develop more of the serum, Patrice accepts her fate and joins the horde
• Everyone in Neighborville is now dead except for Dave. After witnessing the deaths of everyone he knows and loves, including his own niece, Dave completely breaks down, vowing to somehow end the apocalypse once and for all
• Patrice's corpse reanimates as a zombie, but before she can attack Dave, a green ball flies out and hits her, scaring her off. Dave then sees that his experiment was a success after all

Act 2:

• We open several years in the future. Dave has become Crazy Dave and is in his signature outfit. He introduces himself to his "neighbor" (the audience), explaining the situation and what he's been doing about it. He's created many more plants that he uses to defend himself from the zombies, and the zombies have become more intelligent with time. The two sides have basically become their own societies. Despite the circumstances, Dave acts like all is hunky-dory and denies his own misery
• Nightfall. We see zombie Nate with a brigade of Football Zombies as they prepare to invade Crazy Dave's residence. His anger as an army commander is palpable. As a means to hype up the brigade, they sing the All-Star fight song as they charge into battle. At the end of the number, a Doom-shroom appears and blows them all up
• We transition to the zombies' main base, where we see Zomboss instructing a dolphin rider that he must, well, ride a dolphin. However, this dolphin rider has had an outspoken hatred for dolphins and now needs to bargain with the dolphin and convince it to work with him. He sings a ballad about how he was wrong and asks the dolphin to forgive him, which it does. He triumphantly rides the dolphin into battle, but is later killed
• Nightfall again. A thick fog rolls in, and Dave enters holding a Plantern. He sings a number about how the fog is mysterious and sometimes overwhelming, and how people can easily get lost. After this number, it begins to rain and thunder, and Dave hopes that we can survive the night. After exiting, the stage flashes occasionally, showing stills of plants and zombies fighting in the night
• The zombies are now invading the roof. Dave pulls out the big guns and still manages to fend off the onslaught, but finds himself making slips about what happened before the takeover
• Zomboss enacts his Hail Mary and arrives in the Zombot. The climactic battle ensues, and Zomboss finally gets to have his own musical number. He is eventually defeated, and Dave prepares to stab him in the brain with a flagpole before Zomboss begs for mercy. Zomboss concedes, accepting defeat and stating that Dave wins and there's no more eating brains for him and his army. We then end with, what else, Zombies on Your Lawn. Dave walks out with a taco, eats it, and exclaims about how delicious it was

A few years ago, I had an idea for a Plants vs. Zombies musical. I never ended up finishing it because life and other projects got in the way. But since I don't have as much stuff going on, and I've had time to improve my skills as a writer, I think I'm in a good place to revive the project and hopefully write it in its entirety

I still like the overall plot I originally wrote, though I'll definitely go through and adjust it. The show has two acts with a time jump in between. The first act shows the events before and during the zombie takeover of Neighborville, with a pretty dark and serious tone. The second act follows the events of PvZ1 and leans more into the wackiness and absurdity PvZ is known for. This is my take on a PvZ story and, in my opinion, the series should have leaned into more serious territory as opposed to the overly silly bs we ended up with. I've found that, for me at least, PvZ works best when it's not afraid to get dark

I've added the shows outline below, and if anyone has suggestions on how to improve or add onto this idea, I'd be happy to hear them. Keep in mind I originally came up with this around 5 or 6 years ago and for some reason I didn't feel the need to actually write the plot points down, so this outline is just from memory. If it feels a bit rough, that's probably why

OUTLINE:
Act 1:

• Dave leads a tour group and introduces them to the town of Neighborville. He highlights the town's interesting residents and culture during the opening number, but is hesitant to tell the group what he does outside of being a tour guide
• After the tour, Dave returns to his home, where we learn that he's a struggling scientist who feels ashamed to present his work in botany. He's trying to create a serum that could make intelligent/sentient plants. We also meet his niece, Patrice, her friend, Nate, and Dave's friend from college, Edgar. Edgar is quite different from Dave, being more outgoing and willing to take risks
• We see Edgar in his lab with his assistant, whom he has nicknamed Tugboat, preparing to test a brain augmentation machine. Edgar, yearning to be the most intelligent and successful scientist in the world, tests it on himself, which ends up killing him. However, not only does the brain augmentation work, but it grows his brain so much that he becomes "too smart to die," transforming him into Dr. Zomboss. Despite this, he still desires more brainpower and eats Tugboat's brain, turning Tugboat into the first browncoat zombie
• Zomboss sends Tugboat to go find more brains, which begins the takeover of Neighborville. One zombie becomes two, then four, then many. People, understandably, panic and hastily scramble to come up with solutions to the emerging apocalypse. Some flee, while others, like Nate, opt for a guns-blazing war approach
• Dave and Patrice realize that in order to defeat the zombies, they'll need an seemingly infinite supply of resources, as they'll eventually run out of guns and bombs. And the only thing they could really produce infinitely, and promptly, is plants. So, Dave and Patrice begin to work on Dave's serum that could make plants sentient. Nate, however, thinks this idea is ridiculous, crazy even, and leaves them to work on it
• We follow the progress of the serum's development. Progress is slow, but there is potential. We see signs that plants might be able to feel and think. Unfortunately, the time it's taking to develop the serum is coming at the cost of many lives
• Dave and Patrice believe they have created the perfect formula, and are about to test it when Nate bursts into their makeshift lab in a sweat. A horde of zombies is nearby, and he's desperate to fend them off. Nate, in a blind panic, grabs the serum and throws it at the zombies, destroying any hope of creating a plant army. In a fit of betrayal and anger, Patrice shoves him into a horde of zombies, resulting in his death. With no more resources and no time left to develop more of the serum, Patrice accepts her fate and joins the horde
• Everyone in Neighborville is now dead except for Dave. After witnessing the deaths of everyone he knows and loves, including his own niece, Dave completely breaks down, vowing to somehow end the apocalypse once and for all
• Patrice's corpse reanimates as a zombie, but before she can attack Dave, a green ball flies out and hits her, scaring her off. Dave then sees that his experiment was a success after all

Act 2:

• We open several years in the future. Dave has become Crazy Dave and is in his signature outfit. He introduces himself to his "neighbor" (the audience), explaining the situation and what he's been doing about it. He's created many more plants that he uses to defend himself from the zombies, and the zombies have become more intelligent with time. The two sides have basically become their own societies. Despite the circumstances, Dave acts like all is hunky-dory and denies his own misery
• Nightfall. We see zombie Nate with a brigade of Football Zombies as they prepare to invade Crazy Dave's residence. His anger as an army commander is palpable. As a means to hype up the brigade, they sing the All-Star fight song as they charge into battle. At the end of the number, a Doom-shroom appears and blows them all up
• We transition to the zombies' main base, where we see Zomboss instructing a dolphin rider that he must, well, ride a dolphin. However, this dolphin rider has had an outspoken hatred for dolphins and now needs to bargain with the dolphin and convince it to work with him. He sings a ballad about how he was wrong and asks the dolphin to forgive him, which it does. He triumphantly rides the dolphin into battle, but is later killed
• Nightfall again. A thick fog rolls in, and Dave enters holding a Plantern. He sings a number about how the fog is mysterious and sometimes overwhelming, and how people can easily get lost. After this number, it begins to rain and thunder, and Dave hopes that we can survive the night. After exiting, the stage flashes occasionally, showing stills of plants and zombies fighting in the night
• The zombies are now invading the roof. Dave pulls out the big guns and still manages to fend off the onslaught, but finds himself making slips about what happened before the takeover
• Zomboss enacts his Hail Mary and arrives in the Zombot. The climactic battle ensues, and Zomboss finally gets to have his own musical number. He is eventually defeated, and Dave prepares to stab him in the brain with a flagpole before Zomboss begs for mercy. Zomboss concedes, accepting defeat and stating that Dave wins and there's no more eating brains for him and his army. We then end with, what else, Zombies on Your Lawn. Dave walks out with a taco, eats it, and exclaims about how delicious it was

A few years ago, I had an idea for a Plants vs. Zombies musical. I never ended up finishing it because life and other projects got in the way. But since I don't have as much stuff going on, and I've had time to improve my skills as a writer, I think I'm in a good place to revive the project and hopefully write it in its entirety

I still like the overall plot I originally wrote, though I'll definitely go through and adjust it. The show has two acts with a time jump in between. The first act shows the events before and during the zombie takeover of Neighborville, with a pretty dark and serious tone. The second act follows the events of PvZ1 and leans more into the wackiness and absurdity PvZ is known for. This is my take on a PvZ story and, in my opinion, the series should have leaned into more serious territory as opposed to the overly silly bs we ended up with. I've found that, for me at least, PvZ works best when it's not afraid to get dark

I've added the shows outline below, and if anyone has suggestions on how to improve or add onto this idea, I'd be happy to hear them. Keep in mind I originally came up with this around 5 or 6 years ago and for some reason I didn't feel the need to actually write the plot points down, so this outline is just from memory. If it feels a bit rough, that's probably why

OUTLINE:
Act 1:

• Dave leads a tour group and introduces them to the town of Neighborville. He highlights the town's interesting residents and culture during the opening number, but is hesitant to tell the group what he does outside of being a tour guide
• After the tour, Dave returns to his home, where we learn that he's a struggling scientist who feels ashamed to present his work in botany. He's trying to create a serum that could make intelligent/sentient plants. We also meet his niece, Patrice, her friend, Nate, and Dave's friend from college, Edgar. Edgar is quite different from Dave, being more outgoing and willing to take risks
• We see Edgar in his lab with his assistant, whom he has nicknamed Tugboat, preparing to test a brain augmentation machine. Edgar, yearning to be the most intelligent and successful scientist in the world, tests it on himself, which ends up killing him. However, not only does the brain augmentation work, but it grows his brain so much that he becomes "too smart to die," transforming him into Dr. Zomboss. Despite this, he still desires more brainpower and eats Tugboat's brain, turning Tugboat into the first browncoat zombie
• Zomboss sends Tugboat to go find more brains, which begins the takeover of Neighborville. One zombie becomes two, then four, then many. People, understandably, panic and hastily scramble to come up with solutions to the emerging apocalypse. Some flee, while others, like Nate, opt for a guns-blazing war approach
• Dave and Patrice realize that in order to defeat the zombies, they'll need an seemingly infinite supply of resources, as they'll eventually run out of guns and bombs. And the only thing they could really produce infinitely, and promptly, is plants. So, Dave and Patrice begin to work on Dave's serum that could make plants sentient. Nate, however, thinks this idea is ridiculous, crazy even, and leaves them to work on it
• We follow the progress of the serum's development. Progress is slow, but there is potential. We see signs that plants might be able to feel and think. Unfortunately, the time it's taking to develop the serum is coming at the cost of many lives
• Dave and Patrice believe they have created the perfect formula, and are about to test it when Nate bursts into their makeshift lab in a sweat. A horde of zombies is nearby, and he's desperate to fend them off. Nate, in a blind panic, grabs the serum and throws it at the zombies, destroying any hope of creating a plant army. In a fit of betrayal and anger, Patrice shoves him into a horde of zombies, resulting in his death. With no more resources and no time left to develop more of the serum, Patrice accepts her fate and joins the horde
• Everyone in Neighborville is now dead except for Dave. After witnessing the deaths of everyone he knows and loves, including his own niece, Dave completely breaks down, vowing to somehow end the apocalypse once and for all
• Patrice's corpse reanimates as a zombie, but before she can attack Dave, a green ball flies out and hits her, scaring her off. Dave then sees that his experiment was a success after all

Act 2:

• We open several years in the future. Dave has become Crazy Dave and is in his signature outfit. He introduces himself to his "neighbor" (the audience), explaining the situation and what he's been doing about it. He's created many more plants that he uses to defend himself from the zombies, and the zombies have become more intelligent with time. The two sides have basically become their own societies. Despite the circumstances, Dave acts like all is hunky-dory and denies his own misery
• Nightfall. We see zombie Nate with a brigade of Football Zombies as they prepare to invade Crazy Dave's residence. His anger as an army commander is palpable. As a means to hype up the brigade, they sing the All-Star fight song as they charge into battle. At the end of the number, a Doom-shroom appears and blows them all up
• We transition to the zombies' main base, where we see Zomboss instructing a dolphin rider that he must, well, ride a dolphin. However, this dolphin rider has had an outspoken hatred for dolphins and now needs to bargain with the dolphin and convince it to work with him. He sings a ballad about how he was wrong and asks the dolphin to forgive him, which it does. He triumphantly rides the dolphin into battle, but is later killed
• Nightfall again. A thick fog rolls in, and Dave enters holding a Plantern. He sings a number about how the fog is mysterious and sometimes overwhelming, and how people can easily get lost. After this number, it begins to rain and thunder, and Dave hopes that we can survive the night. After exiting, the stage flashes occasionally, showing stills of plants and zombies fighting in the night
• The zombies are now invading the roof. Dave pulls out the big guns and still manages to fend off the onslaught, but finds himself making slips about what happened before the takeover
• Zomboss enacts his Hail Mary and arrives in the Zombot. The climactic battle ensues, and Zomboss finally gets to have his own musical number. He is eventually defeated, and Dave prepares to stab him in the brain with a flagpole before Zomboss begs for mercy. Zomboss concedes, accepting defeat and stating that Dave wins and there's no more eating brains for him and his army. We then end with, what else, Zombies on Your Lawn. Dave walks out with a taco, eats it, and exclaims about how delicious it was