Blu-ray Review: Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy

Excellent in HD and great features, terrible packaging

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Monday, October 25th 2010 at 3:40 PM

QUICK THOUGHTS: It's been 25 years since Back to the Future hit theaters and I was only eight years old when it did. Surprisingly, I can still vaguely remember how cool I thought it was and how amazed I was when Doc Brown's DeLorean flew directly into the screen at the very end. I was even enamored with Back to the Future Part II four years later and Part III was even better the following year. Of course, since that time I've grown up, but still, parts I and III remain personal favorites with the first one recently listed at #2 on my Top Ten Time Travel Movies list. However, the second one is almost unwatchable at this point for me. It just isn't a good movie. Thankfully the western aspect of Part III is so well done, with all of the characters from the previous films fitting into their wild west counterparts perfectly. Thomas F. Wilson specifically as Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen is so great it's almost shocking.

As far as this new Blu-ray set goes it is an absolute gem. The films themselves look immaculate and the DTS-HD master audio is exceptional. I realize a lot of the current online movie writers at this time are huge fans of this franchise, but I have always been more along the lines of merely "liking" and not "loving" it and I must say I couldn't have been happier with the presentation from the moment I put the first disc in. Even the visual effects in this film stand the test of time to the point only a few specific instances actually stand out as glaring old school effects. It's about as perfect as you can get when bringing a 25-year-old franchise to the highest audio and video standards of today.

SUPPLEMENTS: Beyond the improved audio and visual elements I was probably most surprised by the included special features. I never bough the Back to the Future trilogy on DVD and when I was sent the individual movies last year I didn't have time to explore the features or even watch the movies so my knowledge of the behind-the-scenes goings on with this trilogy were pretty much non-existent, which made exploring these discs quite the eye-opener.

Everyone online has already been introduced to the fact Eriz Stoltz was originally cast as Marty McFly in the film only to be recast after five weeks of shooting. The video to the right is an excerpt of Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis and co-writer Bob Gale explaining the reasoning behind the decision, but that is only a tiny nugget to be found on these discs.

Among everything included my favorite aspect was the brand new six-part documentary covering the three films and spread out over all three discs as each focuses on film-specific developments as the franchise moved along. While most of the information I considered "new" is all available online, it's a spectacularly packaged documentary that had me learning things such as studio chief of Universal Pictures at the time, Sid Sheinberg, wanted to call the film Spaceman from Pluto and Claudia Wells was supposed to return as Jennifer Parker for the sequels, but her mother got ill and she ended up leaving the business and was replaced by Elisabeth Shue.

However, the biggest bombshell was learning Crispin Glover was actually not in Back to the Future Part II. What? Then who was that floating around upside down? As it turns out Glover wanted too much money (he was asking for $1 million more than any of the other returning supporting cast) and his character was, for the most part, written out of the story. Jeffrey Weisman was made up to look like George McFly for the initial future scenes and footage from the first film was used to insert him into the story when necessary. Even more interesting, it turns out Glover sued over the use of his likeness and the use of his scenes from the first film and ended up winning a reported… get this… $1 million. It also resulted in the Screen Actors Guild changing their collective bargaining agreements, redefining the way actors' images could legally be used onscreen.

Universal also employs their Blu-ray exclusive U-Control feature on each film allowing access to storyboard comparisons, a trivia track and a "Setups and Payoffs" pop up text feature that features certain moments in the film that set up specific future or past elements later in the film and the franchise. There's also a new nuclear test site alternate ending storyboard sequence, a cool "Physiscs of Back to the Future" featurette, 16 deleted scenes, a Michael J. Fox interview, two commentaries on each film, archival featurettes, music videos, galleries and trailers. Basically, this thing is loaded.

NOTEWORTHY NEGATIVES: The only TERRIBLE aspect of this release is the awful plastic packaging. On top of the fact it's just plain cheap, the process of removing the disc isn't exactly obvious as you have to push down on the disc to scoot it out of the plastic holding it in place. If this doesn't make sense I put a short video together to demonstrate so you don't try and bend the disc in order to force it out of the holder. In the video it's quite obvious there just wasn't much money or effort into making this into an impressive package, but to just get the discs out on the marketplace.

FINAL THOUGHTS: First and foremost, the films look and sound spectacular. Forget the features for a second and if you are a fan of these movies this reasonably priced ($47.99 at Amazon) Blu-ray set is already worth the price. However, take into account the six-part documentary and all of the other goodies made available to the legions of fans and even people like me that will be stunned to learn information they didn't know before this is an absolute must buy.

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