Galaxy Quest composer David Newman
Post-production
After most production was done, Johnson said that DreamWorks was confused by the film, as it was not what they had expected from the script they greenlit, but pushed on post-production as they needed a film to go up against Columbia Pictures' Stuart Little. To that end, Dreamworks required cuts to earn the movie to a more family-friendly rating. The film originally received an "R" rating, according to Galaxy Quest producer Lindsey Collins and Weaver, before being recut. Shalhoub did not remember any darker version of the film. Gordon had not planned to write a "family friendly" film, and his initial script included mature scenes, such as DeMarco attempting to seduce aliens, and the crash of the escape pod into the convention hall decapitating several attendees.During post-production, The Rugrats Movie from Paramount Pictures came out and was a box-office success. DreamWorks at that point pushed on the production to have a competing film for a younger age group as to try to compete with Rugrats. The film was edited and cut to bring the rating to a "PG", which required cutting of some of the better and funnier scenes in the film that could have survived if a "PG-13" rating had been targeted instead according to the cast and crew. In the "chompers" scene, DeMarco's line "Well, screw that!" was dubbed over her original "Well, fuck that!" Weaver stated she purposely made her dubbed line stand out as a form of protest from her original line. Another cut scene to achieve the rating was seeing the crew's quarters on the Protector, which included Dr. Lazarus' quarters which Allen called a "proctologist's dream and nightmare". Several other scenes involving Dr. Lazarus were cut, as DreamWorks felt they were too kinky for the desired rating. Other scenes were added to provide what the studio felt was necessary continuity for the intended younger audience, such as showing the limo with Nesmith and the aliens "beaming up" from Earth.In theaters, the first 20 minutes of the film were presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, before changing to a wider 2.35:1 ratio when Nesmith looks out upon space as the Protector arrives at Thermia to maximize the effect on viewers. However, this caused some problems with projectionists at movie theaters when showing the film as they had not opened up the screen curtains far enough for the wider aspect ratio. Projectionists had to be told at later showings to prepare for this transition. David Newman composed the music score.
author songwriter creator maker writer