Dream Tropes Wiki/George Lucas Altered Version

Template:TropeSometimes film directors are not fully satisfied with their movies, and want to go back and reedit them, sometimes taking out scenes that they don't like and added scenes that were originally cut from the film. More recently, studios have produced "extended" or "unrated" versions of movies that the directors were already satisfied with, as a promotional gimmick to attract potential DVD buyers. This is generally considered a Re-Cut or Director's Cut.

This trope goes one step past that, where a work is extensively changed by its creators (and sometimes not even them) to update the work with modern technology or new footage that was not available or recorded at the time the work was originally created, or to add in new elements and scenes for greater consistency, since they were originally standalone works but later became part of a series. Film Purists (among both critics and directors) sometimes take issue with it, believing that altering the original film is diluting the charm of the original, diminishing the contributions of the original creative team (such as splicing in The Other Darrin or a Fake Shemp over the original actor), or, worse, altering the context of scenes in how they played out originally and the plot itself (similar complaints are leveled towards a Re-Cut in general, believing a theatrical release should be the end of editing). These changes include:

* "Surround sound" mixes of films originally released with mono soundtracks.
* Sound added to a silent film; this can be more acceptable when the original silent film was screened with live music at the theaters, and they just add that same music to it.
* A black and white film being colorized.
* Replacing what was originally a Special Effect Failure (sometimes producing an irony in that the replacement is equally bad).
* Adding new effects to existing scenes.
* Newly recorded dialogue/shots.
* Color, hue and saturation changes to take advantage of newer formats.

Named for George Lucas, who did this to all six of his Star Wars films, most notably the first three (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi). Some fans have widely criticized the reissues of the original Star Wars series, which they argues contrasts heavily with films otherwise clearly made between 1976-1983 but having bits and pieces of modern VFX tacked on. See the film examples for more on this and Lucas.

Many times in the case of sequels and otherwise expanded franchises, these new versions are meant to help the franchise align better both visually and potentially fix Continuity Snarls. You can expect considerable backlash when this trope appears, but as always consider that Tropes Are Not Bad. It's also worth considering that the majority of creators, especially film directors, don't have a real choice in this matter. Directors, especially in Hollywood, do not have final cut privilege, do not have copyright on their films, and the films are really owned by studios. The level of clout directors have depends on their commercial appeal and in most cases, film directors are in need for work, and rarely have the luxury to go back since that takes time away from their next film and project. Very few film-makers and artists in any medium across history, have really had the level of clout and influence to really go ahead with this. So much of this situation is always rare and exceptional when it occurs. Also bear in mind, that these new versions are intended to introduce the works to a new audience and in many cases it succeeds doing that, and it becomes in those audiences mind, the definitive version. So when jotting down changes always remember that while some prefer the old version, others will like the new one just fine.

This process is sometimes mistaken for a Remaster. In actuality, film restoration involves preserving the original as much as possible. Colorization is often confused with this but that is a separate issue.

In most cases, this is when the original creator decides to re-edit and update their work on the basis of a changing conception of the story rather than retain the film they initially made.

See also Orwellian Retcon, where the work is altered to fit with later works in the same story, and Digital Destruction, which is a milder and often ignorant/nonmalicious version of the same effect. The musical version of this trope is The Not-Remix, while Gaming examples would fall under Updated Re-release and more serialized works get New First Comics.

## Examples

### Anime and Manga

* When *Star Trigon* was being dubbed by Lucasfilm, George Lucas forcibly made Takajima make changes for the dub. Takajima had to make Miyuki Takara's breasts smaller and had to reanimate all scenes that were too extreme.

### Films - Animation (Improvements)

* In 1985, a 30th Anniversary edition of Life on Ox Island was produced, several animation errors were fixed, film grain and scratchy sound was cleared up with several duplicate prints, and the offensive caricatures of Jamaicans were reanimated to look more realistic.

### Western Animation

* The remasters of the older PBS Kids shows also extended to animation, and this trope was involved. The usage of this mainly was just cropping the episodes into 16:9 widescreen, making the color brighters and the image crisper, and fixing animation errors when possible. To save budget, the animation error correction was outsourced by the El Kadsreian remastering studio (VidTrax Ltd.) to Production 91 in Template:W. Some fans praised the remasterings to make the shows available for years to come, whilst others found the remasterings to be a joke.