Earlier this month, the Back to the Future franchise hit Netflix.
This was a major delight to fans who consider the film a complete classic.
But soon, fans discovered that a key scene in the film was edited, presumably to make it more family-friendly.
This move was not taken well, as they’ve since gone online to share their unhappiness.
Fans have never taken well to streaming sites editing movies.
Just this past April, Disney Plus outraged fans online when they edited a key scene in the 1984 movie Splash featuring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah.
In one scene, they CGI’d hair to cover Hannah’s naked butt.
Later, a Disney representative confirmed to *The Verge* that a few scenes were edited to make the movie family-friendly.
They said that a few scenes were “slighted edited to remove nudity,” but did not specify which scenes.
They also confirmed that the original PG-13 rating of the film was reverted back to PG.
The censorship move bothered fans to no end.
Some fans pointed out the double standard since The Hulk’s butt in Thor: Ragnarok wasn’t edited out (that movie appears on the streaming service).
Others were also wondering why Splash wasn’t added to Hulu instead since its content is geared towards adults.
Now, the streaming site Netflix is coming under fire for similar reasons.
This time, it all has to do with the iconic movie Back to the Future II , which came to Netflix this month.
The first movie in the trilogy is also streaming, but sadly, not the third quite yet (at least not on Netflix US yet).
The *Back to the Future* franchise has been around — and popular — since the 1980’s.
This means that it’s considered a classic that’s untouchable by fans.
So what did Netflix go and do? They touched the masterpiece, much to the dismay of fans.
This edited scene in question is the one where Marty travels to 1955.
He traveled there to get the stolen sports almanac from Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson).
At one point, when he thought that he found the almanac, he discovers something else.
The cover was used to disguise an adult magazine called *Oh La La*!
This is the part that Netflix cut, presumably to hide the racy cover so that the movie would be more family-friendly.
But instead of fans being appreciative of this, the move has been criticized.
Fans soon went to Twitter to share their distaste for the “sloppy edit.”
In addition to Netflix cutting the magazine cover discovery, it cut two lines from Marty.
One fan even made a comparison video to show the original version versus the edited Netflix version.
The issue has shone a spotlight on a much bigger problem:
What else are fans not noticing about their favorite movies and TV shows on popular streaming sites?
This is particularly why lots of fans are still buying physical copies of things.
“So now Netflix censored Back to the Future II. This censorship [expletive] is why I still buy physical media,” one angry subscriber tweeted.
“Nothing beats owning the movies you love. Especially with some of the questionable editing being done to old faves, on these streaming services,” added another.
So far, Netflix hasn’t responded to any of the backlash towards the edit.
Additionally, the said scene has yet to be restored back to its original version and there’s no way of knowing whether it ever will.
Fans will just have to sit tight for now.
If *Back to the Future* fans want to get a taste of the cast in all their unedited glory, they can check out the cast’s recent reunion.
Ahead of the film’s upcoming 35th anniversary, actor Josh Gad hosted the cast for his YouTube series, Reunited Apart , which aims to raise money for coronavirus relief funds.
Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown), Michael J.Fox, and Lea Thompson (Lorraine Baines-McFly) all joined in on the fun.
They were joined by other important members of the film, including director Robert Zemeckis and co-writer Bob Gale, along with other cast and crew.
Together, they took a trip back to the *past* while discussing the movie.
The possibility of a Back to the Future sequel even came up!
“Bob and Bob have said there’s never gonna be another Back to the Future sequel, which I hope is a lie,” he said. “If hypothetically there were, I would love to hear what you would pitch for Marty and Doc to travel back to and why,” asked Star Wars director, JJ Abrams who showed up.
While there were jokes about a movie that warns the world about the coronavirus, a sequel is unlikely.
“If I had an idea that I could have pitched to Bob with a straight face, we would have made it,” said Zemeckis.
“I’d have no answer to that question.”
