The Back to the Future Trilogy stands alongside Star Wars and Indiana Jones films as the pinnacle of heroic adventure storytelling from the 1980s. I have clear memories of being blown away by the original back in 1985 and anxiously standing in lines to see each of the sequels on their respective opening days. These films helped shape a creative generation and are some of the most sought after titles in high definition on Blu-ray Disc.
Precise time travel is an important ingredient in Back to the Future so it’s fitting their Blu-ray debut falls on October 26, 2010, twenty five years to the day that the original film enjoyed its theatrical opening. Remarkably Back to the Future and its dated fashion, music and visual effects stand the test of time thanks to the ingenuity of its filmmakers and a perfectly chosen cast headlined by Michael J. Fox in his acting prime, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Thomas Wilson. I expect it to be every bit as wholly entertaining and the DeLorean car every bit as cool another twenty five years from now.
Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III do not quite measure up to the original but still work to extend Marty and Doc’s misadventures in time travel. Part II is the stronger film of the pair with its futuristic interpretation of 2015, now only a mere five years away. Flying cars, hoverboards and Jaws 19 in 3D are a hard act for the old west to follow, even if Wilson’s interpretation of Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen is a real hoot. At least the happy ending circles back to the original’s closing shot and manages to one up it as only Dr. Emmett Brown could.
High-Def Presentation
Each Back to the Future film has undergone a VC-1 encoded high definition restoration that has been approved by co-writer and producer Bob Gale. As such the results are the best these films have ever looked, period. And they’re properly framed to boot!
Because the Back to the Future films have always played soft in their various incarnations, even more so the many scenes involving green screens and optical effects, the increased resolution from the remastering process makes several scenes stick out like a sore thumb with overly sharp edges and washed out detail. The vastly improved color palette far brighter than DVD ever produced doesn’t help these scenes either as the digital altering makes them “pop” a bit more than expected. Naturally the need for enhancement decreases slightly from film-to-film but there’s an ongoing visual inconsistency when effects are involved throughout the trilogy that some might take offense to. Based on the source material this is likely as good as it’s going to get, which for most aside from the true nitpicker will more than suffice.
Accompanying the new video transfers are lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio tracks on each Back to the Future film. The clarity of these mixes is spot on but they’re noticeably front-heavy when there’s not a big action set piece in motion. I kind of like that surround use is not forced or fabricated for the sake of Blu-ray as the general flatness of the mix is a better match for the films’ age.
Also included on each disc is D-BOX Motion Code, a neat addition considering the Back to the Future Ride that I did not realize until after watching the films. I’ll return to write about the D-BOX experience at a later date.
Beyond the Feature
Universal has loaded the Back to the Future Trilogy on Blu-ray with hours of previously released bonus features, digital copies of each film and a handful of new supplements including an excellent new retrospective documentary that involves all the key cast and filmmakers. Dubbed Tales From the Future (HD) and running well over an hour in length, the six-part documentary is a bit cumbersome to watch spread out across each film’s disc. The effort is worth the pay-off as Steven Spielberg, Bob Gale, Robert Zemeckis, Neil Canton and even Michael J. Fox candidly reminisce about the films that changed all their lives. Scattered amongst the six parts are all sort s of cool little tidbits such as brief glimpses of Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly before he was replaced; a “thank you” letter written by the DeLorean co-founder to Bob Gale; Ronald Reagan’s reaction when seeing the scene that references him for the first time; and J. Ryan’s beyond awesome DeLorean that he and a friend painstakingly modified to match the car in the film.
Also in the new but not exclusive to Blu-ray category is the rather gruesome Nuclear Test Site Ending Storyboard Sequence (4:12, HD) that was obviously cut from Back to the Future before filming; and The Physics of Back to the Future (8:25, HD), the obligatory sci-fi influenced appearance of a real-life physicist to discuss the science presented in the films. The storyboards are the treasure here as they present what almost was and appropriately was not.
Exclusive to Blu-ray is Universal’s habitual U-Control with some customary picture-in-picture storyboard comparisons and trivia track. While I typically pass on U-Control, the inclusion of “setups and payoffs” is worth a look as it links scenes throughout the trilogy. Also appearing only on Blu-ray is Back to the Future Night, a long forgotten 30-minute NBC special hosted by Leslie Nielson (The Naked Gun) that aired just prior to Back to the Future’s first television appearance. Half of the special is footage from the film and Nielson plays it pretty straight but it’s still a neat piece of nostalgia and a welcome addition.
Remaining bonus features, and there are many of them, have been offered previously on past DVD editions of the films. From deleted scenes to commentaries to behind-the-scenes featurettes to the Back to the Future Universal Studios ride to music videos to trailers, there’s tons of extra material passed down to revisit or enjoy for the first time. Universal could have easily chosen to leave these out and focus on the newly commissioned stuff, but thankfully they took the “if you’re going to do it, do it right” path.
Unfortunately the same care that went into packing each disc with bonus features was not applied to the actual packaging. Universal has chosen the same plastic tray tri-fold case utilized on the latest season of The Office on Blu-ray. This case design stacks two discs on top of another with the upper disc snapping into place via a pair of prongs on either side. It takes bending of the case and considerable force on the top disc to get it out, so much so that there’s a continual fear of breaking or smudging the disc each time. This nightmarish configuration is packaged under a relatively flimsy slipcover with a fold-open front panel. On the bright side, a packaging insert includes directions to download the first chapter in the upcoming Back to the Future video game for free.
At long last we can cross the Back to the Future trilogy off our most wanted Blu-ray list. Its high-def presentation tops anything before it and there are scads of bonus materials, both new and old, to comb through. The packaging is a step up from garbage but at least that’s correctable via a custom solution. And you won’t need a time machine to pull it off.
– Dan Bradley
Shop for the Back to the Future Trilogy: 25th Anniversary on Blu-ray for a discounted price at Amazon.com.
