...did they change anything in recent DVD / Blu-ray versions?
I saw this movie for the first time yesterday with my 8-year old, and it looked like some of the scenes contained effects on ET that could only have been made with post-Gollum (2001) CGI.
Did Spielberg go Lucas on ET at some point?
"Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man..."
Spielberg did pull a "George Lucas" on E.T. back in 2002 for the film's 20th anniversary. He changed the guns of the government agents to walkie talkies and enhanced E.T.'s face and body with CGI to make it look and move more realistically. This version was released on DVD, but it's no longer available. The current "Anniversary Edition" on DVD/Blu-ray is strictly the 1982 version. Spielberg has shown some regret doing the 2002 version and now feels the 1982 version is the ideal version of the film.
shareI think Netflix has the original version right now because the agents do have the guns in hand and not the walkie talkies..
shareYet the "making of" doc on the Blu-ray talks a lot about the changes, so it's rather confusing.
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1982 original version is way better, imo, than the 20th version
shareI heard that, but never saw that version.
shareI did see the "enhanced" version, and it was very strange. Like it was an amazing movie up until the point that digital effects were introduced.
"Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man..."
I take it back, I saw the 2002 DVD release last year, and when I got my bluray a few weeks back the movie was a little different. Young Drew accidentally spilling the beans about Elliot going into the forest was a classic moment, and it was missing from the bluray version, but was in the deleted scenes section.
... I mean, to me it's still the same movie regardless of Spielberg's tweaks. But I guess some people get worked up over that stuff.
It's a fun film. "Alligators in the sewers." ROFL ... when I first saw it way back in 82 I smirked but refused to laugh because I thought Spielberg was really trying to manipulate us young people. But now I laugh out loud at that adorable little girl, and I also feel the magic of Elliot riding his bike like everyone else did ... it took a while, but there it is.