Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary

A fitting version of the pre-eminent trilogy of the 1980s, "Back to the Future" is a must-own for fans of the series.

Let's face it: if you're looking at buying this set you most likely know the basic story behind "Back to the Future," so this review will be light on exposition and discussion of the films themselves. All three are presented here, and each has commentary tracks associated with them and look great.

But the big attraction for this set is the extras, and there are tons. The centerpiece of the bonus materials is the "Tales from the Future" series of featurettes. This is an in-depth, honest look at the making of the films, and includes interviews with virtually everyone involved, sans Crispin Glover (whose issues with the sequels are chronicled here). The featurettes go through different aspects of the three films and highlights changes that did and did not happen.

The highlight is Steven Spielberg's story of Universal head Sid Scheinberg, who suggested that, in keeping with the comic book theme of the first film, titling the film "Spaceman from Mars." Director Robert Zemeckis and Spielberg were horrified at the idea, and in lieu of arguing Spielberg simply sent back a note thanking Sid for his great joke about the title. The matter, Spielberg said, was never broached again.

A common feature of covering franchises like this is the home-video version of the old laws of diminishing returns with respect to extras: the first film would be chock full, with fewer features for the sequels. Not so here, where each of the sequels have at least two featurettes, and none of the discs feel like they're tack-on inclusions.

There are also deleted scenes for each film, archival features from the BTTF DVD set a few years back, the video for Huey Lewis and the News' "The Power of Love," a look at the old Universal Studios "Back to the Future: The Ride," the physics of BTTF, a storyboarded look at the first film's original ending, which took place at a nuclear test facility, and much more I'm not going to bore you with here, including the "U-Control" and BD-Live features.

Oh, and of course, there's the films themselves. The original remains the best of course, but the sequels do a tremendous job of expanding the universe, building on ideas and adding a richness to the characters and the world.

Suffice it to say, this is pretty comprehensive.

The footage is a good mix of older interviews and newer material with the filmmakers today, and this too offers a more complete look at the material.

The set's one major drawback is its packaging. I found it really difficult to remove each disc from its packaging and was even worried about breaking them at times. This is because of the unique(ly bad) way of holding the discs without the center nub post we usually get, but with plastic tabs that hold the discs in from the side.

Again, if you're a fan, you MUST own this set on blu ray. It is a fully immersive experience, one that fans of this franchise owe themselves to pick up.

Films:

Back to the Future: 5 Yaps Back to the Future, Part II: 4.5 Yaps Back to the Future, Part III: 4.5 Yaps Extras: 5 Yaps