Alternate Realities: Home Video of the "Future"

With "Back to the Future" coming out on Blu-Ray disc on October 26 and the legendary DeLorean finally in our homes in restored high definition, I felt it would be worth it to take a look back, even if briefly, at the film's legacy on home video. I have omitted minor or redundant re-releases. So, we'll start with the original VHS edition. Please be kind, and rewind.

The original VHS release of "Back to the Future"

The original release of the VHS tape can be spotted by the logo on the spine of the sleeve. It is compact and centered like the title in the film itself and on the sleeve cover. Later editions would have the spine logo spread out along the entire length of the side.

Note the positioning and composition of the logo on the spine

This version also had a very nice spine label on the tape itself, something that was uncommon on most studio-made VHS tapes.

Had enough of blotchy, pan & scan VHS? So had most of us by the end of the 1980s. Some of us had also had enough of rewinding too. Thankfully "Back to the Future" was remastered on LaserDisc in widescreen (thank god), and despite a weird fake fade-out/fade-in effect on the disc transition on the first film, the LaserDisc trilogy was a great upgrade from the VHS. 

Jackets for the "Back to the Future" Trilogy on LaserDisc

The best part about LaserDiscs is the jacket art - like LP record sleeves. Very nice presentations. Check out the reverse sides of these sleeves and you'll see what I mean.

The final major release was on DVD in the early 2000s. Finally, the series had moved to a digital picture in anamorphic widescreen. There was only one problem: When the DVDs first hit shelves, Universal blundered and made a major matting error with Part II and Part III, effectively zooming in too close and cutting out a lot of the picture. The discs were put on a mass recall and replaced via snail mail. Once that was corrected though, it was the best presentation of the series ever to date.

An added bonus of the DVD edition is the new Drew Struzan artwork adding Doc Brown to the classic poster art for the Trilogy Box