- 11 hours ago
Sometimes a movie isn’t truly finished when it hits theaters. From altered endings and removed lines to emergency CGI fixes and censored scenes, we’re looking at the wildest post-release changes films needed after audiences, censors, or distributors got involved. From family favorites to shocking dramas and animated hits, these on-the-fly updates prove cinema can be a moving target.
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00:00And everybody's okay with this? Did I miss something? Relax, Tamar.
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most
00:11striking tweaks that were made to films after or even during their theatrical run.
00:16Look at that, another one. I love how many different variations of you guys arrive.
00:20That's not counting drastic pre-planned alternate cuts like the extended editions of the Lord of the
00:26Rings trilogy. So, it's a drinking. Last one standing wins.
00:33Number 20. Pleasantville. That's right, it's the Pleasantville Marathon.
00:3924 hours chocked full of pure family values. An updated look is usually something to celebrate,
00:47but maybe not when it comes with updated sensibilities. That was the debate among fans
00:52of the 1998 comedy Pleasantville after the 2026 release of Shout Factory's 4K remaster.
00:59What the hell is going on? Can't talk like that here. You're in, uh, well, you know.
01:06Bud, Mary Sue, breakfast is on the table. As the Parker twins part ways at the end,
01:12Jennifer's derogatory line about her sex life is removed. The leading theory is that this was meant
01:17to sanitize character growth that could be perceived as slut-shaming. The irony is that Pleasantville
01:23condemns the suppression of art and ideas based on dated morality. Whether this edit will age as
01:29well as the 4K picture, you never know what'll get cut from a movie even decades after its release.
01:34When your father was here, I used to think this was it. This is the way it was always going
01:39to be.
01:39I had the right house. I had the right car. I had the right life.
01:44Number 19. Trolls. Once upon a time, in a happy forest, in the happiest tree,
01:50lived the happiest creatures the world has ever known. The Trolls.
01:54That credit scroll at the end of the movie sure means a lot to someone whose name is on it.
01:59So, influencer Candy Johnson was stunned at the premiere of Trolls when she saw that she was
02:04credited as the voice of Cookie Sugarloaf, above Grace Helbig as Mandy Sparkle Dust.
02:17It was supposed to be the other way around. Johnson later explained in a YouTube video that it was
02:22too late to correct this mistake before the theatrical release.
02:26They switched me and Grace Helbig's character, so it says Candy Johnson is playing Cookie
02:30Sugarloaf in the credits when that is Grace Helbig's character. Thankfully, the home release of Trolls
02:35featured the correct credits. Going that far to give someone the proper respect is a valuable
02:40message for any family film.
02:42I know it's not officially hug time yet, but...
02:46Now that I am queen, I decree that hug time is all the time.
02:51Number 18. Mean Girls.
03:05Megan Thee Stallion usually gets a pass for her empowering brand of Mean Girl. That wasn't the
03:10case with her cameo in the 2024 musical remake of Mean Girls, in which she praises the Katie
03:16Heron character on social media by saying, quote,
03:19Y2K Firecrotch is back.
03:21Thinking of going red.
03:22Okay, so somebody sent me this look and I was like, hi girls, we are going back red.
03:26Y2K Firecrotch is back.
03:28Thank you, Katie Heron.
03:29This was a reference to Brandon Davis's less affectionate 2006 remark about Lindsay Lohan,
03:35who played Katie in the 2004 film. Lohan, her father, and online supporters publicly criticized this
03:41vulgar and tone-deaf meta nod to her career comeback. Thus, the line was cut from the musical
03:46Mean Girls' digital release.
03:48I'm thinking of going red.
03:49So somebody sent me this look and I was like, okay, you know what, hi girls, we are going back
03:53red.
03:54Thank you, Katie Heron.
03:57Sometimes ironically mean just feels mean.
04:00Number 17. Django Unchained.
04:03What's your name?
04:08Django.
04:10Then you're exactly the one I'm looking for.
04:13Quentin Tarantino's mix of blaxploitation and spaghetti western packs a lot of shock value
04:18into almost three hours. It was widely assumed that the censors in China missed something when
04:23Django Unchained was released there on April 11th, 2013.
04:27Mr. Bennett, if you are the businessman I've been led to believe you to be,
04:32I have 5,000 things I might say that could change your mind.
04:37Still, technical reasons was the official explanation for it being pulled soon after
04:42premiering. A month later, the film was re-released with three minutes total trimmed from the shootout,
04:47dog attack, and nude torture sequences.
04:50And they still saying, let's whip him to death, throw him to the Mandango,
04:55feed him the stone-sock dog. I said, what's so special about that?
05:00But by then, the US cut of Django Unchained had been so heavily pirated that it flopped in China.
05:05It was a painful lesson in how small oversights ahead of a film's release can have big consequences.
05:11You are used to it. I'm just a little more used to Americans than he is.
05:22Don't miss out on the action or the endless amount of interesting pop culture content that we offer.
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05:32Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen. It's not going to happen.
05:36Number 16, Shrek 2. There's really no other character, or film franchise for that matter,
05:42quite like Shrek. Mixing fairytale tropes, potty humor, and more adult jokes and pop culture references,
05:48these films truly managed to appeal to all audiences.
06:01Unfortunately, it would seem that one of the latter jokes missed the mark with one's
06:05specific individual, David Doerr. In the Hebrew version of the film,
06:10Donkey makes a reference to the high-voiced Israeli singer. He does it while suggesting
06:14that they got their new feline acquaintance, Puss in Boots, ahem, neutered.
06:18What do you reckon we should do with him?
06:20I say we take the sword and neuter him right here. Give him the Bob Barker treatment.
06:24Doerr and his attorney argued that the film's joke misportrayed the singer as a eunuch,
06:28and the distributors subsequently removed the offending line from the film.
06:32Oh boy.
06:33Number 15. Bird Box. Don't get us wrong. We love ourselves a good apocalyptic film.
06:39One of you is gonna have a very important job.
06:45One of you is gonna have to look.
06:50And the person who looks, they have to tell me which direction to steer into so that I go the
06:57right way.
06:58But when inviting audiences into a world where life has been turned upside down by some unforeseen
07:03crisis, well, you want to avoid making reference to any real-life catastrophes. And you certainly
07:09don't want to include footage from a recent tragedy.
07:11The eyewitness reports tell of people exhibiting psychotic behavior. Our sources are telling us
07:17this does not appear to be pathological or viral. And US authorities are advising the public to remain
07:22calm.
07:23When first released, the film included actual stock footage from the 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster.
07:30When a freight train carrying crude oil derailed in the town of Lac-Mégantic, 47 people were killed.
07:36Given that Bird Box was released just five years after this tragedy, people were understandably offended.
07:42Now, Netflix has apologized for this, but says today that it's not
07:46going to remove the footage, even though some people closely affected by this tragedy
07:50in Lac-Mégantic had asked them to remove it.
07:53Netflix originally declined requests from survivors to remove the footage,
07:57but eventually acquiesced and edited Lac-Mégantic out of the film.
08:0114. The Santa Claus
08:03Released in 1994, this holiday comedy starring Tim Allen spawned two sequels,
08:09and has become something of a modern classic. The film has got a few crude jokes and references
08:14to keep parents entertained, but it can generally be described as good, clean, fun.
08:18We're also about families. But our families aren't here with us right now.
08:23This is probably why Johnson's secretary is sitting in his lap.
08:26Unfortunately, one of the more adult-oriented lines eventually
08:29needed to be cut from the film when it led to a $400 phone bill.
08:34After being given a phone number, Scott jokingly pretends that it's a sex hotline.
08:381-800-SPANK-ME? I know that number.
08:42Ah, and a Merry Christmas to you too.
08:45Unfortunately, it turns out that 1-800-SPANK-ME is a real sex hotline.
08:50And sure enough, in 1996, a kid called and racked up a massive phone bill after watching the movie.
08:56To avoid a repeat of the incident, the scene has since been cut from all home media and digital versions.
09:02Scott?
09:04I mean, you're not listening. We are very concerned about this.
09:08Concerned about what?
09:11Number 13, DEMOLITION MAN
09:13Oh, I'm so scared.
09:16What, you guys don't have sarcasm anymore?
09:21Maniac has responded with a scornful remark.
09:23It was already ironic for this sci-fi actioner to satirize consumerism by predicting franchise wars,
09:30while name-dropping Taco Bell as the victor, or at least that struck North American audiences as ironic.
09:36So, what's with this cocktail guy anyway?
09:39He says I saved his life, which I'm not even sure I did, and my reward is dinner and dancing
09:44at Taco Bell.
09:45I mean, hey, I like Mexican food, but come on.
09:49DEMOLITION MAN had just dropped in domestic theaters when PepsiCo brought up that the product placement would be lost on
09:55international markets with no Taco Bell.
09:57Luckily, they also owned the more globally recognizable Pizza Hut.
10:01He says I saved his life, which I'm not even sure I did, and my reward is dinner and dancing
10:06at Pizza Hut?
10:07I mean, hey, I like a big fat piece of pizza, but come on!
10:10So, all visual and dialogue references to the sibling franchise were altered in post-production,
10:16just before the film's international rollout.
10:19You can't satirize that kind of corporate expansion, but at least PepsiCo didn't have to wage a war.
10:24VALLEY OF THE JOLLY GREEN GIANT
10:29OPEN THINGS FROM THE GARDEN
10:32GARDEN IN THE VALLEY
10:33Number 12, OPPENHEIMER
10:36Robert here says he's not a communist.
10:38Well, Lenny doesn't know enough about it.
10:41Oh, I've read Dusk Coppital, all three volumes. Does that count?
10:44It would make you better read the most party members.
10:46Some of the boldest scenes in this Christopher Nolan bio-epic
10:50involve literally naked vulnerability between J. Robert Oppenheimer and mistress Jean Tatlock.
10:56This secured the otherwise modest masterpiece an R rating in the US,
11:01but went too far even for mature ratings in some Eastern countries.
11:05Unexpected.
11:06What?
11:07For a physicist.
11:09You only have a shelf full of Freud?
11:11Well, actually, my background's more...
11:14Uh, Jungian?
11:15So when Oppenheimer opened there, a black dress was digitally added to cover Tatlock,
11:21never mind that she's wearing very different dresses in the previous sequences.
11:24I've had a lot of secrets in my hand for a long time.
11:30Doesn't matter who I associate with, I don't talk about those secrets.
11:34It may have been less distracting to blur out the dramatically crucial scenes,
11:38or to cut them entirely. But the changes went viral with debates about censorship of mature films,
11:44specifically the bizarre, clumsy length censorship will go to preserve meaningful moments.
11:49You have everyone convinced you're more complicated than you actually are.
11:53We're all simple souls, I guess.
11:55I'm not.
11:56Number 11. Together.
11:58Okay, wait, I think it's this way.
11:59No, honey, I think it was back there.
12:02Are you sure?
12:03No, are you?
12:05One instance of CGI censorship in the East wasn't just bizarre, but deeply offensive to the West.
12:10The horror film together culminates in Alison Brie's character finding footage of an occult wedding between two men.
12:17In China, where same-sex marriage is unrecognized and taboo,
12:21one of the grooms was digitally altered into a woman.
12:24This change was allegedly made using AI.
12:27Why would you do that?
12:28I didn't do it on purpose.
12:30Sorry.
12:30Come on.
12:34You coming?
12:35It was also not authorized by American distributor Neon, who condemned the homophobic censorship.
12:41Rather than comply with orders to undo the change,
12:45High Show Entertainment pulled together from Chinese theaters with no plans for a home release.
12:50I don't think I'm okay.
12:51It's like my brain and my body aren't talking.
12:55You don't understand.
12:56I guess I don't.
12:58For many, no fictional horror can match this incident's implications for the future of digital suppression.
13:05Number 10.
13:06The Shining.
13:07Stanley Kubrick was a filmmaker who, for better or worse, played by his own rules.
13:15A director wholly committed to his artistic vision,
13:18it's hard imagining him working within the studio system of today.
13:21It's also hard to imagine a major studio editing a film for artistic reasons after it's been sent to theaters.
13:28But in 1980, that's exactly what Warner Brothers did.
13:35About a week into The Shining's theatrical run,
13:38projectionists were ordered to shorten the ending to make Jack Torrance's fate more ambiguous.
13:43They then had to send the removed portion back to the studio.
13:46Kubrick shaved off another 25 minutes before the film's European release.
13:56Number 9.
13:57Aladdin.
13:58Disney certainly has a knack for hiring songwriters who craft catchy songs.
14:02We never had a friend like me.
14:09Knowing that kids around the world will be singing these tunes for years to come, however,
14:13it's very important that the lyrics be appropriate.
14:16The film's opening number, Arabian Nights, perfectly sets the mood and setting for the story that's about to unfold.
14:22In the theatrical version, however, this song included the lines
14:26Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face, it's barbaric, but hey, it's old.
14:33This understandably offended many people in Arab nations and of Arab descent,
14:37including the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
14:41Though the lyrics stayed put for the duration of Aladdin's theatrical run,
14:45they were permanently changed for the 1993 home video release.
14:49Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place, where the caravan camels roam.
14:56Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense, it's barbaric, but hey, it's old.
15:03Number 8.
15:04The Program.
15:05This 90s sports drama underperformed at the box office and has largely been forgotten over the decades.
15:10Place the table, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
15:17If the program is remembered for one thing, it's the scene that had to be cut from the film.
15:21The moment in question sees Joe Kane, a college football quarterback, lie down in the middle of a busy street.
15:28To prove their mettle and show team spirit, other Timberwolves join him.
15:35As Samuel Johnson is credited with having said, quote,
15:39Hell is paved with good intentions.
15:41And so while filmmaker surely meant for this particular scene to be inspiring,
15:45what it actually inspired was a number of dangerous copycat stunts.
15:49You don't have to be like them, you can give all that up.
15:52Then what?
15:53Then what would I be?
15:55You'd still be Joe.
15:56After a teen was killed and more injured, recreating the scene,
16:01the offending moment was removed from the film.
16:04Number 7.
16:05Show Dogs.
16:06When a show dog is being evaluated by a judge, they're examined from head to tail,
16:10including everything in between.
16:19Given that this buddy cop comedy was intended as a family-friendly film, however,
16:23you wouldn't have expected them to focus so much on the dog's genitals.
16:27But they did.
16:28In the original cut of the film, Max the Rottweiler makes it all too clear that he is
16:33not okay with being touched in certain places.
16:39In response, he's coached by other characters to, quote,
16:42go to his happy place.
16:44Links to real-life abuse were made for obvious reasons,
16:47and the offending scenes were cut while the film was still in theaters.
16:51Oh, no.
16:53Number 6.
16:54The Rescuers.
16:55We know what you're thinking.
16:57What, pray tell, could these two adorable mice have done to warrant a patch after release?
17:01Oh, come on.
17:03Remember our pledge?
17:04Through storm and rain and dark of night.
17:07Never fail to do what's right.
17:10Don't worry, the charming duo of Bernard and Miss Bianca remain entirely untarnished.
17:15Sadly, the same cannot be said for a certain employee.
17:18Early in the film, Orville the Albatross takes to the skies of New York City to deliver
17:23Bernard and Bianca to their destination.
17:25Oh, I just love payoffs.
17:30If you freeze the film at the right moment, however,
17:33you can see that someone forgot to close their blinds before getting changed.
17:37In reality, an editor put an image of a topless woman in the background of the shot.
17:41It took years for anyone to spot it, but when they did,
17:44a 1999 recall of the film was issued.
17:47Oh, um, sorry, sir.
17:49Number 5.
17:50The Lion King.
18:01It may have been inherently crude for animators to slip an easter egg into Simba's pivotal moment of
18:07soul-searching.
18:08But eagle-eyed parents weren't distracted by a gust of debris forming the letters SFX,
18:12an abbreviation for special effects.
18:15They were distracted by the F looking a little like an E.
18:18Who told you something like that?
18:20Yeah, yeah.
18:21What mook made that up?
18:23Ah!
18:23Yeah, pretty dumb, huh?
18:26Ah, you're killing me, son.
18:27Yeah.
18:28The urban legend that the word sex appears in The Lion King caused such an uproar that animator Tom
18:34Saito had to publicly clarify that it was just a harmless signature by the special effects department,
18:40just in case.
18:40The easter egg was modified out of the debris in every remaster of the film since 2003.
18:46Simba, what do you think?
18:49Well, I don't know.
18:51Oh, come on, Kim!
18:52Come on, Simba, come on!
18:53We told you ours!
18:55Please, Kim!
18:57Number 4.
18:58Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse.
19:01My name is Miles Morales.
19:03I was bitten by a radioactive spider.
19:05And for the last year and four months,
19:08I've been Brooklyn's one and only Spider-Man.
19:12Sony got called out for refining the CGI in Spider-Man No Way Home,
19:16while it was still in theaters.
19:17But they couldn't brush off global audiences noticing differences in animation,
19:22dialogue, sound mixing, and editing in Across the Spider-Verse.
19:26I honestly can't with you.
19:28Look, I know I messed up, okay?
19:29He can't be part of this.
19:31I know.
19:33I'll never see him again, all right?
19:35No kidding!
19:36Producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller eventually explained that the film was still in post-production
19:41when a final version had to be locked in for European distribution.
19:44The filmmakers were so stretched for time that different American cuts were released throughout
19:49the domestic run.
19:50You realize how messed up that sounds, right?
19:53You have a choice between saving one person and saving an entire world.
19:58Every world.
19:59I can do both!
20:00The home release would be the definitive final version,
20:03which Miller and Lorde dubbed the Posterity Edition.
20:06They've accepted the ordeal as a showcase of their team's creative range,
20:09with the film's theatrical release being its very own multiverse.
20:13Tell him he's wrong.
20:16He's not.
20:17Are you serious right now?
20:19I told you.
20:20You let him get away, I can't help you.
20:243.
20:25Incredibles 2
20:26In the age of hot takes, trailer breakdowns, and YouTube film analysis,
20:30filmmakers are more careful than ever about what makes it into the finished product.
20:34Hello?
20:35Uh, hello?
20:37Do I have your attention?
20:40Yes, Chad.
20:41As such, it's kind of shocking that the movie included scenes that risk
20:44triggering viewers with photosensitive epilepsy.
20:48The bright flashing lights used by the villainous Screenslaver
20:51put certain audience members at risk for both migraines and seizures.
20:55Screenslaver interrupts this program for an important announcement.
20:59Theaters posted warnings in response to the concerns raised by Epilepsy Foundation,
21:03and Disney followed suit by asking all theaters to do the same.
21:08For their part, Disney re-edited the film to reduce the intensity of the scenes in question,
21:12and this edited version is the one that the UK and other international markets received.
21:23Number 2.
21:25Cats
21:25Oh no, look what the cat dragged in.
21:28Looking back at the various films on our list,
21:30most of the patches were made to avoid offending or endangering people.
21:34Cats, however, feels more like a video game patch.
21:37Ahead of its release, the film was being heralded as a groundbreaking moment in the history of VFX.
21:42We've used digital fur technology to create the most perfect covering of fur.
21:46These are people, but they're cats, and this is kind of blowing my mind.
21:50Upon release, however, audiences and critics alike were too distracted by the many,
21:55many bizarre choices that permeated the film.
22:02As for the VFX, the cat-like transformation of these stars left more people uncomfortable than
22:07impressed. In a bid to deliver on its visual potential, and fix a number of CGI bugs and glitches,
22:14the studio pushed an update with improved visual effects. Cats made film history, sure,
22:20but not in the way people expected.
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22:58Number 1. Brazil
23:00Yes, they don't usually make mistakes, but, uh, well, I suppose we're all human.
23:09Oh!
23:09European audiences hailed the British-American production Brazil as a masterpiece in early 1985,
23:16but Universal Pictures chairman Sid Sheinberg was more affected by American test audiences
23:21that found its story confusing and its ending depressing.
23:25He's got away from us, Jack.
23:27I'm afraid you're right, Mr. Heltman.
23:29He's gone.
23:31He oversaw a massive re-edit that reduced the film's runtime by almost 50 minutes.
23:36Writer-director Terry Gilliam was so outraged that he put out an ad pleading with Sheinberg to
23:41release Brazil's original cut. When that didn't work, he held private critics' screenings to high
23:47praise. This forced Universal to deliver a third cut to American theaters in December, supervised by
23:53Gilliam.
23:54Universal got very frightened by it. The opinion of the American public was rather low at
23:59those points, and that you've got a happy ending.
24:02It still doesn't compare to the European cut, but comparing illustrates how a film's release isn't
24:07always the end of the filmmaking process. What are some other post-release edits that the filmmakers
24:13weren't able to sneak past you? Point them out in the comments.