E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: 20th Anniversary Celebration (2002)
*** (out of 4)
This twenty-five minute featurette has Steven Spielberg, Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Dee Wallace Stone, Robert MacNaughton, Peter Coyote and various members of the crew talking about the past twenty years of E.T.. Spielberg starts off talking about how it was his most personal film and then he goes directly into why he decided to alter it for the 20th Anniversary. From here we see clips of both the 1982 and 2002 versions side by side just to see what changes were made as the director tries to justify it. The actors all talk about how they got their parts and this includes seeing Thomas' audition footage and it's easy to see why Spielberg gave him the job on the spot. We also get some alternate scenes that weren't used in the movie and we also get to see some of the new computer effects that were added. As someone who saw this movie at the theater at the age of 2, it's impossible for me to forget the experience and it's actually the first thing I remember in my life. With that said, I really can't stand this alternate, 2002 version and I refuse to ever watch it again. However, this featurette at least features some nice interviews and some good behind the scenes footage. It's just too bad that these were apparently filmed before the theatrical re-release where fans were upset about the changes. I would have liked to have heard from Spielberg after the negative reaction.