Anybody else notice this weird new trend in movie previews?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve seen two movie previews recently that had scenes that weren’t in the movie:
Planes:
In the preview there’s a scene showing Dusty accidentally drinking some jet fuel then zooming frenetically all over the sky.
I can understand why they would leave this scene out of the movie, but why was it in the preview?
Frozen:
In the preview there’s a scene of Olaf (Snowman) and Sven (Reindeer) sliding all over the ice. Leaving this scene out of the movie only made it shorter.

I saw both of them on TV so this could be the reason why they were left out. Are these scenes on the DVD? It seems a little strange if these scenes were cut for time since they were both shown on movie channels.

2

This is not anything new. Often times the trailers are released before all the editing has been completed on the film so scenes get cut from the finished product.

3

And trailers will often have material never intended for the movie itself (such as the Frozen example in the OP, I believe, and I think they did a bunch of that for Tangled, too).

4

Yep. Nothing new. And sometimes the audio and video are combined from different parts of the movie.

5

Many times the trailer is put together by a different production company. They’re given a bunch of clips and audio, and an idea of the story. Their job is to grab the viewer’s attention and make the movie look interesting.

6

They need something to play underneath the record scratch sound effect and “Walking on Sunshine”.

7

I’m already tired of that “CHONNNNG…CHONNNNG” sound effect used in trailers like Star Trek Into Darkness, used to indicate great danger and foreboding.

CHONNNNNNNNG…you…CHONNNNG…should have…(pew pew) CHONNNNNNG…LET ME SLEEP!!!

8

The trailer for Steve Martin’s L.A. Story prominently featured a scene with John Lithgow, who recommended to Steve’s character that he “skip” instead of run when he’s late for a meeting: “Running seems too desperate: skipping is the perfect compromise between running and walking!” The scene was cut, and as a result, Lithgow didn’t even appear in the movie.

9

Unless a character puts on sunglasses and a leather coat. Then they are required to play “Bad to the Bone”

10

Sometimes the trailer comes first. Almost like a pilot, in order to garner interest and investment in the project. This is how it was with Hobo With a Shotgun and the Grindhouse films if I recall.

11

Sometimes I think that’s actually a good strategy, especially when it comes to certain kinds of horror movies. For example, one of the Paranormal Activity movies had trailer and commercials with scares that were not in the movie, but were still effective in making people interested in the movie. So when you see the actual movie, it isn’t like you’ve already seen the best part in the trailers. I found that refreshing.

12

Doesn’t Pixar do this on purpose? A lot of scenes in their trailers aren’t in the final film (The one that comes to mind for me was for The Incredibles - Mr Incredible trying to put his old uniform on)

13

Guardians of the Galaxy had an obvious one of these. All the trailers focused on the line-up as a way to introduce the characters, but in the actual movie one of the characters wasn’t even in that scene.

14

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) had a wonderful scene in the trailer where Steve Martin pushes an old lady into the water and Martin Caine shoves cotton candy in a kid’s face. Neither scene of course is in the movie.

According to Wikipedia Frank Oz didn’t like the trailer so it wasn’t released, but I’m sure I saw it. I don’t know if it was in a theater or perhaps on Siskel & Ebert.

15

I believe the footage you mention was in commercials. I remember Steve Martin pushing the lady in the water for sure.

16

I remember the original trailer for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” had a clip of someone with a cartoon pig head looking in the mirror and saying “I’m a pig!” which was never in the film.

17

I honestly much prefer it this way. Trailers shouldn’t be a condensed version of the movie. I absolutely hate when all the funny jokes and good lines are in the trailer, and going to the theater is just a matter of sitting through a bunch of boring framing around the decent parts I’ve already seen.

18

And, if I’m not mistaken, even of the characters who were in the scene, they were all processed one at a time, never lined up side-by-side.

The trailers also had some sexy shots of Zoe Saldana’s character that weren’t in the movie, but in that case, I suspect it was due to editing.

Just remember, if the movie were finished, it would already be released. Trailers must necessarily come from an unfinished version of the film.

19

That would have been Bob Hoskins’ voice. Originally his detective character was going to be disguised as a Toon when he went into Toontown.

20

They did this for George of the Jungle. They let us think that when the macaw (Tooki) flew from Bukuvu to San Francisco (so George could rescue the kidnapped Ape), he took an airliner, and the flight attendant offered him another Mai Tai.

Didn’t happen in the movie.