I saw this movie in late 1981 at the theaters but was puzzled by the 1980 date on IMDb. I noticed that the movie premiered in April 1980 in NY and then an "edited" version came out nationwide in late 1981. Does anyone know what was edited? Was it too scary for the PG and had to be toned down to avoid an R rating?
Dude means nice guy. Dude means a regular sort of person.
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The April 1980 screening was rushed to coincide with Bette Davis's anniversary in film, and it was missing a pivotal sequence in which the Watcher (a demonic, Skeksi looking creature) grabs Jan and travels to its own planet to release Karen from the prism where she's been prisoner. Without this scene, critics were stumped by the ending. The scene was included in a subsequent screening, but was poorly received, so a a new director came in (the original director was unavailable) and an entirely new ending was filmed and finally released in '81. Also, the film originally opened with the watcher stalking a girl through the forest and setting her doll on fire, but Disney ultimately deemed this scene too frightening.
Two variations of the original endings are available on DVD (though neither is said to be the exact versions that were screened), but the original opening credits segment and other minor scenes from throughout the film haven't been publicly seen since 1980. The director had plans to assemble a director's cut of the film around 2000 (he was out of the country and had no involvement with the final editing of any of the three versions of the film), but Disney declined.