It's A Wonderful Life isn't the original
The version currently available on Roku isn't the original. This version has a completely different musical score, which makes it like a Hallmark movie. In the opening credits, they removed the "It...
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Totally agree! I saw the difference when the title came up and I watched it for about 5 minutes when I turned it off and found the original classic. Do NOT mess with a classic.
So strange how these somewhat small changes to the original, in particular the music, upset the continuity of the film. I too had to turn it off because of the music and pulled my DVD out to watch it in its correct format.
Thank goodness I have a copy both in VHS and DVD to fall back on.
I’m almost afraid to watch The Bishops Wife with Cary Grant.
Christmas DVDs here I come.
One more thing How did I wind up with a PIG 🐽 next to my name!! 🤣
Just listened to a Wall Street Journal podcast that answered this. I’ll try to be concise.
In 1974, the rights to IAWL belonged to Republic Pictures, but they forgot to file papers to extend the copyright and if it fell into the Public Domain. This meant any TV station could air it for free.
The repeated showings of IAWL on local TV stations ironically is the reason IAWL got a second lease on life. A box office disappointment when it was originally released, through now constant exposure it found a new, large and passionate fan base.
By the mid 80’s IAWL became iconic and there were multiple companies issuing it on VHS (for free)
Republic Pictures decided they needed to do something. It was too late to control the rights to the film, BUT they did manage to get and keep control of the rights to the soundtrack of IAWL by Dimitri Tiomkin and the short story it’s based on by Philip Van Doren Stern.
So now in order to air a FREE version of IAWL both the original soundtrack and any reference to the original short story has to be excised.
So now only NBC is licensed to broadcast the unchanged, undiluted version of IAWL. Other broadcasters and streaming services can only legally show it by substituting a different soundtrack and, in the opening credits, remove the reference to the original short story.
So now you know why versions playing on any platform other than NBC has that awful music and in the opening credits claims it’s based on a “Story by Charles Dickens”.
Hi, Mmmle
Congrats on your first post here in the Roku Community.
This concern has been acknowledged, and we have passed this information to the appropriate Roku team, who will be handling this further to address it. Rest assured that an update will be provided to them.
If you have further concerns or inquiries, please feel free to reach out to us. It's our pleasure to assist.
All the best,
KashWhy in the world would someone mess with a classic movie. Our whole family gathered to watch this and we had to shut it off. Just ludicrous.
Where were you able to find the original? We checked every free option and all of them had this abomination. We’d be happy to rent it if we could be assured it’s not this fakery!
Download Christmas plus. You have to sit through commercials but that doesn’t bother me.
My wife and I sat down to watch this on Roku channel last night. I immediately said that the music was not right. I was focused on that aspect, so I missed the change of writer and music credits. What a horrible thing to do to a classic film! I do have a DVD version... somewhere... was not able to locate it. Things seemed to magically get shuffled around, it seems, lol. So Amazon had it on streaming for $5 and I bought that. It is the original version. Copyrights aside, it is disturbing that anyone is allowed to make changes like this to classic films. It ruins the film for people who have enjoyed it for so many years.
On RETRO REELS an app on ROKU
RETRO REELS an app on ROKU
