The 20th Century Fox fanfare by one Alfred Newman is an identifiable part of the Star Wars experience.  Much like the lightsaber, the Force, and the big floaty yellow space words this quick clip of music opened the entire saga over the course of the previous three decades and change as both a throwback and as a signal to the future that something really exciting was coming.  But history movies forward, legends change, and corporations must make decisions between being good stewards of our culture and the needs of a good branding opportunity.

Tonight, Yakface.com confirms this has indeed been removed from the digital edition of the saga, (visit the link to see the video) instead opting for an awkwardly spliced together bit of music from the closing credits of the original movie.  The original Star Wars film has the Fox fanfare thanks to what may well be an eternal license agreement, but the others - now belonging to Disney - made what is probably a sensible move for them and removed their competitor's branding.  It's disturbing, like seeing a blue can of Coke or a Sonic game that's actually good - it just isn't part of the natural order of things.

Of course, these things change - little studio logos were altered between the theatrical and DVD release of The Big Lebowski, and Walt Whitman revised Leaves of Grass a few times before his death.   Even The Hobbit got a rewrite to make it fit in with Lord of the Rings, but none of those were things we watched every time we were sick on cropped VHS tapes when we were home sick from school and The Price Is Right was over.

And so goes the future.