It bothers me that most Hollywood movie trailers either spoil the plot entirely, or are designed to mislead you about the film.

In 1996 I remember seeing weeks of advertising for the movie Independence Day. At first, the advertisements accurately portrayed the film as a drama/action/adventure movie. However, as popularity of the film waned, the Hollywood marketing geniuses re-framed the movie’s advertisements to portray the film as an hilarious Will Smith slapstick comedy. Was it a comedy? Well, the movie is basically about how nearly everyone on Earth is killed by some aliens. Other than that, sure, there were some funny bits. Ha.

If the movie Mary Poppins were released for the first time today, it might be pitched as a horror film instead of a family friendly musical. After all, that might pull in bigger crowds and be more popular with the important “tween” crowd. Here’s what the trailer would have looked like: