History Main / OrphanedReference

* In "TheRoadtoElDorado", when Tulio asks why Chel would help him and Miguel steal from her own people, she says, "You've got your reasons, and I have mine." Originally, there was going to be a scene of her almost getting sacrificed to the gods, and then escaping. This is why she is seen being chased by the guards when Tulio and Miguel first meet her. This was cut out of the film for being too dark, but was left in some promotional media, like the tie-in book on tape.

* In "TheRoadtoElDorado", when Tulio asks why Chell would help him and Miguel steal from her own people, she says, "You've got your reasons, and I have mine." Originally, there was going to be a scene of her almost getting sacrificed to the gods, and then escaping. This is why she is seen being chased by the guards when Tulio and Miguel first meet her. This was cut out of the film for being too dark, but was left in some promotional media, like the tie-in book on tape.

* ''Three Men and a Baby'' had a deleted plot thread about Jack Holden (Ted Dansen's character) appearing in a dog food commercial. This explains the cardboard standees of him that pop up in a couple spots in the final cut that [[http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/3menbaby.asp inspired]] a famous UrbanLegend.

* There's a deleted scene from ''Film/KungPow'' where an old man writes "MOUTH" on the Chosen One's face. There's a scene or two in the final cut where this writing is still visible.

** They probably figured it would be too serious for a kid's movie. Or hypocritical, since they still kept in a cannibalism joke—in a movie about ''a place that used to do that''—and had Gantu habitually refer to the humans, all but [[VingRhames one of them]] Hawaiian natives, as "trogs", which is a racial slur for Native Americans in the southwestern US.

* In ''LiloAndStitch'', Lilo is shown to enjoy taking photographs of the obese tourists who come to visit the island, which the audience is meant to assume is just part of her quirky personality. However, a deleted scene shows Lilo experiencing casual racism from white tourists who love ask her if she's going to "Hula dance" for her, and who all seem to have a very stereotypical and condescending view of Hawaiians. Then, in a surprisingly somber moment, she expresses frustration with the way visitors treat the actual natives of the island. The added context makes it clear that the photos are Lilo's way of dealing with decadent, white visitors, rather than a harmless quirk.

* In ''Film/LiloAndStitch'', Lilo is shown to enjoy taking photographs of the obese tourists who come to visit the island, which the audience is meant to assume is just part of her quirky personality. However, a deleted scene shows Lilo experiencing casual racism from white tourists who love ask her if she's going to "Hula dance" for her, and who all seem to have a very stereotypical and condescending view of Hawaiians. Then, in a surprisingly somber moment, she expresses frustration with the way visitors treat the actual natives of the island. The added context makes it clear that the photos are Lilo's way of dealing with decadent, white visitors, rather than a harmless quirk.

* In ''LiloAndStich'', Lilo is shown to enjoy taking photographs of the obese tourists who come to visit the island, which the audience is meant to assume is just part of her quirky personality. However, a deleted scene shows Lilo experiencing casual racism from white tourists who love ask her if she's going to "Hula dance" for her, and who all seem to have a very stereotypical and condescending view of Hawaiians. Then, in a surprisingly somber moment, she expresses frustration with the way visitors treat the actual natives of the island. The added context makes it clear that the photos are Lilo's way of dealing with decadent, white visitors, rather than a harmless quirk.

* In ''Film/LiloAndStich'', Lilo is shown to enjoy taking photographs of the obese tourists who come to visit the island, which the audience is meant to assume is just part of her quirky personality. However, a deleted scene shows Lilo experiencing casual racism from white tourists who love ask her if she's going to "Hula dance" for her, and who all seem to have a very stereotypical and condescending view of Hawaiians. Then, in a surprisingly somber moment, she expresses frustration with the way visitors treat the actual natives of the island. The added context makes it clear that the photos are Lilo's way of dealing with decadent, white visitors, rather than a harmless quirk.

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* In the Linkara/Nostalgia Critic review of ''Superman 4'', Linkara says "Did you know the Superman films have a parallel history to the Batman movies?" He then proceeds to cover the history of the first three Superman movies and never mentions Batman again. Not once. Obviously that scene was cut, which makes you wonder why they didn't cut that line, too.
* [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18720_7-famous-movie-flaws-that-were-explained-in-deleted-scenes.html This CRACKED article]] lists some more severe cases.
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* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal2}}'', while [[spoiler:fighting Wheatley]], he will comment that he didn't expect you to survive up till then because [[spoiler:all the others he tried to escape with died]]. WordOfGod says that this was a reference to a subplot that was ultimately dropped, but they kept the line because they thought it sounded fitting and might incite curiosity into what happened while Chell was asleep.

An Orphaned Reference is a scene or line that refers to something that has been cut from the final version. In milder cases, this only means that what was supposed to be a MeaningfulEcho loses its additional meaning; in more severe cases, the lost background information can cause apparent NoodleIncident[=s=], PlotHoles or AssPull.

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* This can occasionally happen on ''WheelOfFortune'', of all shows. Typically, the producers will edit out a cycle of turns if it doesn't affect the score (for instance, if all three players call wrong letters consecutively call wrong letters, hit [[{{Whammy}} Lose a Turn]], or hit Bankrupt when they have no money). In some instances, host Pat Sajak has made reference to such turns — most often in the form of a player accidentally calling a letter that was already called, when the first such instance was edited out; saying that a player hit Bankrupt X amount of times; or making some comment conducive to finally uncovering a letter after several wrong ones were called, even though the home viewer only saw one or two at best.

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* ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'' has references to Cedric and [[HufflepuffHouse Hufflepuff]] that are not followed up.

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* In ''Film/MarriedToTheMob'', when mobster Tommy Russo realizes that Mike Downey is an FBI agent, he flashes back to all the disguises that Mike has used throughout the movie. One of them is a uniformed police officer, but we never saw Mike disguised as a cop. It was probably from a deleted scene.

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* In ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', Tony tells Fievel they need to go to a pier for the secret plan of the mice to get rid of the cats. Fievel replies "The pier? That's a scary place!", even though Fievel was never shown at the pier before. It could have been one of the several scenes cut from the final film.

* MyImmortal has references to Cedric and [[HufflepuffHouse Hufflepuff]] that are not followed up.

* ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' had baddie Soran make a hammier than usual remark about Geordi's heart just not being in a conversation. Which made no sense on its own, but referred to a cut scene that involved him torturing Geordi by repeatedly stopping his heart. You can see the cut scene here: http://youtu.be/kI3U18GnwT8

* In ''Film/WingCommander'', the Pilgrim is asked at one point about his pilgrim pendant, to which he replies that he doesn't have it (he had it before). The reason why he lost it is never explained in the movie. The reason for that is because a scene where he stabs a traitor with the pendant was filmed but cut from the final version of the movie.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', Tony tells Fievel they need to go to a pier for the secret plan of the mice to get rid of the cats. Fievel replies "The pier? That's a scary place!", despite that Fievel was never shown at the pier before. It could have been one of the several scenes cut from the final film.