THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES Vol. 1
© Paramount Home Entertainment
Mania Grade: A-
Maniac Grade: A-
Rated: Unrated
Cast: Sean Patrick Flannery, Corey Carrier, Geroge Hall
Writer: Geroge Lucas and others
Director: Carl Shultz and others
Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2007
Extras: 38 Docutmentaries
Buy it now!
Maniac Grade: A-
Rated: Unrated
Cast: Sean Patrick Flannery, Corey Carrier, Geroge Hall
Writer: Geroge Lucas and others
Director: Carl Shultz and others
Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2007
Extras: 38 Docutmentaries
Buy it now!
THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES Vol. 1
Review Date: Sunday, November 04, 2007Brother can you spare a week or two? That’s about how long it’s going to take you to get through this massive 12 disc boxed set, the first of three volumes showcasing the adventures of Young Indiana Jones. This show, originally broadcast on ABC from 1992 – 1993, and then later on the USA network, was one of the most ambitious television shows in history. Indiana Jones creator, George Lucas served as the series’ Executive Producer and also wrote the bulk of the episodes. This was also one of the most expensive shows to produce as it was shot on location all around the world. The series is also one of the more complicated in terms of its chronology and production.
First, episodes featured two different Young Indy’s…there was Corey Carrier who played the character at approximately nine or ten years old, and then Sean Patrick Flanery who played Indy in his older teens and early 20’s. Complicating matters was that the show was not presented chronologically. One week may be the younger Indy and the next, the older Indy. Now here’s where it really gets interesting…a number of hour long episodes were pieced together to make a feature length film such as Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal in which the first half of the film feature Corey Carrier and the second half continues the story (Chronologically 8 years later) with the older Indy. HOWEVER, the DVD set is not piecing them together in the same way. The DVD set is presenting seven feature-length episode (two TV episodes) but doing it in more of a timeline/geographic order. (I told you it was complicated). They also renamed these episodes. Thus, the first Episode titled “My First Adventure” finds 9 year old Indy on the trail of a stolen Egyptian artifact but in the second half, he is now in Morocco being kidnapped by slavers and noticeably a bit older by a year or so.
Indy’s father is played by George Hall who sounds remarkably like Sean Connery. Henry Sr. has been asked to speak all over the world and takes his wife and young son with him on his journeys. Thus begins a life of adventure and archaeology! Throughout the series, Young Indy would frequently meet famous historical figures. In the opening episode, he meets British officer T.E. Lawrence (Of Lawrence of Arabia fame) as well as archaeologist Howard Carter, still several years away from finding King Tut’s tomb. The Second episode, “Passion for Life” pairs original episodes “British East Africa” and “Paris” into the full length feature as Indy first meets President Teddy Roosevelt for a safari in Africa, and then a youthful Norman Rockwell in Paris.
Once the emphasis shifts to the older, Sean Patrick Flanery Indy, the adventures and danger truly begin to ramp up as we can see the young man that will become the character of the feature Hollywood films and I was very impressed with Flanery’s performance throughout the series. “Spring Break Adventure” features the teenaged Indy contending with German spies out to steal an invention of Thomas Edison, while the second half concludes the Curse of the Jackal storyline from the very first Young Indy episode in Egypt.
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DVD Review of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Vol. 3
INDIANA JONES: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE (Hardcover)
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The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Vol. 2
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