Sean Patrick Flanery stars in THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES, VOLUME 3(2008).
© Paramount Home Entertainment
DVD: The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Volume 3
Rated: Unrated
Starring: Sean Patrick Flanery
Written By: Various
Directed By: Various
Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
Original Years of Release: 1994
Extras: 30 historical documentaries
DVD Review of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Vol. 3
By: Tim JansonDate: Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The final volume of the Adventures of Young Indiana Jones is out as a young boy begins to form into the reliable hero we all know and love. Presented on 10 discs, this set features seven full-length episodes of the TV show which amount to 14 total episodes as they are spliced together to make 90-minute films. This set is a mixed bag, which includes the slapstick escapades of Tales of innocence where Indy and a young Ernest Hemingway vie for the attentions of a beautiful Italian girl; the gothic horror Masks of Evil where Indy meets Count Dracula; and the hip Mystery of the Blues featuring an unforgettable jazz music backdrop. The repartee between Flanery and Jay Underwood who plays Hemingway sizzles as they try to outdo each other with more and more elaborate gifts for the lovely Giulietta. While Masks of Evil is a fun episode, having Indy meet Dracula is too fantastic for the series and seems out of place with most of the other episodes.
The best episode in this set is The Mystery of the Blues for several reasons. First, Harrison Ford makes his only appearance in the series playing Indiana Jones circa 1950. Indy has helped an American Indian friend recover a sacred peace pipe and as they hideout in a cabin Indy relates the story of Mystery of the Blues in a flashback. Ford is only in the episode for maybe five minutes but it’s well worth it anyway. Set in Chicago, 1920, Indy is working as a busboy at a nightclub owned by gangster Big Jim Colosimo. Indy is attracted to the Jazz magnificence of musician Sidney Bichet, who takes him under his wing, giving him a saxophone and allowing him to jam with the band. The jazz and blues music in this episode is simply incredible as Indy eventually meets a young Louis Armstrong. A subplot features Colosimo being shot to death and the arrival of a new gangster from New York, Al Capone.
As with the two previous volumes this set is filled with historical documentaries pertaining to each of the episodes, some 30 in all giving the set over 25 hours of viewing time. Some of the documentaries are very dry but others are quite interesting such as a look at the real life French Foreign Legion, Dracula: Fact or Fiction, Irving Thalberg: Hollywood’s Boy Wonder, and The World of John Ford. The Mystery of the Blues disc featured documentaries on the history of jazz, prohibition, and Louis Armstrong, and Elliot Ness. Definitely the best of the featurettes!
Young Indiana Jones is vastly underrated. Throughout the show’s run there was an incredible emphasis placed on quality and historical accuracy. Sean Patrick Flanery deserves a lot of credit for helping to develop the character into the Indiana Jones of the big screen films.
Logo for the ADVENTURES OF YOUNG INDIANA JONES(2008).
© Paramount Home Entertainment
