The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones - Volume 1 (DVD, 2007, 12-Disc Set)

During this past week after viewing the Republican National Convention each night, Tina and I have been watching episodes of a DVD set called "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones".

I missed seeing this when it first came out on TV from 1992 -1996, as it seemed to be more like what Tina called it at first... "an afteroon TV Special".

However, we both soon got caught up in this adventureous series.

There are 7 episodes in this 12 DVD set. The reason for the xtra DVDs is that there are multiple bonus features on the peoples, times and places that Indy visited.

This is really a beautiful production, and I am glad we stopped long enough to view all of the episodes and most of the bonuses before having to return it!

For those that don't know, Henry (Indiana) Jones Jr was born July 1, 1899 in Princeton, NJ.

The first episode starts May 1908 with 'My First Adventure'. Indy meets Miss Seymour, his Oxford tutor, and the family travels to Egypt, where Indy meets Howard Carter, an archeologist.

Indy in the first five episodes is played by a young kid, Corey Carrier. It took a while for me to warm up to him, but he did a good job in portraying what had been up to that time Harrison Ford's role.

Episode 2A - Passion For Life - Sept 1908. Indy meets Picasso and Norman Rockwell in Paris. 2B - Indy meets Teddy Roosevelt in British East Africa.

Episode 3A - Perils of Cupid - Sept 1908. Indy's mom is romanced by Giacomo Puccinni. 3B - Sept 1909. Indy meets his first love at age of 10. Sigmund Freund explains love to him.

Episode 4A - Travels With Father - shown out of order as it is August 1910 in Russia with Tolstoy. 4B is in Athens Sept 1910.

Episode 5A - Journey of Radiance - January 1910 at Ganges River with Krishna. 5B - March 1910 in China where Indy almost dies of disease.

Episode 6A Spring Break Adventure - New Jersey 1916 - Thomas Edison. This episode threw me off as all of a sudden Indy is in NJ and no mention of mother and no Miss Seymour. 6B in Mexico 1916, where Indy is captured by Pancho Villa's army.

Episode 7A - Love's Sweet Song - British Isles 1916 where Indy is joining the Belgian Army to fight in The Great War (WWI).

The only thing unsettling about this DVD set is that it starts with a young kid, and then bam! All of a sudden you are 6 years in the future, no mention of mother till later, (she died), and Indy pays no attention to his dad until he gets to London where he meets Miss Seymour. She immediately dresses him down, and makes him write his father as to where he is.

Indy goes from a young boy who is always gets into the action wherever he is... to a young man who it takes a while to adjust to.

However, Tina and I do want to watch the next Volume, so the DVD set is recommended!

Lucas made this show so he could give his kids a hands on world history lesson, and deduct it as a business expense. The re-cut features without the "Old-Indy" bookends are disjointed and sometimes disappointing. This volume focuses on the younger Indy, and some of the story telling suffers since the action has to center on a 10 year old. Also in the later episodes Corey Carrier, the actor portraying Indy, can no longer pass as a 10 year old.

These critical shortcomings are more than made-up for with the documentaries, which bring a level of history to the show that network TV never would have gone for, but do fulfill Lucas's expressed intent for the series. There is no way for most of us plebes to get the hands on history lessons that Lucas gave his kids, but this set shows the powerful potential of linking a popular fictional character to real world events, and then digging deeper into the real history.

Indiana Jones fans won't be disappointed either... unless all you're after is fortune and glory.

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was a superb groundbreaking series that introduced us to Indy as a young man, first from ages 8 to 10 traveling with his parents around the world and later Indy age 17-21 as he briefly fights in the Mexican Revolution with Pancho Villa and then World War I first as a enlisted man in the Belgian army, then an officer and a spy in the French Secret Service. (This DVD set covers all of "little Indy" and the start of the older "Young Indy".) While I'm not a fan of the fact that they cut episodes that were NOT two-parters into "movies" and dropped the Old Indy (age 93) segments where he told the stories they made up with a treasure trove of newly produced documentaries about all the famous people and events Indy encounters. These documentaries are all produced by Lucasfilm and they make History Channel's usual affair seem amateurish by comparison. Lucas' original intent was to market this version of the DVDs to schools. However parent groups found the series "too violent". They prefer their kids rot their brains on Disney Channel crap. :P~. I'd say this set Volume 1 is perfect for kids age 05 and up while Volume 2 and 3 are fine for 12 and up. Beware the Mata Hari Paris 1917 episode on Volume 2 in "Demons of Deception". It oddly enough has gratuitous sex scenes (PG-13 ones) when they didn't even show that in the Indiana Jones feature films. That however is oddly paired with the superb Verdun 1917 segment which has Indy make a striking moral descion to save the lives of many soldier...If just for a few more days. However the cool part of the Mata Hari ep is they did wait for Indy to be 18 to loose his virginity and it was with Mata Hari!(Wonder if he told Mutt that since he flipped over the Pancho Villa bit in "Skull")All in all "Young Indiana Jones" is excellent work from Mr. George Lucas that while commercially flopped and not embraced by parents and educators as it should be it still has a ferverent cult following with die-hard Indy fans interest in how Indy's talents where developed rather then just the "popcorn fans" who ONLY care for his treasure hunting adventures.IMO people that only love the theatrical films are "popcorn" Indy fans. True Indiana Jones enjoy the facets and complexities of his life experiences. He didn't only meet famous ppl, they shaped the man who he would become. T.E. Lawrence and Howard Carter turned him on to Archaeology. (Lawrence also affected his decision to join the Great War.) Teddy R. and Frederick Selous taught him how to shoot (Selous later taught him how to "make it up as you go"). oh as I mentioned you know what Mata Hari taught him how to do. It's why he always left his ladies satisfied. :)

This indeed was one of the best mini series on TV. The show managed to incorporate actual historical events and personalities into the live of Indiana Jones. Well directed with a wonderful cast. Could have easily mistaken for a documentary.

Back in the 1990's I purchased the original 12 VHS tapes of the "Young Indiana Jones series" that had been released for sale. When I saw that the missing 10 episodes of the series were now available I jumped on them. Set 1 contains 5 of 7 episodes of "Indy" as an adolescent.