“The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume One” arrived on DVD today (Tuesday — Dec. 23). This set is the first of a planned 3-Box Set that will cover the entire TV series from the 1990’s, according to George Lucas. The television series starred Sean Patrick Flanery as the teenage Indiana Jones. Sean has been a guest on our show and can now be seen on the USA Network’s hit series “The Dead Zone” starring as Greg Stillson, the antagonist to lead actor Anthony Michael Hall’s character. The ABC 1992 series also starred Corey Carrier as the pre-teen Indy.
Volume Two of the 3-part series is expected as early as December 18. The final DVD set will be released in the spring of 2008 as a send-off to the fourth Indiana Jones theatrical film, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” coming in theaters on May 22, 2008. This fourth film stars Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, Shia Lebeouf as his son, and Karen Allen returns after almost 20 years since first appearing as Marion Ravenwood, Indy’s love interest in “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.” “Crystal Skull” also stars Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Jim Broadbent. Steven Spielberg will direct the George Lucas/David Koepp script.
The entire “Young Indy” DVD release includes 12-dics with all seven feature-length adventures, 38 documentaries and historical insight that covers the various Indy eras.
“Hopefully, it’ll be used in schools. It’s a very fun way to introduce young people to historical events in the beginning of the 20th century,” Lucas said.
The DVD series will also cover some of the important historical figures Jones has come into contact with during his adventures. Such important characters as Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison, T.E. Lawrence and Sigmund Freud, will be seen. Commentaries from modern day figures like Colin Powell, Gloria Steinem, Martin Scorsese and Henry Kissinger will figure prominently.
“If Indy just touches on it, sees it or hears about a major historical character, there’s a full half-hour documentary on every one of those people,” Rick McCallum, Lucas’ producing partner on “Young Indiana Jones” told AP.
“History for most kids starts with the release of `Transformers.’ There’s just no concept of the last century whatsoever,” McCallum said. “Kids aren’t even aware of World War II. They think the Germans were our allies and Martians were the bad guys.”
“The DVD set will also include a documentary primer about the realities of Indy’s profession,” stated AP movie writer David Germain. “….archaeologists stress that their work involves painstaking research and excavation, and rarely wild adventure or treasure hunts.”
“There’s a significant difference between the life of Indiana Jones and what most Egyptologists or other archaeologists do,” Kent Weeks, an Egyptologist at American University in Cairo, said in the documentary. “You can’t go in there and say, `Today, I’m going to come back with gold and jewels beyond the dreams of avarice.'”
Carrier and Flanery reprised their roles 4-years later in 1996 for the Emmy winning “Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father” made for TV movie.
Don’t forget FIDO releases today also!
WOOOOOT! dad been showing me these , he had them recorded and they are great!! so glad this came out!
darcy
I think the title of the original Indiana Jones movie was “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, not “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” (unless Lucas changed the name of the movie – can he do that?)
George changed it later. You are correct in that it was originally released as simply “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” After the obvious popularity of the film and its spawned franchise – the title was extended to include I.J. in the title, as all successive films have done.