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by Raul Burriel Published: October 30, 2007
Squarely aimed at a younger audience and bouncing between two sets of characters and two serialized storylines, there's no question why the series failed to find an audience. High production value (the episodes look as lush and elaborate as series on TV today) and low ratings sank the show. The serialized episodes played like movies (as the later constant repackaging of the episodes would attest). Meant to educate as well as entertain (an early example of edutainment?), young Indy would travel the world meeting with prominent historical figures of the early 20th century. Volume One of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones on DVD gives us a whopping 12 discs and 7 "feature length" episodes (as has been done since the show was cancelled, the one-hour episodes have been repackaged into mini-movies). But beyond that, the set also delivers a staggering amount of bonus material. Here we find no less than 38 documentaries focusing on the historical figures and events that young Indy encounters. The bonus material alone weighs in at more than 20 hours. That's TWICE the length of source material itself! Like the show itself, the documentaries are meant to educate a younger audience. Produced as additional material for a DVD set, that such an effort was made to create these documentaries is stunning. While not exactly on par with documentaries found on PBS, these films - varying in length from about 20 minutes to just under an hour - are easily the match of anything found on the History Channel. And if that isn't enough, the last disc is dedicated entirely to bonus and interactive material, including a DVD-ROM interactive game and interactive timeline, and a 40-minute lecture entitled "The Promise of Progress" from Professor H.W. Brands of the University of Texas at Austin. This collection is like taking advanced placement history credit in high school. Bonus features are often a selling point for a DVD, but rarely - if ever - do they outshine the primary material. In this case, it's like getting the early 20th century on DVD, and tossing in a little young Indiana Jones to boot. The episodes themselves tend to drag. While there's ample amounts of thrilling action and adventure, there's also too much edification as the screenwriters ultimately try too hard to teach you something. Adults will simply find the adventures of young Indiana Jones tedious while children will almost certainly doze off. The bonus material appeals, unsurprisingly, to history buffs. It would be hard to find so much historical information squeezed into one package, making it a very desirable product for history buffs, indeed. But even here there are stumbling blocks. A history buff, first and foremost, must be aware of the sheer magnitude of supplemental material on these discs before he can even consider to purchase the collection. Then he has to convince himself to pay the $130 ($70 at Amazon.com) for that bonus material. Lucasfilm and Paramount Home Video have a tough sell. Ultimately, Indiana Jones fans will find themselves buying this collection for the love of the character and will probably watch neither every episode nor documentary. Those who may benefit most from the collection - history buffs and educators - are unlikely to buy it at all since it's hard to make such a large financial investment for what is, ultimately, supplemental material. It's a shame that these documentaries can only be obtained by buying this collection of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. Those wanting to see the episodes individually can probably still catch them in the mornings on History Channel after airings of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones episodes. But if you want all these documentaries in one place, you'll have to buy this set. Alone, the documentaries would have earned a B+ and The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones would have earned a C. Together, I can only give this collection a B-. Volume two of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones is scheduled to be released December 18th. |
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