The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Vol. Two - The War Years

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles ran from 1992 to 1994 on ABC, as kind of a series of prequel stories to the trilogy of films that exploded at the box office. Surprise, surprise, the idea came from George Lucas, one of the masterminds behind the landmark films. He wanted to make history interesting by having Indy run into famous people from that time, in addition to filling in some of the backstory behind the somewhat mysterious adventure hero. During its run Indy ran across T.E. Lawrence, Pancho Villa, Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Schweitzer, Pablo Picasso, Al Capone and Thomas Edison among other notable persons.

Now on DVD, this series has become more than it ever could have on TV. There were 44 one-hour episodes made that were broadcast sporadically, so there were no seasons to speak of. Lucas and company have gone back and edited the episodes into 22 "movies" broken up into three sets: seven on the first and final sets, and eight on The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones - Volume 2: The War Years.

This set chronicles Indy's his trips to Asia, Europe and Africa while in the Belgian army during World War I (he was too young to volunteer for the American army). Along the way, he's captured and imprisoned with Charles de Gaulle; meets up with Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon; falls in love with Mata Hari; is cured of malaria by Albert Schweitzer and shot down and captured by the Red Baron. And that's just the beginning.

In a word, this set is action-packed, showing all sides of war, from being on the front lines and the philosophies behind the fighting, to everyone who got caught in the middle and how it effected their lives.

The special features are abundant, with over 13 hours of special features. Each DVD contains one movie which is about an hour and a half in length, in addition to three or four in-depth documentaries - over two dozen in all. The ninth disc is solely devoted to interactive special features, such as a timeline that details the history and locations of Indy's adventures, and previews footage of the companion documentaries and a game.

When all 3 box sets are released, the 22 movies will have 94 accompanying documentaries; quite an accomplishment for a series that doesn't have that many episodes to begin with. The documentaries detail the times, places and/or people that young Indy comes across in his adventures. With commentary from historians and luminaries, these documentaries are educational in addition the being interesting, something that this set does quite well.

My only criticism of this set (and this issue seems to have the fans divided) is that when these episodes were originally broadcast, there were bookends in each episode with George Hall playing "Old Indy" (Indiana Jones at around age 90). I wish Lucas would have left them in on the DVD releases, or at least had them in a deleted scenes section or Easter egg.

I enjoyed The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles when they first aired and am happy that they have finally made their way to DVD, the final seven movies will be released in time to coincide with the next Indiana Jones movie in May 2008. Simply can't wait.