vitachiel
The start of the first episode of the TV movie series The Young Indiana Jones doesn't bode well for the remainder of the film. A typical voice-over narrates the story of the young Indana coming into being. It all looks like we are are in for a typical cliché-ridden American child adventure. Indy is a spoiled, know-it-better brat whose smart-ass mannerisms are rather annoying. His first trip is to Egypt, where a fresh mummy has been discovered, A short and boring whodunnit involving the mummy and a crook ensues. Next, the Jones family heads over to Morocco where Indiana and his new friend Omar fall prey to a kidnap/slave trade gang. This part of the movie is quite good. What's more, Indiana starts to show more character here; he's becoming sympathetic. Ashley Walters is strong as the slave boy Omar; the careless, happy-go-lucky attitude of Indiana juxtaposes well next to the modest and serious Omar. I was amazed by the sometimes vivid depiction of violence and death in what I suppose must be a movie for youngsters. However, it gave the film a realistic touch, which also can be said of the uncompromising way local culture is portrayed. The supporting cast was so-so. There was not much life in father and mother Jones and the other actors were quite forgettable. All in all, this is a passable adventure story with some exciting scenes. Nothing less, nothing more.
Alain English
This first episode in the Adventures of Young Indiana Jones is a great start to the series. When these episodes were broadcast in the 1990s as the "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", they were often shown out of chronological sequence and were bookended by an actor called George Hall playing an elderly Indiana Jones. Old Indy would randomly relate his tales to passing strangers, sometimes with amusing results.This has been amended for the new DVD editions, which are told in straight chronological order. What would have been two 45-minutes episodes are now linked into a straight 90-minute story, with accompanying documentaries on real-life places, situations and people Indy encounters.In this opening episode Indy goes on a world lecture tour with his father Henry Jones Sr (Lloyd Owen), and he is given tutoring by a feisty English mentor (Margaret Tyzack). He first lands in Egypt and has an encounter in the Pyramids that will change his life forever. His next stop is Tangiers, where he encounters kids his age who don't have his sheltered upbringing and where he narrowly avoids becoming a slave child.There is a flux of high production values and solid acting from supporting leads. Douglas Henshall as a hit as a young T.E Lawrence and music fans should spot Asher D (of the 'So Solid' crew) as a young slave boy befriended by Indy.Fantastic stuff.
Shawn Watson
The title is a bit of an inappropriately long mouthful and the film is clearly split into two separate halves that have nothing to do with each other. I'm not really fussed about this, as they both have enough plot and developments to keep the viewer interested.It opens with Young Indy explaining how he is no ordinary child before being shipped off around the world as his dad (Lloyd Owen doing a very good Sean Connery impression) goes on a lecture tour. Though his mother and private tutor don't take too kindly to his willingness to get into loads of trouble.When in Egypt Indy meets Laurence of Arabia and helps unearth a tomb in which a priceless headpiece is stolen (this plot is never resolved but I assume it will in later instalments). In Morocco he is kidnapped by slave traders and makes pals with a young servant.That's it really. Nothing really involving but it is nice, light entertainment. The educational aspect of Indy meeting historical figures and learning a wide range of things from them is not in the least distracting and is actually convincing as what inspires him to be the famous archaeologist that he ends up being.A promising start, I don't why John Williams didn't allow for his theme to be used though. It was even in the video games after all. And since this is a genuine Lucasfilm production I was surprised it was not included even if it would have been a bit out of place considering the material.
Chip_douglas
Like it or not, 'The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles' was never meant to be an extension of the movies. Instead of making an action packed adventure thirties' serial packed with cliffhangers and death defying stunts, viewers got an educational series recreated the start of the 20th century in two different time zones. It is no surprise many fans were disappointed. The network even tried to persuade George Lucas to forget about the nine year old Indy segments (starring Corey Carrier) and concentrate solely on the sixteen year old version (Sean Patrick Flanery), but George, stubborn as ever, refused to listen (and kept an idea in the back of his head to go back even further in time to feature a five year old Jones Jr.). When the series began to be broadcast, ABC started to push back the Corey Carier episodes, leaving several of them unaired all together. They did air in most of Europe, though the BBC, trying to show the series in chronological order, skipped them all (save the pilot), only to air them years later during an early Sunday morning time slot. When Lucas decided to reedit the entire series as 22 'feature films' (i.e. two regular episodes shown back to back with new linking material), the first batch released on video in 1999 (Lucasfilm had not yet switched to DVD at the time) consisted of 12 of the more action orientated 'films' featuring Flanery. The new versions of the Carrier episodes had to wait until the DVD release in 2007 to see the light of day.The pilot movie mentioned above was originally titled 'Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal'. It explained how Professor Henry Jones Sr. (Lloyd Owen) was invited to travel all over the world on a lecturing tour with his wife Anna (Ruth de Sosa), young Henry and a tutor, Miss Seymour (Margaret Tyzack). In Egypt the young boy met the first of countless historical figures, T.E. Lawrence, got his first taste of archeology and became involved in a Hardy Boys type mystery involving a stolen headpiece robbed from a tomb, only to lose it to a thief named Demetrious (played by the villainous 'Monkeyman' from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'). In the second half, 17 year old Indy finally caught up with Demetrious in Mexico and in the bookends, 93 year old Indy (George Hall) ties everything together while explaining to two Hispanic kids how the headpiece ended up in the museum (where it belongs).When George W. Lucas decided that the Chronicles had to be presented chronologically after all, the pilot had to be split in two. Firstly, the bookends had to be deleted from every episode, as it would make no sense to show old Indy beginning to tell a story to one person and finish recounting a completely unrelated adventure to somebody else. Secondly, new bridging sequences had to be shot. Luckilly, producer Rick McCallum had made every actor involved sign a long term contract ensuring them to be on stand by if re-shoots were needed. So, new scenes featuring Carrier, De Suza, Owen and Tyzack were shot during the production of the TV movies produced for USA Network in 1996. They even flew over Joseph Bennett (T.E. Lawrence) and Vic Tablian (Demetrios) to Tunesia for a short scene during the filming of Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1997. In this scene Lawrence manages to catch Demetrious, but is unable to retrieve the treasure, retconning the story as told by ancient Indy in the pilot (in which Demetrious escaped on a ship).It was also decided to ignore the original episodes order (each title of which revealed exactly in with month of each year the story took place) so as not to stick a comedic episode together with a drama. They could have made an effort to place the Corey Carrier shows in the order they were shot (as Corey was at an age when each year showed considerable growing spurts). But seeing as they were going to include footage of a noticeable older Carrier for the bridge segments in all of them anyway, decided not to. How the first Chronicle (shot June and July of 1991) ended up with the unaired adventure 'Tangiers, 1908' (shot in February and May of 1996) remains a mystery. The difference in Young Indy's age and appearance at the midway point is startling. What is more, his mother mentions 'their travels' and Indy talks about Switserland and Russia, indicating they had already visited these countries. Also notice that Lloyd Owen stopped wearing his brown contact lenses (that were supposed to make him resemble Sean Connery), meaning his eyes go from blue to brown and back again.However, being able to view the 'lost' Tangiers tale for the first time made me forget about these gripes. In it, Indy learns about slavery and has to comprehend that his new friend Omar is actually somebody's possession and has been ordered to do exactly what Indy tells him to. Mom, pop and Miss Seymour get little to do as usual, but Kevin McNally gets a good role one of Henry Sr's school chums. The fact that Indy disguises himself as an Arab with walnut oil is a bit hard to swallow, but at least slavery is presented more realistically here than in the aforementioned Phantom Menace. Still, you can't but help noticing some similarities between TPM and My First Adventre: whereas 9 year old Anakin in the former famously cried 'Yippee', 9 year old Indiana utters stuff like 'jeepers creepers' and 'whoopie'. Also, Sio Bibble appears as the ships captain at the start, the first of many actors that would make an appearance in the Chronicles and end up with a part in the Star Wars Prequels. In fact, McCallum made sure almost the entire crew used on Young Indy stayed on to work on the continuing Star Wars saga.7 out of 10
