Six Degrees of Indiana Jones

For those old enough to recall the short-lived Young Indiana Jones television series, you will most likely remember a charismatic Sean Patrick Flanery filling the title role. This first installment of the series, however, focuses mostly upon the prepubescent Indy, played with a relative lack of child-actor obnoxiousness by Corey Carrier. Flanery finally makes his debut on DVD 8 of 12. While there are definitely some "Anakin" moments in the younger Jones' episodes (think Phantom Menace: 'Mr. Qui-Gon, Sir, what are mitichlorians?') they are mercifully few and far between. Overall, the cast is top notch and the acting quite good, particularly by children's television standards. The creators of the series evidently spared little expense: many of the international adventures appear to have been filmed on location, and period settings and costumes are rendered with an impressive level of detail. Writing is sometimes a bit flat and simplistic, though this is most likely a conscious attempt not to lose younger viewers. Pacing might best be described as leisurely, particularly in the Corey Carrier episodes, but overall the stories unfold efficiently enough, with only infrequent examples of poorly edited scenes bogged down by too much inconsequential dialogue. Oh, and young Indy apparently met pretty much EVERYONE who was ANYONE during his lifetime. Nice work if you can get it.

The youngest Indy adventures draw their forward momentum and plot devices from the Jones family's travels abroad, matronly British tutor in tow. In addition to the more overtly educational interactions with his tutor, young Indy's presence as his parents' traveling companion provides numerous occasions for historical and cultural exposition, often furnished by his father - played here as an understated, youthful version of Sean Connery's Henry Jones Sr. (brogue and all) by Lloyd Owen. These informational interludes are generally handled with a light touch...unless your children are particularly media-savvy, they may not even recognize the educational elements of the shows. In addition to the wealth of worldly factoids and cinematically realized portrayals of significant historical figures within the feature episodes, the DVD collection also contains an extensive library of high-quality supporting featurettes. These mini-documentaries provide an impressive amount of additional historic detail and context for some of the events and period personalities portrayed in the Indy stories. Production value for these extras is also quite impressive - easily on par with History or Discovery Channel productions, complete with the obligatory interviews with eminent experts. Beyond the educational value of the factual content in the Indy episodes, the stories also effectively articulate themes such as multiculturalism, religious tolerance, responsibility, cultural sensitivity, environmentalism, compassion, inclusiveness, generosity, etc. which will be readily understood by even young children. Again, none of the philosophical or humanistic content is presented in a heavy-handed or dogmatic way, and frequently opposing viewpoints are represented and explored in an admirably balanced fashion. Educational content in the Sean Patrick Flanery episodes tends to be more thoroughly integrated into the plot and more contextual in nature rather than expository.

Apparently some changes were made in the process of translating the TV series to DVD. As a result, the "Old Indy" reminiscences which bookended many of the original TV episodes are gone. Other episodes and portions of episodes have been rearranged and/or edited together in ways that can be less than satisfying if you are paying close attention to narrative continuity. On the very first DVD, for instance, a segment involving T.E. Lawrence ends rather abruptly, and suddenly the Joneses are in a different part of north Africa with nary a sentence or signpost to make the segue or explain how the previous situation was resolved. In a later episode, things become clearer...but it's a long wait for closure. Overall, however, the reworked collection hangs together well enough - and viewers who never saw the original broadcast series probably won't even realize that anything is different.