George Lucas is emphasizing academics over adventure as he revisits the early years of his bold hero Indiana Jones.
"The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume One" arrives on DVD Tuesday, the first of three boxed sets gathering all of his youthful exploits from the 1990s TV series.
Along with seven feature-length adventures, the 12-disc set packs 38 documentary segments offering historical insight into the eras, events and illustrious figures Indy encounters, including Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison, T.E. Lawrence and Sigmund Freud.
"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," said Rick McCallum, Lucas' producing partner on "Young Indiana Jones."
I watched a few of the episodes, but it never caught my fancy. True, I might not have been the target audience at the time, but it still seemed pretty corny. And it was just too good that Young Indy just happened to meet nearly every historical figure of the early 20th century. Wow, he convinced Teddy Roosevelt not to shoot big game in Africa anymore and create the national park system!
Documentaries might be worth it, but they'll probably be directed at younger people.