Tag: Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

An Indiana Jones Land at Animal Kingdom: Yes, there is a heaven on earth–or rather–there soon will be

 

I love covering these more fun topics because there is a lot of very serious news out there.  But to me all this is connected whether we’re talking about business, politics, or entertainment—we are talking about culture building.  What makes human beings distinct and very unique in the universe is our vast imaginations.  Even if we were to meet intelligent life capable of working out the details of Type 1 or 2 Civilizations of interstellar travel I would put the human imagination up against anybody.  I see great promise for human potential in our arts, our literature, our religions, our buildings, sculptures, and paintings and I think over the next 1000 years we will become to be known as distinctly unique among all creation.  So I have no problem taking a moment to revere elements that I think are very special.  For me personally Walt Disney “the man” was the king and his vision for Disney World was magnificent.  The way he bought up all that property in Florida under a cloak of secrecy was brilliant and it’s starting to pay off big time 50 years later in the evolution of the human race.  Everyone who reads here knows how excited I am about the new Star Wars Land called Galaxy’s Edge that is coming to Hollywood Studios in 2019.  I’ve made no secret about what I think that does on a vast scale of art and human achievement—aside from just being a cool place to visit.  Well, rumor has it which has gained serious traction in mid-August 2017 that an Indiana Jones Land is being considered at Animal Kingdom and let me just say that for me that is jaw dropping exciting.   I may move there just to visit it every day—that news is that exciting to me.

To some, Indiana Jones is just four movies with a fifth one on the way that were fun throwbacks to a style of filmmaking that died in the 1950s.  They are still fun to watch and people generally like them.  They’ve certainly held up to the tests of time.  However, I would argue that Indiana Jones has been the single greatest contributor to science and the funding of sciences in the history of the world.  Because of Indiana Jones—I would argue—science went from a geeky academic pursuit and moved to a mainstream coolness that is largely funding the efforts of cable television to this very day.  Without Indiana Jones I don’t think Josh Gates would have any television shows on The Travel Channel.  I don’t think half the archeology which has really opened up our understanding of history would have happened especially the great work that English Heritage has done in Europe.  Indiana Jones made studying history cool and that has greatly benefited the entire human race in ways that are impossible to pin down.  If you interviewed most people in the history fields you’d find an Indian Jones fan deep in their hearts.

Even the History Channel’s popular show Ancient Aliens got a lot of its fuel for programming investment based on the premise of the last Indiana Jones film, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.   So the footprint of Indiana Jones on the sciences in our culture is huge.   I grew up with those movies and it’s hard for me often to tell which I like more, Indiana Jones or Star Wars as products of Lucasfilm.   Indiana Jones suits me more on a personal level.  I love the character and the enthusiasm Indiana Jones has for life—he’s a wonderful invention from the mind of George Lucas and a real gift to our civilization.  I personally think Raiders of the Lost Ark is the greatest movie of all time—it’s better than Citizen Kane, it’s better than Casablanca, it’s better than Ben Hur.  It’s a technical masterpiece in every film making category and it justifiably deserves its place in history.

In the back of my mind I was hoping that under the Disney ownership of Lucasfilm that Indiana Jones would be elevated in their park presence.  For me the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular at Hollywood Studios is worth the price of admission all by itself.  To have his own land similar to what is being done for Star Wars would be I think a magnificent endeavor that would spark the minds of many would-be scientists for decades to come.   Even better the chance to immerse yourself into an Indian Jones story is something a lot of people would enjoy.  I know I would.  The study of archaeology is a new science and there is a lot to yet uncover about our own past—and starting from a point of imagination—asking “what if” is the way to begin that productive process.

Having an Indiana Jones land at Animal Kingdom would without question ignite many of those young minds to a more serious career in the sciences by revering some of the fun that can happen in the world of adventure.  I’d be inclined just to go there to read books in that fantasy Indiana Jones environment.  Based on what Disney has done with Avatar and is doing with Toy Story, Cars, and now Star Wars—making an Indiana Jones land would dramatically enhance the goal of Animal Kingdom as an education platform attached to thrilling entertainment.   Indiana Jones may be a fictional character but he is the jumping off point for most people in understanding the reasons behind science.  I find the character and spirit of Indiana Jones to be remarkably optimistic and fun.  It is fun to learn new languages, it is fun to discover new things, and it is fun to always try to do something even if it doesn’t work out.  Indiana Jones isn’t always successful, but he does always try to be.  He’s a wonderful character.

IMG_5099.JPGI enjoyed Raiders of the Lost Ark so much as a kid that I bought and read The Egyptian Book of the Dead when I was 12 years old complete with hieroglyphics.   When I was 13 my grandmother gave me some really fantastic books, The Living Bible Encyclopedia in Story and Pictures which came in 16 volumes and were published in 1968.  They are real treasures before revisionism of history had really set in to contaminate such works.  I spent the next couple years reading them voluminously.  At 14 I was a member of the New York City club for rare books and prints.  They didn’t last very long, they didn’t make it out of the 80s, but I loved getting their catalog and sometimes saving up $200 in lawn mowing money to buy some rare book from a remote corner of the world—and reading it.  Nobody in public school convinced me that reading was important but once I saw Indiana Jones, reading became a huge part of my life and still is to this day.  Indiana Jones was smart and tough breaking the belief that you had to be one or the other and for me that made a life changing framework which still is a huge part of my life.  So having a real Indiana Jones world that you can walk around in and interact with would be tremendous to young minds waiting for a spark to ignite their imaginations.

More Indiana Jones in our culture would help it.  With that said, Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones.  But there have been other actors in the very good television show The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles which I have all the DVD collection sets that use the character to tell the story of our history and they are real treasures.  There is a lot that Disney could do with Indiana Jones to inspire education in youth while telling fresh stories to keep the imaginations alive in all people no matter what their age.  Just the movies have done much of what we see today in scientific optimism.  I was at the Louvre in Paris a few months ago standing at the Mona Lisa and I joked to my daughter that we had first experienced that painting at that famous museum during an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles as she was growing up.  That’s what we did as a family.  We watched Indiana Jones movies together and I certainly gave them the adventure bug because of it.  In fact today one of my son-in-laws is going on a cross-country motorcycle trip today and both of my daughters are going sky diving—and when they were all younger we watched  Indiana Jones movies and those Young Indy DVDs together—and they inspired them too.  Anyway, we’re at The Louvre talking about Indiana Jones and the Mona Lisa and an employee who was French and couldn’t speak a bit of English came over and spoke to us upon hearing the name, Indiana Jones.  Yes, he understood the show we were talking about, he had seen it and that was what inspired him to work at The Louvre and become interested in art.  We were able to communicate because we all mutually loved Indiana Jones.  That is the power of that kind of character and the marvelous opportunity that Disney has by putting an Indiana Jones land in their Animal Kingdom.  It would be sheer magic for me, but for many other people, it would be a place of inspiration and adventure.   I can’t freaking wait!

Rich Hoffman

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“Winds of Change”: Some of the best, most relevant television ever produced

As I spoke yesterday about the importance that Joseph Campbell played in my personal education, one of the people who most helped the JCF get off the ground and become that resolute organization was George Lucas.   Of course he is  known for the Star Wars films and was the creator of Indiana Jones—but I think George’s best  work as a filmmaker was a little known television project that was shown on ABC by Bob Igor, today’s CEO of Disney way back in 1992 to 1996.  That project was called The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and was considered “edutainment.”  Just prior to the release of the last Indiana Jones feature film, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Lucasfilm released all of the Young Indy television shows on DVD, which of course I snagged up the moment they were released.  I literally pulled them off the delivery truck at Best Buy.  The DVD set was released in three gigantic collections and feature what I think is some of the best television ever done—not just because I enjoy the Indiana Jones character, but because the production quality, and content of each of the shows was impeccable.  Lucas used the character of Indiana Jones to essentially tell the history of the start of the 20th century and it was a remarkable undertaking.  For instance—one of my favorite episodes is the one shown below in several parts.  It is called “Winds of Change” and is about the Treaty of Versailles and covers nothing less than the modern troubles in the Middle East, the cause of the Vietnam War, and the reason for World War II all in a one hour episode.  It is really quite brilliant and if you want your child to know anything about history—or you want to fill the gaps of your own understanding, this is a great place to start.  Because of the modern pertinence to the trouble in the Middle East, watch the “Winds of Change” now through the clips below.  If you enjoy it, consider picking up the entire DVD set. They are tremendous treasures.

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 4, 1992, to July 24, 1993. Filming took place in various locations around Wilmington, North Carolina and on the campus of UNCW. The series was an Amblin Entertainment/Lucasfilm production in association with Paramount Network Television.

The series explores the childhood and youth of the fictional character Indiana Jones and primarily stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Corey Carrier as the title character, with George Hall playing an elderly version of Jones for the bookends of most episodes, though Harrison Ford bookended one episode. The show was created and executively produced by George Lucas, who also created, co-wrote and executively produced the Indiana Jones feature films.

Most episodes of the series depicted famous and not-so-famous historical figures, for example T.E. Lawrence, Leo Tolstoy, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Al Capone, Pablo Picasso, Frederick Selous and Mata Hari.

Notable guest stars (playing either fictional or historical characters) include: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Daniel Craig, Christopher Lee, Peter Firth, Vanessa Redgrave,Beata Pozniak, Jennifer Ehle, Elizabeth Hurley, Timothy Spall, Anne Heche, Jeffrey Wright, Jeroen Krabbé, Jason Flemyng, Michael Kitchen, Kevin McNally, Francisco Quinn, Ian McDiarmid, Max von Sydow, Douglas Henshall, Sean Pertwee, Terry Jones, Keith David, Lukas Haas, Jay Underwood, Michael Gough, Maria Charles, and Haluk Bilginer.

Due to its enormous budget, the series was canceled in 1993. However, following the series’ cancellation, four made-for-television films were produced from 1994 to 1996 in an attempt to continue the series. In 1999, the series was re-edited into 22 television films under the title The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones.

Between 1992 and 1997, the series was nominated for 27 Emmy Awards and won 12.[25] In 1993, Corey Carrier was nominated for the Young Artist Award in the category of “Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Series”. In 1994, David Tattersall was nominated for the ASC Award in the category of “Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Regular Series”. At the 1994 Golden Globes, the series was nominated for “Best TV-Series — Drama”.[26]

In 2002, series producer Rick McCallum confirmed in an interview with Variety that DVDs of the series were in development, but would not be released for “about three or four years”.[8] At the October 2005 press conference for the Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith DVD, McCallum explained that he expected the release to consist of 22 DVDs, which would include around 100 documentaries which would explore the real-life historical aspects that are fictionalized in the show. For the DVDs, Lucasfilm upgraded the picture quality of the original 16 mm prints and remastered the soundtracks. This, along with efforts to get best quality masters and bonus materials on the sets, delayed the release.[9] It was ultimately decided that the release would tie into the release of the fourth Indiana Jones feature film.

Two variations of Volume 1 were released by CBS DVD, one simply as “Volume One”, and the other as “Volume One — The Early Years” in order to match the subtitle of Volume 2.

The History Channel acquired television rights to all 94 of the DVD historical documentaries.[10][11] The airing of the documentaries was meant to bring in ratings for the History Channel and serve as marketing for the DVD release and the theatrical release ofIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.[12] The History Channel and History International began airing the series every Saturday morning at 7AM/6C on The History Channel, and every Sunday morning at 8AM ET/PT on History International. A new division of History.com was created devoted to the show. As Paramount and Lucasfilm had already reserved IndianaJones.com solely for news and updates related to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, StarWars.com temporarily served as the official site for the DVDs—providing regular updates, insider looks and promotions related to them.[13] However, Lucasfilm and Paramount soon set up an official website proper for the series—YoungIndy.com.[14] Paramount released a press kit for the media promoting the DVDs, which consists of a .pdf file[15] and several videos with interviews with Lucas and McCallum, and footage from the DVDs.[16] A trailer for the DVDs was also published on YoungIndy.com, with a shorter version being shown on The History Channel and History International.

Lucas and McCallum hoped that the DVDs would be helpful to schools, as they believed the series was a good way to aid in teaching history. Lucas explained that the series’ DVD release will be shopped as “films for a modern day high school history class.”[17] He believes the series is a good way to teach high school students 20th Century history.[18] The plan was always to tie the DVD release of the series to the theatrical release of the fourth Indiana Jones feature film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was released on May 22, 2008.[8][19][20][21]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Young_Indiana_Jones_Chronicles

After watching the Lawrence of Arabia recently I had to go back and watch the Young Indy episode “Winds of Change.”   It was after all through Young Indy that I was introduced to T.E. Lawrence who was a personal friend to Indiana Jones on the show.  Jones met T.E. Lawrence in Cairo at the pyramids when he was a very young child being homeschooled by a private tutor.  The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is an answer to the education void found today.  The work has been done by producers like Lucas and is available for a relatively cheap price.  The series is television at its absolute best—it was entertaining, fun, but best of all—educational.  After watching all those episodes so many years ago, then again with my family when the DVDs hit the market once again with their 90 one hour long documentaries produced exclusively by Lucasfilm what is found is a phenomenal effort not even surpassed by the National Geographic Society or the Smithsonian.

Often I would read more about the characters in the Young Indy episodes after seeing them for the first time during the broadcasts and would marvel at how accurate the writers for the show were at capturing their historical significance with precision.  In the cynical world that we see today in most entertainment formats, do yourself a favor that will help directly in understanding the modern world—watch the DVDs of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles with your family and learn together about history.  Because I can’t think of a better way to tell about the events that have shaped our lives better than through the character of Indiana Jones as he become the kind of action hero so well known to motion pictures presently.  The character became the kind of person he was due to his vast education with the most significant figures of the past who shaped the world for good and bad—but none-the-less—shaped it all the same.

If you care about the education of your family, click the link below to start an unforgettable journey.

http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Young-Indiana-Jones-Volume/dp/B000VDDDVE

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com