Why I hate Young Indy

Junior Jones

New member
Actually, I don't. I really liked the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

The point is, I'm going to try to start some new threads here, but from past experience it's hard to have a good discussion when people keep bringing up why the show/videos/concept sucked.

So here's a thread where you can post all your negative comments. Hopefully it will help keep the other threads more positive.

Thanks for your help!
 

katanga

New member
I dont like the Young Indy series because, they havent been shown as often here in Europe. Also did I not have the chance to look at them again and again to get a realy good opinion.
 

Strider

New member
I saw only one good young Indy episode. It was the one with the hot air baloon, it had the classic Indiana Jones action element the others that I saw lacked. My objection to young Indy is it tried to get to dramatic and sentemental, and thats not what I want from Indy. I want good fun ACTION. They also didn't have the right feel to them. Another thing: I really missed the classic Indiana Jones musical theme they left out.
 

Indy Smith

New member
The theme that they adopted as the main theme would be that of the horse chase theme in Spring Break Adventure when Indy chases a mexican revolutionary who has stolen a lady's dresses.

Thing I didn't like was it seemed there was a departure from the Young Indy in the feature film. The Young Indy in the movie seemed gung-ho for adventure and especially for standing up for the right thing. In Spring Break Adventure, it was his girlfriend who was more concerned with the adventure and Indy was concerned over his job and classes rather than doing the right thing. However, this did change and his character developed so maybe thats why this was done, just to highlight change.
 

Ayrun

Moderator Emeritus
Strider said:
My objection to young Indy is it tried to get to dramatic and sentemental, and thats not what I want from Indy. I want good fun ACTION. They also didn't have the right feel to them. Another thing: I really missed the classic Indiana Jones musical theme they left out.

Strider, I couldn't agree more. :)

I mean, don?t get me wrong?To kill some time, I don't have a problem watching them? if just out of curiosity.. or pure boredom?
But when I see the name 'Indiana Jones' in a title? THIS isn't what I expect or what I'm looking for.

katanga said:
I dont like the Young Indy series because, they havent been shown as often here in Europe.

Yeah, that's true?
Shame though? I too would have got a better opinion of them, if they'd show them more often.
 

Lon

New member
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was about character development and not an "artifact of the week" concept that most casual fans probably expected from the show. Most people today would rather SEE something get blown up rather than CARE that something was blown up.

When Sean Connery tells Harrison Ford in Last Crusade, "You left just when you were becoming interesting," is what The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was about. It's where Indy went and what he did. Many of the episodes have action in them but they weren't about the action, they were about Indy.

Personally I love the series and can't wait for the DVD set. I think the series combined with the movies gives us the COMPLETE adventures of Indiana Jones.
 

Marcus Petrius

New member
In my opinion they were too much about teaching us stuff.
Stuff about WWI, stuff about ancient history, stuff about nature, and most importantly, stuff about life.
In every episode he would find out that not every German is bad, that Arabs are people too and things like that.
I don't need that in an Indiana Jones movie. I want to see Raiders-style action, nothing more, nothing less.

Mike
 

IAdventurer01

Well-known member
Actually, I can't really say why I don't like Young Indy. It had its moments but all in all I guess it just lacked the Indy feel to it, know what I mean?
 

Indy Smith

New member
Marcus Petrius said:
In my opinion they were too much about teaching us stuff.
Stuff about WWI, stuff about ancient history, stuff about nature, and most importantly, stuff about life.
In every episode he would find out that not every German is bad, that Arabs are people too and things like that.
I don't need that in an Indiana Jones movie. I want to see Raiders-style action, nothing more, nothing less.

Mike

Well if thats the case you go watch Raiders again and again :) The people that made it wanted it to be more than just that and flesh out things a little bit.
 

Junior Jones

New member
Marcus Petrius said:
I want to see Raiders-style action, nothing more, nothing less.

There's no way that was going to happen, not in a weekly series. You can do that in a feature film every few years, but not once a week. It would get redundant, and you'd get bored with it. You can't keep that level of action up at that pace.
 

Indy Smith

New member
Junior Jones said:
There's no way that was going to happen, not in a weekly series. You can do that in a feature film every few years, but not once a week. It would get redundant, and you'd get bored with it. You can't keep that level of action up at that pace.

Actually, wasn't raiders based on TV series that had these forumalic styles to them anyways?
 

Katarn07

New member
I loved Train of Doom (the air balloon one) and Peacock's Eye.

I own Mystery of the Blues and Daredevils of the Desert. The former is great because Harrison Ford's in it! The other is ok, but it's just not that great.

I hate how Indy knows everyone from history, too. T.E. Lawrence and Elliot Ness, for example.
 

Junior Jones

New member
Indy Smith said:
Actually, wasn't raiders based on TV series that had these forumalic styles to them anyways?

It was based on movie serials that used to play in theaters between feature films (along with cartoons). I don't know how often new ones came out, but I know that each episode was only about 10 minutes long.
 

Junior Jones

New member
Strider said:
Good point bub. The fact that he knows all those people IS annoying.

I admit it was a little far-fetched for him to meet all those famous people. But I think its neat how he met so many of them before they were famous, when they were just normal people. I wonder how many normal, average people I pass every day who will someday be famous, or at least well known.
 

Indyologist

Well-known member
What I liked about the Young Indy series was getting to learn about Indy's personality and his history. I also greatly appreciated Harrison Ford's appearance as an older Indiana Jones in "Mystery of the Blues." I didn't like his scruffy, gray beard, though. Still, it was great to see him!

What I didn't like was the series portrayal of Indy as an idealistic goody-goody. I mean, I don't think Indy should go and rape anyone or steal anything, but somehow his character was too squeaky clean. They make him look like a pathetic "yes man" to every "90s" issue when it was actually the 20s. If it was bad (communism, racism, descrimination against women), Indy was against it. If it was good (opposite of the above) he was for it. Am I saying that Indy should have reflected some of the ignorant attitudes of the times just to be realistic? Should Indy be a scalawag? Of course not. They had to show Indy as a "good guy" as far as issues were concerned so that he would look "ahead of his time" in his attitudes somehow. But that's where the show lacked. But by introducing these issues and attitudes, the show became philosophical/analytical/preachy. This philisophy, IMHO, took away from the action/adventure of the show. It somehow seemed an effort for the makers to weave history, hot button issues and Indy's personality together.

Still, I actually wouldn't have minded if some issues were presented in the series if they had treated them more like a statement then a 2 hour preachy sermon. I feel they should have toned way down on issues and focused on 1.) Indy's personal history, 2.) Action and 3.) Adventure. I did like to see Indy deal with the events that were going on when he was younger, but I just didn't like the way they had Indy handle some of it. I feel his personality was just too idealistic. I think Indy should have been a little more rough around the edges in this series. I think young Indy would have been more of an angry young man with some personal issues involving authority, but a mature, considerate young man with unusually keen judgment and a knack for getting into trouble.

But, I WILL say that Sean Patrick Flannery was a dead ringer for young Indy and he was really, really cute! If wish they would have covered over that mole on his neck with some makeup, though. Then the illusion of young Indy would have been complete.

Okay, that's my 2 cents, folks.
 

Junior Jones

New member
Indy's idealism:

I love that Indy started out so idealistic. As the show went on, we witnessed the events that tempered the idealism and made him into the cynical adult we know.

Examples:
Indy finds himself in Mexico and sympathizes with the revolutionists, but after he joins up he finds out that things aren't as black and white.

He hears about the Great War in Europe and eagerly goes to London to sign up. Then he witnesses the carnage and insanity of war in the trenches and transfers out into intelligence.

After the war he works at the Paris Peace Conference and sees how promises are made and broken.

Back home, in Chicago, Indy and his friends track down some gangsters and learn that the corrupt police are in their pockets.


Over the course of the series, you can see Indy's original idealism slowly worn away. Eventually we would have seen him develop the attitudes we know him for.
 

bob

New member
Hmmm interesting points Junior, but for me I just never really saw that arc the YIJ of the series seems to be an entirely different character than that of the movie series, it seems to me that the change happened elsewhere.

And YIJ's naivety is simply ridiculous (and patronising) for me, and for me he seems almost without any meaningful character other than to serve as the eyes for the viewer.

It is an interesting series but it is not Indiana Jones, it is something else - edu-tainment (shudder).
 

Junior Jones

New member
One thing that I think hurt the series (there are a lot of others) was the fact that it was not chronological. They skipped around from place to place and year to year. It made it hard to follow the character development we've been discussing.

I had some friends who were confused by this. One couldn't understand why Indy was such a dork while working with Nancy "Drew" in Princeton after he had been a spy in WWI. I had to explain that Princeton took place before the war episodes even though it was broadcast after.

Now that we can watch the series in order, it's easier to see the progression.
 
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