Hey- I finally got around to watching "Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah's Umbrella". It was a lot of fun!
You can read a good synopsis of the story at the Wikipedia page
here.
But I will try to share a few of my favorite Indy-inspired moments while it's still pretty fresh in my head.
As you probably guesed from the title, this adventure involves Larry the Cucumber again starring as Minnesota Cuke and looking for Noah's Ark initially, but then finding out about Noah's Umbrella- an artifact that the villian Rattan believes will give him the power to control the weather and thus the world. (This part reminded me some of Walter Donovan's beliefs about the Holy Grail giving eternal life versus what Indy finds out about what that really entails when he meets the Grail Knight. Maybe a closer comparison would be Mola Ram's desire to rule the world through finding all the Sankara stones- thus, a slight reference to "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". If you want to see more of those, as well as a number of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" references, just watch the first Minnesota Cuke video- "Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush".)
Keep in mind that this is a Christian video series aimed at young kids, but it still has some fairly perilous moments for Minnesota Cuke in the spirit of Indiana Jones.
And it makes quite a few references to "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and definitely to "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" as well. (This video was released in 2009 so it was right around when the last Indy movie came to theaters and then to video.)
The opening scene is reminiscent of the opening scene of LC where Indy is a teenager with the Boy Scouts on a field trip. We see a young Minnesota in a Boy Scouts-type group exploring a tree house, and he breaks off from his friend, who reminds me of Indy's friend from the opening of LC. He fights to keep a group of Scallions from stealing an artifact called the Muskie of '47. It plays out similarly to the movie, especially when Minnesota swings around the tree on a tire swing and snatches the artifact away, much like Indy swinging on a flag on the train.
And of course, Minnesota loses the artifact and then has his famous hat land at his feet as it falls off one of the bad guy's heads. Then we see the adult Minnesota putting the hat on his head and pursuing the Scallions for the same artifact- just as the adult Indy retrieves the Cross of Coronado in "Last Crusade".
Minnesota (as Larry had been in the opener) is struggling with facing public humiliation in the face of obeying God- and not only do kids learn about Noah and his faithfulness to obey God- through this they learn a lesson in having confidence in God.
The other big Indy moment particularly was seeing Minnesota swinging on vines- that definitely had to be a throwback to KOTCS.
Minnesota also goes to Mexico to pick up Julia (who is essentially like Marion Ravenwood) and the Mexico scenes also reminded me of KOTCS.
And I love the scene with Minnesota singing "Arise and Shine"- a classic Sunday School song with a lot of truth in it.
"The Lord told Noah to build Him an arky, arky- The Lord told Noah to build Him an arky, arky- Build it out of gopher barky, barky- Children of the Lord. So, rise and shine and give God the glory, glory- rise and shine and give God the glory, glory- rise and shine and give God the glory, glory- children of The Lord."
I love this song- great one to teach kids today for any Sunday School teachers out there. ("Didn't you guys ever go to Sunday School?"- Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"
- haha- loved this line from Indy in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". And just so you know- no offense is meant to any non-Christians or anything. I just thought that was a funny line.) And as a Christian myself who is also an Indiana Jones fan- not to mention a VeggieTales fan in general- these two videos are really fun for me to watch.
Of course, I've also worked with teaching Sunday School for first graders, so it probably helps if you like kids too.
And of course, I can't forget the other LC comparisons- in order to find the Umbrella, Minnesota must go through three tests- much like Indy has to go through to find the Holy Grail.
I think those are the main things I can recall. But as I said before, both videos have a ton of Indiana Jones references and Indy fans of any religious beliefs will probably find these fun to watch just for all the Indy homages. And of course, Silly Songs with Larry- you can't beat that.
