Lucasfilm and Paramount have gone all-out to present the third volume of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. Once again in a beautifully matching 10-disc box set, Volume Three features over 26 hours of entertainment – with the remaining seven feature-length episodes, 31 documentaries, an interactive timeline, video game and more.

Although the set will also be released in a complete collection, with all three volumes, this last addition to the series is every bit as outstanding as the original two – and just in time to ignite interest in the long-awaited fourth feature film. As always, the generous amounts of history infused with each episode is the highlight of the series, and former CBS news producer David Schneider produced all of the documentary special features over a four year period, which go in-depth to enlighten audiences on all of the facts and fiction depicted in the adventuresome series.

The volume starts off with “Tales of Innocence” which finds young Indy in Italy on an important propaganda assignment that has him cross paths with good-natured Ernest Hemingway. After receiving an injury in action, Indy is transferred to North Africa, where he battles hostile Berber tribesman, and engages in innocent flirtation with author Edith Wharton. The second episode is “Masks of Evil” which gets Indy involved in World War I as a French Intelligence agent. Excitement of the supernatural kind follows, as Indy journeys to Transylvania to battle Vlad the Impaler and his army of living dead.

“Treasure of the Peacock’s Eye” takes Indy on a hunt for Alexander the Great’s famous diamond - across the East to the South Seas where he melees with Chinese pirates and gets marooned on a desert island – only to fall prey to ruthless headhunters. In “The Winds of Change” Indy returns to Paris as a translator, and meets up with T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia), Prince Faisal and Ho Chi Minh. Disc 6 features “Mystery of the Blues” in which young Indy learns the magic of jazz music by legendary Sidney Bechet. Later he must solve a murder mystery with his roommate Eliot Ness to avoid getting knocked off by the notorious Al Capone.

As the series draws to a close, Indy takes a break from his death-defying adventures to party on 5th Avenue, as he stage-manages a Broadway musical with the help of composer George Gershwin. Meanwhile, things get out of hand when he dates three of the lovely ladies involved – all at the same time. The final film “Hollywood Follies” finds Indy working with the megalomaniacal director Erich Von Stroheim on his film Foolish Wives, and the two constantly butt heads. Though discouraged, Indy gives the film industry one more chance when he goes on a location shoot with director John Ford, and pitches in when an actor is accidentally killed.

Each episode is accompanied by extensive documentaries and features that really educate the viewer on the history that the daring Indy is inevitably caught up in. While some of the episodes better recreate the incomparable action and excitement that the original three films so perfectly captured, each one is an important chapter in the life of the archeologist/adventurer we just can’t get enough of.

- Mike Massie