Things I'd like to see - Indiana Jones: The animated series
This is part one of an ongoing series of rambling blogs about... things I'd like to see. It may be the return of a cartoon or toy line, the re-boot of a movie franchise or the comeback of an actor.
Today's installment tries to whip up some interest in an animated "Indiana Jones" series.
Oh, and listen to this as you read.
Time is running out on “Indy” as a live action saga, and with the results mixed [to put it mildly] with the last outing, the future of our favorite archaeologist may be as an animated character.
I gave some thought to the idea of live action prequels, but A.) I can’t see anyone else but Ford [Live action/big screen] playing Indy and B.) The last time Lucas tried the prequel thing, we got this.
Going all the way back to the 80's "Droids" and "Ewoks", "Star Wars" in animation has been primarily concerned with appealing to younger fans who came along at the tail end of the live action sagas and were now coming into their own as a force in terms of buying tie-in merchandise.
For Indy I see a more mature tone. Something made for adults that would naturally appeal to kids as well, just as the movies do. I want to take the saga and the character back to it's roots in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". There would be the same sense of fun and adventure, but without groan inducing one liners, flatulence jokes and general frivolity that have plagued the prequels and the newest "Clone Wars" cartoon.
With the tone established we need a timeline. What's great about animation is we can go anywhere we want to and Indy can be ageless. I don't like the idea of doing young Indy for a variety of reasons. For one we've already been there and another is that it could skew too close to "Jonny Quest" territory. There's plenty of room to skip around within the timeline of the films, but I really don't like that either. So for me, the ideal choice is sometime in the late 1920's. For whatever reason 1928 sounds right. That would put it seven years before the events of "Temple of Doom" [Chronologically speaking the first story of the film saga's timeline]. His birth date is given as July 1st, 1899, so this would make him 28-29. It would be a chance to see a greener and perhaps even more brash Indy.
In terms of the animation style, the 2002 revamped version of "Masters of the Universe" is what I'd go for. Apply that to the world of Indiana Jones in the late 1920's and you get a sense of what I'm thinking about.
If you were able to hire someone with a passion for the character and a vision for the show, and if they had the freedom to make it their own without meddling from Spielberg and especially Lucas, I believe that "Indiana Jones: The animated series" could be a wonderful and exciting saga that could breath new life into what has thus far been a rather untapped franchise.
Labels: animation, Indiana Jones, nostalgia, Star Wars, Summer movies, Things I'd like to see

