Like most mega-pathetic movie spazzes, I bought this box set the day it came out. (Actually I bought this version, got home, freaked out, and brought it back to the store to exchange for the correct one.) The first "Adventures of Indiana Jones" package came with a fourth disc that has a two-hour documentary on the whole series, plus a handful of brief featurettes on stunts, sounds, magic, and music. Definitely some good stuff, but the movie discs (NOT sold separately) were entirely bare-bones affairs.

So there are two things that are welcomely different about the second Indiana Jones box set: A) Now you CAN purchase the movies individually, and B) there's no extra disc: This time around the extra features are on the "main feature" discs. This sounded pretty good to me, as I've been hoping for more "flick-specific" supplements on the re-issue ... but here's where I get a little annoyed: Obviously the new goodies are of a very high quality (given that they were overseen by DVD magic-man Laurent Bouzereau), but ... why so skimpy? I'll offer a few nerdy gripes and then offer a theory as to why this stuff happens, followed by a complete list of all the new features found on the latest Indy DVD set...

1. No audio commentaries. Wow. Talk about a missed opportunity. Literally ALL of the Star Wars films come with a chat-track, and the old-school, hardcore fans like me absolutely LOVE a good commentary. I'm well aware that Steven Spielberg doesn't "do" commentary, and that Harrison Ford and George Lucas were too busy with Crystal Skull -- but c'mon! How about a screenwriters' track with Philip Kaufman and Lawrence Kasdan? Or a supporting characters track starring John Rhys-Davies, Alfred Molina, Jonathan Ke Quan, or (gasp) Sean Connery? (Unfortunately, the wonderful Denholm Elliott passed away a few years back.) Perhaps a (Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, Robert Watts) producers' track? Or maybe a (Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw, Alison Doody) leading ladies' audio track? Frankly, as a nerd, I'd have been happy with some commentary from (editor) Michael Kahn, (composer) John Williams, or (sound designer) Ben Burtt. Original trilogy DP Douglas Slocombe is about 85 years old, so we wouldn't need to bother the old master, but really: Anecdotes from anyone who worked on these films would make me happy.

2. No Blu-Ray. Personally, I have not yet graduated to the Next Gen , but lots of people have -- and to re-release a popular box set in today's digital realm and NOT do Blu-Ray is just silly. Well, maybe not silly, but greedy. I'll explain in a few minutes.

3. The same menu screens as the first release? Really? That just feels a little ... cheap ... to me.

And my oh-so-clever theory? The "triple-dip," of course. I can practically see the press release now: "On November 3rd your family can own the 4-movie blu-ray mega-special commentary-laden ultra-cool Awesome Adventures of Indiana Jones box-set!" Of course, nobody's got a gun to your head, forcing you to buy the new versions, and that's good news. For those who already own the initial box set, here's a rundown of the "exclusive new" goodies that you'll find on the new set:

Raiders of the Lost Ark

• An 8-minute talking-head introduction from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas that does a fine (if only surface-deep) job of explaining the genesis of the project.
• An 11-minute "appreciation" of the series by folks like Lucas, Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, David Koepp, Ray Winstone, Jim Broadbent, John Hurt, Cate Blanchett, and Shia LaBeouf,. Obviously this piece was cooked up on the set of Crystal Skull, but there's also some archival on-set footage that the fans should definitely dig.
• A 9-minute piece on the creation of the legendary "melting face" effect. FX maestros Chris Walas and Richard Edlund stop by for a few anecdotes and to stage a new melting! Good stuff.
• A brief-but-cool 4-minute storyboard-to-movie comparison. (The Well of Souls sequence.)
  
• Numerous galleries on "illustrations & props," "production photographs & portraits," "effects/ILM," and "marketing." (And speaking of "marketing," where are all the Indy teasers, trailers, and TV spots??)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

• Another 6-minute intro from Spielberg and Lucas. Fedoras off to the filmmakers for acknowledging the film's critical and financial "disappointment," but they could have also mentioned how the movie inadvertently invented the PG-13 rating.
• A 12-minute featurette called "Creepy Crawlies," which covers all sorts of snakes (Raiders), insects (Doom), and rats (Crusade). (This piece comes with an optional pop-up trivia feature.) Interview subjects include Spielberg, Marshall, Ford, Allen and animal wrangler Jules Sylvester. Featuring some amusing archival footage of some very unconvincing animatronic snakes, this is another fine little featurette.
• A 10-minute piece on the heavily globe-trotting nature of the series. Here we get Ford, Marshall and associate producer Robert Watts discussing the series' many colorful locations. Again, a very solid piece ... but it feels rushed and way too short!
• A 2.5-minute storyboard-to-film comparison. (Mine cart chase.)
• Several galleries with the same headings as the last disc.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

• A final (6-minute) intro from Spielberg and Lucas. Solid insights from the creators, especially where the addition of Sir Sean Connery is concerned.
• A 9-minute piece entitled "Indy's Women: The American Film Institute Tribute," which is precisely what it sounds like. Here we get Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw, and Alison Doody discussing their roles with AFI's Jean Firstenberg. A very good piece that also includes some cool archival footage.
• An 11-minute featurette on all the various characters from the series, from sidekicks and allies to henchmen and villains. Interviewees include Spielberg and screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan, Willard Huyck, and Gloria Katz. Odd that Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) gets such short shrift here, and a hearty good job to Mr. Huyck for comparing the Short Round character to R2-D2. Classy.
• A 4-minute storyboard-to-film comparison. (The "Young Indy" opening.)
• Yep, a lot more galleries.

It should be noted that all three discs open with the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull trailer, and each one packs a trailer for the upcoming Lego Indiana Jones video game. So maybe that's where the disc-space meant for the movie trailers went.

OK, so you probably think I'm going to rant and rave and get all furious at the fact that the Indiana Jones series is STILL lacking the full-bore DVD treatment it so definitely deserves. Nah, not really. Like I said earlier, nobody's forcing the upgrade on you, which means that only the hardcore movie-nuts will be actively "double-dipping" this time around. And really, what's $30 to a hardcore movie-nut? And just to show you how pathetic some nuts are, here's a little anecdote:

I wanted to give my first Indy set to my seven-year-old godson, and that gave me a perfect excuse to buy the new set for myself. But since Rob is only seven -- and way too young to have the magic of movies spoiled for him -- I decided I'd keep the original set's (awesome) supplemental disc for myself. Oh, and the box. I was keeping that too. (The kid would only spill apple juice on it, trust me.) So I head out to Best Buy and then I realize ... ugh, the new box-set consists of three slim snap-cases, which mans it wouldn't fit properly into the old box-set box. (Still with me?) So I actually put the $34.99 box set back on the shelf and purchased the individual ($12.99) versions of Raiders, Doom, and Crusade. Just so they could fit into the nifty old box with the slick old supplemental disc. So obviously I'm pathetic, but c'mon. It's Indiana Jones we're talking about.

But they still shoulda thrown the movie trailers on there...