The Mummy: Quest for the Lost Scrolls (2001)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Written by Greg Klein
Directed by Eddy Houchins
Starring the Voices of Chris Marquette, John Schneider, Evy O'Connell, Nicholas Guest, and Jim Cummings

Features:

• Trivia Challenge
  
• Bonus episode
  
• Egyptology info
  
• Character files
  
• Ad for GameBoy title
  
• Singalong
  

Rating: Suitable for all audiences

Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Pray to Osiris to save you.

The idea here is that Alex O’Connell is the luckiest of children; his archaeologist mother and fortune-seeker father take him with them on dangerous, exciting jaunts around the world to find priceless treasures of academic and monetary interest. Meanwhile, Alex’s mother is given a museum promotion that a coworker wanted--who then answers his anger the way any cross academic would...he raises a mummy. One day, Alex decides to don a gold bracer he finds laying around in his mother’s things, and in so doing, he gains the ability to control phenomenal powers and makes himself the enemy of the mummy who craves that power. Of course Alex can’t just take the armband off, either; for that, they need the lost scrolls of Osiris.

The plot is about as hackneyed and foolish as you expect. Even though Alex wears the power to instantly find the Scrolls and basically control or destroy the Mummy, he never actually tries to do so. Nor does he seem to use the wristband for much else, except to be surprised when it “goes off” periodically. As for the Egyptology in the plot, it’s absolutely horrid. Would it have been asking too much for a writer to have done just a little bit of research and used appropriate monsters, methodology, etc.? Have any of the writers ever seen a pyramid, a museum, even an archaeologist?

The characters are standard: swashbuckling father, smart mother, adorable moppet child, and effeminate English uncle. All the stereotypes are there--the English are educated and civilized (and rather gender-confused), while the Americans are boorish and “action, not words” types. The children are of course precocious and annoying--smart at times without being wise at all. The voice acting is similarly uneven, especially Rick O’Connell who sounds far too false.

The features list is respectable. The character files might seem unnecessary given the nature of the show, but they are still a nice addition and attractively presented. There is also a bit of Egyptology here, which is a good thought, but if your child is already interested in Egypt, he or she can probably already tell you all of this information and more besides, as well as making it sound more interested and less popularized. Eventually, the makers of children’s programming will realize that they’re smarter than we think they are, and that their brains should be fed as much solid food as possible, not just flavorless, regurgitated pabulum. The trivia challenge leads to a cute bonus episode, but aside from the novelty factor of finding some Easter eggs, kids will bore of this quickly. In addition, there is a preview for the tie-in Game Boy game, so the little ones will beg for more goodies, and a karaoke-like song that is interesting only because it kept the features list from being blank. I suppose some features are better than none and do display some level of concern on the part of the producers, but I wish they were of a higher quality...but then, I wish the cartoon itself were better, too.

All in all, the cartoon version of The Mummy is even worse than the film versions; at least the films were campy and intended to be cheesy and self-mocking. These cartoons take themselves far too seriously with absolutely no basis for that. What could be a fun (and educational) show for children is instead just silly and as cliché as they come. We get perpetuated negative stereotypes, false information, bad archaeology, silly characters, plots filled with holes, and poor acting. Incidentally, when did an hour come to mean “feature length”? Maybe next time, Universal.