The story begins 3000 years ago in ancient Egypt, with an evil high priest named Imhotep. Imhotep possessed the Scrolls of Thebes and sought to use them to steal the Manacle of Osiris, which would give him the power to make the world his own. Fortunately - he failed!
Three thousand years later, the Manacle is rediscovered but something goes terribly wrong and Imhotep rises from the dead as "The Mummy"! Now the race is on to find the ancient Scrolls and in the balance, seal a young boy's fate and the future of the world!
This is a feature length version of season one of the animated TV series based on the recent Mummy movies. Comprising three episodes - 1 "The Summoning", 12 "The Puzzle", and the last, 13 "The Maze". Here's a synopsis of these…
Episode 1 - The Summoning
Evy is promoted to chief archaeologist at the British Museum of Antiquities and is given the job of supervising a dig at the Temple of Hamunaptra. Her co-worker, Colin Weasler, passed over for a promotion he was promised is furious.
At the temple, Jonathan finds a hidden vault, within which they find the Manacle of Osiris. This was created by Osiris, King of the Underworld, to vanquish his foes on Earth and it's rumoured to have the power to move mountains, blot out the sun, set the seas aflame, and resurrect the dead. Later that night, Weasler shows up, disables the guards outside Imhotep's tomb and starts the ritual to raise the mummy, hoping to use him to get rid of Evy. Meanwhile, when no one is around, Alex takes the opportunity to try on the Manacle, which binds itself to him and won't come off.
Weasler awakens the Mummy and tries to command him using the Book of the Dead but Imhotep is too powerful and takes the book from him. Imhotep reads from the book and is transformed fully back to life (and he can speak English, which was nice). Summoning several of his undead priests, they prepare to get the Scrolls of Thebes, which will give him power over the Manacle and ultimately, the world.
Following clues given to Alex as visions from the Manacle, the O'Connell group sets out to find the Scrolls before Imhotep and Weasler do and so begins the quest…
What follows next is a compressed digest of the next 11 episodes where we learn a bit more of what the group has been through and the fact that Alex has gained some limited control of the Manacle.
Episode 12 - The Puzzle
Imhotep has found the first piece of Puzzle of Horus, who was the son of Osiris. The Puzzle, when assembled, can lead to the Scrolls. Ardeth Bey steals the piece from him, summons the O'Connell's to Egypt and gives it to Alex, who gets a vision of the next piece's location. As usual, Imhotep's hot on their trail and when they find the second piece he destroys their dirigible balloon, forcing them to board a train to continue the search for the third piece.
Imhotep manages to derail the train, causing the party to flee across the sand on camelback. He then changes the sand into an enormous sandworm, which swallows Alex and his friend Simon. They use the Manacle to escape and find the last piece of the Puzzle, which shows them a hologram of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Episode 13 - The Maze
In Paris, on top of the Eiffel Tower, they use the Puzzle and telescopes to pinpoint the location of the Scrolls - the Paris Opera House. Again they are attacked by Imhotep and Weasler but flee to the Opera House and, after searching it from top to bottom, finally descend into the famous Paris catacombs. While walking through the tunnels, a pit blocks their way and they are attacked by a Minotaur, which grabs Evy and jumps the pit.
Alex uses the Manacle to get the rest of them across and they split up to find the Scrolls and Evy. Evy learns that the Minotaur is the Guardian of the Scrolls, and he cannot allow anyone else to possess them for fear of what they might do with the power. Alex and Ardeth find the Scrolls and the Minotaur leaves Evy to stop them and Imhotep, Weasler and an army of undead enter the tunnels. Meanwhile Ardeth has used the Scrolls to remove the Manacle from Alex but he puts it back on to stop the Minotaur and convinces him that they are not evil but then he has to destroy the Scrolls to stop Imhotep getting hold of the Manacle and to defeat him.
Ardeth Bey tells Alex that it's possible the Manacle may now be stuck on his wrist forever. However, in return for saving his life, Ardeth offers Alex the chance to follow his heritage and receive Medjai training.
Review
This animated series is based on The Mummy and The Mummy Returns but only just. The characters look nothing like those from the films and the storyline is a different take off completely from The Mummy Returns. I caught a few of the episodes of this on Saturday mornings and thought at the time that, although nothing great, they were watchable.
Each of the missing episodes follows the same sort of pattern - the party, following clues to the Scrolls whereabouts, meet up with various people and monsters, are chased by Imhotep and Weasler. They solve the clues, only to find that the Scrolls are no longer there but there are more clues to follow - tune in next week, etc.
The animation is okay but nothing special and is adequate for a series aimed at television. That said, the picture, presented in 4:3 fullscreen mode, is also nothing great - if anything it's a bit soft. The sound, again aimed at a TV presentation, is clear but presented in standard stereo so don't expect great sound effects.
The intervening episodes not included on the DVD don't add a great deal to the story. They just involve the team hopping around the world following more clues from week to week but the inclusion of Episode 6 - Orb of Aten, the only other one based in Egypt, has a bit more depth and adds some value to the package, even if you do need to unlock it.
This is a feature length version of season one and they've already produced season two so I expect we'll get another of these cut down versions of that after it gets aired in the UK.
Extras
Bear in mind that these are aimed at a younger audience…
Trivia Challenge - Answer a few simple questions about the series correctly and you'll be rewarded with a bonus episode from the series. This is Episode 6 - Orb of Aten, which is based back in Egypt and revolves around the Orb of Aten- another relic of the gods, like the Manacle, and which has powers almost as great.
Egyptology - Some information about some of the people, places and things that you'd find in ancient Egypt.
Character Files - A description of some of the characters from the series - the O'Connells, Imhotep and Ardeth Bey.
Trailer - A short preview trailer for this DVD.
Overall
Three episodes out of thirteen do not a feature make and I'm sure if they'd done a little extra work integrating the Orb of Aten episode so that the story line flowed through it, it would have been a much better package. As it stands it's just okay and the extras, if somewhat limited, are fine for what they are.