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One of the bigger problems with post-EuroDisney Disney is that they attempted to recover from that park's failure with a grand total of three half-assed "budget" parks. Without EuroDisney meeting a hostile French reception I'd say that nothing like Hong Kong Disneyland would be built in TTL.
 
The Greatest Adventure: Raiders of the Lost Ark
"It's true, it's true, the opening scene of Raiders was based on Carl Barks' excellent Uncle Scrooge comics. I basically ripped off the boulder scene from his 'The Seven Cities of Cibola' story. But I like to think I've paid back what I took from him, by working on the new Uncle Scrooge TV show coming to the Disney Channel."
--Steven Spielberg, from the January/February 1985 issue of The Mickey Mouse Club Magazine

"Indiana Jones... now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time..."
--Marion Ravenswood

"Working on two movies was not easy. I struggle to imagine how Raiders could have turned out good if Steven hadn't been there to work with me. I mean, I was working on Empire during the film's production, and he was working on Close Encounters. So between us, we had one whole brain focusing on directing Raiders."
--George Lucas, from an August 1998 interview with Rolling Stone Magazine

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Raiders of the Lost Ark
kicked of the Indiana Jones saga in 1979. Co-directed by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, co-written by George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan, and Philip Kaufman, its music by John Williams, and starring Harrison Ford, the movie was an instant classic, utterly decimating all other competition at the box office sans Universal's Alien, which managed to do decently alongside it. The film was released on May 20, 1979, and it has been frequently cited as Walt Disney's favorite live-action movie of all time, serving some inspiration for later movies like the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise.

The movie opens up with the castle logo of Walt Disney Productions fading into a mountain similarly shaped to it, before panning down to follow Indy, his face hidden behind a map, and his caravan through the tropical jungles of Peru. One by one, his followers desert the party or, in one case, attempt to betray him. Indy quickly stops the attempt on his life with a crack of his whip, sending the traitor into the forests and leaving him alone with just his navigator, Satipo. The pair soon find what Indy has been looking for: an ancient booby-trapped temple with a golden idol deep inside. They deftly navigate the maze-like structure, and show off Indiana Jones' fearlessness and genius. But it's not enough, and when he takes the idol, it sets off a chain reaction that causes the temple to begin to collapse around them. Satipo betrays Indy here, leaving him to die and making off with the idol himself. But he instead is impaled on spikes, and Indiana Jones survives a harrowing experience as he sprints off, idol back firmly in hand.

In perhaps the most iconic scene in all film, Indy runs down a long hallway as a massive stone boulder follows, threatening to flatten him. At just the last second he dives out of the temple, narrowly avoiding the boulder, somersaults... and rolls right to the feet of his greatest enemy and arch-rival, René Belloq. Surrounded by hostile natives pointing poison blowdarts at his neck, Indy is forced to give up the idol. But in a moment of confusion, he manages to run off and, after a high-speed chase through the jungle, makes it to his plane and flies off. Indy's friend Jack pilots the plane, and on the ride home the intrepid adventurer shares his cockpit with the only thing he fears: a snake.

The movie then jumps to presumably weeks later, with Indy having assumed his role as professor of archaeology at Marshall College in Bedford, Connecticut. After ending a class, he's called to speak with two agents from Army Intelligence. They tell him that the Nazis are looking for Indy's old mentor, Abner Ravenswood, who is an expert on Ancient Egypt and known to possess the headpiece to the artifact known as the Staff of Ra. From this, Indy deduces that the Nazis are on the hunt for the biblical Ark of the Covenant, believing that if they acquire the relic, their armies will be truly unstoppable. The government tells him to find Ravenswood and the headpiece, which Indy excitedly agrees to, always one for adventure. He flies out to Ravenswood's last known home: Dhaka, a part of the British Raj.

The movie then cuts to a young woman in a ramshackle tavern, sitting at a poker table surrounded by men much more threatening than her, including a British officer. She's clearly winning, even though the other players are cheating. Just as she wins, the cheering crowd quiets down and the shadow of a man in a fedora appears on the wall behind them. After some witty banter, the young woman--revealed to be Marion Ravenswood, Abner's daughter--deals Indiana in, and they have a smart-ass conversation during the game. It's high stakes, and everyone else folds but Marion and Indy. He's confident he's won, and shows his straight triumphantly. But Marion just smiles, and drops her hand on the table: a royal flush. Satisfied with her winnings, Marion closes up shop for the night, but Indy refuses to leave until she talks more about the headpiece, which she'd bet during poker to match him (and then won back). But she refuses, and the conversation morphs into an argument over bitter feelings from a romance of years gone by.

Eventually, Jones leaves after Marion refuses and rebuffs his efforts to get the headpiece. But soon after, Nazi thugs led by their creepy commander Arnold Toht enter the bar, and demand the artifact themselves. Luckily, Indy returns and he and Marion fight off the bad guys as the tavern goes up in flames. At one point, Marion looses the headpiece, and it falls into the fire. Toht grabs it, but severely burns his hand, emblazoning one side of the headpiece's images on it. Indy and Marion manage to escape with the headpiece, and she decides to go along with him at the promise of money she's owed by Indy.

The duo then travel to Giza, Egypt to meet up with Sallah, Indy's close friend and digger. He tells them that Jones' rival, Belloq, has aligned himself with the Nazis and is digging for the Well of Souls using coordinates and instructions from a replica of the headpiece cast from the side burned onto Toht's hand.

The next morning, Indy and Marion go on a trip through the city and run into some native thugs aligned to the Nazis. The archaeologist hides his partner, and he attempts to shake them off by hopping on a horse and riding off towards the pyramids, past the Sphinx. They follow on motorcycles instead, and while Indy manages to kill a few of the grunts, he's pressed to the foot of the Great Pyramid by their leader, a masterful swordsman. The pair duel, whip to sword, backing up the steps of the pyramid and climbing higher and higher. In one swift movement, he cracks his whip, loops it around his assailant's sword, yanks it out of his hand, and smacks the attacker across the face, sending him flying down the pyramid and snapping his neck. Interspliced with this fight scene was another one, following Marion as she attempts to outrun the Nazi baddies who are looking for her. She takes to the rooftops, and leaps perilous gaps in a blood-pumping sequence of parkour. At the end of it, she slips into a plain wicker basket, which Indy manages to see as he practically flies into town on a stolen motorbike. But the Nazis pick up the basket (with Marion inside) and make off into a crowded marketplace filled with dozens of other similar baskets.

Indiana Jones loses track of them until he sees seemingly the same basket being loaded onto a German truck. He gives chase on foot, but is in anguish when he sees the truck crash and its gas tank explode, killing everyone riding.

He feeds his sorrow in a bar, where he runs into Belloq. After the two exchange some venomous words, Indy is threatened by his foe at gunpoint. At the last second though, Sallah's young children show up and escort him out, saving his life, because no one wants to shoot a child. Indy reconvenes with Sallah back at his home, and the two realize that the headpiece (which Marion had entrusted to Sallah) has two sides. The Nazis are going off of incorrect measurements where they're digging, and the good guys know the true location of the Well of Souls. The next day, Indiana and Sallah infiltrate the Nazi dig site and find the true location of the Ark of the Covenant with the completed Staff of Ra. Later, Jones stumbles across a very much alive Marion inside of a tent, bound and gagged, though he refuses to let her out out of fear that the Nazis will be alerted.

Jones and a group of diggers then go to the site of the Ark and begin digging all through the night, stumbling across the entrance to its chambers. Meanwhile, Belloq attempts to seduce Marion, who is having none of it, in his tent. Back with Indy, he and Sallah travel down into the snake-infested depths and return with the gilded Ark of the Covenant. Sallah returns topside first, but the rope goes up with him. Then the Nazis, including Belloq, show up above, Marion tied up next to them. She is thrown in with Indy, and the Nazis seal them in with all the snakes, left to rot. Through some quick thinking, they manage to escape and make their way to the nearby airfield, where Marion heard the Nazis were flying the Ark out of Egypt and back to Berlin. Indy fights a bald, muscle-bound Hulk of a man hand-to-hand on the airstrip, only defeating him by tricking him into getting shredded by the plane's propeller. A nearby oil tanker had begun to leak its flammable fuel, however, and it accidentally catches ablaze, making the whole airfield and plane explode.

The now-paranoid Nazis panic and decide to instead put the Ark on a truck bound for Cairo. Indy manages to catch them during a high-speed car chase, however, and takes the artifact up to Alexandria with Marion, making arrangements to ship it to London on the ship Bantu Wind. During their trip through the desert at night, Marion confesses her feelings to Indy, who reciprocates. Yet, just as they're about to kiss... Sallah shows up outside, having caught a boat down the Nile and beating them to the city, ruining the moment.

Upon entering the docks of the ancient town, Nazi agents stop the group and discover it's Indiana Jones and his crew. They put up a valiant effort, but the bad guys take Marion, and the Ark, on a U-boat. Jones manages to escape them, but sneaks aboard the ship anyways in the guise of a German sailor. The sub lands on an island in the Aegean Sea, the location where Belloq plans to test out the power of the Ark before showing it to Hitler. On the trek up to the site they plan to test it, Indy reveals himself and threatens to blow up the Ark with a bazooka. But Belloq calls his bluff, unwilling to believe that his former friend would destroy such a precious historical artifact and his love in the process, and Indy reluctantly is forced to follow as their prisoner.

The Nazis then take both Jones and Marion to an area where they can see the Ark's opening, and tie them to a post. Belloq, who is dressed in a traditional Israelite kohen gadol, performs a ceremonial opening of the Ark alongside Nazi officials (including Toht)... only to discover the golden box is filled with sand. Spirits then emerge from the Ark, and reveal themselves as Angels of Death, destroying the electronic equipment around the place. A pillar of flame shoots high into the sky, and tendrils of electricity arc out, slaughtering the Nazis who dare look upon the power of God. Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenswood only survive due to them shutting their eyes. The pillar of flame then ascends into the sky and disappears, and the lid of the Ark falls back atop the relic, shutting it. Finding their ropes burned off, the couple rejoice and hug.

Back in Washington, DC, Indy is informed that the government has decided the Ark of the Covenant is too dangerous to be put in a museum. Rather, it will be studied and examined by top men someplace safe. The film then cuts to the Ark being stored amongst other similar crates in a warehouse in Area 51.

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Actors

Indiana Jones
: Harrison Ford
Marion Ravenswood: Debra Winger
René Belloq: Paul Freeman
Sallah: John Rhys-Davies
Major Arnold Toht: Michael Sheard
Doctor Marcus Brody: Denholm Elliott

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Raiders of the Lost Ark, despite all of its differences from OTL, is still considered an absolutely amazing film, and busted the box office for the entire summer. Sadly, it did not come very close to the runaway sensations of the co-director's previous works (Jaws and Star Wars) in terms of box office returns, though it obviously did well. Its only true competition was Universal's Alien, debuting just five days after Raiders and holding its own against the Disney/LucasArts juggernaut.

One of the more notable changes to the film is the lack of the iconic scene where Indy just shoots the swordsman instead of actually fighting him. IOTL, a fancy fight had been choreographed that just wasn't used because the place they were filming at was just miserable. Here, that was not the case, and by using Disney's clout they were able to actually shoot on the real Great Pyramid of Khufu in Giza, not a set.

Speaking of Disney, the Indiana Jones franchise is wholly owned by the Walt Disney Company, unlike Star Wars, which George Lucas owns the sequel rights to (but not the 1977 original movie). This drew the two companies closer, and made a full-on buyout of LucasArts by Disney likely in the near future, especially since its value would only keep going up. It was all a matter of if George Lucas would play ball, or not...
 
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Debra Winger as Marion Ravenswood? Interesting (interestingly enough, she dated Nebraska governor Bob Kerrey for a few years in the 1980s)…

Does this mean her role in Urban Cowboy is butterflied away ITTL (assuming that movie is still made; it's one of those movies that has a great soundtrack...)? IOTL, Robert Evans wanted to fire her from her role, but John Travolta threatened to quit if that happened...
 
Debra Winger as Marion Ravenswood? Does this mean her role in Urban Cowboy is butterflied away ITTL (assuming that movie is still made; it's one of those movies that has a great soundtrack...)?
Yes, her role in that movie is butterflied.
 
Not bad movie(never that indy mega fan either..) still was a very nice work of love. A shame the just shoot him scene was butterfly away
 
Not bad movie(never that indy mega fan either..) still was a very nice work of love. A shame the just shoot him scene was butterfly away

It's one of those things that's, sadly, extremely susceptible to butterflies. Harrison Ford caught a very bad case of dysentery and couldn't do what they had planned because of it.

Pretty good example of how much the things we take for granted and are ingrained in popular consciousness can be accidents though.
 
BONUS: Star Wars: The Animated Series Season 1 (Part 1)
Star Wars: The Animated Series
Season 1 (Part One)
Episode 1: Saviors of the Galaxy

The very first episode of the show follows Luke, Han, and Leia on a mission to infiltrate an Imperial Star Destroyer. It bears many similarities to the middle segment of the first film, where the gang explores the Death Star interior in secret. At the end, Luke duels Darth Vader for the first time, but fails hard, and is saved by his friends as they escape on a stolen TIE fighter Han pilots.

Episode 2: Space Race

Han Solo has gotten himself into a bit of a pickle with some space pirates, and they demand their payments that he hasn't repaid by high noon the following day. Han has to raise the funds by winning a race from Corellia to Cato, and evade Imperial fighters on the way.

Episode 3: Negotiations

Princess Leia is going to the planet Zekel to convince its reptilian inhabitants to join the fight against the Empire. But on her visit there, she uncovers a plot led by Imperialist sympathizers to assassinate the Rebel-favoring king, which she, C-3P0, and R2-D2 must stop at all costs.

Episode 4: Training Regimen

Luke Skywalker is visited by the ghost of Ben Kenobi and is given a checklist of things to accomplish to learn the ways of the Force. Accompanied by R2-D2, Luke attempts to complete them all to hilarious results.

Episode 5: Ace in the Hole

Han Solo is searching for a new planet that the Rebels can build a base on. He and Chewbacca as a result visit the hostile jungle planet of Nar'Doshesh, where they discover everything is out to kill them and must make it through the night and back to the Millenium Falcon.

Episode 6: A Princess' Duty

Princess Leia is joined by Wedge Antilles on a diplomatic mission to Xenoquilla, another planet on the tipping point between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance. Wedge attempts to teach her how to fly an X-Wing, which she isn't very good at. But while on the planet, the Empire launches an attack on the planet and she is forced to take to the skies in a ship and aid in the planet's defense herself.

Episode 7: The Final Frontier

Luke is sent to the Outer Rim by Ben's Force ghost, to train extensively. He discovers a strange civilization out there seemingly worshipping the Force, and upon further inspection deduces that this was the planet the Jedi first began eons ago.

Episode 8: Rebel With a Cause

Han Solo has been tracked down by a bounty hunter named Boba Fett, hired by Jabba the Hutt. He must evade the Mandalorian and escape to Rebel-controlled space, lest he have his head hung in Jabba's trophy room.

Episode 9: Flashpoint

Princess Leia believes she has found her seemingly dead mother's hidden location, on the planet Sirius. But is it really her, or just the Empire's ploy to kidnap her? Spoiler: it's a trap!

Episode 10: The Battle of Widow's Peak

Luke, Han, and Leia are all at the new Rebel headquarters on Sin Revalia when it comes under attack by the Empire and Vader himself. The whole cast must beat back the Imperial forces, and find a new place to hide out.

Episode 11: Treasure Planet

Luke and Han discover a map to a place they were told stories of as children: Treasure Planet. Echoing the tale of Robert Louis Stevenson, they head out to the planet to find untold riches to fund the Alliance, though the Empire shows up as well to stop them, having been trailing them the whole journey.

Episode 12: Darth Vader's Birthday

This is by far the strangest episode of Star Wars: The Animated Series ever made. It follows Stormtroopers and Imperial officers attempting to set up a birthday party for Darth Vader, and the image of Vader wearing a party hat, seated at a table in front of a birthday cake and surrounded by Stormtroopers in party hats as well has become a meme in recent years, as has Vader's quote from the episode: "I find your lack of presents... disturbing," said when an officer shows up without a gift.

Episode 13: Big Space Country

Luke is out for a spin in his X-Wing and spends some time being a tourist on many planets in the galaxy with R2. Not much happens, but it's a nice way to come down from the insane high of the last episode.

Episode 14: Out of This World

Han tells a story to Luke and Wedge about when he was younger, and how he got into his mess with Jabba in the first place. It all started when he was a kid fresh from deserting the Imperial Navy, and he made a few bad deals and promises he couldn't keep that led to him narrowly evading the Rancor in Jabba's dungeons and stealing a starship to fly out of Tatooine.

Episode 15: Royally Flushed

Princess Leia is kidnapped by a band of Tusken raiders on Tatooine, and C-3P0 and R2-D2 must find a way to save her. Leia is no damsel in distress though, and as the robots bumble around and fail at saving her, she manages to fight off her guards and escape herself.

Episode 16: Lost in Space

Luke, Han, Leia, and the robots are returning to the Rebel base from a mission when the Millenium Falcon mysteriously shuts down, leaving them adrift in space. This is Season One's "bottle episode", putting all the characters in one location and forcing them to talk to and learn about each other. At the end, it turns out that R2 had accidentally short-circuited the ship when he was trying to fix the air conditioning for Han.

Episode 17: It Takes Two to Tango

C-3P0 and R2-D2 are captured by Imperial agents, who attempt to interrogate them and take their memory cards. The two droids had begun to argue and fight before this, and seem to no longer want to be friends. Through some accidents caused by 3P0 and some smart plays on the part of R2, they manage to escape, much to Darth Vader's chagrin, and after 3P0 saves his buddy, they become best pals once again.

Epsiode 18: Force Training 101

Luke again sees Ben Kenobi's ghost, who is displeased with his progress as a Jedi and instructs him to do more. This episode is heavily inspired by Rocky, and Luke trains hard (even eating a smoothie of eggs for breakfast) to some pumping rock music by Queen. At the end of the episode, more Stormtroopers show up alongside Grand Moff Tarkin and capture Han and Leia. To save them, Luke must use his newfound powers--the Force push--for the first time successfully.

Episode 19: Rogues' Gallery

Han Solo once again finds himself trapped in a corner between a rock and the Empire. To get out of another hairy situation, he must work together with a bunch of fellow outlaws who all hate him and each other to get off the planet before the Imperial agents can find them.

Episode 20: Star Tours

Han and Leia are undercover on the Star Tours spaceline. At the last moment, a bunch of Stormtroopers board the flight and after takeoff start questioning passengers. To survive the flight they have to pass off as a married couple, creating some funny moments and romantic tension. This episode served as the inspiration for an attraction of the same name that came to the Disney Parks in the 1990s.

Episode 21: Winging It

On a mission for the Rebels Luke is forced to fly a Y-Wing fighter, which he has no experience in doing. To get his license to fly the machine he has to go through a flying test administrated by Wedge Antilles, complete with parallel parking... IN SPACE!

Episode 22: Checkmate

Princess Leia touches down on a planet that is very strange, monochrome in color and using strange terminologies to describe its inhabitants like "pawn", "bishop", and "rook". She is told that to win the support of the king, she must beat the opposing Imperial forces in a hand-to-hand death battle known as "Chess". C-3P0 turns out to be very good at the game and practically wins the whole match by himself.

Episode 23: Homesick

Luke recounts the time that he first met Ben Kenobi. The old man had saved him and his friends from certain death by slaughtering a womp rat that was about to kill them back on Tatooine. But back then, they'd been rude and immature and called him a "crazy old man", something Luke still regrets to this day.

Episode 24: Solo

After getting into a fight with Leia, Han attempts to leave the Rebel Alliance and strike out on his own, as even Chewie wants to stay behind. Han faces down many, many challenges that are hard, if not impossible to overcome alone, and realizes that he needs his friends as much as they need him.

Episode 25: So You Wanna Be a Jedi...

As the Season 1 Midseason Finale, Luke receives word that his father is actually alive from an outside source. Han and Leia warn him that it's a trap, but he refuses to listen and goes back to Tatooine on his own. There, he finds the Emperor (who lied to him) waiting at Luke's old home, and the two duel, though Luke is easily beaten. It ends in a cliffhanger with the Emperor having Luke held in a Force choke, commanding his Stormtroopers to fire.

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"The first season of Star Wars: The Animated Series was without a doubt very disjointed compared to the rest of the show's run. We were still finding our footing, what worked and what didn't, trying to strike the right balance between goofiness and realism. We failed pretty hard on that front many times I will admit, which you can see today by the 'I am not amused' Darth Vader's Birthday memes that are everywhere online. But I'm just happy the Animated Series has had the same staying power as the Original Trilogy."
--Don Bluth, from a June 2005 interview with the Disney fansite AniMagic.com
 
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Episode 12: Darth Vader's Birthday

This is by far the strangest episode of Star Wars: The Animated Series ever made. It follows Stormtroopers and Imperial officers attempting to set up a birthday party for Darth Vader, and the image of Vader wearing a party hat, seated at a table in front of a birthday cake and surrounded by Stormtroopers in party hats as well has become a meme in recent years, as has Vader's quote from the episode: "I find your lack of presents... disturbing," said when an officer shows up without a gift.
Strange, yet unique giving Vader a characther development in a way(ditto his subordinates and show how vader at least got people respect even if via fear)

Episode 25: So You Wanna Be a Jedi...

As the Season 1 Midseason Finale, Luke receives word that his father is actually alive from an outside source. Han and Leia warn him that it's a trap, but he refuses to listen and goes back to Tatooine on his own. There, he finds the Emperor (who lied to him) waiting at Luke's old home, and the two duel, though Luke is easily beaten. It ends in a cliffhanger with the Emperor having Luke held in a Force choke, commanding his Stormtroopers to fire.
One of hell of cliffhanger

How i can watch Disney Channel, for example, if i'm in NY or LA?(or STL?)
 
Epsiode 18: Force Training 101

Luke again sees Ben Kenobi's ghost, who is displeased with his progress as a Jedi and instructs him to do more. This episode is heavily inspired by Rocky, and Luke trains hard (even eating a smoothie of eggs for breakfast) to some pumping rock music by Queen. At the end of the episode, more Stormtroopers show up alongside Grand Moff Tarkin and capture Han and Leia. To save them, Luke must use his newfound powers--the Force push--for the first time successfully.
Tarkin? Isn't he still dead? Or does he live at the end of Episode IV?

Also, interesting to see you introduce the Emperor early, as I was expecting he'd be held off for a while. Does he still look like he does in OTL (old evil looking man in a hood)?
 
Tarkin? Isn't he still dead? Or does he live at the end of Episode IV?

Also, interesting to see you introduce the Emperor early, as I was expecting he'd be held off for a while. Does he still look like he does in OTL (old evil looking man in a hood)?

Tarkin is revealed to have escaped the Death Star going off ITTL. But he dies later.

The Emperor is a whole new can of worms I'm not going to get into until Part Two of Season 1.
 
Is Vader’s Birthday the ATL version of the infamous Holiday Special? :)
Sort of, though it's treasured as more of a funny moment in Star Wars/Disney history, rather than despised. George Lucas is in particular very fond of this episode, and he has the original animation cell of the scene of Vader in a party hat prominently displayed at Skywalker Ranch alongside other cells and concept art from the franchise.
 
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