I agree with the person who said that condensing it into 3 movies would be fine.
Frankly, I'd rather see a well-done TV series. Not like the Nickelodeon one.
Warning... Long post. Long, long post.
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Plus, no one would agree on what should be cut and what shouldn't. For instance, I think #1 and #4 can kind of be merged (with most of #4 cut but they do get to and rescue Ax). The whole #4 and the whole #1 are kind of unnecessary to the points getting across, and if we're cutting books there's no way the rescue of Ax cannot be happening simultaneously to their discoveries about the world around them (and they're around the beach at some point in #1, too, so being by the beach more to rescue Ax could be worked in relatively flawlessly, at least letting go of keeping it 100% true to the series.)
#5 and #6 could be merged with effort with #7 (I mean, good grief, Ellimist asks, they say no and destroy the Kandrona. It's not a plot fit for a whole movie. It wasn't even a plot for a whole book, IMO.), and frankly? All that's really needed from that story is a) they met the Ellimist and b) they destroyed the Kandrona, because it relates to book #8.
Moving on from that, 13 movies, even made-for-cable movies, would be unreasonable. I mean, Harry Potter's getting 8 but let's face it - Harry Potter was way more popular as a series than Animorphs will ever be, even if we have a hugely loyal fanbase, plus it's an older series we have to hope can be revived still at this point.
So let's see, if I was going to divide it into 8 movies, it would probably be:
#1, 3, 4 - combined together. Details would have to be changed, but some major developments across the board would happen, and #1 and #4 could very easily be streamed in together in particular. #3 I just like that they manage to deal a blow to the Yeerks (the supply craft) and I think that would work really well for making people get into it as a 'hey, the underdogs are winning!' type of thing. #4 can be streamed in as sort of a closing thing, where we leave off for another movie.
#5, 6, 7. The first two are pretty important. Rachel's? I love Rachel, but like I've said in the past, her plots suck. #6 IMO isn't filler, #7 is because the whole dang thing could have been explained in a paragraph or less. (Literally: The Ellimist was a powerful being who offered us an alternative to fighting, but we said no. However, he gave us the opportunity we needed to destroy the Kandrona. BTW, this gets even MORE useless if we don't include #8 since the effects of destroying the Kandrona will never be seen or felt. Which means really we just need to explain that the Ellimist exists somewhere, which ignoring #8 can wait until whatever next book he shows up in. Except wait. Do we really need the Iskoort either? Come to think of it, we could probably get away with a Elfangor-to-Tobias flashback letter to explain the Ellimist. Obviously doing the whole Andalite Chronicle piece wouldn't be easy from the perspective of making a movie.)
Marco finds out his mom's Visser One and they all get hijacked. Jake gets infested (where he gets infested would probably have to change, but heck, we don't have time to put in all the books anyway... And it could easily be done because they end up being taken by the Yeerks. I don't like tweaking books but let's face it - that's not the worst tweak that could be done when it comes to needing to combine books.) Frankly, if really necessary we could fit in
#10 and #19. The stories could be combined. I know that sounds weird, but again, it could be worked in because they fight at a Sharing meeting, Erek's in the woods, Cassie gets lost further down the woods. It could be done. Plus, the YPM is pretty important from the standpoint of there not being all good sides and bad sides to a war.
#20, 21, 22 - Yep, good movie plan. Easily a movie. I wonder if #23 could somehow become the background story for that main conflict. I hate the idea, but there's really no easy way to otherwise get #23 in there. All the books around it suck either in plot or (more problematically) in the ability to really seamlessly fit in with each other.
#23 and #29???? Actually, they could fit with each other. Tobias was the last one to get sick. It could be kind of the 'thing' that happens after he finds out and Cassie has to go rescue Aftran. Though it kills me inside to be blending books together like this.
The Reunion and The Proposal work well together, I believe. #33 is important to Tobias's development, I agree there, but where to fit it? Maybe a cliffhanger from there for the next movie?
45, 46, 49 can be merged. They all have to do with the end of the war drawing nearer and nearer, the families having to go into hiding, and some of Ax's deceptions.
I think a lot of the last books can be merged into a sort of battle/complications with the Andalites, etc. The ending that worked for the book series will not work for a movie. (Though many of us agree it didn't work for the book series...) You need enough of #54 to know that Rachel died, lots of people died, it was tragic and terrible and Visser One was captured and the Andalites didn't incinerate the planet. Some evidence of the aftermath to everyone's psyche? I'm sure it could be managed, probably if a Cassie narration took up. Going two years into the future, another year into the future, and then into another battle where the story just ends would be ridiculous.
Megamorphs (as much as I love #4) and Chronicles would be very hard to work seamlessly into the stories. Don't get me wrong, I love them. But:
1. The Andalite Chronicles - would not work well as a movie, IMO. If this was a long-running TV show, maybe, because the fan-base would already get what was going on and wouldn't be perturbed by the overwhelming amount of aliens - only two of the cast otherwise would be human. For the majority of the story. Not great likeliness for success there.
2. IDK why we'd talk about The Andalite's Gift. I thought that whole megamorphs was filler. Elfangor's Secret not so much, but still kind of unnecessary if we're going to skip any story where that might have been relevant for the most part. I love #2 and #4, but for movies they would not work in seamlessly.
3. Visser Chronicles would be awesome, and I'd love to focus on them, but they have the same problem as TAC being made into a movie. Possible success if one is already familiar with everything - very familiar. Not so much otherwise. Basically, IMO you're better off sticking with the *regular* books.
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A movie would be most awesome, certainly, but I think a good, animated TV show would be great. (You can include more of the story, for one thing. But also it just seems more viable than sticking a movie out and going "BEHOLD.") And then a few of the Megamorphs/Chronicles could become full-length movies later for the TV show fans and get tons of cult popularity.
I'm not saying that it's the way for the thing to go (this is why directors can't listen to fans, lol) but if anything it goes to show you no two fans will agree on what should be represented or why XD
There are definitely problems with trying to listen to fan base oriented people on this one XD The wise people would probably be Grant/Applegate if a company seriously considered it.