Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: TobiasMasonPark on April 16, 2011, 09:09:36 PM
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I know, I know, this topic has been done over and over and over. And I also realize that I myself have partaken in this discussion a billion times or so.
But I want to have an actual lengthy discussion about the show. I'm talking art styles, scripts, structure of the seasons, the old voice-over/live action debate...All that stuff. I think this is a chance for the brilliant minds of RAF to get together an brainstorm. Think of it as a little project for us all.
I'll start with the structure of the seasons for the show.
I think the major problem with the TV series--other than the budget and the writing-- was how the seasons were structured. After the Invasion episode(s) aired, the whole thing was kind of sloppy. One minute, we'd be watching [some] of the plot from the underground, and the next week we'd be seeing the Capture. And then there were those non-canon episodes that were more enjoyable than any of the [slightly] canon episodes. Also, the season finale was just terrible. The reason we get hooked onto a show--the reason we start watching it, and the reason we keep coming back every season-- is the Premiere and the Finale! If you don't have a decent one, you may as well get to work on another attempt at an adaptation of a children's book--like Goosebumps.
Alright, each season should follow a certain theme of sorts. Let's look at Smallville, for example. Whether you think it's a good show or not is irrelevant. I've noticed that there was a certain formula to the show. Season one: Clark is starting out as a kid, trying to live a normal life while saving his town from kryptonite-renegades. And, as each season progresses, Clark becomes more aware of his fate as Superman. Sometime after Five and Six, Clark realized this fate and starts the whole saving the world business.
Animorphs should more or less follow this in the show. I think season one needs to focus on the themes of family, friendship, loneliness, isolation and innocence. We see those themes in the first ten books at least: The Invasion, the Visitor, the Predator, and the Stranger for family and friendship, the Encounter and the Alien for loneliness and isolation, in addition to the search for identity. This season should also focus on the kid's struggle to 1) keep their identities as the Andalite bandits a secret, 2) juggle saving the world with things like school and family, and 3) and getting used to their powers. Season One is NOT, in my opinion, ready for the ethic and moral dilemma that we see later on. But we need to cut the first season at a point where the kids have gotten used to their powers, begun to realize their place in the world, and have made some sort of breakthrough that is exciting enough to keep us watching until the next season.
Here is my ideal first season for this series:
1) The Invasion (Part One and Two)
2) The Visitor
3) The Encounter
4) The Message
5) The Predator
6) The Capture
7) The Stranger
8] The Alien
9) The Secret
10) The Android
11) The Forgotten
12) The Reaction
13) The Change
14) The Andalite's Gift (Season Finale)
Breakthrough: The kids have developed enough to continue their journey as adults, not children--yet they still have some growing up to do. Tobias is back in the game, with morphing powers and his human body. And the biggest breakthrough made is the Hork-Bajir valley. This may not be too exciting, if you're expecting the season to end with a battle, but I think it's enough. I think the ending of the Change is perfect: Tobias revealing his newly acquired body to Rachel.
Now we have the Premiere of Season Two. A lot of good stuff for this season: David, mainly, and a lot of moral and ethical dilemma. The series, should it last this long, has matured enough for it. The question now, is how do we start of the show? Surely, we can't start with the Unknown...I mean, really...A Cassie based episode to start off the season? No. That won't do. This is the very tricky part of envisioning an Animorphs show--Seasons Two and Three. The books between 13 and the David Trilogy are a bit on the dull side--in MY opinon (feel free to disagree). Perhaps the solution here is to start with a non-canon episode that is well written and exciting enough to keep viewers interested...
Of course, there's also an alternative that I am in favour of. Instead of keeping the David Trilogy as...well, a trilogy, we expand it. Now, this can go on for the entire season, or it could end sometime in the middle. Either way, David would be in the opening credits (feel free to discuss this [the opening theme/credits] as well!). This would give us a chance to see David in more missions than he was given, and also gives us a chance to see some personal growth. I always felt that David was too 2-dimensional in the series. We never really go to see his side of things. This alternative approach to the TV series might just convert a few of the haters.
Anyways...Because it's difficult to plan out the second season, we'll leave the layout this way:
14) The Unknown
15) The Escape
16) The Warning
17) The Underground
18) The Decision
19) The Departure
20) The Discovery
21) The Threat
22) The Solution
23) The Pretender
24) The Suspicion
25) The Extreme
26) The Attack
Breakthrough: The kids are older, wiser and better at what they do. They're used to their morphs, and they've had their drawbacks (David). We see a lot of growing up and ethics in this season. The best way to end this is with the Attack. Crayak is introduced, and we learn more about that Ellimist guy from episode seven. It also opens up the theme for the next few seasons: free will vs determinism.
Season three is less tricky than season two, because there are a lot more interesting things to see. We've got the idea of a Hork-Bajir rebellion, the strange case of two Rachels, the Torture of Tobias, the Yeerk Peace movement, and some more development for the Chee. The problem here is where to end the season. I think it's best to end sometime before Taylor returns. We want the books between the early forties and 54 to have their own season. This means that, excluding filler and non-canon episodes (as well as Chronciles and megamorphs episodes) Animorphs will have four seasons; five at the most.
Animorphs 27: The Exposed
Animorphs 28: The Experiment
Animorphs 29: The Sickness
Animorphs 30: The Reunion
Animorphs 31: The Conspiracy
Animorphs 32: The Separation
Animorphs 33: The Illusion
Animorphs 34: The Prophecy
Animorphs 35: The Proposal
Animorphs 36: The Mutation
Animorphs 37: The Weakness
Animorphs 38: The Arrival
Animorphs 39: The Hidden
Breakthrough: This is a mostly an opportunity to see personal growth in our friend Marco. We see the themes of identity, war, some family, and what it takes to be a leader. This may be the season that ends in a canon episode, more than anything. Either we end with an episode somewhere after book 43, or before 39. I doubt anyone would want to see a season premier that deals with the buffa-human. We need something exciting to end an exciting season.
Season four and five (because I don't know if these would be separate at this point) is where we get to the really exciting stuff. This is the freaking series finale! It gets darker, harder decisions are made, and the group has reached the point where there is literally no going back. Despite being sixteen, they are not children, but soldiers. If only they could start off the show with this season, eh? That would keep just about anyone going. I mean, we'd gladly sit through gems like the buffa human incident just to get to this season! We've got Tobias' torturer returning, David's back, Jake grows a beard, Marco gets his mother, we get a lesson in civil wars of America, and Ax almost blows up California...And yea, themes, personal growth...All that stuff.
Animorphs 40: The Other
Animorphs 41: The Familiar
Animorphs 42: The Journey
Animorphs 43: The Test
Animorphs 44: The Unexpected
Animorphs 45: The Revelation
Animorphs 46: The Deception
Animorphs 47: The Resistance
Animorphs 48: The Return
Animorphs 49: The Diversion
I think the diversion is an excellent way to end the season. The Yeerks know who the Animorphs are now. The war is about to be exposed. I imagine this being a two parter, actually; with the season premier of season five being part two. I can just see the ending line to part one: "They know we're human."
And, of course, Season five ends with what we're given in season five.
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Season five can just be a tv movie where the final four books are combined into one never-ending show. Think the ending of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Also, i think there should probably include the Megamorphs series as mini-arcs. After book 7, you'd get the Veleek episodes (lasting one or two or three eps) before heading back into 'the change'.
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Here is my ideal first season for this series:
1) The Invasion
2) The Visitor
3) The Encounter
4) The Message
5) The Predator
6) The Capture
7) The Stranger
8) The Alien
9) The Secret
10) The Android
11) The Forgotten
12) The Reaction
13) The Change
Agreed. Only to keep the series from being episodic (as in a reset button at the end of every episode), certain events should overlap. For example, during the first three "episodes", we should continuously flash to Ax every now and again so that in book four the viewing audience is sympathetic towards his cause. Sort of like how Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we kept getting glimpses of Angel in season One, up until we finally learned his true backstory and how he would fit into the universe from then on out.
Anyways...Because it's difficult to plan out the second season, we'll leave the layout this way:
14) The Unknown
15) The Escape
16) The Warning
17) The Underground
18) The Decision
19) The Departure
20) The Discovery
21) The Threat
22) The Solution
23) The Pretender
24) The Suspicion
25) The Extreme
26) The Attack
Agreed again, however, I disagree about the Cassie bit. Weak season openings aren’t unusual, but with some careful planning you could make “The Unknown” more ambiguous. I mean, for all we know, David didn’t start school the very day before he found the blue box. He may very well have begun class on the day the Animorphs go out to find Zone whatever.
So as Cassie and company are out in the fields of horses, David’s family moves in. Viewers don’t know who he is yet, but we readers of the series will be familiar with him. Chapman, who is in charge of the Sharing and the default second-in-command, is laying the groundwork for the plan to infest the foreign diplomats and we see Erek and a few other Androids listening in on this. And that’s “The Unknown”, because the Unknown isn’t just the alien space toilet, but the threat that David poses will also be Unknown, as well as which of the diplomats is actually controlled by a Yeerk. (On a side note, if I’ve heard the word “yeerked” at any point during this series run I will hunt down the writers responsible and tack their eyeballs to a tree)
Animorphs 27: The Exposed
Animorphs 28: The Experiment
Animorphs 29: The Sickness
Animorphs 30: The Reunion
Animorphs 31: The Conspiracy
Animorphs 32: The Separation
Animorphs 33: The Illusion
Animorphs 34: The Prophecy
Animorphs 35: The Proposal
Animorphs 36: The Mutation
Animorphs 37: The Weakness
Animorphs 38: The Arrival
Animorphs 39: The Hidden
Here I would recommend overlapping the events of The Experiment with the Sickness. Maybe imply that whatever experiment Ax was exposed to while in monkey morph was what lead to his sickness. Whatever the Yeerks were doing could have been the reason he got ill and why it spread to the humans, who were the intended target of the experiment to “numb” human free will.
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You see? This is what I love about RAF! Fans with brilliant ideas! The show should be in the hands of these people, I swear...Though, I'm not necessarily saying that I should be the one to do the show :P I'm just saying the Rafians are brilliant.
I think a holiday episode would be great, especially for Christmas. Now, the point here would not be to force Catholicism on the audience, but to allow the audience to see how the Animorphs would function during the war. Mostly, focusing on Tobias and Ax, maybe even Erek and how isolated they feel at this time of the year. And, yet, despite this lonliness, the group learns that they will always have each other. I think the episode should end with either a shot of the Animorphs having Christmas (holiday, in Rachel's caese) dinner with their families, or the four main Animorphs and their families having dinner at Jake's house.
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I wouldn't say Erek is isolated as such. He has the entire Chee network, plus his supporters. A Christmas episode would be nice though. The best episodes of Buffy, in my opinion, were the ones that centered around the holidays. They always seemed to be the focal point of all of the previous episodes, which was a great subtitute for a clip episode. (Again, proving that Joss was a genius)
Religion doesn't have to play into it at all. Or if that becomes a squeamish subject, you could just drop hints to the coming of Christmas by having the school decorated in festive colors. Maybe throw in referneces to Hannaka, etc.
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Script for pilot of season one in planning stages. There's a topic about it in the RAF Projects thread. Mostly posted here to bring the topic back to page one, saving me trouble of looking through topics again.
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I like the TV movies idea. Air them between the seasons to keep people satiated, waiting for the new season to start.
The only problem with MM1 airing after The Change is that Tobias can't morph in MM1. MM1 takes place after book 7. Unless MM1 is aired like a regular episode of course. Perhaps we should have the Megamorphs in the regular series; but have the Chronicles as between season movies. First Andalite Chronicles, then Hork-Bajir Chronicles, then Visser, then Ellimist Chronicles.
They could even film the Alternamorphs as interactive webisodes that the viewer gets to choose events.
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I only chose Megamorphs 1 to follow the Change because it seemed like a good season finale.
I'd like to come up with additional original episodes, as well.
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Yeah; but it'd have to be rewritten to incorporate that Tobias can now morph. 'Cause one of the coolest moments is when Tobias grips a dracon with a talon and blows up a ship with a single shot through the bridge. It wouldn't as impressive of a moment if Tobias could just morph to something that can grip the gun and shoot.
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That was the encounter, wasn't it?
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Was it? I thought he did that in MM1.
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Yea. He blew up the Truck ship that held all the water from some valley in the mountains. The conflict in Megamorphs 1 was settled by Cassie morphing a whale and landing on the Valeek. Or whatever it was.
It was the same move recycled in the Prophecy and the Hidden
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Actually it was pulling the Valeek down into the water, she didn't land atop it . . .
But I think this is a good idea -- getting a decent television series. Granted the tv series is the thing that got me into Animorphs . . .
Sorry that I won't have much to contribute here, I don't know much about this kind of stuff.
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Great idea for a tv series Empress Goose. I would definatly watch that.
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Lookin' good. Lookin' good. Personally, I would prefer to do things a little differently (not to disparage your thoughts; just giving my own $.02). Because the series is meant to take place over a 3ish year period, I would keep the series restricted to three seasons. It also would allow the show to have three full 20ish episode seasons using just the books. I wouldn't inherently be opposed to completely original episodes, but that would probably require extra seasons. Also, for the sake of simplicity, I wouldn't mess around too much with the order of the books. The Megamorphs would probably be split into two part episodes. The Chronicles books as well, with the exception of The Andalite Chronicles which would probably require three episodes. I would probably be nice to have those multi-parters aired at once as mini TV movies, and then separated in re-runs and syndication. So, this is how I'd break it down:
Season 1:
1) The Invasion
2) The Visitor
3) The Encounter
4) The Message
5) The Predator
6) The Capture
7) The Stranger
8) The Andalite's Gift pt. 1
9) The Andalite's Gift pt. 2
10) The Alien
11) The Secret
12) The Android
13) The Forgotten
14) The Reaction
15) The Andalite Chronicles: Elfangor's Journey
16) The Andalite Chronicles: Alloran's Choice
17) The Andalite Chronicles: An Alien Dies
18) The Change
19) The Unknown
20) The Escape
21) The Warning
22) The Underground
23) The Decision
24) In the Time of the Dinosaurs pt. 1
25) In the Time of the Dinosaurs pt. 2 (season finale)
So, kind of a long first season, but if you air the multi's together as "events" then it cuts it down to 21 "episodes." I cut it off at this point because I like how, this way, the first season is more about the Animorphs, as Goose said, still being children. These episodes would feel more like fun adventures with morphing. Sure, they're still fighting a war. Yeah, lives are still a stake. And, okay, there are still a lot of real emotional developments. However, its still a lot lighter than the series will become. I chose Megamorphs 2 as my season finale because its a really big, really fun adventure which, like I said, is kind of the tone the series should have in this first season.
Season 2:
26) The Departure
27) The Discovery
28) The Threat
29) The Solution
30) The Hork-Bajir Chronicles pt. 1
31) The Hork-Bajir Chronicles pt. 2
32) The Pretender
33) The Suspicion
34) The Extreme
35) The Attack
36) The Exposed
37) The Experiment
38) The Sickness
39) Elfangor's Secret pt.1
40) Elfangor's Secret pt. 2
41) The Reunion
42) The Conspiracy
43) The Separation
44) The Illusion
45) The Prophecy
46) The Proposal (season finale)
So, a shorter season this time. I like The Departure as season opener. Its a little quiet, but I think Cassie's reservations regarding her role in this one lead off well from her action's in Mega #2. I also like how it would swiftly introduce the idea of "good guy" Yeerks to the season. Although they regrettably didn't play much of a role in the series as written, it really sets the tone as more serious and philosophical, and introduces more moral quandaries to the series. Of course, we follow it quickly with the David trilogy. I like the idea of David being introduced earlier as something of a side character, but care would have to be taken to make sure not to paint him as a "villain" type early on (otherwise, why would the Animorphs even think of recruiting him?). As for the season finale, its obviously not an action packed finale and not even that great of a book (although it could be improved for television). I picked it because not only does it have that great cliffhanger at the end, but it also serves the purpose as being setting the events of the final season as revolving around Marco and his mom.
Season 3:
47) Visser pt. 1
48) Visser pt. 2
49) The Mutation
50) The Weakness
51) The Arrival
52) The Hidden
53) The Other
54) Back to Before pt. 1
55) Back to Before pt. 2
56) The Familiar
57) The Journey
58) The Test
59) The Unexpected
I want to pause here a second for a couple of reasons. First off, I think the season starts out great with Visser. It leads off great from the cliffhanger from last season, sets up the events that will bring the series to a close, and I think the unconventional start will catch the "new viewers" who hadn't read the books by surprise. I think it'd work well. Unfortunately, I'm really disappointed in the quality of the episodes afterwards. The Mutation is my least favorite of the books, and I think an absolutely horrible first "traditional" episodes to the season (especially the final season). I would want to make this an original episode that wasn't horrible (or maybe switch it with an earlier Jake episode or something, at least). Also, just the episodes leading up to #45 wouldn't be that great either. A lot are silly and don't really serve much of a purpose. I wouldn't mind re-working them while keeping the same basic plot to better fit a grand plan. Either way, I could imagine there being a mid season break right here. The pause could be long enough to air the entire series again, in order and on an accelerated schedule, to hype everyone up for the final stretch.
60) The Revelation
61) The Deception
62) The Resistance
63) The Ellimist Chronicles pt. 1
64) The Ellimist Chronicles pt. 2
65) The Return
66) The Diversion
67) The Ultimate
68) The Absolute
69) The Sacrifice
70) The Answer
71) The Beginning
And that would be that.
In general, I would also expect there to be general changes to hopefully improve the overall cohesiveness of the universe. A better defined Yeerk and Andalite culture. Greater follow up on plot points that were mostly ignored in the series as written (Yeerk Peace Movement, Yeerk invasion of the Andalite homeworld). There should also be smaller changes to tie the episodes closer together (such as the previously suggested idea of introducing David earlier). Also, I wouldn't be opposed to re-arranging some episodes and altering some plots, so long as there was a legitimate good reason behind it.
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If we absolutely HAD to have an Animorphs animated series, I would settle for nothing less than this:
http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp117/tehmels/anigroupextreme3copy.jpg (http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp117/tehmels/anigroupextreme3copy.jpg)
Or this:
http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r397/Blue_Rampion/Anicomp/R1-Entry2.jpg (http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r397/Blue_Rampion/Anicomp/R1-Entry2.jpg)
I have no clue who did these, but I WISH I was the owner! This is what I would want an animated series to be like.
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I really like that 2nd entry you posted @guyaboveme.
A noir, modern/futuristic, inner-city setting would be incredible to read.
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http://zimonini.deviantart.com/gallery/24072635 (http://zimonini.deviantart.com/gallery/24072635)
I particularly like the Hork-Bajir: http://zimonini.deviantart.com/art/ANIMORPHS-RACE-Hork-Bajir-13789124. (http://zimonini.deviantart.com/art/ANIMORPHS-RACE-Hork-Bajir-13789124.) It kind of reminds me of one of the more recent Spider-Man cartoons.
Deviantart is making me consider Animorphs as a cartoon series.
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I wouldn't mind an art style like this:
http://browse.deviantart.com/art/Animorphs-Manga-Splash-76965736 (http://browse.deviantart.com/art/Animorphs-Manga-Splash-76965736)
(though I can see people complaining that it looks too kiddy but w/e I love the Rachel and Tobias designs)
If they did go the Animated route (And I'm really hoping they do. No matter how many times I try to run it through my head, I just can't see another Live action attempt doing the series any justice. I'd just be way too expensive) I'd love for it to have an art style similar to Young Justice (http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2013/03/YoungJustice_032013_1600.jpg) or the Last Airbender series (http://www.animationmagazine.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/The-Legend-of-Korra-post-3.jpg). Those two are perfect examples of western animation done right.
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Agreed. Particularly on not being able to picture a live action series that does the books justice--and on hoping the style is similar to Young Justice.
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A live action thing would require a near Avengers-esque budget to pull off properly.
Of course, animation isn't exactly cheap either, so if this is fantasy we may as well go all out with it. :)
But yeah, animation certainly makes the more fantastical elements a lot easier to pull off. Would people feel this way about live action if we hadn't already seen the miserable budgeted Nickelodeon series?
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Of course, there's also an alternative that I am in favour of. Instead of keeping the David Trilogy as...well, a trilogy, we expand it. Now, this can go on for the entire season, or it could end sometime in the middle. Either way, David would be in the opening credits (feel free to discuss this [the opening theme/credits] as well!). This would give us a chance to see David in more missions than he was given, and also gives us a chance to see some personal growth. I always felt that David was too 2-dimensional in the series. We never really go to see his side of things. This alternative approach to the TV series might just convert a few of the haters.
Anyways...Because it's difficult to plan out the second season, we'll leave the layout this way:
14) The Unknown
15) The Escape
16) The Warning
17) The Underground
18) The Decision
19) The Departure
20) The Discovery
21) The Threat
22) The Solution
23) The Pretender
24) The Suspicion
25) The Extreme
26) The Attack
I actually think David should stay for the entire season. Give fans a chance to know him better and maybe expand on his character a little more so that we can actually feel some sympathy for him (I don't care how f***** up his life was, not once did I ever feel any sympathy for that little jerk. I was pretty much on Marco's side throughout that whole trilogy) and have him build relationships with the other Animorphs, particularly Cassie since his entire defeat was her idea. Maybe he develops some feelings for Cassie since she gave him a home (or rather barn) to stay in and generally treated him more like a person than the rest of the Anis (He's had negative things to say about everyone but I don't remember him ever saying anything bad about Cassie). So imagine how much the his eventual downfall would hurt the both of them (assuming David knew it was all Cassie's plan. I forgot whether or not they told him that) and how fans of the show (the ones who didn't read the books and wont know what's coming) will feel for this character, who's now been around for long that he's pretty much become a main protagonist and probably even has a fanbase by the time he goes bad, since he's not only been doomed to the life of a rat but it was all the idea of the one person on the team he could call a friend (plus his one sided crush on Cassie could lead to some amusing banter between him and Jake during their fight at the end of 21)
And not just Cassie, have him establish some kind of relationship (be it bad or good) with all of the Animorphs so that they genuinely feel bad about his betrayal and not just: "Ah-ha! I knew we couldn't trust this guy". Because really, none of them trusted him. It's not like he gave them many reasons to but, at least in my opinion, the whole "Animorph gone bad" thing could have been sooo much better if it were a character that the Animorphs all trusted and thought of as a friend. David can still keep his bad attitude but make him more than an obvious traitor. Give him some depth. It's like how the Teen Titans show handled Terra. In the comics she was a snarky **** and a complete psychotic monster who, at the age of 14, was sleeping with the Titans' elderly arch enemy. Plus the audience knew she was a traitor before the actual team ever figured it out. Sounds a lot like David, doesn't it? Well...except for the whole sleeping with the pedo bad guys thing. But in the TV show, Terra was more or less a tragic hero. She was a good guy (and a REALLY likable character) from the start. She only betrayed the team because the bad guy played with her emotions (but DID NOT have sex with her) and talked her into joining him in exchange for teaching her how to control her powers. In the end she eventually realizes the mistakes she's made and sacrifices herself to save the Titans (In he comics, she just went crazy...er and dropped a building on herself) I don't want changes to David to be as extreme as they were with Terra (Because the only thing Comic Terra and TV Terra had in common were their powers, their fight with Raven, and their relationship with Beast Boy) but at least make the kid some kind of human being before he eventually turns bad, and not just have him be a total sociopath from the start to the finish. He can still be a jerk and a pain in the ass but give him SOME qualities about him that make audiences who didn't read the book believe he'd actually become a full member of the team. That was my main problem with David. That story arc had so much potential and it's still my favorite in the series but why are we supposed to feel anything for this kid when not even the Animorphs do? If another Animorphs TV show is ever made, I hope they take full advantage of the liberties they'd be allowed to take and make David an actual member of the main cast for at least ONE season. In fact his betrayal and defeat would be a perfect season finale.
....wow. I did not mean for that rant to go as long as it did. And I apologize because I still have more to say.
(feel free to discuss this [the opening theme/credits] as well!)
I am a diehard anime fan. And when I talk about an Animorphs cartoon I try REALLY hard not to make it into an American attempt at anime (even though I honestly believe Japanese animation trumps Western animation in EVERY way) but when it comes to Opening/Ending credits, I can't help but always bring up anime because what they do is something every country should be doing. For one thing, they don't use instrumentals, narrations, or cheesy and lazily written songs that give the gist of what the show is about while showing clips of we're already gonna see in the actual episdes. They use real songs from legit bands, not random undiscovered (and often for good reason) singers that would be glad to make up a song on the spot for $5. And they have different openings for each season or story arc the show happens to be on. And they use custom animations, not clips from episodes! And a lot of it is BEAUTIFUL! When I watch anime, I sometimes end up liking the opening/ending themes better than actual show just because of how beautifully it's animated and how epic the music is. I could totally see an Animorphs opening being done like these:
Naruto Shippuden Opening 6 Sign on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/65790440)
Soul Eater OPENING 2 (HD) on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/54577488)
BLEACH - Opening 7 on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/68448641)
Fairy Tail Opening 14 on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/61835724)
Deadman Wonderland Opening on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/67352691) (I've actually found myself daydreaming about an Animorphs version of this one)
And can't be that expensive to call up an existing and band like (Linkin Park, Dead by April, Evanescence, ect.) and ask them if they'd allow one of their songs to be used as an opening for a series. They don't even have to write a new song for it! Just use one of their songs that they've already made. That can't be more expensive than what they're already doing: hiring somebody to write the song, somebody to sing it, and a band to play the accompanying music. Sure you could save money by just making the opening an instrumental piece or go the Young Justice (Season 2) route and have your opening be like 10 seconds long. But that's boring :(
Would people feel this way about live action if we hadn't already seen the miserable budgeted Nickelodeon series?
No. Because True Blood and Game of Thrones are the only live action shows I've seen with IMPRESSIVE special effects and that STILL wouldn't be enough for something like Animorphs. Plus those shows got their phenomenal budget from HBO being powerhouses. Animorphs wold most likely end up on a regular cable network. If you want an HBO budget for Animorphs, the series is gonna need A LOT more adult (borederline porn) themes. And since the main cast is 13-16 (God I hope they'd get the ages right this time around), I don't think that'll go over well XD
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Apologies, Blue, for the very late response :P
We are agreed on the David thing. I would definitely have him as a major character in season two, and the changes to his character will be made if I were in charge. The trilogy did some funny things with David's relationship with other characters. At first, there seems to be antagonism between him and Marco. Then, in the Threat, it's between David and Jake (David's questioning Jake's authority). In the Solution, the whole trilogy (as poparena points out) becomes focused on making Rachel David's foil, and emphasises their feud as if it had been the whole point of the trilogy. What I'm trying to say, but doubt is coherent, is that there's a lot of flip flopping. One character hates David one book, then another in the next, and another in the third. It makes sense, in a way, as Marco, Jake, and Rachel narrate those books. But it seems like David's interaction with the other Animorphs wasn't handled as well as it could have been--though, I'm not saying I could do better.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves, I think. Here we are discussing season 2, when I can't even complete a script for episode 1! I just can't think of anything that would make the pilot GREAT. I've done many drafts of early scenes, and I scrap them because I lose interest--Jake and Marco getting a ride to school from Tom, followed by a look at each Animorph throughout the school day and the mall; to just starting from the mall, like in the Invasion. I can't figure out how to make the first episode interesting enough. Do I just take the stuff from the Invasion and stretch it into two parts, or should I take liberties?
We also have to take the time difference into consideration: more than 10 years has passed since the first book was released. We have ipods, internet, camera phones, crazy as hell surveillance, new pop culture, new economies, new issues in politics, a new way of speaking (for kids and adults), etc. Do I make Marco say "swag" and "Yolo"--ironically, of course-- Do I focus more on Rachel's girly-side or her violent side? Do I turn Tobias into Edward Cullen? How can I get the show to connect with the audience we have now? Is it even possible to update the series to fit with the times? Or is the Animorphs just a product of the nineties?
I don't know about how things are in the States, but here, there aren't any video game arcades--where the series begins-- what with the console wars going on. So how do I get the Animorphs to take their famous short cut through the construction site? Are they all going to the same party and decide to walk home together?
Stuff like that is what I'm having trouble with. All the material is, thankfully, in the book. As usual, the difficulty, for me, is in starting.
Edit
I've thought up some more questions/issues I've had thus far:
1) How would thought speech be depicted?
Maybe it's an easy fix--voice overs, or whatever the technical term would be. But think about some of the scenes in the books: when the kids are flying to their destination, they'll crack jokes or discuss the mission at hand. The problem with special effects (morphing, the animals, etc) already make the project difficult; but how do we determine who is speaking to whom whilst in morph? How do we avoid making it look cheesy?
2) How do we get around new technology?
What's to stop the kid's from getting caught on camera (security or otherwise). It would make a good plot for a an earlier filler episode, but it's not something they could get away with over and over. This issue goes for the Yeerks as well--because we know how sloppy they were in the series.
3) How do we depict morphing?
We all know of how the Nick series did it--the awkward transitions, or straight up just morphing behind something. Do we do the same thing, but hope we have better technology to avoid making it look awful? Do we do a long drawn out transformation sequence like they do on Power Rangers, Digimon, and Sailor moon?
4) Should we have episodes be narrated or not?
Again, it seems trivial, and like an easy fix. But the Nick series--at least, from what I've seen-- was really bad with narration. Some episodes would have it, others wouldn't. Will this series be narrated as well? Is the whole series being shown to us through the Animorphs' memories/hirac delest (one of my earlier ideas) taken down at some point before the big fight at the end of the series? Or do we nix narration, and show the series unfold as we go? The books come off like diaries most times--though, this is debatable. How do we make diary entries come to the screen?
5) Do we keep the original series opening?
Do we keep it as the "kids at the mall take a shortcut through an abandoned construction site" beginning? I already brought up the thing about the obsolete arcades, but the Animorphs could be there for other reasons. Kids still go to the mall on Fridays...right? I don't know. I'm 21...How the hell do thirteen year olds act? From what I hear from my younger brother, and from what I've seen of the kids roughly 13 years old the Animorphs will be some pretty awful people.
6) Puppets or CGI?
For the aliens, I mean.
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If it were me, I'd make it animated and set it from 1996-2000. Animation so you could make all the aliens look good without breaking the bank, 1996 so it would appeal more to the original readers. Think about it: the books are out of print. The audience for this series wouldn't be little kids: it would be 20-somethings who read the series during its original run and come back to it out of a sense of nostalgia (like, uh, me). Setting it in the mid-late 90's helps with the nostalgia, as well as avoiding the problem of new technology and knowing what those darn kids these days do. What with helicopter parenting and all, would 2014 Animorphs even walk home by themselves? I'm imagining all their parents picking them up in individual minivans and shuttling them to their next scheduled extracurricular activity, while Tobias walks home alone and becomes the world's only Animorph. :P
I also think the series was very 90's in tone and outlook. Things were pretty good in the 90's, at least in America - the economy was booming, we weren't at war, we were blissfully unaware of global terrorism... but in pop culture, there was a lot of "things may SEEM okay, but underneath the surface everything's actually HORRIBLE!!!" See: The X-Files, The Matrix, The Truman Show, etc. Animorphs fits into that milieu very well. To give it more of a post-9/11 feel, you'd probably want the Yeerks to do some huge attack that kills thousands (or, hell, they're aliens, not dudes with boxcutters - millions), getting everyone's attention, and then the paranoia that anyone could be a Yeerk drives the governments of Earth to turn on their own people, setting up constant surveillance, curtailing individual liberties, etc. (Would that be too on-the-nose? ;) )
Anyway, I doubt teens who experienced 9/11 in elementary school would have the attitude of, "I thought the world was perfect and I had nothing to worry about, but now I find that there's an alien invasion going on." (Edited to add: Oh God, I just realized: with modern-day Animorphs, 9/11 would have happened before they were born. :o How old am I?!) Also, this is probably horrible, but in an age where it seems like every dramatic TV show has a scene where the good guy tortures someone, I wonder if they'd have as many moral dilemmas? The war on terror seems to have established a theme in public discourse that's seeped into pop culture that we can do whatever horrific thing we want and still be the good guys.
But now I'm going off on a political rant. Here's how I'd do it:
- Animated, set in 1996-2000. No voice-over narration. The whole "I can't tell you my last name or where I live" thing doesn't work for a medium where you can see everyone's faces. I think I'd also go for an opening in the vein of LOST or Supernatural: no theme song, just the name of the show for like 10 seconds with some unsettling music possibly by Radiohead, then opening credits on the bottom of the screen as the show plays.
- Four seasons of 12 hour-long episodes (2 "spotlight" episodes for each character per season), each season ending with a made-for-TV movie based on a Chronicles book.
- I wouldn't be too slavish adapting each book in sequence, and ignore certain books entirely. ("The Underground," "The Experiment," "The Mutation," "The Hidden" - as much as I love this series, let's admit it: a number of these books were just filler, and some of them were just flat-out bad.) Instead, focus on season arcs: what is the primary arc of this season? What is each character's arc? Steal book plots as they fit in with the theme, make up your own when necessary, keep the good parts of a plot (there's a way to drive a Yeerk insane - but it'll be trapped in its host forever! Is it worth it?) while discarding the bad parts (it's maple-sugar oatmeal!). Take character development that happened in one book and pair it with a more interesting plot from another book. Play around with narrative emphasis. (What if "The Message" was told from Ax's perspective instead of Cassie's? Can you imagine if the book had started with: "My name is Aximilli-Esgarouth-Isthill. The Yeerks have destroyed the Dome Ship. I am trapped at the bottom of an Earth ocean, and my air and water is running out. If you can hear this, I beg of you, please help." What if "The Android" was told from Cassie's perspective instead of Marco's? Wouldn't the Chee's pacifism resonate with her?) You're already expanding David's plot throughout all of Season Two (which is a great idea, by the way), so no need to adapt every book exactly as it was published.
- While I'm on David, how about making him a girl? The Animorphs are already kind of a sausage fest - the girls are outnumbered even before you add Ax and Erek - and a new female Animorph would throw off the readers familiar with the David trilogy, leading to more uncertainty as to whether or not she will betray them. Also, think about this: Jake has Cassie. Tobias has Rachel. Marco has no one. And that's largely treated as a joke in the series: ha-ha, womanizing girl-crazy guy is all alone. But let's work with that seriously. He's lonely. If he's really into, let's call her Dominique, and she actually likes him back, his defenses are lowered. Since he's probably the most distrustful member of the group, his lowered defenses allow her to last a lot longer. And then of course, when she betrays the group, that gives Marco something to angst over other than his mom, as well as providing a bit of a warning sign to Rachel (i.e., is this what you're turning into?).
- Expand the Yeerk Peace Movement and resistence by ex-Controllers by, like, a lot. These showed up a little bit in the series, but not nearly enough. Plus, the YPM gives Cassie something to do in later episodes that doesn't involve ghosts, morphing buffalo, or random pointless trips to Australia. Also, Taylor's whole bit about the Yeerk going crazy because it can no longer tell where it ends and its host begins. More on that, and maybe more on Taylor. I have this idea for a plot, early on, where Tom brings his "girlfriend," Taylor, to the Berenson family Passover seder. She's a quiet, sad former model who recently joined The Sharing, after a terrible accident left her burned and mutilated. (Maybe even an accident that the Animorphs caused in a prior battle with the Yeerks.) Jake and Rachel recognize that she hasn't yet been infested and the Animorphs try to save her, but ultimately fail, and at the end of the episode, she moves away. It's made to feel like a one-off episode meant primarily to establish the stakes and show more about The Sharing and its victims. Until she comes back in Season Three.
- End Season Three with "The Revelation" (TV movie: Visser) and stretch out the last eight books to be the entire fourth season. The Auxilliary Animorphs also deserve way more attention, as well as the ramifications of everyone finding out about the Yeerks. Have Rachel die at the very end of "The Answer," air The Ellimist Chronicles, then air the last episode.
As for the first episode, what do you think of J.J. Abram's technique in LOST and Revolution of starting with the world already changed and then explaining what happened in flashbacks? What if you just skipped the construction site scene, with its massive exposition dump, and just start it with them already being Animorphs? And then explain what's going on in flashbacks tailored to whichever character is most prominent in each episode? I don't know how well that would work, but it's just a thought.
I'm sorry, that's a huge wall of text. I'll stop babbling now. It's just that I've been working out ideas for a TV series too (not that it'll ever come to pass), so I was very excited to see this thread.
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Yeah, anything Animorphs would pretty much have to be animated, and serialized, to hold up.
Absolutely agree about the 90s "feel" being half the battle, too. The series is so Clinton-era in vibe, that pre-9/11 moderate security in the west thing. Guerrilla warfare and paranoia aren't exactly foreign concepts anymore.
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But now I'm going off on a political rant. Here's how I'd do it:
- Animated, set in 1996-2000. No voice-over narration. The whole "I can't tell you my last name or where I live" thing doesn't work for a medium where you can see everyone's faces. I think I'd also go for an opening in the vein of LOST or Supernatural: no theme song, just the name of the show for like 10 seconds with some unsettling music possibly by Radiohead, then opening credits on the bottom of the screen as the show plays.
Agreed on no voice-over, I think. However I'm still iffy about setting it in the 90s, as I believe it will alienate the younger audience that I'd try to get into the show. We can't rely on nostalgic twenty-somethings alone as an audience. Nostalgia alone can't keep a show alive. Case in point: the relaunch. I haven't seen LOST or Supernatural, so I'm not familiar with their openings, but I get what you're saying.
- Four seasons of 12 hour-long episodes (2 "spotlight" episodes for each character per season), each season ending with a made-for-TV movie based on a Chronicles book.
Well, including commercials we'd be looking at 45 minutes, give or take. But I agree.
- I wouldn't be too slavish adapting each book in sequence, and ignore certain books entirely. ("The Underground," "The Experiment," "The Mutation," "The Hidden" - as much as I love this series, let's admit it: a number of these books were just filler, and some of them were just flat-out bad.)
Agreed on everything except the Underground. I feel that's an important book. The Animorphs finally have a very powerful, albeit silly, weapon to use against the Yeerks; though it comes with a price. This provides an ethical dilemma that the series, I think, is known for.
Instead, focus on season arcs: what is the primary arc of this season? What is each character's arc? Steal book plots as they fit in with the theme, make up your own when necessary, keep the good parts of a plot (there's a way to drive a Yeerk insane - but it'll be trapped in its host forever! Is it worth it?) while discarding the bad parts (it's maple-sugar oatmeal!).
I personally feel that the fact that the drug is Instant Maple and Ginger oatmeal should remain. Again, it's the humor the series is known for. Taking that away would be taking away a part of the Animorphs, in my opinion.
Take character development that happened in one book and pair it with a more interesting plot from another book. Play around with narrative emphasis. (What if "The Message" was told from Ax's perspective instead of Cassie's? Can you imagine if the book had started with: "My name is Aximilli-Esgarouth-Isthill. The Yeerks have destroyed the Dome Ship. I am trapped at the bottom of an Earth ocean, and my air and water is running out. If you can hear this, I beg of you, please help." What if "The Android" was told from Cassie's perspective instead of Marco's? Wouldn't the Chee's pacifism resonate with her?) You're already expanding David's plot throughout all of Season Two (which is a great idea, by the way), so no need to adapt every book exactly as it was published.
Initially I was going to disagree with you, but I thought about it for a while and changed my mind--also, I confused the Android for the Predator :p). This idea could work for a lot of those books that don't necessarily fit the character who narrates. The Message doesn't feel like a Cassie book, and the Android feels less like a Marco book and more like what you said. Of course, I'm sure there are books that we couldn't apply this change to (i.e. books about Marco/Visser One, Ax being alienated [pun intended] on Earth, Tobias's wangst, etc.).
- While I'm on David, how about making him a girl? The Animorphs are already kind of a sausage fest - the girls are outnumbered even before you add Ax and Erek - and a new female Animorph would throw off the readers familiar with the David trilogy, leading to more uncertainty as to whether or not she will betray them. Also, think about this: Jake has Cassie. Tobias has Rachel. Marco has no one. And that's largely treated as a joke in the series: ha-ha, womanizing girl-crazy guy is all alone. But let's work with that seriously. He's lonely. If he's really into, let's call her Dominique, and she actually likes him back, his defenses are lowered. Since he's probably the most distrustful member of the group, his lowered defenses allow her to last a lot longer. And then of course, when she betrays the group, that gives Marco something to angst over other than his mom, as well as providing a bit of a warning sign to Rachel (i.e., is this what you're turning into?).
This, I'm not sure about. That's a pretty big change to make. New fans wouldn't notice or care, of course. But the older fans will probably spazz out (at least I would :P). This seems funny, coming from me--a big fan of the gender-flip thing), but David is also my favourite character of the series. I don't know if I'd want him to be changed to a female just so Marco has a pairing. Plus, we'd just be substituting David for Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer :P.
- Expand the Yeerk Peace Movement and resistence by ex-Controllers by, like, a lot. These showed up a little bit in the series, but not nearly enough. Plus, the YPM gives Cassie something to do in later episodes that doesn't involve ghosts, morphing buffalo, or random pointless trips to Australia.
Totally. Agreed 100%.
Also, Taylor's whole bit about the Yeerk going crazy because it can no longer tell where it ends and its host begins. More on that, and maybe more on Taylor. I have this idea for a plot, early on, where Tom brings his "girlfriend," Taylor, to the Berenson family Passover seder. She's a quiet, sad former model who recently joined The Sharing, after a terrible accident left her burned and mutilated. (Maybe even an accident that the Animorphs caused in a prior battle with the Yeerks.) Jake and Rachel recognize that she hasn't yet been infested and the Animorphs try to save her, but ultimately fail, and at the end of the episode, she moves away. It's made to feel like a one-off episode meant primarily to establish the stakes and show more about The Sharing and its victims. Until she comes back in Season Three.
This is interesting. I remember reading a story where Tom was brought into the Sharing by Taylor, and I, too, wanted to connect Taylor's accident to one of the Animorphs' battles to play up the causal/deterministic themes of the series. So I agree about making Taylor seem more sympathetic, but I don't know to what extent.
- End Season Three with "The Revelation" (TV movie: Visser) and stretch out the last eight books to be the entire fourth season. The Auxilliary Animorphs also deserve way more attention, as well as the ramifications of everyone finding out about the Yeerks. Have Rachel die at the very end of "The Answer," air The Ellimist Chronicles, then air the last episode.
I was thinking of making the Auxiliaries recurring characters with a larger role in the final season--so that they're not just cannon-fodder. Something similar to the Potentials in season Seven of Buffy. I would like to have some of the Animorphs play a mentor-apprentice role to the Auxiliaries. A lot of people seem to like ending the series with a TV-Chronicles film. I'll think on this some more, as I haven't put too much thought into how the Chronicles and Megamorphs books will fit in.
As for the first episode, what do you think of J.J. Abram's technique in LOST and Revolution of starting with the world already changed and then explaining what happened in flashbacks? What if you just skipped the construction site scene, with its massive exposition dump, and just start it with them already being Animorphs? And then explain what's going on in flashbacks tailored to whichever character is most prominent in each episode? I don't know how well that would work, but it's just a thought.
Again, haven't seen LOST or Revolution, but I get your meaning. I considered this, and, honestly, it seems like the likely route to take. I think the reason I haven't written a full script for the Invasion, aside from laziness and possibly bad writing, is because I'm focusing too much on the exposition. I'll have to think more about this.
I'm sorry, that's a huge wall of text. I'll stop babbling now. It's just that I've been working out ideas for a TV series too (not that it'll ever come to pass), so I was very excited to see this thread.
Don't apologise. I WANT RAFians to respond like this :P I like hearing people's opinions/ideas about how the show would work in today's media.
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It would be preferable to have a live action show, but, let's face it: Budget budget budget!
Nevertheless, I think this series would be a good way to improve on an already good series, and give us a chance to see aspects of the series that perhaps were rarely or never seen. For example, even though Andalites were mentioned many times, we only knew a select few characters well. Perhaps more attention could be given to Andalites elsewhere during the events happening on Earth, maybe to better explain why they were so reluctant towards us.
Aside from Andalites, there were other story lines that could do with being explored. The Pemalites, for example, could have been interesting to see before they went arse over head. Also, groups like the Chee, the Auxillaries, the free Horks, and even Controllers, would be worth going more in depth on, because the species spent little time in them, and in most cases, unjustly!
Also, maybe make Visser Three a little more believable! You would have thought that lopping off the heads of subordinates for breathing too loud would be more than just frowned upon!
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It's not just budget, though. Even with a multi-hundred-million-dollar movie like Avatar, it all looks great, but we're not quite there yet with approaching-photorealistic living beings. And that's all alien stuff, the disconnect is always bigger with stuff where we actually know what they look like.
TV CG still doesn't even come close to that. You're better off having it all just be hand-drawn animated (not this 3D computer stuff), everything blending and feeling right.
Live-action also kind of curbs what you can get away with a little, too, the censors/ratings boards are always more sensitive to that.
Eh, who am I kidding? If they ever do Animorphs, it'll be a soft PG movie and in the Harry Potter mold as far as amount of films made, trying to condense the whole thing into 4, 5 or 6 flicks. With 19 year old perfect-looking models-turned-actors cast as the kids, a moderate budget, and directed by some former-special-effects guy who wants to try his hand at storytelling.
Killjoy-man says it'd be a disaster. :P
EDIT: On a related note, I just randomly remembered the other day, unsure why I was thinkin' about Animorphs, but back as a kid reading through I always used to picture The Drode having Gilbert Gottfried's voice. Haha! Looking back, that still holds up. Go 12 year old me!
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Agreed on no voice-over, I think. However I'm still iffy about setting it in the 90s, as I believe it will alienate the younger audience that I'd try to get into the show. We can't rely on nostalgic twenty-somethings alone as an audience. Nostalgia alone can't keep a show alive. Case in point: the relaunch.
Here's the thing: even if it's animated, this is going to be an expensive show to produce. TV networks are conservative; you're asking them to invest a lot of money into this project, and they're going to want as much of a guarantee as they can get that they're going to earn that money back - and more. That's why they like doing remakes and adaptations of already-successful entertainment properties: they're safer. The story already makes money in a different format, there's brand familiarity, there's a built-in fanbase. The network executives aren't taking too big a gamble.
Animorphs was popular in the 90's. It has brand familiarity with people who were kids then, but not with kids today. There's no built-in kid fanbase. What fanbase it still has is largely 20-something. And there's no evidence that the story sells today, in 2014. Actually, there's evidence that it doesn't, because the relaunch failed. An out-of-print, decade-old property proven to be a hard sell to modern audiences does not generally get adapted to the screen - especially if it requires a big budget. If TV execs decide for some reason that there's demand for a show about kids fighting aliens by turning into animals, they might as well just release an original series ripping off the idea. That way, at least they have all the rights to it; they don't have to negotiate with Scholastic or any other publisher. It's completely theirs.
On top of that, there's a lot of graphic violence and body horror in Animorphs that KAA could get away with because she was working in a literary format. You can't really get away with visual depictions of that stuff in material aimed at children. If adapted faithfully, I can't imagine an Animorphs TV show getting any less than a TV-14 rating. So the very youngest target demographic would be teenagers - but teenagers are as hard a sell as children. On the other hand, nostalgia sells. Look at all those "I Love the [Decade]" specials on VH1. And we're just leaving the era of 80's nostalgia and entering a time of 90's nostalgia. I'm not saying it's the easiest pitch, but if you're going to pitch Animorphs to networks, this is the only approach I can think of to convince them that this idea can make money. That is, if Scholastic gives you permission to pitch it.
I personally feel that the fact that the drug is Instant Maple and Ginger oatmeal should remain. Again, it's the humor the series is known for. Taking that away would be taking away a part of the Animorphs, in my opinion.
Oh no, humor is totally important to the series. But it's important to consider where the humor is coming from. Character-driven comedy like Marco's quips, Ax's love of food, and witty banter between characters? Pure. Gold. It gives viewers a break from the darkness of the war, it makes the characters relatable, which makes you care more about the story, and of course, it's just generally fun. Situational comedy, like the oatmeal or the Andalite toilet, though, is a little more dangerous in the context of this series. To care about the kids fighting this war, viewers have to be genuinely scared of the enemy. If the Yeerks don't seem like a credible threat, everything else falls apart.
This is the main reason I could never get into Doctor Who despite my love of sci-fi, time travel, and British humor. I am willing to suspend so much disbelief, overlook so much "wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey" pseudoscientific hand-waving, and ignore so many plot holes if a show is charming enough. But when you expect me to buy that a garbage can with a toilet plunger sticking out of it is the most terrifying thing in the universe... I can't. I just can't. I don't buy the Dalek threat, so I don't buy Doctor Who.
If the Yeerks can be sidelined by something as silly as oatmeal, or spend a ton of time and resources on obtaining what turns out to be a toilet, it does add a bit of needed levity to an otherwise dark series - but at the cost of undermining the audience's fear of the enemy. Admittedly, doing that once or twice isn't the worst thing in the world: as long as you keep the Yeerks scary in the vast majority of the episodes, you can get away with the occasional silliness without doing too much damage to the audience's suspension of disbelief. But why take the chance when there are so many places to find humor in Animorphs that don't require that trade-off? In my mind, the benefit just isn't worth the cost.
This, I'm not sure about. That's a pretty big change to make. New fans wouldn't notice or care, of course. But the older fans will probably spazz out (at least I would :P). This seems funny, coming from me--a big fan of the gender-flip thing), but David is also my favourite character of the series. I don't know if I'd want him to be changed to a female just so Marco has a pairing. Plus, we'd just be substituting David for Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer :P.
Well... here's my thinking: back in '98, I ground my teeth over every change AniTV made. Now, I've come around to the idea that adapting a book into a TV series requires changes - and less important than what you change is why you change it. (Also that faithfulness to the books was the least of that show's problems.) Animorphs could use more female representation, and Marco could use more going on emotionally than just the stuff with his mom. And I thought, well, his lack of a love life paired with his girl-craziness might be a good source of drama. (Not that I just want him paired up; a short-lived romance that ends in tragedy or an unrequited crush is a much richer vein to mine.) I figured a female David could kill both those birds with one stone. Not that that's the only way to solve both those problems, or even necessarily the best way: it just popped into my head, so I figured I'd throw it out there.
I don't think a female David would be like Faith, though. Faith was an obvious "bad girl" from the beginning, and Buffy went along with it because she was tired of being responsible all the time. A David who stays in the group for an entire season, regardless of gender, has to start out seeming like a good idea: logical, good at tactics, knowledgable about military and government, able to make contributions that no current Animorph can, probably pretty charming because sociopaths can be like that. And then holes start appearing in his/her story, and bad stuff starts happening, and doubts build up and trust breaks down, and before you know it there's a kid down an elevator shaft and it's time for a one-way ticket to Rat Island.
Anyway, a less-objectionable gender flip might be if Erek chose to project a hologram of a girl intead of a boy. After all, if a female fan had happened to win that contest, he'd "be" a girl anyway. But that change doesn't solve any other problems. I generally prefer to make minimal changes for maximum impact.
I was thinking of making the Auxiliaries recurring characters with a larger role in the final season--so that they're not just cannon-fodder. Something similar to the Potentials in season Seven of Buffy. I would like to have some of the Animorphs play a mentor-apprentice role to the Auxiliaries.
That sounds awesome. And I'd love for some of the Auxiliaries to survive, too. Even if it's just James. Actually, it would be kind of cool if there's a scene with the Animorphs and James, the sole Auxiliary survivor, and he just lost all his friends, and he's traumatized, and they're like, "So... now you see what we've been dealing with. We're sorry you had to have such a harsh introduction, but... this is war. People are going to continue to die. People you know. People you like. Are you still in? Because it's okay if you want to quit." And he stares into the middle-distance for a moment with glassy, red-rimmed eyes, and finally fixes his gaze on Jake with a look of pure determination and says, "I'm in."
A lot of people seem to like ending the series with a TV-Chronicles film. I'll think on this some more, as I haven't put too much thought into how the Chronicles and Megamorphs books will fit in.
I don't know if I'd even use any of the Megamorph books. But the Chronicles books are really essential to world-building, in my opinion.
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Agreed on no voice-over, I think. However I'm still iffy about setting it in the 90s, as I believe it will alienate the younger audience that I'd try to get into the show. We can't rely on nostalgic twenty-somethings alone as an audience. Nostalgia alone can't keep a show alive. Case in point: the relaunch.
Here's the thing: even if it's animated, this is going to be an expensive show to produce. TV networks are conservative; you're asking them to invest a lot of money into this project, and they're going to want as much of a guarantee as they can get that they're going to earn that money back - and more. That's why they like doing remakes and adaptations of already-successful entertainment properties: they're safer. The story already makes money in a different format, there's brand familiarity, there's a built-in fanbase. The network executives aren't taking too big a gamble.
Animorphs was popular in the 90's. It has brand familiarity with people who were kids then, but not with kids today. There's no built-in kid fanbase. What fanbase it still has is largely 20-something. And there's no evidence that the story sells today, in 2014. Actually, there's evidence that it doesn't, because the relaunch failed. An out-of-print, decade-old property proven to be a hard sell to modern audiences does not generally get adapted to the screen - especially if it requires a big budget. If TV execs decide for some reason that there's demand for a show about kids fighting aliens by turning into animals, they might as well just release an original series ripping off the idea. That way, at least they have all the rights to it; they don't have to negotiate with Scholastic or any other publisher. It's completely theirs.
On top of that, there's a lot of graphic violence and body horror in Animorphs that KAA could get away with because she was working in a literary format. You can't really get away with visual depictions of that stuff in material aimed at children. If adapted faithfully, I can't imagine an Animorphs TV show getting any less than a TV-14 rating. So the very youngest target demographic would be teenagers - but teenagers are as hard a sell as children. On the other hand, nostalgia sells. Look at all those "I Love the [Decade]" specials on VH1. And we're just leaving the era of 80's nostalgia and entering a time of 90's nostalgia. I'm not saying it's the easiest pitch, but if you're going to pitch Animorphs to networks, this is the only approach I can think of to convince them that this idea can make money. That is, if Scholastic gives you permission to pitch it.
I don't think that's necessarily true. None of the teenagers who watch MTV's Teen Wolf were alive when the original movie came out, but they watch it - and a lot of adult fans who loved the movie watch it even though it's not set in the 80's. And while the new Transformers movies aren't exactly for kids, grown-up fans of the franchise watch it even though, again, it's not set in the 80's. You can benefit from nostalgia without going all-out with it. Studios are remaking so many old stories, I think they'd take to a series that sold well in the 90's. Especially since superheroes are huge right now.
I think it would actually be better for an Animorphs series to take place in the modern day. There would be issues with cellphones and cameras everywhere, but that would just make things more interesting! It would be the source of new plots. Also, if you wanted to keep the conceit of having the main characters write the story down so the world can know, that would translate very well to a blog.
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We need to find some flash animators and start a kickstarter. :D
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I agree with everyone who said David should last through an entire season. On that note every season should really have an overarcing storyline.
I'm thinking every season can have an additional/new character storyline and a large yeerk plot storyline. The david problem and the world peace summit is the perfect example of this.
Like samwise said you don't have to follow the order of the books or include them all. Take some inspiration from them for a season long plot and then choose books that can be adapted to support that plot; even if book 44 ends up working in the first season.
So here is my idea for season long arcs:
1. Becoming Animorphs and large kandrona
The whole season can deal with them learning about the yeerks and the main threat can be the building of the kandrona from #7. This will introduce the ellimist late in the season.
2. Hork Bajir Colony
Season premeire can be the escape of dak and jara and Tobias finally gets his morphing power back. Build up all season and the season finale can be #46 where they defend the colony from a huge attack.
3. David and world peace summit
Spread the david trilogy over a whole season.
4. Andalite ship and yeerk plot
I think the book where the rogue andalite team comes to earth could be expanded to a whole season with a major yeerk plot added in. This would give Ax time to really connect with the girl andalite. It would also help when things go from great to suspicious to oh crap these guys aren't who they say they are to we need to stop them over an entire season instead of in the course of 20 minutes.
5. Ellimist vs Crayak
Through the first 4 seasons we've seen the ellimist a few times. The season premeire can introduce the crayak and their war. Somewhere in the season the ellimist chronicles can be adapted.
6. Finale
I don't think this should be the sixth season, you can continue to do as many seasons as possible until the show runs it's course.
Why I think a yeerk plot and another plot are important: The yeerks are the main enemy, so they always need to be a big part of the series. However, the animorphs have few opportunities to interact with them on a personal level. David, the Hork-Bajir, the andalites and stories like that give them a chance to have more of a stake in the conflict. Also, it will keep the series fresh and interesting with new friends and enemies every season instead of always the yeerks and visser three.
Just because you have overarching plot lines doesn't mean every episode has to deal with them. Each season maybe only 10 out of 20 will actually advance the main plots and the rest can be filler episodes, funnier episodes, holiday episodes, etc. Supernatural is a good example of this.
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I'd agree that David needs to be stretched out a bit, but not to the full season. Maybe like 6 episodes, inserting him into the plot of books 23-25, but getting rid of him before 26. I saw a theory put forth (I think on this forum, possibly somewhere else) that David had a thing for Cassie, and that when he backed off from attacking the Animorphs in response to the humpback whale, it was because he knew it was Cassie, not because he was scared of the whale. It would be interesting to throw that in the mix (don't have Cassie reciprocate at all, don't need a love triangle here) and have him be conflicted about betraying the Animorphs specifically because of her.
That said, I think the series SHOULD play up the Rachel/Tobias/Marco love triangle that is only occasionally brought up in the books. It's what the kids are into these days and it would help get them hooked.
I would also like to see the Chee play a slightly bigger role, maybe have them take over some of Ax's exposition.
The Oatmeal incident is funny enough and should be included, BUT it's effect on the Yeerks would need to be toned down to justify not using it with something beyond "great battles aren't won with oatmeal" or however they did it.
Davids Return as a mouse controlling mice was ridiculous and needs to be reworked.
The "open war" should probably be expanded into an entire season, giving a chance to give much more development to the Auxilories so it's more sad/shocking when they die.
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2. Hork Bajir Colony
Season premeire can be the escape of dak and jara and Tobias finally gets his morphing power back. Build up all season and the season finale can be #46 where they defend the colony from a huge attack.
I like this, but I'm thinking maybe that particular battle from Animorphs 47: The Resistance should be kept in its place in the chronology--that is, closer to when the kids get exposed. It would seem more epic to me, at least.
4. Andalite ship and yeerk plot
I think the book where the rogue andalite team comes to earth could be expanded to a whole season with a major yeerk plot added in. This would give Ax time to really connect with the girl andalite. It would also help when things go from great to suspicious to oh crap these guys aren't who they say they are to we need to stop them over an entire season instead of in the course of 20 minutes.
This I really like. More focus on the Andalites, and maybe more on Ax's romantic life would be interesting.
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Trying to tie the seasons together thematically rather than simply with one basic story arc that the entire season focuses on. It trims the fat and expands on essential storylines while completely ignoring others.
I view this is a 6 season story with 1 introductory season, a finale season, and 4 seasons each with their own themes and focus of development.
Season 1: This season is basically the origin story. The Animorphs will struggle throughout much of this season, the roles of each character will be established. This is a world-building season and the destruction of the Kandrona should be at its finale. Most key events from the earliest narrated books should be here.
Season 2: This season fleshes out the Yeerks with the following events and revelations:
1) Marco's mother revealed as Visser One and learning more about Yeerk heirarchy
2) One Animorph being infested by a Yeerk and learning more about why the Yeerks do what they do.
3) Chee are introduced here as spies. The Animorphs gain their first reliable ally, and begin to make more progress.
4) The Departure storyline, possibly as a multiple episode arch, definitely needs to be told here as a setup for the Yeerk Peace movement later on.
5) Some sort of morally grey decision they have to make with respect to harming the Yeerks. I'm thinking something along the lines of the oatmeal, but involving something that is a little easier to take seriously. They end up striking a blow to the Yeerks in the first battle in which they really get their hands dirty, both literally and morally. Their use of the weapon kills many Yeerks but causes the suffering of many host species as well.
Season 3: This season focuses on the war at large, connecting it to the larger conflict in the galaxy. While last season fleshed out the Yeerks as enemies and gave us an exploration there, this season will grow the universe further by having some storylines focused on other races. Key storylines:
1) The development of the free Hork Bajir Colony, complete with Tobias getting his powers back (though with no Ellimist I'm not sure how this happens). This should be an arc that lasts a few episodes.
2) The Leeran conflict, complete with twarting the development of shark controllers.
3) The fight on the Leeran homeworld and learning of the treachorous Andalites.
4) Cliffhanger finale with Visser One learning of Marco's identity and Jake and Cassie possibly being dead.
Season 4: The previous cliffhanger is resolved, and much of the rest of this season focuses on internal conflicts within the Animorphs. Marco loses the trust of a couple of the Animorphs after nearly getting them killed in the previous arc and this sets up a nice season of Animorphs-identity issues. Key storylines:
1)The arrival of a group of Andalites as a multi-episode arc. I liked this idea, just not as a whole season. Here we learn that the Andalite fleet is not on its way anytime soon, and there can be a lot of intrigue and mistrust about the Andalites' true intentions in this war. This builds off of the Leeran story arc in the previous season and completely shatters the notion of Andalites as idealistic heroes.
2) Marco's mother returns after a several episode hiatus. The Visser storyline plays itself out and they succeed in preventing Visser 3 from gaining full control over the Yeerk Invasion of earth, but the divide between the Animorphs widens as some members wanted to allow Visser One to die.
3) The second half of the season will deal with David. I like the idea of his story arc being much longer. David comes in at a time when mistrust within the Animorphs is already at a high point. David has time enough to at least develop proper relationships with the other Animorphs. He can maintain the antagonistic relationships with Rachel and Marco, but I'd like to see him develop a better relationship with Cassie and a more mixed one with Jake. There can be a number of episodes where he is a proper member of the team before events go off the deep end.
4) The World Summit makes for an excellent backdrop for the David story arc. In this case I'd just assume have no cliffhanger. Just end the season with David screaming on a rock as a rat (and no, this time, he's not coming back). Animorphs manage to overcome their internal issues and deal with the threats at hand.
Season 5: Time to escalate the war with the following story arcs. Theme here is the continued need for sacrifice in order to win the war.
1) The emergence of the Yeerk peace movement and "The Sickness" storyline.
2) The Animorphs capture a Yeerk-sub visser who claims to know how they can destroy the Yeerk pool. The team prepares to do just this but is betrayed and nearly captured by the Yeerks.
3) A heroic defense of the Hork Bajir colony as the major action piece and story arc later in the season. Think "Resistance" but without the civil war interludes, and with more savagery.
4) Victory has a price: Tobias is captured and tortured by the insane Yeerk, Taylor and the teams' difficulties to get him back. I envision Tobias's inprisonment lasting a few episodes and creating a great strain between the Animorphs.
5) The return and death of Visser One as a finale. She plans to kill Visser Three, but her plan will involve destroying the entire town the Animorphs live in. Marco ends up choosing to let his mother die to save their town, but in so doing ensures that Visser Three will become the sole leader of the invasion. The Animorphs escape with themselves intact but the war is beginning to weigh on them.
Cliffhanger: Visser Three is seen viewing pictures of the Animorphs and their family members.
Season 6: Final season. Wrap it up. Key points:
1) The cliffhanger plays itself out. The Animorphs are discovered as humans. Several of their family members are taken and the Animorphs themselves are forced into hiding. Marco deals with the fact that he may h
2) Several episodes establish the new nature the guerilla war has taken now that the secret is out. The Hork Bajir colony is developed enough to provide brute force reinforcements. The Chee have become increasingly weary of being used as spies as the Animorphs have become increasingly rutheless, and even sabotage some missions.
3) The Yeerk peace movement established in the previous season takes a more active role as the Chee become less reliable.
4) Midway through the season, Cassie lets the morphing cube fall into Yeerk hands.
5) Ax makes contact with the Andalite fleet, revealing that they intend to destroy the planet as the war escalates and more Yeerks arrive on the Planet.
6) The race is on as the Animorphs must defeat the Yeerks. Earth has mounted its own resistance, together with the free Hork Bajir and Taxxons. Ax and a few of the other Animorphs secretely board the Andalite Dome Ship to sabotage their offensive weapons while the others manage to destroy the Pool ship and Yeerk pool, winning the war.
I deliberately left the Ellimist and Crayak out, simply because I think the universe is broad enough for a television series without them. These sorts of semi-omnipotent beings play better in books than they do on TV. TV audiences would be wondering where they were in every episode once it was implied that they pull all the strings. The only major issue with this is that Tobias needs another way to get his morphing powers back. I figure we know so little about the power itself that this should be swingable.
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The only major issue with this is that Tobias needs another way to get his morphing powers back. I figure we know so little about the power itself that this should be swingable.
Like in the old TV show where he randomly got it back touching an Andalite disk? I'd argue that the broadness of the verse is a big part of the appeal. I got a big kick out of finding out that the God of the Animorphs universe was basically a geeky gamer kid. Including the Elimmist also allows for easy access to random one of stories that would be really hard to explain otherwise like the Iskoort. The destiny aspect of it being these particular kids is kind of cool as well (though Cassie's subtemporal grounded anomaly thing should be done away with.) Lauren's disappearance and reappearance would lose some punch (but could be reworked) however, Elfangor being Tobias's father is much harder to explain.
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Six seasons and a movie? ;D
I like your setup, in general. But I feel like you've taken out a lot of the most interesting stuff in the first "season" (books 1-13, roughly) and moved them into other seasons - so what's left? I don't know about waiting until the second season to introduce the Chee, Jake's infestation, and especially the subplot with Marco's mom. I've been going back over the early books for my re-read blog, and before Marco found out that his mom was Visser One's host body, he was so. freaking. obnoxious. His mom is his motivation for fighting, and he doesn't find out about her until book five. So we end up with four books of nonstop ****ing about how this is insane and his dad couldn't handle losing him and he'll just do this one mission, just for Jake, but after that he's out... oh God, I could not handle an entire season of that. Either he has to find out about his mother very early on or he needs a new motivation to fight the war, which would substantially change his character, so I'd lean toward him finding out even sooner than in the books.
I'm actually okay with leaving out the Ellimist and Crayak. I wonder if the "cure for nothlitism" that Tobias finds could be related to their travels in Z-Space. All their human matter is floating around there while they're in morph, right? Maybe when they're in Z-Space, Tobias finds his old body, just hanging out there, and... wait, no, he'd have to have the morping power to acquire himself again. Well, wait, is there any good reason why you can't just get the power back from the Escafil device after being nothlited? Maybe once they get the blue box back (although the thing in book 20 where apparently it had just been sitting around the construction site, completely unnoticed by the Yeerks until David happened to pick it up like a year later really annoys me, but that's a whole other story), Tobias regains the power to morph, but he doesn't get to morph back into his old body until he finds it floating in Z-space. Just a thought.
Speaking of nothlits regaining their morphing powers through dubious means, I've been thinking a lot about The Departure. What do you think about having it take place immediately after the David subplot? Cassie's horrified with herself for manipulating David into trapping himself in rat form, and with Rachel for going through with the plan. It's a good time for her moral discomfort - which has been gradually building throughout the series - to come to a head.
Also, wouldn't it be awesome if the kids had no idea that the Hork-Bajir are gentle, peace-loving creatures? Like, Elfangor explains nothing to them about Taxxons and Hork-Bajir at the construction site. They just see these horrific monsters working for the Yeerks, so they fight them. Then they meet the escaped Hork-Bajir and they're like, "Oh my God, we've been slaughtering these innocent, sentient creatures for like two years without even thinking about it." That would be a nice punch in the gut. Come to think of it, that would also be an appropriate place to put The Departure. Cassie's stricken with guilt over what they've been doing, and if they've been killing innocents because they didn't know any better, what else don't they know that's leading them to do horrible things? It also sets that season up with a theme that the enemy is far more complex, and the fight more morally gray, than the kids thought.
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Well, wait, is there any good reason why you can't just get the power back from the Escafil device after being nothlited? Maybe once they get the blue box back (although the thing in book 20 where apparently it had just been sitting around the construction site, completely unnoticed by the Yeerks until David happened to pick it up like a year later really annoys me, but that's a whole other story), Tobias regains the power to morph, but he doesn't get to morph back into his old body until he finds it floating in Z-space. Just a thought.
Yes there is, otherwise staying in morph for more than two hours isn't much to worry about. Tobias having the option to permanently become human again and choosing to stay as a hawk is a pretty important part of his character.
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Trying to tie the seasons together thematically rather than simply with one basic story arc that the entire season focuses on. It trims the fat and expands on essential storylines while completely ignoring others.
I view this is a 6 season story with 1 introductory season, a finale season, and 4 seasons each with their own themes and focus of development.
...
Season 3: This season focuses on the war at large, connecting it to the larger conflict in the galaxy. While last season fleshed out the Yeerks as enemies and gave us an exploration there, this season will grow the universe further by having some storylines focused on other races. Key storylines:
1) The development of the free Hork Bajir Colony, complete with Tobias getting his powers back (though with no Ellimist I'm not sure how this happens). This should be an arc that lasts a few episodes.
2) The Leeran conflict, complete with twarting the development of shark controllers.
3) The fight on the Leeran homeworld and learning of the treachorous Andalites.
4) Cliffhanger finale with Visser One learning of Marco's identity and Jake and Cassie possibly being dead.
...
Season 5: Time to escalate the war with the following story arcs. Theme here is the continued need for sacrifice in order to win the war.
1) The emergence of the Yeerk peace movement and "The Sickness" storyline.
2) The Animorphs capture a Yeerk-sub visser who claims to know how they can destroy the Yeerk pool. The team prepares to do just this but is betrayed and nearly captured by the Yeerks.
3) A heroic defense of the Hork Bajir colony as the major action piece and story arc later in the season. Think "Resistance" but without the civil war interludes, and with more savagery.
4) Victory has a price: Tobias is captured and tortured by the insane Yeerk, Taylor and the teams' difficulties to get him back. I envision Tobias's inprisonment lasting a few episodes and creating a great strain between the Animorphs.
5) The return and death of Visser One as a finale. She plans to kill Visser Three, but her plan will involve destroying the entire town the Animorphs live in. Marco ends up choosing to let his mother die to save their town, but in so doing ensures that Visser Three will become the sole leader of the invasion. The Animorphs escape with themselves intact but the war is beginning to weigh on them.
Cliffhanger: Visser Three is seen viewing pictures of the Animorphs and their family members.
I really like this approach. Having each season have themes is a good way to tie some of the books together.
I especially liked season 3 where we learn about everyone else fighting the yeerks and get a much better idea of what the war is actually like. This ties many seemingly one-off stories together into a solid arc.
I also really like season 5 where the animorphs deal with what they are willing to do to win the war. These stories are also scattered a bit through the books, weighted slightly toward the end of the series. Putting them into one season gives it a good feeling of a growing desperation and of slowly losing themselves to the war.
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To address some of the points, I don't really view 1-13 as the "first season" at all.
That's 1/4th of the book series, roughly, and its even more-so when you factor in how many books later on shouldn't get TV play at all.
I think Jake's infestation is a natural fit in the second season because its the first look at the inner workings of a Yeerk mind that we get.
I'll agree though that the subplot with Marco's mom belongs in the first season. It establishes Marco's role in the group and adds some meat to that season. Marco was ready to bolt until he found out about his mother, so that does need to happen relatively early to solidify him as an Animorph. Its part of his "origin story".
The main points in the first season that are essential:
1) The general origin story.
2) Tobias trapped in morph and the establishment of his new life.
3) Rescue and establishment of Ax
4) Establishment of the primary controllers (Tom, Visser Three, Chapman)
5) An early visit to the Yeerk pool, seeing how terrible it is, etc.
6) Marco's mom storyline
7) Destroying the Kandrona (their first major victory will frankly be considerably MORE compelling without the help of an omnipotent being, we need to believe the Animorphs actually have a chance by the end of the first season)
I actually think that's plenty to get on with in a first season if Jakes infestation and the Chee are held off until the second season.
And yeah, if this is going to be a serialized show it felt natural to tie the episodes in a season together thematically. That made it necessary to really change the order around as far as the sequence of events is concerned, and I frankly didn't see where the Ellimist/Crayak fit at all.
Irony is I actually really like the Ellimist/Crayak storylines, just couldn't envision them playing well on television at all, and thought the war was a grand enough scale for a TV show without making their war just a small terminal part of a larger game between the gods. Sort of like how Galacticus and other god-like beings probably wouldn't play as well in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as they do on the pages of the comics. I figured cutting them out would be the most controversial point, but I still think its necessary. The moment you suggest there is someone up above pulling the strings TV audiences are going to expect their hands to be in everything. I don't think books play quite that way.
Alas, this is all fantasy at this stage. Its been well over a decade since the very last Animorphs book, and the books don't even really have all that much of a cult following. Just a few nostalgic nerds.
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Another thing worth thinking about is when a lot of the back story should be told.
The Hork Bajir Chronicles storyline fits pretty naturally in season 3 with the creation of the colony. The Andalite Chronicles on the other hand are a little bit more difficult to place. Maybe season 2, and tie in a little bit more Yeerk history to flesh them out? Either the Departure storyline or the Capture storyline would be a great place to learn more Yeerk backstory. Maybe give one of those Yeerks a history with Elfangor.
Doing it thematically like this also leaves no room for the Megamorphs books at all, but others seem to be leaving them out too. They just don't fit anywhere.
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Well, wait, is there any good reason why you can't just get the power back from the Escafil device after being nothlited? Maybe once they get the blue box back (although the thing in book 20 where apparently it had just been sitting around the construction site, completely unnoticed by the Yeerks until David happened to pick it up like a year later really annoys me, but that's a whole other story), Tobias regains the power to morph, but he doesn't get to morph back into his old body until he finds it floating in Z-space. Just a thought.
Yes there is, otherwise staying in morph for more than two hours isn't much to worry about. Tobias having the option to permanently become human again and choosing to stay as a hawk is a pretty important part of his character.
Yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of a technological reason, but you make a good point that Tobias having to make that choice established some important things about what he really wanted. Although that could be established another way. There are plenty of ways to explore this relationship to his nothlit status in-story; the Ellimist route is just the most direct way.
I don't think that "staying in morph for more than two hours isn't much to worry about," because you'd still lose your human body. For Tobias that wasn't a big deal, but for the rest of the kids - who have families that love them and a fairly happy, established human life - that's kind of horrible. Rachel, for example, wouldn't be thinking, "Well, I guess I'm a bear now, but at least I can still morph other stuff!" She'd be thinking, "Jesus Christ, what are Jordan and Sara going to do? What are my mom and dad going to do? They're all going to be devastated."
You do make an excellent point upthread, however, that Elfangor's story has to be completely overhauled to explain how he became Tobias's father without the Ellimist. But again, that can be done with some creativity and thought. I also kind of like the whole "Animorphs are the Ellimist's child soldiers, manipulated into fighting for his cause" revelation that slowly creeps up on you throughout the series. It's really quite disturbing when you think about it, and I love the sense of darkness it imparts to the story. On the other hand, he is way too powerful for audiences not to think, "Why doesn't he just fix everything?" especially since he keeps violating his code not to interfere. I don't know. I can see benefits and drawbacks to excising the Ellimist and Crayak.
The main points in the first season that are essential:
1) The general origin story.
2) Tobias trapped in morph and the establishment of his new life.
3) Rescue and establishment of Ax
4) Establishment of the primary controllers (Tom, Visser Three, Chapman)
5) An early visit to the Yeerk pool, seeing how terrible it is, etc.
6) Marco's mom storyline
7) Destroying the Kandrona (their first major victory will frankly be considerably MORE compelling without the help of an omnipotent being, we need to believe the Animorphs actually have a chance by the end of the first season)
My concern is, three and a half of those were covered in the very first book. So this would work out to be only five episodes, unless you stretched it out really far (which might make people bored) or filled the season with original stories.
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"Why doesn't he just fix everything?" especially since he keeps violating his code not to interfere. I don't know. I can see benefits and drawbacks to excising the Ellimist and Crayak.
He doesn't actually violate the code all that often IIRC, most of his intrusions required a concession to Crayak.
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Well, wait, is there any good reason why you can't just get the power back from the Escafil device after being nothlited? Maybe once they get the blue box back (although the thing in book 20 where apparently it had just been sitting around the construction site, completely unnoticed by the Yeerks until David happened to pick it up like a year later really annoys me, but that's a whole other story), Tobias regains the power to morph, but he doesn't get to morph back into his old body until he finds it floating in Z-space. Just a thought.
Yes there is, otherwise staying in morph for more than two hours isn't much to worry about. Tobias having the option to permanently become human again and choosing to stay as a hawk is a pretty important part of his character.
Yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of a technological reason, but you make a good point that Tobias having to make that choice established some important things about what he really wanted. Although that could be established another way. There are plenty of ways to explore this relationship to his nothlit status in-story; the Ellimist route is just the most direct way.
I don't think that "staying in morph for more than two hours isn't much to worry about," because you'd still lose your human body. For Tobias that wasn't a big deal, but for the rest of the kids - who have families that love them and a fairly happy, established human life - that's kind of horrible. Rachel, for example, wouldn't be thinking, "Well, I guess I'm a bear now, but at least I can still morph other stuff!" She'd be thinking, "Jesus Christ, what are Jordan and Sara going to do? What are my mom and dad going to do? They're all going to be devastated."
You do make an excellent point upthread, however, that Elfangor's story has to be completely overhauled to explain how he became Tobias's father without the Ellimist. But again, that can be done with some creativity and thought. I also kind of like the whole "Animorphs are the Ellimist's child soldiers, manipulated into fighting for his cause" revelation that slowly creeps up on you throughout the series. It's really quite disturbing when you think about it, and I love the sense of darkness it imparts to the story. On the other hand, he is way too powerful for audiences not to think, "Why doesn't he just fix everything?" especially since he keeps violating his code not to interfere. I don't know. I can see benefits and drawbacks to excising the Ellimist and Crayak.
The main points in the first season that are essential:
1) The general origin story.
2) Tobias trapped in morph and the establishment of his new life.
3) Rescue and establishment of Ax
4) Establishment of the primary controllers (Tom, Visser Three, Chapman)
5) An early visit to the Yeerk pool, seeing how terrible it is, etc.
6) Marco's mom storyline
7) Destroying the Kandrona (their first major victory will frankly be considerably MORE compelling without the help of an omnipotent being, we need to believe the Animorphs actually have a chance by the end of the first season)
My concern is, three and a half of those were covered in the very first book. So this would work out to be only five episodes, unless you stretched it out really far (which might make people bored) or filled the season with original stories.
I'm entirely off the notion of 1 book = 1 episode, and this is just a skeleton anyway. Stories will be fleshed out, and not all material need come specifically from the books. Other things from other books could also be incorporated, this was by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of topics, merely an outline of the essential things that would need to be established in a season. Other early book storylines could be included as well.
For one, the general origin story and learning about their morphs easily constitutes its own episode even though it only really makes up part of one book. The first visit to the Yeerk pool would also be worthy of one episode when factoring setup and escape.
The same can be said for a book like (for example) The Predator, which I think could easily be fleshed out into a 2 part episode quite naturally.
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I'm entirely off the notion of 1 book = 1 episode, and this is just a skeleton anyway. Stories will be fleshed out, and not all material need come specifically from the books. Other things from other books could also be incorporated, this was by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of topics, merely an outline of the essential things that would need to be established in a season. Other early book storylines could be included as well.
For one, the general origin story and learning about their morphs easily constitutes its own episode even though it only really makes up part of one book. The first visit to the Yeerk pool would also be worthy of one episode when factoring setup and escape.
The same can be said for a book like (for example) The Predator, which I think could easily be fleshed out into a 2 part episode quite naturally.
That's a good point. I understand theoretically that it doesn't have to be 1 book = 1 episode, but I've grown so used to these stories being told this particular way that it's hard for me to think about them differently. The TV show, IIRC, split the first book up into three episodes. And I think they also did The Predator as a two-parter. But I think a lot of that was due to the time restrictions of a half-hour show. Would you have this show as a half-hour or hour-long? How many episodes do your think each season should have?
He doesn't actually violate the code all that often IIRC, most of his intrusions required a concession to Crayak.
You might be right. It's been a while since I read the Ellimist-related books, but I seem to recall that in his first-ever appearance, he offered to take the Animorphs and their families to another planet, like a nature reserve for humans. That seems like a hell of a concession.
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I'm entirely off the notion of 1 book = 1 episode, and this is just a skeleton anyway. Stories will be fleshed out, and not all material need come specifically from the books. Other things from other books could also be incorporated, this was by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of topics, merely an outline of the essential things that would need to be established in a season. Other early book storylines could be included as well.
For one, the general origin story and learning about their morphs easily constitutes its own episode even though it only really makes up part of one book. The first visit to the Yeerk pool would also be worthy of one episode when factoring setup and escape.
The same can be said for a book like (for example) The Predator, which I think could easily be fleshed out into a 2 part episode quite naturally.
That's a good point. I understand theoretically that it doesn't have to be 1 book = 1 episode, but I've grown so used to these stories being told this particular way that it's hard for me to think about them differently. The TV show, IIRC, split the first book up into three episodes. And I think they also did The Predator as a two-parter. But I think a lot of that was due to the time restrictions of a half-hour show. Would you have this show as a half-hour or hour-long? How many episodes do your think each season should have?
He doesn't actually violate the code all that often IIRC, most of his intrusions required a concession to Crayak.
You might be right. It's been a while since I read the Ellimist-related books, but I seem to recall that in his first-ever appearance, he offered to take the Animorphs and their families to another planet, like a nature reserve for humans. That seems like a hell of a concession.
The concession to Crayak was, the Yeerks take over the Earth and Elimmist loses that round.
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I'm entirely off the notion of 1 book = 1 episode, and this is just a skeleton anyway. Stories will be fleshed out, and not all material need come specifically from the books. Other things from other books could also be incorporated, this was by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of topics, merely an outline of the essential things that would need to be established in a season. Other early book storylines could be included as well.
For one, the general origin story and learning about their morphs easily constitutes its own episode even though it only really makes up part of one book. The first visit to the Yeerk pool would also be worthy of one episode when factoring setup and escape.
The same can be said for a book like (for example) The Predator, which I think could easily be fleshed out into a 2 part episode quite naturally.
That's a good point. I understand theoretically that it doesn't have to be 1 book = 1 episode, but I've grown so used to these stories being told this particular way that it's hard for me to think about them differently. The TV show, IIRC, split the first book up into three episodes. And I think they also did The Predator as a two-parter. But I think a lot of that was due to the time restrictions of a half-hour show. Would you have this show as a half-hour or hour-long? How many episodes do your think each season should have?
These are fair questions, and I'll admit I haven't given them the slightest bit of thought. I was playing around with ideas and thinking more thematically than practically.
A series like this probably needs hour long shows, unless you're planning on making it a series that markets specifically to young audiences like the first series. I envision the themes catering to an older audience.
I could envision it having 12 episodes per season. The fact that there is no getting around is that there's a significant chunk of books that simply aren't worth adapting, so you'd need to either create new content or make it a very limited series. I think any realistic attempt to make a TV series would need to trim the weaker storylines and develop and expand upon the storylines we have.
The way I figure it there probably aren't more than 35-40 books plus the Chronicles worth adapting, and even that's generous when considering many of the Ghostwritten books, Megamorphs, and books like 11, 12, and 14.
A show that is relatively short (40 or fewer episodes) would feel hollow and would not feel like nearly enough time to develop a group of children into a band of guerrilla fighters that bring the strongest empire in the galaxy to is knees. That's why I envision a longer series with some of the more compelling storylines fleshed out more and possibly even a few storylines added in.
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The concession to Crayak was, the Yeerks take over the Earth and Elimmist loses that round.
Thanks for reminding me. You're right; I'm thoroughly convinced at this point that the Ellimist and the Crayak need to stay in. They don't need their own season arc. Their story can build gradually through the entire series.
These are fair questions, and I'll admit I haven't given them the slightest bit of thought. I was playing around with ideas and thinking more thematically than practically.
A series like this probably needs hour long shows, unless you're planning on making it a series that markets specifically to young audiences like the first series. I envision the themes catering to an older audience.
I could envision it having 12 episodes per season. The fact that there is no getting around is that there's a significant chunk of books that simply aren't worth adapting, so you'd need to either create new content or make it a very limited series. I think any realistic attempt to make a TV series would need to trim the weaker storylines and develop and expand upon the storylines we have.
The way I figure it there probably aren't more than 35-40 books plus the Chronicles worth adapting, and even that's generous when considering many of the Ghostwritten books, Megamorphs, and books like 11, 12, and 14.
A show that is relatively short (40 or fewer episodes) would feel hollow and would not feel like nearly enough time to develop a group of children into a band of guerrilla fighters that bring the strongest empire in the galaxy to is knees. That's why I envision a longer series with some of the more compelling storylines fleshed out more and possibly even a few storylines added in.
I agree with all of this. I think maybe the series could benefit from one or two fewer seasons than your initial suggestion. Maybe combine seasons 1 and 2? Some of the best shows out there - Babylon 5, The Wire, and Breaking Bad were five seasons long, and all of them felt like the right length.
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I'm entirely off the notion of 1 book = 1 episode, and this is just a skeleton anyway. Stories will be fleshed out, and not all material need come specifically from the books. Other things from other books could also be incorporated, this was by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of topics, merely an outline of the essential things that would need to be established in a season. Other early book storylines could be included as well.
For one, the general origin story and learning about their morphs easily constitutes its own episode even though it only really makes up part of one book. The first visit to the Yeerk pool would also be worthy of one episode when factoring setup and escape.
The same can be said for a book like (for example) The Predator, which I think could easily be fleshed out into a 2 part episode quite naturally.
That's a good point. I understand theoretically that it doesn't have to be 1 book = 1 episode, but I've grown so used to these stories being told this particular way that it's hard for me to think about them differently. The TV show, IIRC, split the first book up into three episodes. And I think they also did The Predator as a two-parter. But I think a lot of that was due to the time restrictions of a half-hour show. Would you have this show as a half-hour or hour-long? How many episodes do your think each season should have?
He doesn't actually violate the code all that often IIRC, most of his intrusions required a concession to Crayak.
You might be right. It's been a while since I read the Ellimist-related books, but I seem to recall that in his first-ever appearance, he offered to take the Animorphs and their families to another planet, like a nature reserve for humans. That seems like a hell of a concession.
The concession to Crayak was, the Yeerks take over the Earth and Elimmist loses that round.
That was never a serious offer.
That was just the Ellimist finding a loophole to show them where the Kandrona was. He showed it to them without actually showing it to them.
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I'm entirely off the notion of 1 book = 1 episode, and this is just a skeleton anyway. Stories will be fleshed out, and not all material need come specifically from the books. Other things from other books could also be incorporated, this was by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of topics, merely an outline of the essential things that would need to be established in a season. Other early book storylines could be included as well.
For one, the general origin story and learning about their morphs easily constitutes its own episode even though it only really makes up part of one book. The first visit to the Yeerk pool would also be worthy of one episode when factoring setup and escape.
The same can be said for a book like (for example) The Predator, which I think could easily be fleshed out into a 2 part episode quite naturally.
That's a good point. I understand theoretically that it doesn't have to be 1 book = 1 episode, but I've grown so used to these stories being told this particular way that it's hard for me to think about them differently. The TV show, IIRC, split the first book up into three episodes. And I think they also did The Predator as a two-parter. But I think a lot of that was due to the time restrictions of a half-hour show. Would you have this show as a half-hour or hour-long? How many episodes do your think each season should have?
He doesn't actually violate the code all that often IIRC, most of his intrusions required a concession to Crayak.
You might be right. It's been a while since I read the Ellimist-related books, but I seem to recall that in his first-ever appearance, he offered to take the Animorphs and their families to another planet, like a nature reserve for humans. That seems like a hell of a concession.
The concession to Crayak was, the Yeerks take over the Earth and Elimmist loses that round.
That was never a serious offer.
That was just the Ellimist finding a loophole to show them where the Kandrona was. He showed it to them without actually showing it to them.
Well yeah, that was his plan all along, but he couldn't exactly pitch it to Crayak that way.
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This is such a good idea and you guys have come up with some really great plans. I wish so badly I could see this happen!!! I'm with whoever said we need to get someone who can make flash videos and start a kickstarter. I'd contribute to that!