Richard's Animorphs Forum

Animorphs Section => Animorphs Fan Fiction & Art => Topic started by: ~ on January 25, 2009, 03:35:21 PM

Title: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: ~ on January 25, 2009, 03:35:21 PM: (http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Creative-Synth/Revamptitle.png)

I've been working out an Idea for a reimagined Animorphs series for a couple days now. I believe I've come up with a few good plotlines, as well as an idea of how many books there will be. The story will be a bit more mature (Swearing, drug use, ect.) and there will be a couple big changes, for instance The Ellimist will have very little direct involvement and the animorphs are 16-17. Right now I'm planning on 12 main books (2 for each animorph), 2 or 3 for the conclusion, a rewrite of the David arc as a single book with shifting POV's, a rewrite of MM#2 (the dinosaur one), and a possible stand-alone book based on MM#3 (aka the history lesson).

That's 16-18 books, so don't expect them all at once. If anyone is interested in ghost writing, send me a sample of your writing in a PM and I'll see if it can work.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: goom on January 25, 2009, 04:16:49 PM: sounds interesting.
can't wait to read these. :)
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: KOFSoldier on January 25, 2009, 05:16:30 PM: I'd give it a read, hope you go through with it.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: Phoenix004 on January 25, 2009, 06:25:04 PM: I'm very interested in this idea, can't wait to see it. Making the Animorphs a little older is something I've always thought should have been done in order to include more mature themes.

As much as I'd love to help out, I doubt I'd have the time. I'll let you know if I have the time. I'll have to talk to you sometime about which stories you're going to write.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: ~ on January 25, 2009, 09:26:59 PM: Just a little thing, I want to call it something better then "Animorphs: Revamped". Something along the lines of Ultimate Spiderman rather then the regular Spiderman line.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: Phoenix004 on January 26, 2009, 11:55:17 AM: How about Ultimate Animorphs? :P Or Animorphs: Ultimate?
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: ~ on January 26, 2009, 07:23:29 PM: Oh, thanks P4. Really helpful... ::)
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: tta269 on January 31, 2009, 12:45:50 PM: LOL How's about All-Star Animorphs and Tobias the Hawk-wonder then?
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: ~ on March 05, 2009, 11:57:00 AM: I actually made some cover mock ups for this and I've already gotten the first couple chapters of book 1 in a rough draft. I can't upload them right now cause this connection won't let me, but I should be able to by tonight.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: Phoenix004 on March 05, 2009, 12:13:14 PM: I forgot about this! Glad you're still working on it though, it sounds like a great idea.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: Essam 293 on March 05, 2009, 12:18:31 PM: Quote from: Jesse on January 25, 2009, 09:26:59 PM
Just a little thing, I want to call it something better then "Animorphs: Revamped". Something along the lines of Ultimate Spiderman rather then the regular Spiderman line.

Spider-Man.

There is a hyphen in the middle. That is all.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: ~ on March 05, 2009, 12:22:16 PM: I can't believe I did that! :explode:
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: V2113 on March 05, 2009, 09:46:54 PM: 2 words: Who. Cares.
(For the forgetting a hyphen)

I'm the only one on RAF at the moment who should care whether it's a hyphen, a space, or a compound word!! And the ony reason for that is the spelling test I have tomorrow is compound words that are either hyphinated, spaced, or one word. Grr, so aggrivating!! I don't understanf the meaning of Spelling. I get an A+ every semester anyway because I'm gonna be an author when (or if I get my way, before) I grow up! And, I've come to discover this is what Spell Check is for!! Not that I need it...

Rant over.

I think it has potential but, drugs? 16-17? Half the fun of the Animorphs was that they're just these innocent kids who aren't totally mature yet. And they're not supposed to be mature yet either because they're only, what, 13-16? They mature over time, sure, but I found the series slightly less interesting as it went on. As the plans got more desperate. Less childish. More serious and fate-of-the-world big. Although I knew it had to go like that it was just a little less appealing... But drugs? Honestly? So, plan making Jake on an acid trip? Reckless Rachel high on crack? I mean, really?
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: Phoenix004 on March 05, 2009, 09:49:43 PM: To be fair, he didn't say the Animorphs would be doing drugs, just that drugs would be in the story. Personally I can't see the Animorphs doing drugs either, but it would be nice to see some more mature reactions from them considering all the crazy they go through.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: ~ on March 05, 2009, 10:40:12 PM: Though Marco may like pot a little, none of the animorphs would do anything heavier then that. In fact heavier stuff will come up in a way people should find familiar, and it won't be forgotten after that like in the original. ;)
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: Phoenix004 on March 05, 2009, 10:48:51 PM: Interesting, I'm pretty sure I know what you're talking about.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: Essam 293 on March 05, 2009, 11:49:01 PM: Quote from: Twilight on March 05, 2009, 09:46:54 PM
2 words: Who. Cares.
(For the forgetting a hyphen)

I'm the only one on RAF at the moment who should care whether it's a hyphen, a space, or a compound word!! And the ony reason for that is the spelling test I have tomorrow is compound words that are either hyphinated, spaced, or one word. Grr, so aggrivating!! I don't understanf the meaning of Spelling. I get an A+ every semester anyway because I'm gonna be an author when (or if I get my way, before) I grow up! And, I've come to discover this is what Spell Check is for!! Not that I need it...

Rant over.

Stan Lee created his name, specifically with a hyphen in it.

Doesn't matter if you don't care, doesn't even matter that you have to take a lousy test that you might forget about a week later, that's how it's spelt. That's his name, regardless of the fact that he's a fictional character. You're not the only one that should care either, everyone should. It's called respecting the source material.

Hyphen, spaces, compound words -- they're all a part of your language. If you're really going to be an author, then you need to learn this and deal with it. Spell Checks won't cover the fact that you don't even know how to spell someone's name correctly.

My rant over.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: Gafrash on March 10, 2009, 11:10:22 PM: WHOA!

I've got mixed feelings on this topic. Nevertheless, I would love to check it out.
If a new Animorphs story is going to be told, there is little point in copying word for word and rarara. I think it's a great idea to revamp the series to things more contemporary, I agree. There's a lot of material that could have gone into Animorphs and all, I agree also.
You want to re-tell how the Anis got their powers, how Ax joined them, how Marco finds out about his mum... I think it's great. Why would one want to get a plain repeat dose?! So surely you want something new.
You want to tell those stories with some drug-sex-guns-in-school MA15+ content?!?!?!?!?
Why the heck would I want to see my star high-school heroes doing that kind of crap?! A hawk raping a girl? Marco on pot? Rachel on steroids? A beastility Cassie? And Jake hitting more depression than he already did in the series? Visser Three having a blood bath???

Animorphs has that whole 'Childhood's end' feel. It think it's an important 'feel' to the series.
And though at points the series was gruesome, (not necessarily with the fighting, but with the types of animals they morphed etc...) the series was NEVER about the violence and blood battles. It was a drama story before it was science fiction, before it was action, before it was gruesome. The topic of 'Death' isn't really touched until the last book, really!!!
I think it would be a crime to take this component away.

Quote from: Phoenix004 on March 05, 2009, 09:49:43 PM
To be fair, he didn't say the Animorphs would be doing drugs, just that drugs would be in the story. Personally I can't see the Animorphs doing drugs either, but it would be nice to see some more mature reactions from them considering all the crazy they go through.
Quote from: Jesse on March 05, 2009, 10:40:12 PM
Though Marco may like pot a little, none of the animorphs would do anything heavier then that. In fact heavier stuff will come up in a way people should find familiar, and it won't be forgotten after that like in the original. ;)

Writers are responsible for a LOT OF THINGS. There may be different applications, like game writing, movie writing, etc... and all these require different techniques. But they have to stand behind whatever it is that they are communicating.
So you can imagine, it's not as simple as adding taboo stuff to make it cool.
You can't just make a character that is an already-established hero in a popular young book series, and 'revamp' the same hero in a 'Marco the pot-head' (or whatever provocative intent) kinda way and think it's going to be appropriate and humorous.
I'm one of the types of people that it won't gel with!

It's a question I also wonder in there ever being an Animorphs Graphic Novel. Would they keep the young adult age or bump it up to the late teenage stage?! You have to look at the implications of your changes.

Quote from: Phoenix004 on January 26, 2009, 11:55:17 AM
How about Ultimate Animorphs? :P Or Animorphs: Ultimate?
PS: Don't forget that the Animorphs already have a book with that sub-title. You don't want to follow Marvel along the lines of confusing-ness. Next someone will make an offshoot 'Ax and the Animorphs' staring Ax as some Wolverine type hero. Not onnnnnn!!!
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: meweird on March 13, 2009, 10:13:22 PM: I think that sounds interesting,do you know where I can get mm#2 part two?
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: Brad the Brit on March 23, 2009, 01:19:12 PM: has any writeing actualy started on this? and if it has could we see a bit of it? :-\
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: ~ on January 05, 2011, 01:35:31 PM: Even though I pretty much abandoned this two years ago I want to make it absolutely clear that I was never going to do anything like having bestiality or have 'A hawk raping a girl'. I have no idea where you got that idea. The point behind the rewrite was to show how different the series might be if the Animorphs were slightly older and i9f it was written for a more adult audience. The idea that I was just going to add sex and drugs to 'Make it cool' is frankly insulting. The point of those things was that they make things more complicated, just as having access to cell phones, their own cars, and today's internet would. It's not that different then what RTD did for Doctor Who or the remake of Battlestar Galactica.

The idea behind it is simply 'What if it was different'.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: Phoenix004 on January 05, 2011, 05:41:00 PM: I really liked this idea, I've always thought the only way to improve Animorphs (and make it more realistic) was to write it with older Animorphs and include more mature themes that wouldn't have been suitable in the original series.

Shame you gave up on it Jax, but I don't blame you. I've had a ton of ideas that never made it past the planning stages.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: roguebluejay on January 07, 2011, 06:57:02 PM: I know you said you've abandoned this, but I will post here that I've had the same idea and I would really like to do it. I suck at overall plots, but am pretty good at writing witty dialogue (I can write Marco spot on :D )

Maybe this summer you will get back into it. I'd love to help out / ghostwrite.

Here is a segment from an animorphs fanfic I never finished (couldn't think of a plot!)

My name is Marco. When a red tailed hawk is screeching outside your window, at three in the morning, on a Wednesday, its never gonna be good news. I was sitting at my desk. My head on the table. Bob Marley was blaring through one headphone. My music player informed me that it was tired of playing him and ran out of batteries without so much as a goodbye. At least AOL is polite.
<Marco! I’m glad your still up.> Tobias said.
“Uh… Yeah.” I mumbled, still groggy from lack of sleep. I went and opened the window. He hopped onto my table dresser. “Tobias you better have a great reason to be here because I was having the greatest dream. It was about a women… But for some reason I was crying…”
<You haven’t been listening to Bob Marley again have you?> Tobias said, somewhat condescendingly.
“That’s not important right now. Why are you here?”
<We got to get the band together!> He exclaimed, smugly.
“You have to stop misquoting movies. I have to go to school, fight off an alien armada, maintain a double life… And I still have better movie knowledge than the guy who lives with an alien who does nothing but watch TV.”
<Exactly. TV! Ax has no appreciation of the classics. But if you wanna know what happened in ‘The Young and The Restless’ last night I happen to be an expert.>
“We need to get Ax some videos.” I said.
<You’re telling me. Are you ready yet?>
I pulled on a way-too-tight T-shirt. I really need Rachel to pick me out a cooler morphing outfit. They make cool clothes for short people right?
“Yeah.” I said as if the mini mental dialogue hadn’t happened. I started morphing. Owl. Even though it was a warm April night there still wouldn’t be massive amounts of thermals and I wanted the superior vision.
After the bone crunching, brain melting, muscle moulding process had finished I was an owl. Sometimes, morphing was cool. Other times it was three fifteen AM and you were sneaking out of your house to go who knows where.
Wait up… That still sounds cool!
I launched my bird body into the night, my wings catching me effortlessly I used my momentum to skim me over the clothesline and into the night sky.
<So what’s this big emergency anyway?> I asked in thought speak.
<I’ll tell you at the barn. I’ll get Rachel, you get Jake.>
I nearly made a joke about him getting Rachel because he looooved her. But he was out of thought speak range. That boy can really fly! Its not just because he gets a lot of practice, I think he always had his head in the clouds. Some people just have a lot to fly away from, you know?
I was gliding over the white houses. Pool. Trampoline. Pool. Pool. I need to pester my Dad into getting a pool. That would make me infinitely cooler right? Wait, what’s infinity times zero? I’ll need to ask Ax.
I know what you’re thinking. Marco why are you so relaxed? You could be fighting for your life any minute? How can you be making jokes?
I guess I’m simply amazing… Or not.
In all honesty, I guess its just how I deal. Like, some people drink, some fly away and some joke. Its all just a way of getting over their problems.

* * *

“Jake.” I said. Tobias wasn’t back yet from Rachel’s house. Either Rachel was sleeping and he was having to use rocks to dive bomb the window… Or they had got… Distracted.
“Marco.” He said.
“We have to have a serious talk. I mean Cassie’s barn is all very well and good but we’re superheroes now! Do you think Batman would have settled for anything less than the bat cave?”
“Yeah but wasn’t Batman’s greatest weapon his mind anyway? Maybe you should work on that before you criticise the make shift Bat Cave.”
“Touché my friend!”
Jake rubbed his temples. He looked beat. Probably was. He had probably been up late studying for that test we had in English.
I was about to study for that, but then Mortal Combat 4 beckoned. Then I had to listen to Bob Marley. Then I was going to get the study guide for the book off the internet… But I got goaded into a fight by my arch nemesis / Ax. Three hours and around 100 online poker games later I was being awoken by Tobias after a particularly weird dream. I really have to stop eating pizza before bed.
A hawk and an eagle flew in through the window. The Bald Eagle flew down, demorphed and Rachel stood up, shaking her hair out.
“What’s this about Tobias?” Jake asked.
<I’m sorry to wake you guys. At about 1:30 this morning Eric woke me. He said he suspects the head of the board of education to be a controller.>
“Wait! I got it!” I said. “It’s the lunch lady! It explains everything, I mean I always knew she wasn’t quite human… And the food. Oh dear god we’ve been poisoned! Three years we’ve been eating that stuff! Who knows what kind of gross mutations-”
“Can it Marco. He said the president of the board, somehow I doubt the lunch lady is even on the board.” Rachel said. She dug around in the hay until she found the can of cola that she hadn’t had the chance to drink last time we were here. I stared jealously until she threw it at me, retrieving another one. I wondered how many cans were concealed in various positions around the bard. I took a sip. Ahhhh caffeine.
<Anyway.> Tobias said interrupting my mental sigh. <The Chee did intercept a communication that suggests they want to infest more kids. Its part of a new plan the visser has.>
“We should have seen this coming.” Rachel said. “I mean school is a great place to recruit kids to the sharing. Lots of poor, bullied kids with nothing to loose. Plus its easy for a teacher to force a kid to do ‘community service’ as a punishment or whatever. Then bam. They have been infested and can fight for the glory of the Yeerk empire.”
There was a silence. Rachel, like me, can be very cold when it comes to seeing how the enemy thinks.
“Okay. So why did you have to wake us? I have a test tomorrow.” I said.
<I needed to contact you all before you got into school.>
“Alright.” Jake said. We all sat up a little straighter. Jake has that effect on people. “We can’t do anything ‘til the morning. Tomorrow we go to school as normal. This weekend: we got some surveillance to do.”
“Oh man,” I said, “But there’s a marathon of The Powerpuff- I mean… uh… Homework… I have a lot of homework. You buying this Jake?”
“Not even a little. And dude keep your love of the powerpuff girls on the downlow. Its not normal!” He looked at his watch. “Shoot, its already 5:30. Its gonna be tight getting back before sunrise. The last thing we need is someone to spot the owls going in bedroom windows across town.”

A couple of hours later I had my head on a desk again.
“Marco?”
“Urg.” I said. I wrenched my head up. Shoot. Math class. The class was walking out the door. I tried for real words. “I’m sorry what?”
“I asked if you got any sleep at all last night.” Mrs Cornwall. My math teacher. Evil? Yes, but only by default. I am moderately sure that she might actually have a soul!
“I know its stressful.” Aw. Mrs Cornwall was concerned about me. Too bad she was like a hundred years old. Anyway, she was feeding me a perfect line.
“Yeah, it just gets to me sometimes.”
I felt like yelling to her ‘I AM FIGHTING AN ALIEN INVASION. I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE SAT’s!’
“Well,” She said, “try taking deep breaths and don’t study so much.”
“Okay,” I said, finally being honest “I’ll try and study less.”
Title: roguebluejay
Post by: NateSean on January 13, 2011, 02:34:05 PM: I think it would be easier to write a comment for it if you posted it in your own thread.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: TobiasMasonPark on January 26, 2011, 09:53:55 PM: Of all the characters in the series, I can onlt see Melissa Chapman turning to drugs. And maybe David.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: ~ on January 27, 2011, 03:13:59 AM: The idea wasn't turning to drugs, but rather that Marco and possibly Rachel would occasionally smoke pot, and that at least Marco had been doing this before they all met Elfangor. The only scene I ever wrote was of Marco, Jake and Rachel all getting rides home in Cassie's truck since their houses were on the way back to her's (they were going to pick up Tobias on the way). When they all piled in, Cassie made Marco sit in the truck bed because he intended to smoke a joint.

All in all the basic idea was Animorphs with a Skins feel to it.

Unfortunately I simply don't have the time to write any of it, but if anyone wants to take it up I'd love to read it.
Title: Re: Animorphs: Revamped
Post by: Phoenix004 on January 27, 2011, 08:39:11 AM: I've been planning on re-writing Ani Travels#1 for a while now and I'm considering altering it slightly so that the characters are 16, as I want to add some slightly darker stuff later on.