Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: AniJen on January 30, 2009, 02:40:24 AM
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Ok, I was reading some posts and ppl talk about a movie quite a bit. Well, I was wondering about how they would go about making the movies. There are 54 books, 4 megamorphs, and 4 chronicles. 62 books. They wouldn't make 62 movies. So, what stories are in and which are out and in what order?
Would you lead with the story from the beginning or start where the action is? If you where leading the project and had a decent budget, how would you portray the story?
I for one would make sure the following were in the movie, spread over 4 movies
*Elfangor giving the morphing power and the initial Yeerk Pool visit where Tobias is trapped.
*Marco discovering the truth about his mom
*Hammerhead complex underwater with Marco's mom
*Leeran Battle/ Andalite Traitor
*Hork-Bajir Colony formed
*Aftran, formation of the peace movement
*David
*Truth about Tobias's father
*Aftran and Cassie, with her being rescued.
*Attempt to kill Visser One
*The rescue of Eva
*Move to Hork Bajir Valley/ Loren
*The final battle
Keep in mind I did that real quick and did not put a lot of thought, but I think those highlight many key points and keep the story short enough for movie formats. It's very hard to cut out some books.
How would you guys cut the story back to be able to fit it into a movie(s)?
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Not bad ^^ You forgot "Rescuing Ax" for the 1st movie.
And somewhere, "Animorphs meet Ellimist and destroy the Kandrona"
And about the last movie: "Destruction of the Yeerk Pool"
In fact, they'd need 5 or 6 movies, I think... or 4 really long movies ^^'
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i totally agree with dameg on that one...
but yeah, either 4 really long movies (like, 2 and a half hours or something like that) or 6 decently sized ones (think star wars length movies)
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There has been a thread about the most relevant or irrelevant books. You could go there for a good idea of what to put in, and what not to put in.
The first movie I would do is 1-5 and 8. All the intro books. The last movie would likely be the Chronicles, to add more details in other places. Except I'd rewrite the Ellemist Chronicles. I think including a reason for the Time Matrix, and some background on Crayak would be good. Not sure which I'd put in between them, or what order. A selection of the books mentioned in that thread I spoke of, definitely.
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You guys all seem to be forgetting book 10. Would an Animorphs movie really be an Animorphs movie without at least some mention of the Chee? There were a lot of missions to which Erek was essential.
I agree that there needs to be AT LEAST four movies. Probably more like six. Yeah, six is a good number.
Movie 1: #1 and #4 (maybe some mention of Chapman's sacrifice for his daughter, but the bulk of book #2 isn't really needed). The first movie should contain less material so it can go more in-depth with detail and character development and such.
Movie 2: #5, #6, #7, #8, and #10. Maybe not the entire plot of all those books, but certain points need to be hit; Marco's mother being Visser One, Jake being taken, the Ellimist and the Kandrona, Ax contacting his home world, and of course meeting Erek. This movie could be less detailed and more about action than the first one.
Movie 3: #13, #15, #17, #18, and #19. Once again, or at least elements of all those books.
Movie 4: The David Trilogy could really be its own movie. And it probably should.
Movie 5: Skipping over a few books, here. Maybe include just the essentials, like #23, #29, #30, #33, and #38.
Movie 6: This would basically be the final arc. #45-#54. Maybe a few plot points from the final arc could be thrown into the previous movie, as foreshadowing or building action. And then the last movie has got to be epic. Maybe one of those three-and-a-half-hour movies, to fit in all the action and trauma and character development and everything.
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i like the idea of having a massively epic last movie, and i agree, the david trilogy should be it's own movie, and the last movie should be something around 3 and a half hours as well...
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Oh Dino! I was sure I forgot something!! You're right! We shouldn't forget the Chees!!!
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Here is my idea of a four-part Animorphs series.
I think the 1st movie will have to deal with the Animorphs rescuing Ax, so that he can be used in the sequels. Movie no.2 will be about the Hork-Bajir Valley and the Yerk peace movement. 3rd movie is about David and the last one is the final battle.
We don't have to stick to closely to the source material here. In the 1st movie the Animorphs will rescue Ax in the Yeerk Pool for instance (after the failed to race the yeerk to the dome under the sea). The Ellismist can be introduced at the end of the 1st movie, serving as a cliffhanger for Tobias's fate (promise to return Tobias his human form) and leading to the 2nd movie (if the help forming the Hork-Bajir valley). The Yeek peace movement is only optional. But if it is made into the movie, I think it could be shown by having some Yeerk soldiers secretly help the Animorphs in the big fight. It is better to keep the peace movement only mentioned as a myth or a trap until they officially show up in the last movie for the final battle IMO.
The david trilogy could be tweaked a little bit, making him the reason animorphs must move their family to the valley. He could somehow be responsible for the Yeerk getting their hands on the Escafil.
I can't think of any way to squeeze the Chees in and I don't think their will be a important role for them to play in the movies anyway.
Well, that's my two cents. What do you guys think?
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i'm not sure about specific plots..but ialways thought of having 3-4 based on the actual series.
and then down the road,if the first set is a huge success, bring interest to the franchise once again by doing another set of movies based on the Chronicles (mostly just two movies...the Andalite Chronicles and the HB chronicles lol)..kinda like what George Lucas did with SW...just without a gap as big as the one between the SW sagas.
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You could never make an Animorphs movie. It just wouldn't work, the series is too long. What they should have done is waited a bit and made a decent tv series with hour long episodes for each book.
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You could never make an Animorphs movie. It just wouldn't work, the series is too long. What they should have done is waited a bit and made a decent tv series with hour long episodes for each book.
While I don't disagree that a show would theoretically work better, there's a general, unspoken trend of TV shows being lower quality than movies. Just look at the Animorphs show that they actually made. Generally, TV shows are less about good, in-depth plot and more about gimmicks. There just isn't enough time for a decent exposition, rising action, climax and conclusion even in hour-long shows.
I'll admit there are a few shows that buck the trend, but there are just far more movies with great plot than there are TV shows.
So, while movies may not be the best format for Animorphs, I don't think a TV show could realistically do it justice, either. And I think the movies would be the lesser of two evils, so to speak.
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I think if an Animorphs movie were to be made, it would focus mainly on the first book. No one would start planning out all these sequels if they didn't yet know whether the first movie would even be successful. And if they did make sequels I imagine they would take bits from whatever books they thought were the best rather than look to somehow encompass the entire series.
Well, that's how I'd do it, anyway.
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Tta's idea isn't bad too ^^
It's hard to decide, but I also think we can't put everything from the book in the movies, nor even in a TV show.
And I'd prefer to see few movies about the full story than about only the beginning...
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You could never make an Animorphs movie. It just wouldn't work, the series is too long. What they should have done is waited a bit and made a decent tv series with hour long episodes for each book.
They have made pretty good movies based on hundreds-issued long comic series. I think a Animorphs trilogy or quadrilogy is plausible.
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So I was visiting the classic RAF and I came across this post by Mongoose who had a similar idea to mine.
I've heard talk of the possibility of a feature length Animorphs film. On one level this is quite exciting because I'm a huge fan, however I have been wondering how it would work, given the sheer number of books and that the world set out in them is so big and involved. Obviously we won't get 54 films, and that doesn't even cover everything. So, after some (perhaps too much) thought I came up with a way it could work, by using what I call the 'Superhero Method'. Big comic book films take years of character development and story arks and condense them down to to 2 hour films with almost original stories. I think a similar trick could be applied here. I've gone for 3 films, trilogies are popular these days and would roughly go:
1. Obviously start at the beginning with the construction yard and gaining the morphing power. Moves on with learning about the powers and the discovery of the Sharing and learning the identities of controllers (Tom, Chapman) and surveillance of them. They learn that the Yeerks are looking for something in the ocean, which leads to the rescue of Ax. The film culminates with the assault on the Yeerk pool (as in The Invasion, only with Ax) and Tobias being stuck as a hawk.
2. Jumping forward a bit I was thinking the focus of the second film would be the Yeerk Peace Movement and the free Hork-Bijir, possibly linking the 2 (Peace Movment members free the Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak). Visser 1 is brought in to resolve the situation, leading Marco discovering his mother is still alive. The climax of the film would probably be the battle for the Hork-Bajir valley. Sorry, this ones a little less defined, but hopefully you can see what I tried to do.
3. I think that things would be heating up by this point, and first thing to deal with is the families and their evacuation. Then split the plot between trying to reach the gouverneur and the recruitment of the Animorphs auxiliaries. The climax would be the final battle from The Answer, followed by the resolution, but probably not so much of the aftermath.
That was it, I hope you enjoyed it and you can appreciate what I was trying to do. I'll be the first to admit I played fast and loose with some elements (Finding Ax before Tobias becomes a nothlit, and the fact that he never regains his morphing ability), as well as leaving out huge story lines such as the Ellimist, the Pemalites/Chee and the David arc, and countless more that I haven't even thought about. For that I apologise, but I really couldn't think of another way to do it.
Any thoughts, opinions and feedback would be appreciated.
http://richardsani.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=animorphs&action=display&num=1211839912
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I have a better idea for what I would do. The first movie would still be 1-5+8. That equals 4....wait, got off track. I would change book two to include more action. Make the first rachel book an exciting one. that shows she has two opposing sides to her.
The second movie would be about freeing the Hork-Bajir, and dealing with Aftran and the peace movement. I would include the Chee there, and have Erik be behind the peace movemnt. Like, he started it with some Yeerks he made friends with, and it grew from there.
Third movie would be when things start going south. David comes with the box, and betrays the group. Their cover is blown, and they have to hide their families. It would all lead up to the climax. Auxilaries come in towards the end of this one. I may even have David just be one of the auxilaries, except he goes bad. I may not have the David and auxilary things be two separate cases.
Movie four is the final battle. At the end of the movie, the Anis win. The Auxilaries and peace movement would play a much larger role in the battle. And right at the end, time permitting, I would have the Andalites show up to honestly save the day. except they were too late to help.
Fifth movie covers the Chronicles, with a rewrite of Ellemist Chronicles.
That should cover all the major points. How long each movie would be kind of depends. I would try not to rush things, and would be willing to increase the movie number to prevent that. But I don't think less than four is possible.
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A lot of good ideas here; I really like how you've combined elements to try and streamline the story.
I'm not sure of the ending though, I always thought the fact that the Andalites didn't come to save the day was a very important element of the story.
Also, I can't imagine fitting all the Chronicles into a single movie :O
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The Andalites coming in the end would serve some comic effect, and also be Ax's ride home. Laugh at how they came after the final battle, then tear up as Ax says goodbye to his friends. I mean, we know someone has to come for Ax eventually.
As for the Chronicles, I might try to split up two hours into thirds. That would be forty minutes per Chronicle. Or I might put out a set of 3 one hour movies. Something like that.
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everything i was going to say is taken. :-[ TTA's/mongoose's idea is probibly our best shot at a trilogy. im just intrested on how though speak would work in a movie without being too confusing or cheesy
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I would make thought speak just an echoey version of the person's voice. I think they did that in the TV show.
I should probably mention that my movie would be computer animated. No animals to feed, or trainers to pay. No costumes or robots. Rated PG 13.
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The Andalites coming in the end would serve some comic effect, and also be Ax's ride home. Laugh at how they came after the final battle, then tear up as Ax says goodbye to his friends. I mean, we know someone has to come for Ax eventually.
As for the Chronicles, I might try to split up two hours into thirds. That would be forty minutes per Chronicle. Or I might put out a set of 3 one hour movies. Something like that.
Oh, I see. That makes sense.
Yeah, the Chronicles could be like spinoffs, I guess...
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You could never make an Animorphs movie. It just wouldn't work, the series is too long. What they should have done is waited a bit and made a decent tv series with hour long episodes for each book.
I wish we could have a "redo" of the TV series rather than a movie. Sure, a movie worked well for 7 long stories like the Harry Potter books, but Animorphs is so much longer and has so many important details we would be upset no matter what because many important things would be left out.
I think a multi-season series would do the best job of staying true to the story. Like Sopranos on HBO or that Heros Show. TV Series can we well done and just as popular as movies if they have the budget and are done correctly.
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I think the best way to do a movie would be to make it into 6 parts. With each part being narrated by, and focusing more heavily on a different character in the series. The storyline would def need to be tweaked heavily, there is no way to introduce all the different secondary characters and include the different plotlines (even all of the important ones on the books). We'd probably have to lose the Hork-Bajir colony, the Chee, David etc... I think the movies that try and stick too closely to the books they are based off of usually turn out not-so-great. A TV show would be way better suited if we wanted to stick closely to each book, I mean the books are already formatted like little episodes.
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6 movies sound awesome. I think the best way to do that is to rewrite the whole series into 6 epic novels so they can spark interest in the new generation of readers (a darker tone, older characters, more modern day setting perhaps?). After that maybe people will consider making movies based on them.
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I think the best way to do a movie would be to make it into 6 parts. With each part being narrated by, and focusing more heavily on a different character in the series. The storyline would def need to be tweaked heavily, there is no way to introduce all the different secondary characters and include the different plotlines (even all of the important ones on the books). We'd probably have to lose the Hork-Bajir colony, the Chee, David etc... I think the movies that try and stick too closely to the books they are based off of usually turn out not-so-great. A TV show would be way better suited if we wanted to stick closely to each book, I mean the books are already formatted like little episodes.
you have a good point, but without the Hork-Bajir colony, The Chee and david, there goes like, an eighth of the series! (well, not really, but u get my point)
6 movies sound awesome. I think the best way to do that is to rewrite the whole series into 6 epic novels so they can spark interest in the new generation of readers (a darker tone, older characters, more modern day setting perhaps?). After that maybe people will consider making movies based on them.
i like the idea of rewriting the series, but fitting 54 main story books, the 4 MM ones, the HBC, the andalite chronicles, the ellemist chronicles and Visser, would be damn near impossible to fit all that into 6 books... i think about 7 or (to a lesser extent) 8 books of around the same size of the 5th HP book would work
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It wouldnt really be the aim to encompass the entire 54 book storyline into a movie series
Like someone said, this would be like a multi-issue comic book series.
The filmmakers would start with the origin story, probably the first book plus some elements of another book or of a completely unique idea from themselves.
From there, if that movie was successful and they were going to do more, they would use ideas from the books mixed with their own ideas, maybe use the plot of one or two of the books as outlines but in the end produce a newish story, just like they do with every comic adaptation.
They would never have the goal of telling the complete 54 book story, especially not in a trilogy. There goal would be to make as many movies as possible, for as long as people will go see them and they will make money.
So telling the final story arc and ending the franchise would never be an option for them because then they cant make anymore money of it
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Hey tell me what you guys think of this cast. I tried to pick relatively young characters. ;D
Jake - Josh Hutcherson
Rachel - Annasophia Robb
Marco - Jake T. Austin /or Luis Armand Garcia
Cassie - Aaryn Doyle
Tobias - Jason Dolley
Ax - Daryl Sabara
David - Drew Osborne /or Alexander Ludwig
Erek - Erik Per Sullivan
Melissa - Haley Ramm
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i don't think a movie or a series of movies would ever work, it'd be better off coming back as a show. You could incoporate all the books and all the emotions as well as long as you weren't worried about a G rating. And you could make the whole thing animated, to include all the aliens and more realistic morphing, as well as create more of an appeal to the kids.
It would have to me centered toward teens though because I don't care what anyone says, the books were mainly meant for 10 and under. Haha.
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I don't know many actors, personally. So if I wasn't going to do it animated, I would just find some ~13 year olds that look like how I believe the Animorphs should look, that have at least some acting skill. Of course many things can be done with makeup and costumes, but I would prefer to minimize the effort needed. Like not trying to make a white girl look like Cassie. That kind of thing.
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It wouldnt really be the aim to encompass the entire 54 book storyline into a movie series.
But you could if you tried. You just take big steps in between and summarize it all up. George Lucas makes a gagillian prequels and side-stories, because he leaves big spaces between his movies. It works for a war.
Still, I think Chronicles should be spinoff/side-story movies, like Marvel is looking to do with Origins: Wolverine or Magneto.
I like Mongoose's idea, and a lot of the other characters can still be included, only as cameos for fans to recognize. After all, you can say those unmentioned stories still happened, they just aren't necessary to the plot of the movies.
And let's not forget romance. Animorphs was a victim of it's young audience, in that respect.
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Hey tell me what you guys think of this cast. I tried to pick relatively young characters. ;D
Jake - Josh Hutcherson
Rachel - Annasophia Robb
Marco - Jake T. Austin /or Luis Armand Garcia
Cassie - Aaryn Doyle
Tobias - Jason Dolley
Ax - Daryl Sabara
David - Drew Osborne /or Alexander Ludwig
Erek - Erik Per Sullivan
Melissa - Haley Ramm
For Jake, Rachel, Tobias and Melissa, those actors seem good choices!
For Marco, I prefer this Garcia, the other guy seems a little younger than the other actors you selected...
I don't agree for Cassie: she's too old, too cute and too feminine...
About Ax, I imagined a guy a little cuter, but why not.
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Daryl Sabara? isn't that the kid from the Spy Kids movies?
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Jake - Josh Hutcherson
Rachel - Annasophia Robb
Marco - Jake T. Austin /or Luis Armand Garcia
Cassie - Aaryn Doyle
Tobias - Jason Dolley
Ax - Daryl Sabara
David - Drew Osborne /or Alexander Ludwig
Erek - Erik Per Sullivan
Melissa - Haley Ramm
I like your choice Rachel and Melissa, Austin for Marco, Osborne for David. Jake looks like a sissy, however, I still have trouble picturing Tobias as a blond (I'm working on it tho), and some of the others remind me way too much of the tv show.
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Yeah, I wasn't 100% sure about Josh Hutcherson as Jake. But he does have dark hair and eyes like Jake. I don't know his height though. What if he's too short? lol
Maybe if he got a different haircut? ???
What do you all think of Tony Oller as Tom?
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Also try to make Jake and Tobias look different from each other. Sometimes in cover art I have trouble telling them apart. More blond in Tobias' hair would do the trick, as well as more of a height difference between them. Like make him more Marco's height, except that instead of being short for his age, he was just be the youngest Animorph.
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yeah I agree, Jake and Tobias kind of confused me too. :)
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About Tobias, he confuses me in the Anibase! He looks like Marco >_<
No, really, Tobias should be blond this time ^^' and I think the actor you found must be good.
For Tom... not sure... I saw him taller and older in the books... but seeing pictures on Internet don't show the height ^^'
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no no this won't work siriously, no
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We have had soooo many threads about this.