Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Bealocwealm on December 22, 2011, 12:30:06 AM
-
What would be the top 5 things you'd do? (Conversation starters -- would you try to maintain the air of 'secret narration', would you switch viewpoints more often as in the Megamorphs books, would you do animated or live action, how would you visually represent characters such as the Ellimist, Drode, or Krayak...)
What would be the top 5 things you'd want to cut or change from the books?
Would you introduce new plots to replace any cut material, or to give fans of the books some new surprises?
Do you have any particular people in mind you'd like to cast?
How long would the show be -- half-hour or an hour? (This is counting commercials; in the US at least, a half-hour show is usually closer to 25 minutes, and an hour show is closer to 50. An example of a half-hour show with as much action is Avatar: TLA. Examples of hour shows with similar amounts of action are Buffy and Star Trek.)
DISCUSSSSS
-
OK well I'll contribute my ideas...
What would be the top 5 things you'd want to cut or change from the books?
1. Helmacrons. And all similarly 'well that was ok/good, but silly' things like the Nartec and the Starfish Incident and the Andalite Toilet. They're just a little too high on camp value for a story about child soldiers. Now, both the Helmacrons and the Nartec gave us some fantastic visuals, things we might like to see in a TV show. It's not inconceivable, however, that one couldn't find a way to work some of those visuals back in.
2. Plots that went NOWHERE. This doesn't mean I'd cut every plot that went nowhere; I'd make them go somewhere, if possible. Like remember when we had reason to be concerned that maybe the Yeerks might have been able to mess with things just a tiny bit on the Andalite homeworld? I would at least make an EMOTIONAL journey of it -- for instance Ax jumping to that conclusion due to his close involvement with the situation, his emotions running high, and only after he does something foolish does he realize that Visser Three has morphs from the Andalite Homeworld because he has the body of an Andalite. An easy conclusion; but not one he was level-headed enough to make when he should have, with the death of his brother and all. It gives Ax a chance to fail a little and make bad mistakes, something that he didn't do a lot, compared to the rest.
3. Visser Three. The further Visser Three stays away, the more of a threat he seems. As an indirect influence, he's more powerful than he is as the Visser Three who is Always Right There. There's only so many times you can temporarily beat or evade him before he stops looking like a threat. Keep him for the BIG moments in Book One, and maybe find another Boss for some of the early books (Chapman? Then Melissa would remain a character!) I LOVED the Visser Three we saw in the Andalite Chronicles and the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, and some of the later books, and even to an extent in Visser. I loved that he was obsessive about Andalites. I loved that he was clever, but it would be his obsession which blinded him in many cases. I loved that he could be subtle. I loved that he wasn't easily defeated. I want more of that Visser Three.
4. A recurring element of the books was the PTSD-related nightmares all the characters had. I love dream sequences in TV, and I love the idea that even at rest, the Animorphs just don't get a break. I think a lot of the weirder, rule-breakinger ideas could be shown in brief dream sequences -- I'm one of those madpeople who actually LIKED elements of the buffahuman book, but it broke rules too much. But the Buffahuman makes fantastic nightmare material! Ditto the idea of being shrunk down to a miniscule size; ditto some of the visuals with the Nartec; maybe even some of the Starfish things could work their way in there.
5. The end. Of course. I'd keep the majority of things, but not the stuff with The One and all that. I think I might have it actually end with Marco and Cassie forcing Jake to try and heal a little by making him morph dolphin like in the books. And I just couldn't drop a bridge unceremoniously on the Auxilliary Animorphs. One or two of them would survive, and HATE the surviving original Animorphs for trying to just sacrifice them like that. I'm sorry, I feel like they only died because K.A. needed a body count but couldn't have Anybody die; so she just wiped out a ton of people in one go rather than kill any 'main characters'.
Would you introduce new plots to replace any cut material, or to give fans of the books some new surprises?
Honestly I'd like to now and then, but mostly I'd stick to book-related stuff. As I said I really like the nightmare element, and I might have a whole episode dealing with that. One thing I realized is that it's basically impossible to work the "we can't tell you who we are" etc element into a TV show where you're showing their faces, their lives, their enemies, their battles, etc. So it might be interesting to have an episode where they try to write journals of what's happening to them, but eventually of course have to destroy these journals.
Do you have any particular people in mind you'd like to cast?
Not really. I do know a guy who I think would make a fantastic Jake.
How long would the show be -- half-hour or an hour?
I really love hour-long shows. The time allows you to get a good balance of action and rest, emotion and motion. I think Dexter, LOST, Sherlock (hour and a half technically), Star Trek, etc. At the same time, hour-long shows discourage a younger audience, which would be a big theoretical problem with this show -- you can describe immense gory violence in print and publish it for a younger audience, but when you put it on screen, it's not appropriate. Even better, longer shows at least in America are generally run on cable or subscription channels, at night, and thus avoid the watershed problem we saw on Sherlock a couple weeks back (there was a big fuss over them showing a naked woman on TV before the watershed).
Originally I'd thought an animated show, in a Serious Anime style, would be ideal. However, if I were being practical about getting this produced, and watched? It really wouldn't be. Thanks, poparena, for explaining this!
-
1) Visser Three wouldn't show up nearly as often. It would be some other guy in charge of most of the foot work, and when s/he failed Visser Three would kill and replace with someone else. The main thing this would do would be to preserve V3's threat level, and add tension as Tom's Yeerk steadily worked up the ranks. Eventually he'd be put in charge, and Jake would have to risk rescuing him or let V3 kill him.
2) Make David a recurring villain. I'd leave what Cassie did, but also have her called out on it and suffer more for it. Come book 27 when the howlers are gone, Crayak brings David back for revenge, and brings him back in a humanoid form that's more dangerous, but also prevents him from blending back in with society. Basically make him kind of a freak, and he'd fight the Anis and Yeerks.
3) Get the Chee, Free Horks, and YPM more involved. Have the Chee start covering for the Anis starting with the mission in book 10, and have them do more stuff. The Free Horks could help the Anis fight. the Chee could make a sanctuary for the YPM, and they could help infiltrate and gain information, as well as giving Yeerks a way to get out from under the government's thumb.
4) Change the ending, and general tone of the series to reflect the theme of hope more than the theme of war being hell. Sure it would still be a dark series, but either main characters would die occasionally through the series, or they wouldn't die (or stay dead) at all. One or the other. Not to mention give the Anis a better ending and not introduce any new villains right at the end.
5) As far as the auxiliaries go, it kind of depends on whether or not I have characters die more often or not. If I do, then obviously replacements will need to be recruited. If I don't, I'm not sure. I know I'd have Eva join, and probably not even have Loren come back (or at least treat her as a character instead of a plot device). I wouldn't have them be recruited the same way. I'd use the Chee to help recruit if I did it.
My episodes would either be an hour long, or have a lot of two parters. Whichever one works better. Avatar did very well with half hour episodes, so I guess just half an hour without a ton of "to be continue" could work.
-
OK well I'll contribute my ideas...
What would be the top 5 things you'd want to cut or change from the books?
1. Helmacrons. And all similarly 'well that was ok/good, but silly' things like the Nartec and the Starfish Incident and the Andalite Toilet. They're just a little too high on camp value for a story about child soldiers. Now, both the Helmacrons and the Nartec gave us some fantastic visuals, things we might like to see in a TV show. It's not inconceivable, however, that one couldn't find a way to work some of those visuals back in.
2. Plots that went NOWHERE. This doesn't mean I'd cut every plot that went nowhere; I'd make them go somewhere, if possible. Like remember when we had reason to be concerned that maybe the Yeerks might have been able to mess with things just a tiny bit on the Andalite homeworld? I would at least make an EMOTIONAL journey of it -- for instance Ax jumping to that conclusion due to his close involvement with the situation, his emotions running high, and only after he does something foolish does he realize that Visser Three has morphs from the Andalite Homeworld because he has the body of an Andalite. An easy conclusion; but not one he was level-headed enough to make when he should have, with the death of his brother and all. It gives Ax a chance to fail a little and make bad mistakes, something that he didn't do a lot, compared to the rest.
3. Visser Three. The further Visser Three stays away, the more of a threat he seems. As an indirect influence, he's more powerful than he is as the Visser Three who is Always Right There. There's only so many times you can temporarily beat or evade him before he stops looking like a threat. Keep him for the BIG moments in Book One, and maybe find another Boss for some of the early books (Chapman? Then Melissa would remain a character!) I LOVED the Visser Three we saw in the Andalite Chronicles and the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, and some of the later books, and even to an extent in Visser. I loved that he was obsessive about Andalites. I loved that he was clever, but it would be his obsession which blinded him in many cases. I loved that he could be subtle. I loved that he wasn't easily defeated. I want more of that Visser Three.
4. A recurring element of the books was the PTSD-related nightmares all the characters had. I love dream sequences in TV, and I love the idea that even at rest, the Animorphs just don't get a break. I think a lot of the weirder, rule-breakinger ideas could be shown in brief dream sequences -- I'm one of those madpeople who actually LIKED elements of the buffahuman book, but it broke rules too much. But the Buffahuman makes fantastic nightmare material! Ditto the idea of being shrunk down to a miniscule size; ditto some of the visuals with the Nartec; maybe even some of the Starfish things could work their way in there.
5. The end. Of course. I'd keep the majority of things, but not the stuff with The One and all that. I think I might have it actually end with Marco and Cassie forcing Jake to try and heal a little by making him morph dolphin like in the books. And I just couldn't drop a bridge unceremoniously on the Auxilliary Animorphs. One or two of them would survive, and HATE the surviving original Animorphs for trying to just sacrifice them like that. I'm sorry, I feel like they only died because K.A. needed a body count but couldn't have Anybody die; so she just wiped out a ton of people in one go rather than kill any 'main characters'.
Would you introduce new plots to replace any cut material, or to give fans of the books some new surprises?
Honestly I'd like to now and then, but mostly I'd stick to book-related stuff. As I said I really like the nightmare element, and I might have a whole episode dealing with that. One thing I realized is that it's basically impossible to work the "we can't tell you who we are" etc element into a TV show where you're showing their faces, their lives, their enemies, their battles, etc. So it might be interesting to have an episode where they try to write journals of what's happening to them, but eventually of course have to destroy these journals.
Do you have any particular people in mind you'd like to cast?
Not really. I do know a guy who I think would make a fantastic Jake.
How long would the show be -- half-hour or an hour?
I really love hour-long shows. The time allows you to get a good balance of action and rest, emotion and motion. I think Dexter, LOST, Sherlock (hour and a half technically), Star Trek, etc. At the same time, hour-long shows discourage a younger audience, which would be a big theoretical problem with this show -- you can describe immense gory violence in print and publish it for a younger audience, but when you put it on screen, it's not appropriate. Even better, longer shows at least in America are generally run on cable or subscription channels, at night, and thus avoid the watershed problem we saw on Sherlock a couple weeks back (there was a big fuss over them showing a naked woman on TV before the watershed).
Originally I'd thought an animated show, in a Serious Anime style, would be ideal. However, if I were being practical about getting this produced, and watched? It really wouldn't be. Thanks, poparena, for explaining this!
Get out of my head D: Are you me? I pretty much agree with everything you said. Although I'd still consider sticking with the Serious Anime idea, because production costs would be ridiculously high if you're not to take shortcuts. It might be doable on HBO though, but with a subscription channel it might be harder to get as many younger viewers.
Assuming each episode covers a book and we cut out a few of the fillers/horribly-written books we could get a good 4 seasons out of the series if we go with the ~13 episodes a season format.
It's true that the whole secrecy angle won't work in television, but I'd love for them to have internal monologues during their central episodes.
-
Get out of my head D: Are you me? I pretty much agree with everything you said. Although I'd still consider sticking with the Serious Anime idea, because production costs would be ridiculously high if you're not to take shortcuts. It might be doable on HBO though, but with a subscription channel it might be harder to get as many younger viewers.
Assuming each episode covers a book and we cut out a few of the fillers/horribly-written books we could get a good 4 seasons out of the series if we go with the ~13 episodes a season format.
It's true that the whole secrecy angle won't work in television, but I'd love for them to have internal monologues during their central episodes.
See, I'd assumed it'd be much cheaper to do an anime, too! But I learned from Poparena's videos that a show like Avatar: TLA costs about a MILLION PER EPISODE. And that while the start-up costs of an Animorphs live action show would indeed be quite high, if you actually MAKE the props and set and costume elements, you don't have to pay for them the second, third, fourth, fifth, or fifteenth time you use them. Whereas you have to account for every element in an animated show, every time it is in there. Obviously some elements (morphing effects) would be like that in a live action show, but it wouldn't be nearly as bad in the long-run (even a single season would be cheaper than an animated version).
-
Get out of my head D: Are you me? I pretty much agree with everything you said. Although I'd still consider sticking with the Serious Anime idea, because production costs would be ridiculously high if you're not to take shortcuts. It might be doable on HBO though, but with a subscription channel it might be harder to get as many younger viewers.
Assuming each episode covers a book and we cut out a few of the fillers/horribly-written books we could get a good 4 seasons out of the series if we go with the ~13 episodes a season format.
It's true that the whole secrecy angle won't work in television, but I'd love for them to have internal monologues during their central episodes.
See, I'd assumed it'd be much cheaper to do an anime, too! But I learned from Poparena's videos that a show like Avatar: TLA costs about a MILLION PER EPISODE. And that while the start-up costs of an Animorphs live action show would indeed be quite high, if you actually MAKE the props and set and costume elements, you don't have to pay for them the second, third, fourth, fifth, or fifteenth time you use them. Whereas you have to account for every element in an animated show, every time it is in there. Obviously some elements (morphing effects) would be like that in a live action show, but it wouldn't be nearly as bad in the long-run (even a single season would be cheaper than an animated version).
Damn, you've legitimately made me reconsider seeing an anime production as the only possible solution. Granted I've never truly known much about production costs in an animated series, so thank you for the enlightenment!
-
This discussion has occurred so many times that I'm just going to copy and paste the post I made in one of the previous ones. I do have some thoughts to add to the current discussion, however, so before you read the quoted post below, my main influences here are The Vampire Diaries. A series with continuity that managed to tell the story very well and cram a lifetime's worth of story into a year long season.
Now, I would like to suggest that you not dismiss the "childish" angles so quickly. The bit about the Andalite toilet for example, could offer a bit of a break from the otherwise dark nature of the story. Remember, even the X-files had the occasional funny episode and that ran for ten years.
Yes, Animorphs is a dark story, but it's still aimed at preteens and young adults. Avatar struck a fine balance between the many themes and the stories of each unique character and I think a newer attempt at the AniTV series could do the same.
Also, on the subject of an animated feature costing millions of dollars, you have to take all of the expenses into account. First of first off is getting the studio space. The animators need their space and this would presumably be a mix of computer animation as well as handdrawn art work, all of which would require money for the materials, the workspaces, the artists' salaries and the power requirements needed for the computers that will be handling the computer animation. Oh and the IT for tech support should something go wrong. And the backup computers should something completely fry.
Then there's the voice actors. You need to pay them for their time, plus the materials and equipment needed to print their scripts and record their voices. Recording studios aren't cheap either, especially if you assume that it will not be in the same building as where all of the animation is taking place.
Then there's the legal stuff. Oh boy is there legal stuff to worry about. How much money do you think you need to pay lawyers to make sure you don't get taken to the cleaners when some idiot sues you because you "stole" their idea.
That's just all of the aspects of creating one half hour animated episode. So yeah, I could see where an animated series would get expensive after awhile.
Personally, I think the guys over at BBC who handle the animation for Primevil, Doctor Who and any BBC series that involves monsters would be the goto people for the morphing sequences and the aliens. But that also depends on what studio gets the rights to produce a new Animorphs series, if it every came about.
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.
-
I plan to make a "How to Do an Animorphs Show Right" video when I conclude my review series on the show, but I suppose I can offer a preview:
1) Don't worry about making things "1 book = 1 episode." Don't be afraid to stretch things out or combine stories for the sake of a proper dramatic pace. Personally, I'd combine books one and two and stretch them out as the first four episodes, have episode one conclude with Tobias showing off his powers to Jake, have episode two be the Animorphs trying to figure things out and learning Chapman is a controller, episode three be Rachel morphing cat and sneaking into Chapman's (this being how they learn about the Yeerk Pool instead of the "Tobias-got-a-bunch-of-info-dumped-into-his-head" thing that was only mentioned in the first book) and have the fourth episode be the Animorphs delving into the Yeerk Pool and learning the true scope of the threat. Build up to reveals, hold tension, strike at the right time. Think of things in terms of its own TV show, not "the books as a TV show."
2) Know your history. The first episode of Animorphs should be the middle of the story, there should be hints to a greater picture that viewers may not pick up at first viewing. A subtle example would be, say, a movie poster or two of films starring Jenny Lines hanging around Marco's apartment, and having Marco's Dad comment on how he "could never see what your mother saw in that actress, all her films were crap." Another idea is a character commenting on how unusual it was for Construction Company A1 to suddenly abandon the construction project near the mall, and then later we see Construction Company A1-brand equipment in the Yeerk Pool, implying the reason the construction site was never finished was because the Yeerks took over the company in order to build the Yeerk Pools. Get the audience involved by seeing the same things the Animorphs see, have them solve the mysteries alongside the protagonists, and build a sense of history. (On that note, never cut to Yeerk Labs where Visser Three and Doctor Weenie are planning their next diabolical scheme. Never give the game up like that).
3) Story arches, character arches, arches arched arches. We all love them, and any Animorphs show should embrace them. The story of David shouldn't be a trilogy, it should be an entire season (You could insert David into #19, #24 and #25 would minimal fuss). Cassie's encounter with the termite queen should shake her for at least a few episodes. Keep the battle for the Leerans, the Yeerk conspiracy on the Andalite homeworld, and the Ellimist/Crayak game largely in the peripheral, but always present and moving forward. Don't drop semi-major characters like Melissa Chapman and Joe Bob Fenestre without a good reason. This is part of the show's flow, gives it a proper organic feel, crucial if you want the audience to take things seriously.
4) Emphasize failure, pain and death. The Animorphs should lose more than they succeed, and should succeed through happy accidents more than through their own plans. Make the story a struggle, make it a war. Make every death on both sides be felt, don't have cannon fodder characters. The deaths of Taxxons and Hork-Bajir should be as brutal as they would be in real life. Emphasize the nightmares the characters have, emphasize how empty inside they're getting. Never end an episode on a smile, not a real smile, anyway. A half-hearted smile, a lying smile, a sad smile, but not genuine happiness. Animorphs is largely about violence, grey morality, war, slavery and the loss of innocence.
5) No lassos.
-
I can agree with having them lose more than they sicceed, since they're outnumbered and outgunned, but they need to have some times where they feel like they're making progress. Always ending episodes on a bad note, to some extent or another, would be bad. This isn't a horror genre series. It's a dark adventure series. Maybe if it was marketed towards adults, and had adults as the main characters, I think that might work better.
Oh, and I think it's arcs. Not arches. They are excellent, though. I like the idea of bulding things up more before the kids meet Elfangor.
-
Wow, I definitely didn't know that animes cost that much, I was definitely in the "make animorphs an anime" camp. Learn something new everyday.
I can only really think of one thing I'd change right now.
1)CONTINUITY! If you mention that there are yeerks messing around on the Andalite homeworld...don't act like it was never even brought up and never mention it again. That's the only example I can think of right now, but towards the end it felt like all the ghost written books were just a bunch of fan fics written by different authors. They didn't flow, sometimes they didn't even take into account what happened in other books.
Edit: I wonder how much it would cost to make a really high quality CGI movie, like the Final Fantasy movies? I think that would be a good option too.
-
I was actually thinking about this a few months ago while reading the series again for the first time in a decade. A lot of the things that have been brought are pretty true. I think a TV show would definitely have the benefit of knowing what's coming up so the producers/writers could easily integrate more foreshadowing and a greater sense of cohesiveness with the series as a whole. However, I think you'd have to be careful and not change too much. I think that's a trap that Nick show fell into; it was almost unrecognizable in places.
One thing I do think people forget when thinking about a theoretical show is the violence. Animorphs is two things:
1) A children's series
2) Really violent
It can get away with these seemingly incompatible things because its a book series that can "depict" a whole lot more than what can typically be shown in a more visual format. When adapting something like this the question becomes: how important is the violence compared to the targeted age group? Most production companies would go with the pre-existing 13 and and under demographic and nix the violence (you can't just lop off a bear's arm in a children's show). I think, taken on its own, it would be best to keep the violence. Not for its own sake, mind you, but because I feel it really sets the tone of the series. This is a series where there are real and serious consequences of war.
However, I think the inclusion of the violence would mean the series would have to be "aged up" a little bit. Rather than being a children's show it would have to become a teenage show. Because of this, I think the characters would need to be aged a couple of years from thirteen and going through jr. high to fifteen and going through high school. It would hardly change anything in the actual series (updating it to modern technology poses a larger issue), but the perception from viewers would be drastically different. There's just something about high school kids doing important things that is easier to swallow than jr. high kids (even if you're only talking a two year age difference, like we are).
I also think it should be animated. Someone above brought up that animation is expensive, but I don't think so comparative to doing a live-action show. It wouldn't be cheap, but you'd be able to a lot more on a smaller budget with an animated show in regards to the aliens and space ships and set pieces. That's another failure of the Nickelodeon shown; it just couldn't handle the scope of the series with a live-action budget. Avatar a few years later showed what can be done with animation. It also a little more believable, for some reason, to see "kids" doing amazing things in animation.
As stated above, the series wouldn't have to be a book = an episode. Unless, however, we're wanting to do a metagame where write develop and script actual "episode," I think worrying about that is a little too intense. With the assumption, then, that the show would at least follow the basic structure the books laid out I think the seasons should be as such:
Season 1: #1 - Megamorphs #2
These stories, I think, are a little simpler and a little more accessible compared to later books. I think they would work really well as an introductory season. Most episodes would be fairly self-contained. Ending it at Megamorphs #2 allows the first season to end on a larger note (no pun intended) than most of the episodes, but still keep that sort of "for fun's sake" tone that the series typically had at this point.
Season 2: #19 - #35
We're starting off a little slow, I know, but I think that's okay. The Departure follows up well with Cassie's feelings towards Megamorphs #2 and starts steering the series to more serious, philosophical tone than it was last season, so I think it works. Besides, we jump right into David right after (and then ram into the Hork-Bajir Chronicles after that) so I think it works pretty well. This season as a whole would be much more serious than the previous (although, of course, there are some humor based episodes [Helmacrons!]) and really starts to show the Animorphs starting to buckle under the stress of the war. We end, of course, on a really great cliffhanger as Visser One calls Marco at the end of #35. The Proposal wasn't my favorite book for a number of reason, but I think that cliffhanger would really kill at the end of a TV season.
Season 3: Visser - #54
We would pick up, obviously, with what was going on regarding the call from last season. It leads in well from that cliffhanger and sets the tone, really, for this final season. Marco and his mom are really the ones that catapult the series to it conclusion starting with #45, so I think its appropriate the final season starts here at Visser. The only downside, IMO, is that the first "real" episode would be #36, The Mutation, which is the only book that I found no redeeming qualities in. It sucks and feels completely separate from the series as a whole. Honestly, I would come up with something different for that episode. Otherwise, I think it keeps a pretty good momentum from start to finish.
Anyway, those are my thoughts.
-
Origin episodes for Chee.
Visser Three would appear less often, so that when he does show up he has the "Darth Vader" affect so that simply walking into a room on the rare occasion causes you to hold your breath in tension.
They would have done the auxillary animorphs earlier, and they would have died earlier. Genuine angst from actual deaths.
More of the Leeran homeworld.
The andalite and hork bjair chronicles would be entire TV movies, but if I can, hork Bjair would make into theatres.
It would definitely be based in the 90's.
They would have found somethin deeper than an andalite toilet. The comedy, and appeal of horses is too good to pass up. I think a minor andalite ship that can only be flown with thought speak controls.
David would seem a lot less insane. I would keep the trilogy but it would look like he wasn't a sociopath before them. His cat would be named something innocent. His snake would only be something midly sinister. He wouldn't kills crows for fun. The stress of being an animorph is what would have driven him to it on top of the loss.
Their would be an ongoing "Marco can not drive" joke.
They would have at least attempted to get the yeerk out of Tom.
Basically, I fill in plot holes, remove ridiculousness, and add in fan service.
-
I'm not really sure if it would be better to tone down the violence, or raise the age demographic, but those are really the only choices. No one if going to make a TV show targeted for children thta does that stuff. Just making it Y17 or something would probably be better, especially if you want to remain as true as possible to the source material. not that I wouldn't watch a toned down version that actually had fights, good effects, and such.
-
1) Visser Three wouldn't show up nearly as often. It would be some other guy in charge of most of the foot work, and when s/he failed Visser Three would kill and replace with someone else. The main thing this would do would be to preserve V3's threat level, and add tension as Tom's Yeerk steadily worked up the ranks. Eventually he'd be put in charge, and Jake would have to risk rescuing him or let V3 kill him.
I like that idea! :3 It'd be more dark if V3 just didn't randomly pop up everywhere xD
I particulary like the idea of V3 having someone doing his deeds for him, and them chaging every time they fail (which would be, like, every episode XD) because then you could have the running mystery of the Animorphs trying to figure out who the messanger is this time, maybe throw in a few new good guys to confuse them. I don't know, is that too Gerry Anderson? Oh well.
2) Make David a recurring villain. I'd leave what Cassie did, but also have her called out on it and suffer more for it. Come book 27 when the howlers are gone, Crayak brings David back for revenge, and brings him back in a humanoid form that's more dangerous, but also prevents him from blending back in with society. Basically make him kind of a freak, and he'd fight the Anis and Yeerks.
I like that idea too :3 Perhaps not a constantly recurring character, but it would certainly help with the Yeerks idea- you don't want the protagonists fighting the same antagonists every time, am I right?
3) Get the Chee, Free Horks, and YPM more involved. Have the Chee start covering for the Anis starting with the mission in book 10, and have them do more stuff. The Free Horks could help the Anis fight. the Chee could make a sanctuary for the YPM, and they could help infiltrate and gain information, as well as giving Yeerks a way to get out from under the government's thumb.
YES! They definitly needed more screen-time for themselves.
4) Change the ending, and general tone of the series to reflect the theme of hope more than the theme of war being hell. Sure it would still be a dark series, but either main characters would die occasionally through the series, or they wouldn't die (or stay dead) at all. One or the other. Not to mention give the Anis a better ending and not introduce any new villains right at the end.
Hm, debatable on that one- I haven't read the last book in quite a while, I need an update, sounds ok though :P
5) As far as the auxiliaries go, it kind of depends on whether or not I have characters die more often or not. If I do, then obviously replacements will need to be recruited. If I don't, I'm not sure. I know I'd have Eva join, and probably not even have Loren come back (or at least treat her as a character instead of a plot device). I wouldn't have them be recruited the same way. I'd use the Chee to help recruit if I did it.
Hm, that's good :) Can't say I totally agree with the whole idea of characters dying though, which ones? The Animorphs themselves can't go dying, cos you'd probably mess up some scripts there XD No offence, but I'd rather have some minor characters dying- you know, in for 3 or 4 episodes, let the fans get close then when they're least expecting it... WHAM! They die >8D
Without such evil ways there, of course.
My episodes would either be an hour long, or have a lot of two parters. Whichever one works better. Avatar did very well with half hour episodes, so I guess just half an hour without a ton of "to be continue" could work.
That would work :3 I think hour long episodes is a bit much- considering the age group who'd be watching it, plus any teens would probably be wandering around throughout. I know many people who get bored with 45 minute episodes- hour long ones may be a bit of a stretch story-wise. I noticed with the Young Indiana Jones' (thanks Animorphs VHS for getting me on to that) "episodes" they were squishing two perfectly fine half hour episodes together to make it more of a film. I don't know about everyone else, but I would have watched self-proclaimed "part 1" then watched self-proclaimed "part 2" later. Rarely would I watch the whole thing through because it just felt like I was watching two long episodes.
Hm, overall like the ideas! :D
I have one last thing to say though: BECOME A DIRECTOR AND THE FIRST THING YOU MAKE: ANIMORPHS TV SERIES 8DDD
-
The main issue with an animorphs TV show would be getting schoolastic to agree to it. It could be a money making opportunity for both of us though. Re-launch the animorphs novels to coincide with the show. Life sized andalite plushies. Hork Bjair beenie babies. That kind of stuff
-
but don't they have to make sure people will watch it before they'll make stuff like that? Since if no one cares, then it'll be a waste
-
Clearly, people care. Check the name of the website. I think if we could manage a widely watched channel, we would havet he next big sci-fi series
-
I don't think anybody would wanna see an Animorphs TV show made by me :P. It'd definitely not only be animated(cheaper, practical, and you can get away with more stuff than you would if it were live action) But it'd be pretty...anime-esque. In fact Jake, Tobias and Rachel would probably look something like this
[spoiler](http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/4758-253813792.png)[/spoiler]
[spoiler](http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/5092-1337033931.jpg)[/spoiler]
[spoiler](http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs42/f/2009/158/0/9/KH__Reach_Limit_by_meru_chan.jpg)[/spoiler]
And the opening theme would be something like this:
[spoiler]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s31vqe4DqFQ[/spoiler]
Other than the character design and over-the-top opening, the episodes would pretty much follow the books in order with a few fillers in between. And I agree about David being a recurring villain. The only thing is how they could make that work. David knows everything about the Anis. Where they live, who their family is, ect. How long will he keep failing against them before saying "screw it, I'm gonna turn them in to the Yeerks."
-
I don't think anybody would wanna see an Animorphs TV show made by me :P. It'd definitely not only be animated(cheaper, practical, and you can get away with more stuff than you would if it were live action) But it'd be pretty...anime-esque. In fact Jake, Tobias and Rachel would probably look something like this
[spoiler](http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/4758-253813792.png)[/spoiler]
I approve of this
-
I don't think anybody would wanna see an Animorphs TV show made by me :P. It'd definitely not only be animated(cheaper, practical, and you can get away with more stuff than you would if it were live action) But it'd be pretty...anime-esque. In fact Jake, Tobias and Rachel would probably look something like this
[spoiler](http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/4758-253813792.png)[/spoiler]
[spoiler](http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/5092-1337033931.jpg)[/spoiler]
[spoiler](http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs42/f/2009/158/0/9/KH__Reach_Limit_by_meru_chan.jpg)[/spoiler]
And the opening theme would be something like this:
[spoiler]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s31vqe4DqFQ[/spoiler]
Other than the character design and over-the-top opening, the episodes would pretty much follow the books in order with a few fillers in between. And I agree about David being a recurring villain. The only thing is how they could make that work. David knows everything about the Anis. Where they live, who their family is, ect. How long will he keep failing against them before saying "screw it, I'm gonna turn them in to the Yeerks."
Awesome! I love anime :D
-
I don't think anybody would wanna see an Animorphs TV show made by me :P. It'd definitely not only be animated(cheaper, practical, and you can get away with more stuff than you would if it were live action) But it'd be pretty...anime-esque. In fact Jake, Tobias and Rachel would probably look something like this
[spoiler](http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/4758-253813792.png)[/spoiler]
[spoiler](http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/5092-1337033931.jpg)[/spoiler]
[spoiler](http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs42/f/2009/158/0/9/KH__Reach_Limit_by_meru_chan.jpg)[/spoiler]
And the opening theme would be something like this:
[spoiler]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s31vqe4DqFQ[/spoiler]
I'm a huge fan of those character models.
Anyway, I definitely think if you wanted to re-create the show, you could definitely capture an audience. I think the easiest way would be to do one big epic movie, and then have the television series follow after it. (Though that could end up badly as well, I can't think of any successful shows that followed that progression off the top of my head.)
But if you did something like The Andalite Chronicles as a big, epic movie (thinking Avatar style,) not only would you attract a new huge crowd, you'd also reign in all the fans. The various movies about different comics seem to do very well, I don't know why Animorphs would be any different. I'm sure then you'd get enough Animorphs fans interested in the television series that followed (and new fans) in order to make it successful.
-
I like that. If anythingi s going to be a movie, I would say either andalite or hork bjair. They're both extremely epic.
-
Should do both, imo.
-
We would have to find a way to hide the message "Suck it James Cameron." In the hork bjair.
-
One thing I realized is that it's basically impossible to work the "we can't tell you who we are" etc element into a TV show where you're showing their faces, their lives, their enemies, their battles, etc. So it might be interesting to have an episode where they try to write journals of what's happening to them, but eventually of course have to destroy these journals.
Really fun to read about these ideas. I have always imagined filming my own as a kid, seeing locations near my home that look like they might be the same malls, construction sites and tobias' meadow. As to above, I always imagined them to be writing a blog of some sort, in what was the 90's version of the internet (was too young to remember much of it, used the internet for the first time in 2001). With Marco, then Ax, as computer whizzes, they can do stuff like mask their ip address so that they cannot be traced by the yeerks.
-
Making movies from the Chronicles books is something you do AFTER the show is a success, not before. As good as the Chronicle books are, they are dependent on the things we learn in the Animorphs series proper in order to retain meaning. You need to have a steady preconception of Elfangor's character before the Andalite Chronicles, otherwise learning the Elfangor is NOT a hero doesn't have nearly the same impact. Likewise, the Hork-Bajir Chronicles rotates at least partially around our preconceptions of Visser Three and Alloran.
And that's just how they function as books. In a television medium, if you had one of the Chronicles play first, then viewers going into Animorphs, being advertised as a continuation of that neat alien movie with all the weird visuals they saw, will be treated that is visually, tonally and thematically very different, and it may turn a lot of them off. No, best to start off with the main series.
-
I definitely didn't think of that, I suppose the audience would be rather disappointed in a series taking place on earth after all the alien eye-candy.
-
The main issues I'm thinking of are, simply getting it started to convince a bunch of people a 90's childrens book series is cool, and keeping people watching with all the filler time. We would need to add in some plotlines adding more story progression.
-
well, one thing you can say to convince them is that Harry Potter was started in the 90's. Harry Potter is cool (as far as I know)
-
Well yes, but harry potter also gradually grew toward an older age group (I.e. swearing in the newer books) while animorphs remained in the same "for kids but full of darkness" spot.
-
Harry Potter started having swearing in it? I never knew that. Which book did it start in? Also, I guess you can also use a bunch of other series to help convice. And get old anifans, advertise to parents, advertise on tv shows (if you can). I'm sure there's plenty of ways to (or just don't tell them it's from the 90's XP)
-
harry potter mostly had "D***" and "Bas****" later in. I'd say around book four.
-
Making movies from the Chronicles books is something you do AFTER the show is a success, not before. As good as the Chronicle books are, they are dependent on the things we learn in the Animorphs series proper in order to retain meaning. You need to have a steady preconception of Elfangor's character before the Andalite Chronicles, otherwise learning the Elfangor is NOT a hero doesn't have nearly the same impact. Likewise, the Hork-Bajir Chronicles rotates at least partially around our preconceptions of Visser Three and Alloran.
And that's just how they function as books. In a television medium, if you had one of the Chronicles play first, then viewers going into Animorphs, being advertised as a continuation of that neat alien movie with all the weird visuals they saw, will be treated that is visually, tonally and thematically very different, and it may turn a lot of them off. No, best to start off with the main series.
Insightful as always, Pop.
+1
Harry Potter started having swearing in it? I never knew that. Which book did it start in?
There were bits and pieces in every book but the 7th was by far the best.
Molly Weasley(right before killing Bellatrix): NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU B****
Lol and Hermione called Ron an ass :P
-
Molly kind of became a badass there
-
She became my favorite member of the Order. She actually knocked down Kingsley, Sirius, and Tonks!
-
sirius lost all respect when he died in a completely unexplained plot ancedote that could have gone so far, but didn't.
-
1. Wasn't his fault. And I actually think the spell he got hit with killed him.
2. Tonks lost a bit of my respect after leaving her newborn baby and then dieing off-screen. There basically no point in her being there :P
3. We're really off topic lol. Let's find a Harry Potter thread and carry our discussion over there
-
Okay. Um, animorphs harry potter cross over episode anyone?
-
Voldemort: "Your time is at an end, Animorphs! Avada Ke..."
*Tobias snatches his wand*
Voldemort: "...****."
*Jake mauls him"
-
I've always wondred what voldemort would have against normal muggle stuff, like tigers, and 50 caliber sniper rifles.
-
On Topic: Hrms. I imagine in this day and age, Andalites would be CGI instead of costumes. Then they could actually use their tails, instead of armwrestling and *derp I'm caught in a bunch of rope wut do I do?!!?!?!?!? :cry:*
Off Topic:
[spoiler]I've always wondred what voldemort would have against normal muggle stuff, like tigers, and 50 caliber sniper rifles.
It's the new pirate vs. ninja debate: Voldemort vs. Real people.
But seriously, someone needs to write a HP/Ani crossover, it would be hilarious. (And I don't have the time for more projects. :( ) [/spoiler]
-
I've only reado ne good Ani/HP crossover and Im tired of posting it on here only for nobody to pay attention to it. So you're just gonna have to find it yourself >:D
-
I'll gladly search for it, since it seems you've already pulled it off of ff.net for me. I love it...but it can be a scary place. :o They need a better rating system: M for 'legitimately good adult fiction" and M for: "would make HP Lovecraft's eyes bleed omgrunaway!."
-
Yeah ff.net's M-rated section can get a little...scary
-
Harry knocks Voldemort out and a Yeerk that's Controlling Ron infests Voldemort. Then after Visser One's executed, that becomes the new rivalry.
Bam.
This would make an awesome subplot when Voldemort regains control for a few seconds, just long enough to put himself under the Imperius Curse, making him potentially the only Controller to successfully rebel against a Yeerk.
-
Harry knocks Voldemort out and a Yeerk that's Controlling Ron infests Voldemort. Then after Visser One's executed, that becomes the new rivalry.
Bam.
This would make an awesome subplot when Voldemort regains control for a few seconds, just long enough to put himself under the Imperius Curse, making him potentially the only Controller to successfully rebel against a Yeerk.
Yeah, that'll be pretty cool, but I doubt that there's going to be an Animorphs/Harry Potter crossover for a show though
-
Harry knocks Voldemort out and a Yeerk that's Controlling Ron infests Voldemort. Then after Visser One's executed, that becomes the new rivalry.
Bam.
This would make an awesome subplot when Voldemort regains control for a few seconds, just long enough to put himself under the Imperius Curse, making him potentially the only Controller to successfully rebel against a Yeerk.
You, are the animorphs related Messiah.
-
What's a Messiah?
-
The messiah in christian belief is The savior. The one who will come asnd make everything better.
-
:roof: Annnnnnnd baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ck on traaaaaaaaaaack...
DEFINITELY do the show as animation. Plots and visuals are the primary factors. It's got to be done right! Otherwise a second TV flop would kill the future day/time when such an achievement for an Animorphs Tv Show will be ultimately possible.
1. I would go for some sort of animation, :thumbsup2: without any doubt. It’s more practical than live-action and perfectly adequate for the market. A CGI feature would be much more appropriate, than an Anime, though. The Animorphs universe was more science-fiction-esque than fantasy-esque, and computer animation lends itself to that purpose more than the Anime aesthetics, me thinks.
Granted, it would cost a fortune overall, but I am not fully sold that live-action to my standards would be cheaper either... Ether way there will still be special effects... The fact that ONE episode of a such and such costing a million is no excuse to my hypothetical planning here.
Moreover, :logo: is ultimately about animals, too, the guys at Rex (I love that show) will tell you the hardwork behind training a doggy to do what you want for the camera, it’s not a stretch to imagine trainers going ballistic over suddenly have to get authentic-looking wild animals to interact in perfect harmony with non-existing-actors-that-would-be-added-in-later.
Live action overlayed shots of a tiger, a bear, a gorilla, a wolf and a hawk (on some sort of green screen), interacting with CGI aliens, for the most part, would look corny and, to be fair, it’s pretty un-executable in itself. Definitely one of the major limitations of the Scholastic show.
2. The morphings would have to be detailed. This is imperical in my make. :police: :bluebox: None of the cheap, uninspired shots. I realize it’s tricky, would require some expert work, not to mention some serious cash to attract REALLY talented artists to do this, but you gotta be able to sell the gritty-ness of the Andalite’s advanced tech at work.
I want a human elbow to become the actual dog elbow; a nose/mouth to become snouts/muzzle/beak/proboscis; a finger bone to protrude from flesh as it turns into those of a wing… In some of the effects we've seen stuff just got stretched and faded with limited regard to the illusion of 3D. NOT IN MY GOVERNMENT!
It's all relative to HOW it's done. I’m not asking for ALWAYS the same thing. Animation let's you create/film things that can't be done in practise. Give me a shadow on a grim surface molding a new creepy form, give me silhouettes with SFX in moody lighting… BUT DON’T GIVE ME an Ani quickly crouching down to simulate shrinkage; or an Ani running through the bush and, after camera spans through foliage in the foreground, an animal pops out. Personally, it’s cheap and left much to be desired in my books.
3. I agree with what's been previously stated about the demand for a demographic bump up. Violence was a key aspect of the war explored in the series and I feel it would be remissive if there is an absence of it in the show.
I also like the idea of casting new relevant characters as new creative devices. The only 'important' Controllers we really met were Mr. Chapman and Tom.
The 'fear' factor thing is a DEFINITE MUST, but I wouldn't just leave it to Visser Three and the anyone-can-be-one-of-them :controller: guimmick...
There were a lot of morph-related moments that really played well with my imagination. Even today I shiver at the graphic imagery of the looming face/eyes of a spider from a miniscule viewpoint, or the massacre that was unwittingly waltzing into that ant colony, or the vicious face off with the other wolf pack,... there's always the getting eaten alive, the numerous passing out sequences in mid-morph/de-morph...
I love the character V3 and his role in the series is legit, granted. But the many unforeseen dangers of morphing are well-worth resorting to for some saucy tension.
4. Character wise, I can't really think of voice actors to go with the cast right now. So long as Marco doesn't sound like a hommie, or Rachel like Wolverine, or Jake like Will Wheaton... I am cool.
They would need internal monologue during the episodes. Much like them thought-speaking to themselves. I never really thought it feasible having the Anis physically recording things in some sort of log-book. Not when they spoke in code during phone conversations and wouldn't give their last names and other personal details.
In regards to this, I too, think that Tobias hanging back a bit with Elfangor, for the sake of hanging back, is enough to hint at a sub-conscious link between Tobias with his alien father. The whole memory dump thing was over-kill, because it never really got followed up (UNLESS you count his visions during the character's traumatic events found The Illusion, which I wouldn't.)
Jake discovering the whole Yeerk pool thing during surveillance, would be a lot more feasible, to episode 1, too.
Note: :rachel: My one demand would be salvaging final-season's Rachel... Personally, I really didn't feel the authors sold her 'psychopathic blood-lust' behaviour adequately enough in those final stages.
5. As much as I love the character, the only reason I wouldn't keep David around longer, is because only works because HE HAD TO BE 'REMOVED' from the Anis' lives. The creators intentionally left him with motives that would compromise the Animorphs if he was around.
So once he turns foot on them by intending to contact Visser Three/killing 'Tobias', he needs to have the nothlit-trap scene soon after, for the swift sake of credibility.
So I stretch his roles throughout an entire season. Instead it would pay to focus on a legit re-work of his role later in The Return. A prequel to it would be ok, as in, a feature of how he came about Cryak, survived/escaped the isle and so on.
-
Will post my take on a show chronology. ;D Seems the more I do this little exercise the more I get into it... And I am not satisfied with the current listing I have. Need to put more justification into my edits. Post it soon.
-
I always thought about a film for Animorphs, but a TV show is quite different, and easier to do. In a movie I remove several things (like helmacrons, buffahuman, nartec, etc.) but, for a TV show, 1 book-1episode could be good. 54 episodes, even if some could be joined together and others could be spread out over 2 episodes (like #1).
The problem is that is very, very difficult to realize. The series would need a very high budget to create the special effects. The aliens, fighting animals, the spaceships, the planets....it's not easy. E.g. how to show the rescue of Ax? Five dolphins, 30 metres down the surface, a huge dome with a park on the ocean floor...should have the budget of Star Wars.
The real TV show had this problem, IMHO...very poor special effects.
I think that a TV show should emphasize the fighting, the power of morph. And humor, too. It's a dark series, but the humorous moments are important, a distinctive aspect of the series, alternating the sad moments. Episodes like the Andalite toilet or Visser's bath after being sprayed by polecat are really hilarious and appropriate to conclude a quieter episode, with no damage for the general seriousness of the story.
I think Visser III should be less insane and stereotyped. In some cases, he seems like those typical baddies who laugh alone and say "I'll conquer the world" or sigh saying "I'm surrounded by idiots". Like a Disney villain : bad just to be bad. Like the Witch in Snow White or Scar in the Lion King, just in a more bloody way. I'ts childish, IMHO.
An example of this strange fact is in the original TV show : why Visser III has that altered, guttural voice? It doesn't make sense. Yeerks have not their own voice, use their hosts' one, so it should be Alloran's voice, a normal Andalite "voice".
The cast. The original cast was not bad, though they were quite older than the characters. There were only few differences. Brooke Nevin is cute, but should be taller - she's shorter than Marco, while in the books she seems to be between Marco and Jake in height -. And Tobias should have blonde hair. However, these are minor details.
Obviously the original cast is not suitable now (I think they are in their thirites). I don't know who could play the animorphs role, but perhaps I would choose a younger cast (16-17 years at most).
-
Chronological
I would employ a creative team to create 40 min long episodes, with a seemingless quality to them. Typically, like most manga/anime narratives are done, the following episode picks up right after the previous one. As in, episodes would not be self-contained.
The series needs to feel like one big story. Some new 'The Something' titles would need to be generated for cataloguing purposes, me thinks.
a) I'm a defendant of the movie spins featuring the actual Anis, and not Elfangor, Visser Three, The Ellimist & cia. I would pitch for all of the chronicles in the series to be implemented into the series itself (since they are intended to be that way). And MM1 - MM4 to be the cinema spinoffs.
c) Series spread is where I would be stuck on. Because I can only see it working as a spread of 5. No matter how much I try to compact it into 4, in order to make it a more viable pitch, I keep coming up with 5, for some reason!
There would have to be some serious creative editting in the chronology, irrespective of this. So I really like the idea of blending those plots. As in, not obeying book for book.
I too had once thought of the idea of merging the events found in The Experiment + The Sickness, NateSean-dude. Also, The Familiar + MM4, The Conspiracy + The Weakness and The Warning + The Exposed. Others came up along the way during this exercise, too.
The hardest part is being plot-driven, and not just character-wise. For instance, I seriously thought about merging Proposal with The Revelation, just considering Visser One/Eva. The Separation + The Illusion share plot elements, which are also right in sequence, but I suspect it will be wise to keep The Illusion as a solo in its own right.
And so, after a lot of shuffling around, I ended up with something like this:
* The numbers on the side indicate roughly how many eps. dedicated to each story.
Season 1
* Some serious marketing on 'they are coming' and all; Promote innovative never-before unseen CGI (which there we'll undoubtedly have in the hypothetical future);
* I would remove The Secret and The Forgotten. And The Reaction gets moved to Season 2.
1) The Invasion x 4
2) The Visitor x 2
3) The Encounter x 1
4) The Message x 3
5) The Predator x 3
6) The Capture x 3
7) The Stranger x 3
8) The Alien x 3
9) The Android x 3. End it on a dark note.
* Launch MM1: The Andalite's Gift OAV at the end of the season. (consider Elfangor’s Hirac Delest being found/saved by The Chee, Erek, and being rightfully handed down to Ax and the Anis in a 2 x 2 special.
Season 2
* Consider kicking off Season 2 with 1/3 of The Change being something of a prequel to The Invasion, because it can come full-circle with a narrative device to do with one of the final scenes at 3/3 of The Change.
* Season 2 will virtually begin with an upbeat tone, as Tobias gains his powers to morph.
* The Reaction was shoved here, because it is more in tune with the tone I had in mind for Season 2, that of exploring the properties of morphing, so to speak.
* Ideally, MM2: In the Time of the Dinosaurs OAV would have to launched during the middle stages of this season. It will link with events in the last episode.
11) The Change x 3 (Series prequel; make it link with the final scene in this story).
13) The Reaction x 2
12) The Escape x 3
13) The Unknown x 2
14) The Warning x 3 (YES, indeed I included this; I can see that final fun-park sequence working real good in motion picture.)
* MM2: In the Time of the Dinosaurs OAV
15) The Underground x 3. (Dedicate the entirety of 3/3 trapped within the Yeerk Pool complex.)
16) The Decision x 4. (Chance to expand on the war on Leera. Introduce Visser 4.)
17) The Departure x 3. (End on an unsure note at The Departure. Leave viewers hanging for what Karen being let go would do to the Animorphs.)
* END season 2 with Karen/Aftran being let go... (essentially on a high note) and start season 2 with the David Trilogy. Kick off action packed.
Season 3
* Begin with the premise of a new Animorph. Just like the book series did, which I think worked real well.
* I specifically re-call The David Trilogy was one of THE MOST exciting arcs in the series, during my first read. If anything, the heat/suspense/action needs to culminate HERE. I also wouldn't lock the The David Trilogy arc in order to obey the 'trilogy' parameters. However I wouldn’t place it in the middle of a season, either. Rather I would position it right at the season's start.
18) The Discovery x 3
19) The Threat x 3
20) The Solution x 4
21) The Pretender x 3
Hork-Bajir Chronicles 2 x 2 (to break up the flow)
* MM3: Elfangor's Secret (Time Mattrix) OAV
22) The Suspicion + The Journey x 2 (Yes, Let's have the Helmacrons.)
23) The Extreme x 2
24) The Attack x 3
25) The Experiment + The Sickness x 3 (Bumped up from Season 3).
28) The Resistance + The Reunion x 3 (Merge some of the plots that occured during The Resistance with The Reunion; End the season with Visser One guessing the truth. )
Season 4
* This season will deal with the Animorphs dealing more with the Yeerk war.
* Some major creative decisions here.
The events of The Arrival + The Other would be creatively mixed, as well as a seriously re-worked The Return into one big finale. Totally at odds of which note to end with. The idea here is to mislead via chapter titles, towards a misleading resolution to the Animorphs. (which was also deliberate on the part of the authors when they sent out The Arrival and what not).
26) The Exposed + The Mutationx 3 (Merge the events somehow, in order to include the Nartec into the underwater mission to save The Chee)
27) The Conspiracy + The Weakness x 3. (Rachel would assume leadership, whilst Jake is away. The Tom’s Yeerk would only discover that he has to stay away from the pool in his last day in, so it would be up to Jake to come up with a solution.)
28) The Separation x 2 (Here I would highlight Rachel’s change of personality more.)
29) The Illusion x 3
30) The Prophecy x 3. (Expand more on the story, to show more of the Hork-Bajir Homeworld.)
31) The Proposal + The Visser Chronicles parallelally. x 6 (Major event).
32) The Hidden x ?
33) The Test (Expand on the YPMovement more. And make hints to The Sacrifice)
34) The Arrival + The Other x 4 (Merge the events into an almost end of the series feel.)
* Somehow merge the events of The Arrival and The Other to make it one big misleading finale. Gafinilan and Mertil exit it with Gonrod and Estrid.
Season 5 - Final Season
* Begins with The Revelation. This was the main issue I was having with spreading the series.
In a 4-seasons series, The Reunion wouldn't have made my cuts. I frantically found a few repetitive elements between The Reunion with The Revelation, and frantically intended to use it a merge of the two to launch the Anis into their final arc.
I realize this could cause some raucus here. But I reckon there are some striking plot similarities between the Marco/Eva/Marco's dad-related events found in The Reunion, The Proposal + The Visser Chronicles and The Revelation. Except The Revelation was THE SHORTEST book in the series, and things felt blandly done for such a pivotal book in the series.
I think it is a better way to let it be the arc for the season finale.
So The Reunion gets chucked into a finale on Season 3, as well as gets merged with The Resistance, with the whole Hork-Bajir colony thing.
* Bye, bye to The Unexpected; The Resistance also gets bumped up and melted in with The Proposal in the previous season; I would also move to remove The Hidden and bump it up to Season 3, but only if there was a way to beat the major KASUs that are found in there.
* REALLY NOT a big fan of The Ellimist Chronicles, HOWEVER the almost-prophetic scene dealing with him and the dying Animorph, would be corresponding to the melting pot that will be this final season here. So it would be a good starting point for the season.
Consider, splitting relevant/important fragments of The Ellimist Chronicles througout the first few episodes, in it that by the time Cryak enters Ellimist's life = The Return; as opposed to a whole special episode on The Ellimist's story.
* Launch the last Animorphs OAV special. The Familiar + MM4: Back to Before OAV (No Drode, but have the events of MM4 happen in Jake's head, as the mysterious aliens screw with his head, in The Familiar.
35) The Revelation x 3
36) The Deception x 2
37) The Return x 4 (Prequel to David/rat lifestyle 2/4. The actual story with the Rachel focus would only be 4/4)
38) The Diversion x 3 (Final Arc starts)
39) The Ultimate x 3.
40) The Absolutex 2.
41) The Sacrifice x 4.
42) The Answer + The Beginning x ?
-
Something that came up that I forgot to mention is: Just what is a Hirac Delest? I realize it's a memory storage midgigg, but is it a physical device? I couldn't really remember HOW did the Anis get a hold of this Elfangor's legacy... Was it implied that it was dumped into Tobias' memory, during that hang-back upon #1? Or did Ax get a hold of it and shared during #8? Can't remember for the life of me.
I plan to make a "How to Do an Animorphs Show Right" video when I conclude my review series on the show...
:thumbsup: Awesome dude. Your reviews are loyal, thorough and, not to mention, entertaining.
2) Know your history. ...there should be hints to a greater picture that viewers may not pick up at first viewing. A subtle example would be, say, a movie poster or two of films starring Jenny Lines hanging around Marco's apartment, and having Marco's Dad comment on how he "could never see what your mother saw in that actress, all her films were crap." Another idea is a character commenting on how unusual it was for Construction Company A1 to suddenly abandon the construction project near the mall, and then later we see Construction Company A1-brand equipment in the Yeerk Pool, implying the reason the construction site was never finished was because the Yeerks took over the company in order to build the Yeerk Pools. Get the audience involved by seeing the same things the Animorphs see, have them solve the mysteries alongside the protagonists, and build a sense of history...
Big fan of this! Personally, I love going back and picking easter eggs that creators left, upon a second-read. Watchmen comic book series INSTANTLY comes to mind! As Anifans we would be awesome at this!
4) Emphasize failure, pain and death. The Animorphs should lose more than they succeed, and should succeed through happy accidents more than through their own plans. Make the story a struggle, make it a war. Make every death on both sides be felt, don't have cannon fodder characters. The deaths of Taxxons and Hork-Bajir should be as brutal as they would be in real life. Emphasize the nightmares the characters have, emphasize how empty inside they're getting. Never end an episode on a smile, not a real smile, anyway. A half-hearted smile, a lying smile, a sad smile, but not genuine happiness. Animorphs is largely about violence, grey morality, war, slavery and the loss of innocence.
In this sense I agree more with Chad30 here. I don't think having the 'low' tones of the series emphasized constantly, like it being A MUST AT EVERY end of episode, is a necessity.
I quite welcomed the light-hearted bits that broke this up (yeah, even them petulant Helmacrons!) for a chance to back away from this moody aspects of the series. Definitely a message of luck, hope and adventure would be in demand in there somewhere. It would be vital to strike the right balance here.
Making movies from the Chronicles books is something you do AFTER the show is a success, not before. As good as the Chronicle books are, they are dependent on the things we learn in the Animorphs series proper in order to retain meaning...
Fully agreed here.
5) As far as the auxiliaries go, it kind of depends on whether or not I have characters die more often or not. If I do, then obviously replacements will need to be recruited. If I don't, I'm not sure. I know I'd have Eva join, and probably not even have Loren come back (or at least treat her as a character instead of a plot device). I wouldn't have them be recruited the same way. I'd use the Chee to help recruit if I did it.
I too think the Auxiliaries got the short end of the stick. Particularly James. Considering he looked like he was being developed as a supporting cast and all, I didn't see a reason why James or one other couldn't have survived.
You could see the writers weren't really giving him that much care, though. Given that they were already screwing up with some of James' morphs (ref. to the KASU red-tailed hawk morph he has, as opposed to the golden eagle he specifically chose). His/their K.I.A. death does make a strong impact, though, perhaps there was just not enough space for the writers to focus on that.
-
Why cant jake talk like will wheaton?
Anyway, you're right Rachel shouldn't sound like Wolverine. SHe should sound like Batman in Dark Night. :P
And yed I did read that part and immediatly skip down to reply.