If you were making an Animorphs TV show...

[yunyun]

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

[Blazing Angel]

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.

[yunyun]

What's a Messiah?

[Blazing Angel]

The messiah in christian belief is The savior. The one who will come asnd make everything better.

[Gafrash]

  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, 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,  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.    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 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: 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.

[Gafrash]

Will post my take on a show chronology. 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.

[Alan Fangor]

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).

[Gafrash]

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
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 ?

[Gafrash]

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...

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.

[Blazing Angel]

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.
 And yed I did read that part and immediatly skip down to reply.