Animorphs: The Movie. Where to begin?

[AniJen]

Ok, I was reading some posts and ppl talk about a movie quite a bit. Well, I was wondering about how they would go about making the movies. There are 54 books, 4 megamorphs, and 4 chronicles. 62 books. They wouldn't make 62 movies. So, what stories are in and which are out and in what order?

Would you lead with the story from the beginning or start where the action is? If you where leading the project and had a decent budget, how would you portray the story?

I for one would make sure the following were in the movie, spread over 4 movies

*Elfangor giving the morphing power and the initial Yeerk Pool visit where Tobias is trapped.
*Marco discovering the truth about his mom
*Hammerhead complex underwater with Marco's mom

*Leeran Battle/ Andalite Traitor
*Hork-Bajir Colony formed
*Aftran, formation of the peace movement

*David
*Truth about Tobias's father
*Aftran and Cassie, with her being rescued.

*Attempt to kill Visser One
*The rescue of Eva
*Move to Hork Bajir Valley/ Loren
*The final battle

Keep in mind I did that real quick and did not put a lot of thought, but I think those highlight many key points and keep the story short enough for movie formats. It's very hard to cut out some books.

How would you guys cut the story back to be able to fit it into a movie(s)?

[Dameg]

Not bad ^^ You forgot "Rescuing Ax" for the 1st movie.
And somewhere, "Animorphs meet Ellimist and destroy the Kandrona"
And about the last movie: "Destruction of the Yeerk Pool"

In fact, they'd need 5 or 6 movies, I think... or 4 really long movies ^^'

[Hunter]

i totally agree with dameg on that one...

but yeah, either 4 really long movies (like, 2 and a half hours or something like that) or 6 decently sized ones (think star wars length movies)

[Chad32]

There has been a thread about the most relevant or irrelevant books. You could go there for a good idea of what to put in, and what not to put in.

The first movie I would do is 1-5 and 8. All the intro books. The last movie would likely be the Chronicles, to add more details in other places. Except I'd rewrite the Ellemist Chronicles. I think including a reason for the Time Matrix, and some background on Crayak would be good. Not sure which I'd put in between them, or what order. A selection of the books mentioned in that thread I spoke of, definitely.

[DinosaurNothlit]

You guys all seem to be forgetting book 10.  Would an Animorphs movie really be an Animorphs movie without at least some mention of the Chee?  There were a lot of missions to which Erek was essential.

I agree that there needs to be AT LEAST four movies.  Probably more like six.  Yeah, six is a good number.

Movie 1: #1 and #4 (maybe some mention of Chapman's sacrifice for his daughter, but the bulk of book #2 isn't really needed).  The first movie should contain less material so it can go more in-depth with detail and character development and such.

Movie 2: #5, #6, #7, #8, and #10.  Maybe not the entire plot of all those books, but certain points need to be hit; Marco's mother being Visser One, Jake being taken, the Ellimist and the Kandrona, Ax contacting his home world, and of course meeting Erek.  This movie could be less detailed and more about action than the first one.

Movie 3: #13, #15, #17, #18, and #19.  Once again, or at least elements of all those books.

Movie 4: The David Trilogy could really be its own movie.  And it probably should.

Movie 5: Skipping over a few books, here.  Maybe include just the essentials, like #23, #29, #30, #33, and #38.

Movie 6: This would basically be the final arc.  #45-#54.  Maybe a few plot points from the final arc could be thrown into the previous movie, as foreshadowing or building action.  And then the last movie has got to be epic.  Maybe one of those three-and-a-half-hour movies, to fit in all the action and trauma and character development and everything.

[Hunter]

i like the idea of having a massively epic last movie, and i agree, the david trilogy should be it's own movie, and the last movie should be something around 3 and a half hours as well...

[Dameg]

Oh Dino! I was sure I forgot something!! You're right! We shouldn't forget the Chees!!!

[tta269]

Here is my idea  of a four-part Animorphs series.

I think the 1st movie will have to deal with the Animorphs rescuing Ax, so that he can be used in the sequels. Movie no.2 will be about the Hork-Bajir Valley and the Yerk peace movement. 3rd movie is about David and the last one is the final battle.

We don't have to stick to closely to the source material here. In the 1st movie the Animorphs will rescue Ax in the Yeerk Pool for instance (after the failed to race the yeerk to the dome under the sea). The Ellismist can be introduced at the end of the 1st movie, serving as a cliffhanger for Tobias's fate (promise to return Tobias his human form) and leading to the 2nd movie (if the help forming the Hork-Bajir valley). The Yeek peace movement is only optional. But if it is made into the movie, I think it could be shown by having some Yeerk soldiers secretly help the Animorphs in the big fight. It is better to keep the peace movement only mentioned as a myth or a trap until they officially show up in the last movie for the final battle IMO.

The david trilogy could be tweaked a little bit, making him the reason animorphs must move their family to the valley. He could somehow be responsible for the Yeerk getting their hands on the Escafil.

I can't think of any way to squeeze the Chees in and I don't think their will be a important role for them to play in the movies anyway.

Well, that's my two cents.  What do you guys think?

[WildAtHeart]

i'm not sure about specific plots..but ialways thought of having 3-4 based on the actual series.
and then down the road,if the first set is a huge success, bring interest to the franchise once again by doing another set of movies based on the Chronicles (mostly just two movies...the Andalite Chronicles and the HB chronicles lol)..kinda like what George Lucas did with SW...just without a gap as big as the one between the SW sagas.

[Altephor]

You could never make an Animorphs movie.  It just wouldn't work, the series is too long.  What they should have done is waited a bit and made a decent tv series with hour long episodes for each book.

[DinosaurNothlit]

You could never make an Animorphs movie.  It just wouldn't work, the series is too long.  What they should have done is waited a bit and made a decent tv series with hour long episodes for each book.

While I don't disagree that a show would theoretically work better, there's a general, unspoken trend of TV shows being lower quality than movies.  Just look at the Animorphs show that they actually made.  Generally, TV shows are less about good, in-depth plot and more about gimmicks.  There just isn't enough time for a decent exposition, rising action, climax and conclusion even in hour-long shows.

I'll admit there are a few shows that buck the trend, but there are just far more movies with great plot than there are TV shows.

So, while movies may not be the best format for Animorphs, I don't think a TV show could realistically do it justice, either.  And I think the movies would be the lesser of two evils, so to speak.

[Liz]

I think if an Animorphs movie were to be made, it would focus mainly on the first book.  No one would start planning out all these sequels if they didn't yet know whether the first movie would even be successful.  And if they did make sequels I imagine they would take bits from whatever books they thought were the best rather than look to somehow encompass the entire series.

Well, that's how I'd do it, anyway.

[Dameg]

Tta's idea isn't bad too ^^
It's hard to decide, but I also think we can't put everything from the book in the movies, nor even in a TV show.
And I'd prefer to see few movies about the full story than about only the beginning...

[tta269]

You could never make an Animorphs movie.  It just wouldn't work, the series is too long.  What they should have done is waited a bit and made a decent tv series with hour long episodes for each book.

They have made pretty good movies based on hundreds-issued long comic series. I think a Animorphs trilogy or quadrilogy is plausible.

[tta269]

So I was visiting the classic RAF and I came across this post by Mongoose who had a similar idea to mine.

I've heard talk of the possibility of a feature length Animorphs film. On one level this is quite exciting because I'm a huge fan, however I have been wondering how it would work, given the sheer number of books and that the world set out in them is so big and involved. Obviously we won't get 54 films, and that doesn't even cover everything. So, after some (perhaps too much) thought I came up with a way it could work, by using what I call the 'Superhero Method'. Big comic book films take years of character development and story arks and condense them down to to 2 hour films with almost original stories. I think a similar trick could be applied here. I've gone for 3 films, trilogies are popular these days and would roughly go:

1. Obviously start at the beginning with the construction yard and gaining the morphing power. Moves on with learning about the powers and the discovery of the Sharing and learning the identities of controllers (Tom, Chapman) and surveillance of them. They learn that the Yeerks are looking for something in the ocean, which leads to the rescue of Ax. The film culminates with the assault on the Yeerk pool (as in The Invasion, only with Ax) and Tobias being stuck as a hawk.

2. Jumping forward a bit I was thinking the focus of the second film would be the Yeerk Peace Movement and the free Hork-Bijir, possibly linking the 2 (Peace Movment members free the Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak). Visser 1 is brought in to resolve the situation, leading Marco discovering his mother is still alive. The climax of the film would probably be the battle for the Hork-Bajir valley. Sorry, this ones a little less defined, but hopefully you can see what I tried to do.

3. I think that things would be heating up by this point, and first thing to deal with is the families and their evacuation. Then split the plot between trying to reach the gouverneur and the recruitment of the Animorphs auxiliaries. The climax would be the final battle from The Answer, followed by the resolution, but probably not so much of the aftermath.

That was it, I hope you enjoyed it and you can appreciate what I was trying to do. I'll be the first to admit I played fast and loose with some elements (Finding Ax before Tobias becomes a nothlit, and the fact that he never regains his morphing ability), as well as leaving out huge story lines such as the Ellimist, the Pemalites/Chee and the David arc, and countless more that I haven't even thought about. For that I apologise, but I really couldn't think of another way to do it.
Any thoughts, opinions and feedback would be appreciated.

http://richardsani.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=animorphs&action=display&num=1211839912