Animorphs: The Movie. Where to begin?

[Chad32]

I have a better idea for what I would do. The first movie would still be 1-5+8. That equals 4....wait, got off track. I would change book two to include more action. Make the first rachel book an exciting one. that shows she has two opposing sides to her.

The second movie would be about freeing the Hork-Bajir, and dealing with Aftran and the peace movement. I would include the Chee there, and have Erik be behind the peace movemnt. Like, he started it with some Yeerks he made friends with, and it grew from there.

Third movie would be when things start going south. David comes with the box, and betrays the group. Their cover is blown, and they have to hide their families. It would all lead up to the climax. Auxilaries come in towards the end of this one. I may even have David just be one of the auxilaries, except he goes bad. I may not have the David and auxilary things be two separate cases.

Movie four is the final battle. At the end of the movie, the Anis win. The Auxilaries and peace movement would play a much larger role in the battle. And right at the end, time permitting, I would have the Andalites show up to honestly save the day. except they were too late to help.

Fifth movie covers the Chronicles, with a rewrite of Ellemist Chronicles.

That should cover all the major points. How long each movie would be kind of depends. I would try not to rush things, and would be willing to increase the movie number to prevent that. But I don't think less than four is possible.

[Liz]

A lot of good ideas here; I really like how you've combined elements to try and streamline the story.

I'm not sure of the ending though, I always thought the fact that the Andalites didn't come to save the day was a very important element of the story.

Also, I can't imagine fitting all the Chronicles into a single movie :O

[Chad32]

The Andalites coming in the end would serve some comic effect, and also be Ax's ride home. Laugh at how they came after the final battle, then tear up as Ax says goodbye to his friends. I mean, we know someone has to come for Ax eventually.

As for the Chronicles, I might try to split up two hours into thirds. That would be forty minutes per Chronicle. Or I might put out a set of 3 one hour movies. Something like that.

[Champion]

everything i was going to say is taken. TTA's/mongoose's idea is probibly our best shot at a trilogy. im just intrested on how though speak would work in a movie without being too confusing or cheesy

[Chad32]

I would make thought speak just an echoey version of the person's voice. I think they did that in the TV show.

I should probably mention that my movie would be computer animated. No animals to feed, or trainers to pay. No costumes or robots. Rated PG 13.

[Liz]

The Andalites coming in the end would serve some comic effect, and also be Ax's ride home. Laugh at how they came after the final battle, then tear up as Ax says goodbye to his friends. I mean, we know someone has to come for Ax eventually.

As for the Chronicles, I might try to split up two hours into thirds. That would be forty minutes per Chronicle. Or I might put out a set of 3 one hour movies. Something like that.

Oh, I see.  That makes sense.

Yeah, the Chronicles could be like spinoffs, I guess...

[AniJen]

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

I wish we could have a "redo" of the TV series rather than a movie. Sure, a movie worked well for 7 long stories like the Harry Potter books, but Animorphs is so much longer and has so many important details we would be upset no matter what because many important things would be left out.

I think a multi-season series would do the best job of staying true to the story. Like Sopranos on HBO or that Heros Show. TV Series can we well done and just as popular as movies if they have the budget and are done correctly.

[msteck]

I think the best way to do a movie would be to make it into 6 parts. With each part being narrated by, and focusing more heavily on a different character in the series. The storyline would def need to be tweaked heavily, there is no way to introduce all the different secondary characters and include the different plotlines (even all of the important ones on the books). We'd probably have to lose the Hork-Bajir colony, the Chee, David etc... I think the movies that try and stick too closely to the books they are based off of usually turn out not-so-great. A TV show would be way better suited if we wanted to stick closely to each book, I mean the books are already formatted like little episodes.

[tta269]

6 movies sound awesome. I think the best way to do that is to rewrite the whole series into 6 epic novels so they can spark interest in the new generation of readers (a darker tone, older characters, more modern day setting perhaps?). After that maybe people will consider making movies based on them.

[Hunter]

I think the best way to do a movie would be to make it into 6 parts. With each part being narrated by, and focusing more heavily on a different character in the series. The storyline would def need to be tweaked heavily, there is no way to introduce all the different secondary characters and include the different plotlines (even all of the important ones on the books). We'd probably have to lose the Hork-Bajir colony, the Chee, David etc... I think the movies that try and stick too closely to the books they are based off of usually turn out not-so-great. A TV show would be way better suited if we wanted to stick closely to each book, I mean the books are already formatted like little episodes.

you have a good point, but without the Hork-Bajir colony, The Chee and david, there goes like, an eighth of the series! (well, not really, but u get my point)

6 movies sound awesome. I think the best way to do that is to rewrite the whole series into 6 epic novels so they can spark interest in the new generation of readers (a darker tone, older characters, more modern day setting perhaps?). After that maybe people will consider making movies based on them.

i like the idea of rewriting the series, but fitting 54 main story books, the 4 MM ones, the HBC, the andalite chronicles, the ellemist chronicles and Visser, would be damn near impossible to fit all that into 6 books... i think about 7 or (to a lesser extent) 8 books of around the same size of the 5th HP book would work

[Duff]

It wouldnt really be the aim to encompass the entire 54 book storyline into a movie series

Like someone said, this would be like a multi-issue comic book series.

The filmmakers would start with the origin story, probably the first book plus some elements of another book or of a completely unique idea from themselves.

From there, if that movie was successful and they were going to do more, they would use ideas from the books mixed with their own ideas, maybe use the plot of one or two of the books as outlines but in the end produce a newish story, just like they do with every comic adaptation.

They would never have the goal of telling the complete 54 book story, especially not in a trilogy. There goal would be to make as many movies as possible, for as long as people will go see them and they will make money.

So telling the final story arc and ending the franchise would never be an option for them because then they cant make anymore money of it

[Toby Hamee]

Hey tell me what you guys think of this cast. I tried to pick relatively young characters. 

Jake -  Josh Hutcherson
Rachel - Annasophia Robb
Marco - Jake T. Austin /or Luis Armand Garcia
Cassie - Aaryn Doyle
Tobias - Jason Dolley
Ax - Daryl Sabara
David - Drew Osborne /or Alexander Ludwig
Erek - Erik Per Sullivan
Melissa - Haley Ramm

[RogeSoja]

i don't think a movie or a series of movies would ever work, it'd be better off coming back as a show. You could incoporate all the books and all the emotions as well as long as you weren't worried about a G rating. And you could make the whole thing animated, to include all the aliens and more realistic morphing, as well as create more of an appeal to the kids.

It would have to me centered toward teens though because I don't care what anyone says, the books were mainly meant for 10 and under. Haha.

[Chad32]

I don't know many actors, personally. So if I wasn't going to do it animated, I would just find some ~13 year olds that look like how I believe the Animorphs should look, that have at least some acting skill. Of course many things can be done with makeup and costumes, but I would prefer to minimize the effort needed. Like not trying to make a white girl look like Cassie. That kind of thing.

[Aleron]

It wouldnt really be the aim to encompass the entire 54 book storyline into a movie series.

But you could if you tried.  You just take big steps in between and summarize it all up.  George Lucas makes a gagillian prequels and side-stories, because he leaves big spaces between his movies.  It works for a war.

Still, I think Chronicles should be spinoff/side-story movies, like Marvel is looking to do with Origins: Wolverine or Magneto.

I like Mongoose's idea, and a lot of the other characters can still be included, only as cameos for fans to recognize.  After all, you can say those unmentioned stories still happened, they just aren't necessary to the plot of the movies.

And let's not forget romance.  Animorphs was a victim of it's young audience, in that respect.