Creating an Animorphs Series: Your Choices

[Estreen_Esteem]

 [I'm sure this topic has been covered before, but I didn't see anything in recent history and it's always fun to rehash.]

 I think if Animorphs was ever made into a visual series, animation would be the way to go - a smaller budget in order to show everything from every book, instead of a condensed CGI.

  So if you won a billion dollars and invested it in making such a series, thus gaining total creative control, how would you do it? I think Gibli would be the best company to hire, for instance.

 Specifically, who would you hire for voice actors?

 I think Jeffrey Coombs would make a FANTASTIC Visser 3.

[MoppingBear]

i mentioned this on a thread about who should act in a show, and you pretty much have to go with unknowns, because otherwise, you are dealing with the likes of hannah montana and the jonas bros as your animorphs.

[Terenia]

If the money was there, I would prefer live action over animation. The movie making industry has the capabilities to make a believable looking Animorphs movie or television series. What made the first one so poor was a lack of good solid writing and a lack of funds.

Assuming I have endless dollars to throw at the campaign I think I would prefer to condense the series, remove a lot of the filler, and focus on the main points. I think it would work better as a tv show along the lines of Heroes and LOST than a movie, because then you don't have to cut as much out and you can even extrapolate. I do not think that every detail needs to be translated (ie Buffahuman).

If it were made into a movie I would keep in a few key points: David, the Ellimist, the auxilaries, the YPM, the Chee. I would cut out books such as #18, which do not involve earth, but keep in aspects of Andalite traitorism to drive home that point that not all Andalites are the 'good guys' (perhaps by keeping part of the Estrid storyline alive?). Bottom line, if it's a movie it won't remain completely loyal to the books because you are not going to have a 54-movie long series. I would hope for a trilogy at best.

[Chad32]

Yeah this has been done before. I would definitely go for animation. Even if I have tons of money to put into this, it just seems that animation would be cheaper. No paying animal trainers and such. Though live action mixed with computer animation would be good, as long as it's a good fit. I've seen movies that do it well, and some movies where the animated parts are just too obvious and detract from the immersion.

I would leave out some of the filler parts, because even if I decided to make the series as true to the books as possible, i don't think the fan backlash would be that much if I left out the Helmacrons, Buffa-Human, and possibly Atlantis.

Of course I would wind up changing a lot. Develop the secondary groups like Chee, YPM, Free horks, and such. Make David a recurring villain. Change that blasted ending.

I think a television series would be best, though making a movie series could be good too. It would have to be several movies, though, to keep things from being too condensed.

[WildAtHeart]

i would want live-action over animation

I mentioned in the past that I would like it to be The Golden Compass adaptation, where all the animals are CGI. Because of, like Chad said, immersion...i always get taken out of the movie when real animals are changed to CGI for shots. I would rather just have the animals all be CGI so my mind accepts it and won't get taken out of the movie each time the animals switched

I agree with the unknown actors for the animorphs. i see something like the Harry Potter adaptations did: balancing unknown kid actors while using established, respected actors for the adults.

If it was animated, i would prefer traditional 2D animation rather than computer animation...Mostly because computer animated humans bug the hell out of me...like i can handle computer-animated animals and aliens...but humans just look so weird to me in computer animation lol.  I'm not sure which voice actors i would use

[SuperBlue]

See my only problem with a live action TV show is how they're gonna incorporate the violence. A tv show doesn't have the type of budget for realistic looking CGI animals, Hork bajir and Anadalites all fighting each other, in fact creating the aliens will be expensive enough for a show. And they damn sure aren't gonna be able to get real animals to do half the stuff the anis have done.

That's why I'd rather have an animated TV show. But the problem is finding a channel to put it on. Animorphs doesn't need to be on Disney Channel or Nick. The only place it could possible go is Cartoon Network seeing as they not noly have Adult Swim but even their regular shows can get pretty intense with both the storyline and action(Dragonball Z, Naruto, ect)

The only thing I have against it being animated is the art style. But that's only becuase I'm not a fan of american cartoons. If they get some manga artists(maybe the ones who have worked on Death Note or Wolf's Rain) to work on the show then I'd have no worries.

Now if there was a movie...IDK I can't even think of a successful way for them to do an Animorphs movie. I mean I guess they could have the first movie deal with book 1 and somehow get Ax in there too. The second could deal with David and Tobias getting his morphing powers back/finding out Elfangor is his son and introducign the Ellimist, and the third movie would be the final 10 books. But I son't see Animorphs being done in just 3 movies. Four maybe but not three

There are no good actors that I know of that are between the ages of 12-16 so if it went live action, we'd need a cast of completely unknown actors

[Chad32]

I would get it put on a station where I could push the boundaries of a PG13 series as far as possible, but still keep it PG13. Not sure which one that is, but that would be a requirement.

[SuperBlue]

Well in that case you'd wanna put it on fox or NBC though I still think Cartoon Network can handle it

[Chad32]

Doesn't Fox have a habit of cancelling shows if they aren't instant hits? I guess I'd pick NBC or CN. Try to get it a between 4pm and 8pm slot. That would get it after school it over, but before they go to bed at 9 or 10. Or whenever young teenagers go to bed nowadays.

[anijen21]

Lol Jeffrey combs...do you want some ham with your cheese?

[donmoosavi]

I'm going to have to agree, I think the scope of Animorphs runs just to wide for it to be contained within a movie, even a movie trilogy. A television serial, that managed to establish itself as a deep, exciting show with large amounts of relaxed humor, violence, and complex themes, would be successful. The series from a television standpoint would have to get into that depth a bit faster than the book series to begin with a hook. Most books would fit within one or two 40 minute episodes, and many books could be cut out. (helmacrons, the mutation, #39 etc...) Special TV movies could cover specials such as the chronicles and megamorphs, because although the megamorphs dont contribute to the plot, they are entertaining enough.

I would also consider aging the Animorphs just a little bit so that they are in High School, i think middle school age is too young to be universally accessible; maybe a bit younger than the characters of Heroes, which was mentioned earlier.

Special Effects-wise I dont see it being a problem considering the SPX of shows like battlestar galactica. The aliens would be a bit tough but definitely could be done so they dont look awful and cheap.

As far as cast goes i think we've seen that as long as the roles aren't too complex, teen actors step up to the plate. Despite all the negativity Disney stars get, the characters in those shows are portrayed fairly well. I think the show could work well as you got actors who were, at least, actors who could just not be awful. Mediocrity isn't a bad thing. The most important thing, even more important than the dramatic acting, would be the comedic timing and once that's pegged they'll be set.

Really if anyone were truly interested in producing this book series, it would be very possible. As long as its marketed right, has the right amount of action and violence, and definitely needs to have more romance to hook in viewers.

Yeah I rambled a bit but you get the idea. Animorphs.

[Chad32]

I think the Rachel and Tobias thing was fleshed out enough, so if we want more romance we should flesh out jake and Cassie more. There isn't as much drama until later in the series as the war gets to Jake, but it could still be shown to progress. That way when Jake changes, and Cassie decides he isn't her Jake anymore, their breaking up can have more power to it. Fans would be more emotionally invested in Jake/Cassie if sweeter moments were shown.

[donmoosavi]

That's definitely the point; fans should be emotionally invested. Despite the fandom, I think more romance (much more) exists in fanfics and the imaginations of readers. People like seeing romantic drama. People like seeing relationships.

People also like pairing up characters, and they absolutely love Love Triangles. Now, I'm not speaking for myself but I'm just talking about marketability, and realistically animorphs would have to have some changes to be more universally marketable.

One idea I have is fleshing out some of the flirting that happened earlier on with Rachel and Marco and then bring in the Tobias element.

And you're definitely right, showing the initial rise then eventual collapse of the Jake/Cassie relationship would be great.

Although the books did a great job of having several chapters dedicated to normal activity, where the animorphs just hang out, the TV show could take advantage of its medium and have one or two "filler" episodes that were almost "fan service". Focus only on humor and develop romantic elements not in the book.

Really, as big fan of movies and TV (wait...who isnt a fan of movies and TV) I can really see this sort of series working out. Dream direction/writing? J.J. Abrams.

[Chad32]

We know that occassionally rachel considered dating a regular guy, and not a nothlit. In that way I can see her thinking about going to Marco over Tobias. That's really great love triangle material. It would also help define the two warring aspects of Rachel. of course she isn't the only one with two sides to her, but it seems KA made her stand out as someone who has two conflicting sides. It would also help gain interest from fans who don't like the Rachel/Tobias pairing. they may like a Rachel/Marco pairing better.

personally I don't know how I would do it. I wouldn't want to kill her off, and I do think think the two of thm would do fine after the war. Mainly because I believe Tobias would become Human for her.

[Acalio-Laron-Jaham]

just go with animation i say. its much more possible to satisfy fans with everything from the sfx to the alien creatures without costing as much as live action, cuz simply, its drawn.

there have been some awesome animations out there in the past with excellent storylines like 'gargoyles' for example, and the x-men (original 90's one) and such. who cares if the stereotype views of society is that cartoons are 'for kids'. if i like a cartoon, i would watch it no matter what anyone else thinks. animorphs already has great storylines. with animation, they could include everything - hork-bajir, ships, different worlds and planets etc.

and don't underestimate animation - sometimes they can achieve greatness that their live action versions can't - like 'dragonball' and that awful 'dragonball evolution' movie recently released, or street fighter the animated series and the van damme street fighter movie and the legend of chun li, teenage mutant ninja turtles and their live action versions, and i could go on and on and list more, but you should get the point. alot of stuff is often better not being live action. some may say that these examples i've listed are all kids/teen stuff - not necessarily. i mean, yeh sure they may be aimed at kids, but they have all had some some adult themes and storylines in them as well. and hey, lets face it - 'animorphs' itself is a kids/teen series anyway.  

and i think that having an animated animorphs show has a greater chance of being made, as opposed to a new, high budget live action one that would be better than the original live action one. The original live action animorphs series is proof already that a live action animorphs series would suck without proper effects, portraying actors and budget. animation does not have alot of these problems. its less risky for someone/some company to make a animation then a live action one, so the animation would have more chance and creators won't be as reluctant.

a live action animorphs as we all know has already been attempted and it sucked. we should give animation a try now.