Animorphs Film

[Dylan]

He and Applegate aren't the only ones who are relieved.

You don't want any new material?

[NothingFromSomething]

Guys, its publishing run finished almost 15 years ago, and the attempted re-release apparently didn't stick - the new audience they were trying to introduce it to didn't really give a ****.

You say "how do we fire it up" like that's somehow necessary.  A movie might happen down the road sometime, but it very probably won't, and there isn't really much of a reason for that except for, yep, people don't seem to want it.

And that's cool too.

[Phoenix004]

On Michael Grant's Facebook:

"OK, here's the word on an ANIMORPHS movie.  The initial report had some accurate elements, but sources at both Scholastic and Universal have assured our lawyer that there is no deal - no deal - for an ANIMORPHS movie.  Frankly, we are relieved.  I'm not going into why we're relieved, let's just say we don't want a replay of the ANIMORPHS TV series."

Disappointing, but also a relief as Michael Grant said. Nobody wants another tragedy like the TV show...

[RYTX]

He and Applegate aren't the only ones who are relieved.

You don't want any new material?

The problem is new material may not be good material. It might be new and healthy to the story, but most likely the only innovations would be the platform (film opposed to literature). Changes to content would only challenge the book canon-because they probably won't expand the universe- and while that might not be a bad thing, based on every other franchise all it would do is give fans of the different platforms something to argue about without expanding or honoring the story the being presented by either

[YeerkSalad]

He and Applegate aren't the only ones who are relieved.

You don't want any new material?

A movie just wouldn't work well. It could be a good movie, but a horrible adaptation. Read and watch "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" to see what I'm talking about.
It'd be cool to get new material, but not if that material is crap.

[SuperBlue]

to quote somebody on a different forum

I think Michael Grant bringing up the TV show was a bit unnecessary. That was a totally different time. I mean hell, Nick probably could actually do better with the show now if they cared(not that I'd want them to try again) compared to what they did then. Special effects are in a different category, CG has become so common now even in TV. Let alone a movie given how CG heavy movies can be nowadays. I mean yeah, even a trilogy would have a hard time and there'd be so much lost compared to the books but it'd be totally doable. And they could even make a solid single movie off the series. But oh well, again no surprise it's not something likely to happen.

Granted, even today, that kind of CGI would still be pushing it for a TV show. But I definitely still think a movie could have worked.

[YeerkSalad]

I think that it'd be hard even for a movie.

[SuperBlue]

It would have been even harder since a movie can't cover as much as a TV show would. But they have something a television studio doesn't. A large enough budget to at least try. We'd need a Game of Thrones or True Blood budget for an Ani TV show to work.

[NothingFromSomething]

Yeah, it's more structure and content than special effects.

I still don't think CG's at a place where it can convincingly pull off photorealistic living animals, Avatar's a stunning looking movie (and nothing's come even approaching that close since that came out in, what, 2009?  Jim's planned sequels should look pretty effin' amazing), but even that's fictional creatures.  Real animals are tougher, as he have a reference point and we know what they should look like.  Uncanny valley problem.

But moreso than that it's just like...you have to sacrifice something, whether it's a show or a movie.  The movie comes with the problem of how you condense a plot taking part in smaller little "event chunks" over 53+ books, some of that's filler but still a whole lot of it's necessary to convey the story.  And conversely, with a TV show you're sacrificing budget/visuals, putting a cap on what's possible - also the problem of if it's a network show it'll be majorly neutered, and if it's cable you're shrinking your own potential audience.

Even if you can somehow convince the suits to be lenient with the budget and let you go nuts with it, the narrative trouble still trumps that issue big-time.

[YeerkSalad]

Animated web series backed by a big company?

[Dylan]

I kinda don't want it to be animated I feel the tone wouldn't be right (Can you think of any serious cartoons...?)

[NothingFromSomething]

The 90s Batman animated series is something Katherine actually referenced personally, back in the day, regarding a possible way to go about things.

It'd still have the big censorship-clamps shackled to it though, if it were on TV like that.

Spawn on HBO back in the day would be another example, same vibe but getting away with more given the cable thing.

[Phoenix004]

CGI is the last thing I'd worry about if they made an Animorphs movie (or another TV show) these days. Sure they were bad in the 90s show, but special effects can be done well on a TV show budget now. And even if they were bad, I wouldn't care much as long as the acting and writing was good.

[tigz]

slightly diverting topic but I remember watching an episode of "Bitten" and quite liked the "morphing" effects in that though obv the wolves still look CG but when I saw it did remind me of how i hoped the animorphing would have looked like. just mentioning since we talking CG =)

[YeerkSalad]

Buffy had pretty bad werewolf morphing effects (as of season 4) but they're loads better than Animorphs.