How an Animorphs TV show should be done

[Yorick Brown]

1) An animated TV series for kids by Bruce W. Timm and Paul Dini playing on Saturday mornings on the CW or FOX or Cartoon Network.

Amber Heard as the voice of Rachel, Aaron Ashmore as the voice of Jake, Jessica Szohr as the voice of Cassie, Victor Rasuk as the voice of Marco, Hugo Weaving as the voice of Visser Three and Tony Goldwyn as the voice of Principal Chapman.

2) A much darker and teen-oriented TV series for the CW. Here, the gang is 16 rather than 13.

It's 4 seasons long tops. 45 minutes long for each 24 episodes of each of the maximum 4 seasons. Very big budget for this limited series because of expensive f/x. (IF there's a season 5, it will be set 4 years after the events of the last season.)

*Adapts all the regular books and the megamorphs books with original stories filling in the rest of the episodes in the four seasons. **Brian Henson directs the two-hour pilot which is an adaptation of "The Invasion." (Stephen Norrington could also work). Developed for television by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary.

The theme song is "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" by Fuel and "What I've Done" by Linkin Park plays at the end of the pilot. ("It Ends Tonight" by All American Rejects and "Savin' Me" by Nickelback and "From Yesterday" by 30 Seconds to Mars and "Fine Again" by Seether and "Have you passed through this night" by Explosions in the Sky are also featured on the soundtrack.)

Each of the four megamorphs books is adapted into a two-or-three parter for each one of the four seasons. "The Andalite's Gift" is a two-parter and the season 1 finale. "In the Time of Dinosaurs" as a three-parter in the middle of season 2. "Elfangor's Secret" as a three-parter for the beginning of season 3. "Back to Before" (minus the deus ex machina ending; the resolution will be completely changed) as a two-parter in the middle of season 4.

It's set in Seattle rather than Northern California but the location will only be alluded to rather than outright revealed until the final episode.

Marco is 100% Hispanic rather than only 50% Hispanic from his mother's side. Eva, his mother, dies in the series.

"The Andalite Chronicles" and "The Hork-Bajir Chronicles" (and maybe "Visser") are all adapted as straight-to-DVD movies. There will be plenty of references to the past of these characters in the TV series so know one HAS to see these films to understand what's going on in the show.

The Andalite homeworld is actually given a name rather than being unlikely referred to as 'the Andalite honeworld.' The planet is called 'Andal' now.

Hugo Weaving as the voice of Visser Three. Tony Goldwyn plays Principal Chapman.

The Yeerks don't get the morphing cube.

The Hork-Bajir are puppets, the Taxxons are CGI, the Chee are puppets and CGI, the animals are puppets trained and CGI and the Andalite's are costumed people with make-up and puppets.

Like the original TV series, you can morph clothes and shoes just fine. (The rest of the rules still apply though ie. the two-hour time limit, can't morph from one to the next, etc.)

Kind of pointless, but each episode is titled "The [something]" like the books-with the exception of the Megamorph adaptations of course.

An animorph narrates each episode but only a brief voice-over at the beginning (starting with 'My name is [insert name]') and ending of each episode ala "The Twilight Zone."

The Ellimist no longer has that covoluted origin story of before. The Ellimist will simply be a benevolent member of a type 4 alien species called Ellmists (like the Q of "Star Trek"). Same for Crayak. (Go here to learn more about type I, II, III, IV civilizations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_Scale).

Actually, I'm going to seriously downplay the two super aliens' effect influence on the Animorphs' lives. For example, in "Back to Before," there's not gonna be any of this 'stacking the deck' crap and 'subtemporarily grounded' nonsense and it'll just be a glimpse that the Ellimist shows a tired Jake, ready to quit, how important his role in the fight is.

Tobias is intially stuck as a hawk like in the books but the Ellimist later gives him his morphing power back but does NOT have to live as a hawk and only morph into a human for two hours. (You're obviously gonna have to rewrite "The Illusion" here.)

At the series finale, Applegate's pessimistic ending is gone and Rachel and Tom live and there's no cliffhanger. What's wrong with a happy ending as long as it's not sappy (ex. "Harry Potter" epilouge)?


*Hell, KA Applegate herself can jump in and offer ideas for original episodes from time to time.
**Actually, I want the Jim Henson Company and their puppets to back this show after seeing their great work on the brilliant TV space opera "Farscape" and the film "Labyrinth."

[morfowt]

I don't like it that much. the first part was fine. then you get to the part about morphing clothing and shoes...I'm gonna have to disagree with that one. I feel that the morphing should be completely same as the books.

the ellimist and crayak should remain the same. even the original show had the ellimist as he is.

tobias's hawk/human predicament should be the same as well.

what's wrong with the ending? I like it. If you don't want cliffhanger fine. we'll forget the last few chapters (even though i don't like not doing the cliffhanger).

[filmstu2005]

Actually he's right about the morphing clothes and shoes. If it was a Cartoon show it would be way too difficult and annoying to go into detail about them having to morph skintight clothing. Plus we'd have to explain that when they demorphed they would usualyl end up naked. There is a way it could work, but it wouldnt be very effective and just take up important screen time. There's just too much stuff to putt in the story and the way the morphed is not as big of a priority.

And no to CW and Fox. Have you seen their craptastic saturday morning cartoons? The horror. My little brother cant even watch that crap and he's SIX! Id prefer Cartoon Network b/c at least they're willing to go deep and dark, like with Justice League, Naruto, and other shows. Cartoon Network is the best way to go. Nickeldoean is just flat out disrespectful. The only show its treated right thus far has been Avatar The Last Airbender. But that's a real good show. Although I do hear they have an X-Men cartoon in the works. I know, on Nickelodean? Kill me now

Your ideas are decent, but Animorphs would not be easy to tell as a teen hour live action series. Way too much money. Animation is the only way to go, and if a movie live action the story has to be GOOD and COMPELLING.

But I've already mapped out the best way the stories could be told. Dont worry man. I GOT this.

[filmstu2005]

And your choice of music? Im sorry, but im not really into rock unless its Coldplay or Linkin Park. So i dont know too much about it. But alkaline metal rock and Animorphs doesn't really mix well to me. Thats like playing Animorphs beside Metallica, too much noise for my ears.

It would be interesting though if the show's theme song could be from NIN Nice is Neat (Nine Inch Nails) as a way of referencing that scene from #12.

But perhaps an original theme song would do better?

[morfowt]

I actually kind of like the theme song the original show had.

[EscafilDevice]

And your choice of music? Im sorry, but im not really into rock unless its Coldplay or Linkin Park. So i dont know too much about it. But alkaline metal rock and Animorphs doesn't really mix well to me. Thats like playing Animorphs beside Metallica, too much noise for my ears.

It would be interesting though if the show's theme song could be from NIN Nice is Neat (Nine Inch Nails) as a way of referencing that scene from #12.

But perhaps an original theme song would do better?

I second an original theme song.

Your song requests are too limiting. That type of rock is too limiting for people like filmstu who don't like metal but it's simply just annoying for people like me who listen to black metal or death metal. I'd imagine that most people would be like filmstu, so it's still a bad decision.

[Hunter]

And your choice of music? Im sorry, but im not really into rock unless its Coldplay or Linkin Park. So i dont know too much about it. But alkaline metal rock and Animorphs doesn't really mix well to me. Thats like playing Animorphs beside Metallica, too much noise for my ears.

It would be interesting though if the show's theme song could be from NIN Nice is Neat (Nine Inch Nails) as a way of referencing that scene from #12.

But perhaps an original theme song would do better?

I second an original theme song.

Your song requests are too limiting. That type of rock is too limiting for people like filmstu who don't like metal but it's simply just annoying for people like me who listen to black metal or death metal. I'd imagine that most people would be like filmstu, so it's still a bad decision.

Applaud

[Phoenix004]

You have some interesting ideas, but I have to disagree on several points.

It should NOT be animated. They should use real actors and film them instead of drawing it all. CGI can be used when necessary (eg. for alien appearances).

The clothing problem should still be in it, as that provided humour as well as a slight sense of realism.

The Ellimist and Crayak should not be part of a larger race, they should be like they were in the book.

Tobias should definitely remain a morph-capable hawk, as there was so much emotion and drama resulting from that dilemma. Also, Tobias being human would mess up several of the books (including 33 like you said).

I would never have said this 6 years ago, but you cannot change the ending of the series. I admit that I was a little disappointed originally, but with time I've come to realise that it was the best way to end the series. How else could they have ended it? "And they all lived happily ever after..."

[EscafilDevice]

CGI is expensive. Therefore, animation is more cost-effective.

[Phoenix004]

CGI is expensive. Therefore, animation is more cost-effective.

We are talking about a hypothetical situation, we can have as big a budget as we want! 

[Yorick Brown]

I liked the theme song from the first TV show too but I'm simply trying to distance myself from that show as much as possible. I'm fine with an original theme song. I just thought that "Hemorrhage" was fitting mostly because of the beat and 'In My Hands' chorus.

Whoever said that Nickelodeon sucks is absolutely right. They have ever since 2000 when everything had to get so 'extreme.' It's why I didn't bother mentioning that network.

[morfowt]

actually, the shows are good. it's just not right for animorphs, that's all. some shows, like Ned's declassified school survival guide, are really good.

[wolfev]

Look, you have to keep the ending the same simply because it makes logical sense. It was a war and people had to die especially on The Animorphs side. Plenty of series do it.
Tobias would have to stay as a Hawk because that is central to his character. Also lets assume there is a budget here just because it could give us a sense of things. I'm not sure about Puppets or cgi because there are some pretty lame puppets and some pretty lame cgi. Cartoon would be weird but I'd have to see how they do it. Doctor who works well live action and I think if you could get the guys who do that to do Animorphs it could work. Heck lets just get Josh Whedon on board.

[wolfev]

I saw farscape. I was just saying that puppets don't always work out.

[Chad32]

Here's how I would do a show.

It would either be a cartoon or computer animated. That way they don't have to build robots and train animals. Or have part live action and part computer animated.

I would also retain all the little side stunts throughout the series, instead of getting rid of them later on. Like Rachel trying to keep a guy from using catle prods on elephants, or Cassie morphing a mouse to test out a maze for a school project, or the group trying to save a litter of baby skunks. It was cute, and made the plot less dark and serious.

I would redo the episode where David returns. Instead of keeping him a mouse, I would have Crayak give him full morphing powers back, and return his normal Human form in exchange for killing Jake. So in later episodes he'd be a major enemy. He wouldn't succeed in killing Jake, though. I would also have Crayak give David the kind of morphing abilities that Crayak tempted Rachel with in one of her later books. You know, going straight from one morph into another, morphing things without having to aquire them first, and going Super David.

The Chronicles books would be special double length episodes. Each episode would be an hour long probably, and the Chronicles would be two hours. I'd also make a Crayak Chronicles to explain him better.

The ending would go out the window. I'd attempt to make the series lighter, so maybe fewer people would try to justify that kind of ending. I'd also let it be a real ending, and not name the episode "The beginning". Bad name for the last book in the series.

I would not have Cassie let Tom get away with the escafil device, and I'd give the auxilaries a better role in defeating the Yeerks. It's ok if Ax is tempted to betray his friends. I didn't like it so much, but it at least makes more sense than what Cassie did. That was just stupid of her.

I would also do something better with the Yeerk Peace Movement, and actually have Aftran join the group. She would be kept alive with the help of Eric, since I know the Chee are capable of making kondrona machines. Otherwise, the Yeerk in Eric's head would have died.

Karen would be Aftran's voluntary host for the purpose of helping both the Animorphs and the YPM.

That's about all I can think of for now. I'm not sure about the music, or what voices should be done for the characters. I might post something else later.