The Very Long Hypothetical Animorphs Movie Series Post

[Aldrea Hammee]

Okay, I know that most people on here would be up for a well-done Animorphs movie. And there’s been a lot of discussion about who should be in it, how it should look, etc. This is my two cents (which turned into a very long post!) about how many movies you’d need to properly tell the story of the Animorphs universe.

Obviously you couldn’t do it all in one film, not without it being either 50 hours long or severely truncated. But you couldn’t do one movie per book either, there’s too many. What I’ve devised is a series of 13 movies that would make up the Animorphs series, along with three companion movies for TAC, HBC, and Visser. I think the right company and producers could put out one movie per year, the Twilight series has done it. And I think fans could stay interested for 13 years, the Harry Potter series has been going on since what, the late 90’s? And yet each movie opens at #1. Yeah, the actors would age, but it’s nothing new for young adult actors to play ten years younger. It’s pretty easy to make a 25 year old look 16.

The three companion movies could be released in the same year as an Animorphs movie, since the actors wouldn’t overlap and fans would get more of an instant gratification. They’d be getting two movies in some years instead of one. Finally, a book re-release could be done in tandem with a movie series! This is a no-brainer for promotion. Okay, having said all that, this is my breakdown of how I, as a hypothetical screenwriter, would break the series down into movies. Tell me what you think, since I’m not sure if this is a good idea or crap. It’s all just speculation for the fun of it.

The Invasion
Covers the events of #1, and just #1. There’s too much introduced with this first book to get into any others.

The Message
Covers mostly the events of #4, but could include a scene or two from #3 to develop Tobias’ character. #2 is omitted as filler.

The Stranger
Merges the events of #5 and #7. Could start out with Ax’s mall scene from #8 for comic relief, and we’d unfortunately have to omit #6. It’s an interesting story, but not necessary for the series as a whole. #9 is omitted as filler.

The Andalite’s Gift
This would include some elements of The Andalite’s Gift as well as #10 so we can introduce the Chee. #11 and #12 are omitted as filler. Incidentally, the other Megamorphs books will also be omitted as unnecessary.

The Change
Includes the events of #13. #14-18 are not essential to the series as a whole, so these are going to have to be passed over. #19 will be addressed later on.

The Andalite Chronicles
Released concurrently with The Change, which would work out really well since one movie is Tobias’ story and one is Elfangor’s story.

The Threat
This is #20-22, the David trilogy.

The Hork-Bajir Chronicles
This would be released concurrently with The Threat.

The Attack
Would mostly cover the events of #26, with some of what happens in #25 (to develop the Ellimist) mentioned. #27 and #28 are omitted due to lack of space and not being essential.

The Sickness
Merges the events of #19 and 29, since they both deal mainly with Cassie and Aftran.

The Illusion
Covers #33. #30 will be addressed later, and 31, 32, 34-37 are omitted as filler.

Visser
Released concurrently with The Illusion. For the movies, this will be the point at which Edriss finds out the “Andalite bandits” are not really Andalites.

The Arrival
Covers the events of #38, since we only need one “Andalites come to Earth and Ax is conflicted” story. #39-44 are omitted as filler.

The Revelation
Covers the events of #45, 49, and some of 50. 46-48 are omitted as filler. It ends with Tom stealing the morphing cube per #50, and Cassie betraying Jake.

The Answer
Merges the events of #52 and 53. #51 is omitted as filler. I would also wait until this movie to introduce the Auxiliaries, since I packed a lot into the last movie and there wouldn’t be time for them.

The Beginning
This covers #54, and only #54. What about The Ellimist Chronicles? I think this is going to become a 5-10 minute scene near the beginning of the movie, when the Ellimist stops time and talks to Rachel. I’m willing to take the risk that it’ll take the viewer out of the action for a bit, rather than do an entire movie for the Ellimist. I just think it would be too out there and weird, and wouldn’t translate well to the screen. Also! My movie version of #54 stops at the end of chapter 20 (“so it was that we climbed aboard the “Rachel“.)  The Anis still go out fighting, still go out in the spirit of the series, but we don’t get into The One and that half-begun-arc crap.

[Red]

Thirteen? Wow. I'd personally support majorly condensing it into three movies. I mean, a lot of stuff would be cut out but that's what happens in an adaption sometimes. So long as it stays loyal to the books as best it can, plotwise.

I'm not so great on individual book knowledge even though I've read 'em all, but I figure the first film is meeting Elfangor, rescuing Ax, doing the early book things. Movie 1 is about fighting for friends and family. Then the movie can end as they start to realise the scale of the invasion.

Movie two takes choice escapades from some of the better novels. Obviously no lucid viewer is going to believe that the son of Visser one, Elfangor's son (and a girl who is so talented at morphing that even the Andalites are impressed) is mere coincidence, so all of this should be explained. Movie 2 gives the audience more "behind the scenes" information on the invasion.

And well, Movie 3 is an all out war/invasion scenerio. Auxilary Animorphs, blowing stuff up, Rachel's death. How the characters are tested in the final stages of war, how they've changed.

There are things that, contraversially, could be left out of the movies. David, for example. And maybe The Chee. They only really supply information to the Animorphs which is big in the books but seems like a lot of unneccessary time wasted on screen for characters that wouldn't seem all that important to everyday cinema-goers.

So there's my butchering of the series/input into a movie franchise. I stress the word adaption!

[roguebluejay]

Your thirteen movies is pretty much the reason I think it would work better on TV. Having said this, in order to change the format of something you have to change it.

If you are a slave to the fans you just make something that pleases no one.

Personally I wouldn't mind something that takes the events of book 1, and is pretty much rewritten from there. This would keep more fans interested (IMO) and it would / could have a different ending.

I don't know, but if the rerelease was a success a movie or another show isn't totally off the table.

[Shenmue654]

I'm not sure that you should omit #6 unless you intend to entirely omit the weird relationship between Jake and Crayak. Or at least the weird enemyship. Because that's the first book where the existence of Crayak is even mentioned/foreshadowed.

A lot of the weirder things that happen in the Animorphs series really couldn't be explained without the war between Crayak and the Ellimist. Otherwise the Ellimist would look a little too godlike and Deux Ex Machina-ey.

[Aldrea Hammee]

Your thirteen movies is pretty much the reason I think it would work better on TV. Having said this, in order to change the format of something you have to change it.

If you are a slave to the fans you just make something that pleases no one.

Personally I wouldn't mind something that takes the events of book 1, and is pretty much rewritten from there. This would keep more fans interested (IMO) and it would / could have a different ending.

I don't know, but if the rerelease was a success a movie or another show isn't totally off the table.

I think a TV show with a decent budget would work well. Because, yeah, if you want to include everything important you really do need a lot of space.

I'd be totally up for a different ending, and some KASU's fixed.
Post Merged: September 23, 2010, 05:28:28 PM

I'm not sure that you should omit #6 unless you intend to entirely omit the weird relationship between Jake and Crayak. Or at least the weird enemyship. Because that's the first book where the existence of Crayak is even mentioned/foreshadowed.

A lot of the weirder things that happen in the Animorphs series really couldn't be explained without the war between Crayak and the Ellimist. Otherwise the Ellimist would look a little too godlike and Deux Ex Machina-ey.

I never said I wanted to get rid of the war between Crayak and the Ellimist. I said you don't need to see Crayak's eye at the end of #6, or tell the entire story of the Ketrans to do their characters justice. Jake could first encounter Crayak in a different way.
Post Merged: September 23, 2010, 05:35:31 PM

There are things that, contraversially, could be left out of the movies. David, for example. And maybe The Chee. They only really supply information to the Animorphs which is big in the books but seems like a lot of unneccessary time wasted on screen for characters that wouldn't seem all that important to everyday cinema-goers.

So there's my butchering of the series/input into a movie franchise. I stress the word adaption!

I could, reluctantly, let David go. But I think the Chee are necessary. Mostly because Erek's actions are critical to the events leading up to Rachel's death. You kind of can't do without him, unless we totally alter the plot and write a new ending.

[CounterInstinct]

I could, reluctantly, let David go. But I think the Chee are necessary. Mostly because Erek's actions are critical to the events leading up to Rachel's death. You kind of can't do without him, unless we totally alter the plot and write a new ending.

A lot of movies are doing this. And it only requires the ending to be changed.
David would make a fine movie tho. >_<
And we'd totally have to lose the first person perspective in the movie. Or megamorphs style.

[Aldrea Hammee]

I think first person narratives. A megamorphs style movie might be confusing to watch, because we don't have to benefit of seeing "Jake" or "Cassie" at the beginning of each chapter. I think each movie, or each episode for TV, should "belong" to a character the way certain books belong to certain characters.

[Alex Oiknine]

I agree with the person who said that condensing it into 3 movies would be fine.

Frankly, I'd rather see a well-done TV series. Not like the Nickelodeon one.

Warning... Long post. Long, long post.
[spoiler]
Plus, no one would agree on what should be cut and what shouldn't. For instance, I think #1 and #4 can kind of be merged (with most of #4 cut but they do get to and rescue Ax). The whole #4 and the whole #1 are kind of unnecessary to the points getting across, and if we're cutting books there's no way the rescue of Ax cannot be happening simultaneously to their discoveries about the world around them (and they're around the beach at some point in #1, too, so being by the beach more to rescue Ax could be worked in relatively flawlessly, at least letting go of keeping it 100% true to the series.)

#5 and #6 could be merged with effort with #7 (I mean, good grief, Ellimist asks, they say no and destroy the Kandrona. It's not a plot fit for a whole movie. It wasn't even a plot for a whole book, IMO.), and frankly? All that's really needed from that story is a) they met the Ellimist and b) they destroyed the Kandrona, because it relates to book #8.


Moving on from that, 13 movies, even made-for-cable movies, would be unreasonable. I mean, Harry Potter's getting 8 but let's face it - Harry Potter was way more popular as a series than Animorphs will ever be, even if we have a hugely loyal fanbase, plus it's an older series we have to hope can be revived still at this point.

So let's see, if I was going to divide it into 8 movies, it would probably be:

#1, 3, 4 - combined together. Details would have to be changed, but some major developments across the board would happen, and #1 and #4 could very easily be streamed in together in particular. #3 I just like that they manage to deal a blow to the Yeerks (the supply craft) and I think that would work really well for making people get into it as a 'hey, the underdogs are winning!' type of thing. #4 can be streamed in as sort of a closing thing, where we leave off for another movie.

#5, 6, 7. The first two are pretty important. Rachel's? I love Rachel, but like I've said in the past, her plots suck. #6 IMO isn't filler, #7 is because the whole dang thing could have been explained in a paragraph or less. (Literally: The Ellimist was a powerful being who offered us an alternative to fighting, but we said no. However, he gave us the opportunity we needed to destroy the Kandrona. BTW, this gets even MORE useless if we don't include #8 since the effects of destroying the Kandrona will never be seen or felt. Which means really we just need to explain that the Ellimist exists somewhere, which ignoring #8 can wait until whatever next book he shows up in. Except wait. Do we really need the Iskoort either? Come to think of it, we could probably get away with a Elfangor-to-Tobias flashback letter to explain the Ellimist. Obviously doing the whole Andalite Chronicle piece wouldn't be easy from the perspective of making a movie.)

Marco finds out his mom's Visser One and they all get hijacked. Jake gets infested (where he gets infested would probably have to change, but heck, we don't have time to put in all the books anyway... And it could easily be done because they end up being taken by the Yeerks. I don't like tweaking books but let's face it - that's not the worst tweak that could be done when it comes to needing to combine books.) Frankly, if really necessary we could fit in

#10 and #19. The stories could be combined. I know that sounds weird, but again, it could be worked in because they fight at a Sharing meeting, Erek's in the woods, Cassie gets lost further down the woods. It could be done. Plus, the YPM is pretty important from the standpoint of there not being all good sides and bad sides to a war.

#20, 21, 22 - Yep, good movie plan. Easily a movie. I wonder if #23 could somehow become the background story for that main conflict. I hate the idea, but there's really no easy way to otherwise get #23 in there. All the books around it suck either in plot or (more problematically) in the ability to really seamlessly fit in with each other.

#23 and #29???? Actually, they could fit with each other. Tobias was the last one to get sick. It could be kind of the 'thing' that happens after he finds out and Cassie has to go rescue Aftran. Though it kills me inside to be blending books together like this.

The Reunion and The Proposal work well together, I believe. #33 is important to Tobias's development, I agree there, but where to fit it? Maybe a cliffhanger from there for the next movie?

45, 46, 49 can be merged. They all have to do with the end of the war drawing nearer and nearer, the families having to go into hiding, and some of Ax's deceptions.

I think a lot of the last books can be merged into a sort of battle/complications with the Andalites, etc. The ending that worked for the book series will not work for a movie. (Though many of us agree it didn't work for the book series...) You need enough of #54 to know that Rachel died, lots of people died, it was tragic and terrible and Visser One was captured and the Andalites didn't incinerate the planet. Some evidence of the aftermath to everyone's psyche? I'm sure it could be managed, probably if a Cassie narration took up. Going two years into the future, another year into the future, and then into another battle where the story just ends would be ridiculous.

Megamorphs (as much as I love #4) and Chronicles would be very hard to work seamlessly into the stories. Don't get me wrong, I love them. But:

1. The Andalite Chronicles - would not work well as a movie, IMO.  If this was a long-running TV show, maybe, because the fan-base would already get what was going on and wouldn't be perturbed by the overwhelming amount of aliens - only two of the cast otherwise would be human. For the majority of the story. Not great likeliness for success there.

2. IDK why we'd talk about The Andalite's Gift. I thought that whole megamorphs was filler. Elfangor's Secret not so much, but still kind of unnecessary if we're going to skip any story where that might have been relevant for the most part. I love #2 and #4, but for movies they would not work in seamlessly.

3. Visser Chronicles would be awesome, and I'd love to focus on them, but they have the same problem as TAC being made into a movie. Possible success if one is already familiar with everything - very familiar. Not so much otherwise. Basically, IMO you're better off sticking with the *regular* books.

[/spoiler]

A movie would be most awesome, certainly, but I think a good, animated TV show would be great. (You can include more of the story, for one thing. But also it just seems more viable than sticking a movie out and going "BEHOLD.") And then a few of the Megamorphs/Chronicles could become full-length movies later for the TV show fans and get tons of cult popularity.

I'm not saying that it's the way for the thing to go (this is why directors can't listen to fans, lol) but if anything it goes to show you no two fans will agree on what should be represented or why XD

There are definitely problems with trying to listen to fan base oriented people on this one XD The wise people would probably be Grant/Applegate if a company seriously considered it.

[Myitt]

In a perfect scenario that will never happen, I'd love to see the series on something like HBO, with the filler books cut down or cut out to focus on the main plot.  But, then it'll alienate all the kids who can't watch other kids ripping throats out with their wolf mouths, even though they can read about it just fine -_-

[CounterInstinct]

I think first person narratives. A megamorphs style movie might be confusing to watch, because we don't have to benefit of seeing "Jake" or "Cassie" at the beginning of each chapter. I think each movie, or each episode for TV, should "belong" to a character the way certain books belong to certain characters.

I know, a first person perspective would be better by a mile, but it would take up too much space. For example, the Visser One scenes couldn't just take up two movies, right?

[NothlitlovesDak]

I LOVE both ideas, whether 3 movies or 13 spread out over a decade, as long as they are made, and made well.

[Terenia]

I'm not sure I could give up David, personally. Not because I particularly like David himself (the twerp...), but because it is through his story arc that each of the characters realize exactly how far they are willing to go for this war. It is a major turning point as far as their characters are concerned. So while I'd be willing to somewhat change his story - condense it, maybe - I would not get rid of it entirely.

One possibility would be having David there from the beginning and, near the end of the first or second movie (I'm looking at the three-movie split, not the thirteen) have him betray them and them trap him in morph, which would effectively move the plot from something more lighthearted to something much darker and all-encompassing.

[songofsuzanna]

I agree that if you wanted to include a lot, you would have to do a TV series.  It can take a year for a film to be shot, edited, and produced.  Look at the problem with the Harry Potter series.  There are going to be 8 movies (because 7 was split into two) and a lot of people were worried that the actors would look too old by the time they got to the ending.  Not to mention that the actors are more than ready to move on.

However, if you do three or maybe even four movies (maybe each 2 hrs long), that's more feasible.  There are going to be story lines dropped, truncated, and/or simply not addressed, though.  The screenwriters adapting the books would have to choose which story lines to include and as can be seen in this post, it's a controversial topic.  They would have to tell a story that's true to the series but which also isn't full of filler and extra stuff the viewer doesn't absolutely have to know to understand what's going on.

And I promise you a majority of viewers will not like how the series ends.  I think if they ever did this on TV or in movies, they would either change the end, stop with the Animorphs still on Earth, or fast forward a century to a teacher talking about the Animorphs and some kid in the class raising his hand and asking, "Then what happened?  After they won?"  Or something like that.

Just my two cents and I'm sorry if I've repeated what others have said already.