New books, new TV Show?

[Dameg]

It's probably the 3rd or 4th thread about that... you're repeating yourselves, guys ^^'

[Slushie Man]

Not really sure I'd like to see Animorphs as an anime. I like anime and all, but only when it fits, and I just don't see anime and Animorphs fitting together well

[NateSean]

Or just zip on over to the BBC and borrow the guys who did the walking with dinosaurs series and Primevil and bam. Animorphs.

Just for emphasis. The guys who did Walking with Dinosaurs also coughed up this gem:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZeYYyotOTk[/youtube]

If they can do this, it shouldn't be too hard to slap together some CGI sequences involving Hork-Bajir, Andalites, Taxxons, Arn, and morphing sequences. You could even get a fairly realistic battle going between two animals as they've also done this on the Discovery Channel as well.

The budget becomes an issue when the network decides the show isn't worth spitting money at. And after the last major blunder with the series, they may be a tad reluctant.

But if there's enough fan support from people like you and I, in addition to the new audiences that the re-release will bring to the table, then a newer series with all of the stops pulled out may be closer to reality than you think.

[Dogman15]

Yeah, those visuals and CG in that video really show the potential an Animorphs TV series today could have, thirteen years after the original series. Thanks for posting that!

[Andalite_Shorm]

Unless they're highly-trained animals, then they're still no use 

Let's just call in the animorphs and be like "okay morph, it'll look real. We'll have to get another rachel though...where's that blue cubey thing?"
Post Merged: February 19, 2011, 09:46:48 AM

It's a real shame that Animorphs never really took off in Japan, because we missed out on the awesomeness that would have been but never was nor will be Satoshi Kon's Animorphs.

Think about it. 

Damn it!

But, that's not possible anymore, so I submit my B-list dream team.

Art Director: Mitsuo Iso.
An up-and-coming animator-turned-director, Iso is already a master of the new medium of digital 2D animation--particularly using it to convey emotion and not just as a gee-whiz technical effect.
[spoiler]
Stills don't really capture the magic, but here's what he looks like.



[/spoiler]

Animation: Studio Madhouse. 

Music Direction/Composition: Joe Hisaishi.
Spirited Away.  Castle in the Sky.  I rest my case.

Script:  Chiaki J. Konaka.
You need someone crazy to deal with this crazy story.  And just look at this guy: he's pretty much the only non-foreigner in Japan to go around with a middle initial.  People younger than me might recognize Digimon Tamers--the crazy idea that a dumb weekend boys' cartoon could be about grief and forgiveness and include an expy of Trinity from The Matrix.  People older than me might recognize Serial Experiments Lain (the first anime to require Cliff Notes) or RahXephon (where he also worked with Iso).
 
But the biggest argument for Konaka Animorphs is that he wrote that horribly, horribly violent Shadow Star Naru Taru.  While it is one of my least favorite shows ever (ugh, I had enough of mean kids in real life), we certainly know he can make ambiguously psychopathic preteens sound believable.  And scare the piss out of you.

Series Director: Hideaki Anno
Speaking of crazy, here's the man himself, founder of the studio that gave us Gurren Lagann and whose personal brainchild is the ultimate mind-screw anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.  With Anno at the helm, morphing will be suitably gross, morals suitably gray, and fans suitably serviced.  Whilst not perfect, as long as the budget doesn't run out, someone's around to veto the most egregious panty-shots, and he doesn't decide to make a fifth version of NGE (probably our biggest hurdle) it'll probably work out. 

Would have to, 'cuz we ain't got Kon no more...

Na... no offence but when the thing's anime they get really exagerated with the whole thing. Eg: Jake had a little bt of hair sticking up on his fringe. LET'S MAKE IT A METER LONG!!! Plus they tend to go on and make extras and go over the top with secret famlie members/love etc

[Tglvg11]

First off, that video showed me how easily Animorphs could be made.... what do they think, oh technology hasn't changed in the decade since the original Animorphs. Of course it has! I don't see why they can't make a new tv series/movie. Also, have you seen the realistic aliens from Bungie? Like in the Halo games. They make pretty realistic aliens/humans and great battle/combat scenes. Morphing wouldn't be too far as they have animations of various sentient creatures turning into a sort of zombie caused by a galaxy-wide parasite (Irony?). Well I think by all means a pretty awesome Animorphs movie/tv show/video could be created.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     There have been enough discussions about the movie issue, so I'll just skip that.

     Phoenix makes a good point. The show can't work without a budget big enough to fund trained animals and such.

[Slushie Man]

have you seen the realistic aliens from Bungie? Like in the Halo games. They make pretty realistic aliens/humans

No. Just, no. Those things AREN'T realistic-looking AT ALL. They're great graphics FOR A GAME, yes, but in terms of a live-action movie or show...just hell no. They would look dreadful next to real people and real sets.

I would love to see a new TV show, but guys, realistically speaking... it's NEVER going to happen. What we got in the 90's, even by todays standards, is the best they'll ever be able to do on a television-sized budget. The reason shows like that Discovery Channel documentary that was posted above, or whatever it is, works...is because it's ONE episode. So they can afford a rather large budget for just the one episode. Also, everything looks fine when EVERYTHING is CGI, including the world that those animals inhabit. However, as soon as you start mixing those CGI creatures with real tangible, live-action sets and people, they look HORRIBLE.

[wildweathel]

Na... no offence but when the thing's anime they get really exagerated with the whole thing. Eg: Jake had a little bt of hair sticking up on his fringe. LET'S MAKE IT A METER LONG!!! Plus they tend to go on and make extras and go over the top with secret famlie members/love etc

Uh, no offence (really, this expression doesn't work), but not all animation (weastern, eastern, or otherwise) is Yu-Gi-Oh.

Sorry, that's mean and poorly argued.  Three points:

1) All art involves exaggeration, and this isn't a bad thing.  A Random Sample of Peoples' Lives Today wouldn't even make a good news show.  If Visser Three were believable, Animorphs would be really, really short.  The Chee make no sense, even less than Asimov's robots.  Inception's use of cheap emotional tricks re: intimacy, friendship, family, etc. are cheap tricks, but it's still a really good movie.  Draw With Me is powerful precisely because it takes a single aspect of human emotion and blows it way out of proportion. 

2) The American market's idea that cartoons must be cartoonish isn't an artifact of the medium.  Something like Kino's Journey or Mushi-shi or Cowboy Bebop isn't silly or cartoonish--nor do they sell here.  Those examples are sometimes exaggerated, but are serious dramas that don't resort slapstick.  Too much.  If you really want to be pure, there's nothing in the medium to prevent you from pulling a Serial-Experiments-Lain and going for Totally Incomprehensible Post-Modern Intertextuality (TM).  (I mention Japanese shows only because it's really, really, really hard to find good examples from America.  Avatar?  Gargoyles?  Batman?  Perhaps.)

3) Mind-numbing cartoonishness is possible in live action, too.  Ever seen anything by Uwe Boll or Michael Bay?  Or Nick Animorphs?

Cartooning has the huge advantage that while animals are somewhat more difficult than people, fantastic creatures are no harder than animals.  The big problems are a) stereotypes about what you can do with cartoons and b) the temptation to really cheap out and go with static talking heads.  Yes dear Virginia, you have to pay for quality animation.  No where near what you'd pay for seamless CGI-enhanced live action, but a lot more than your average daytime drama.

But, honesty, the story and tone is orthogonal to the choice of medium.  You could do a gritty and visceral radio drama or shadow-puppet adaptation of Animorphs.  You just have to keep it a dark war story, more Things They Carried than Kids Next Door.

[NateSean]

     There have been enough discussions about the movie issue, so I'll just skip that.

     Phoenix makes a good point. The show can't work without a budget big enough to fund trained animals and such.

Not that I don't adore the points Phoenix made, but I think I made a fairly good point in that if you can afford the CGI you don't need the animals at all.

[Slushie Man]

And I've already made a point AGAINST the CGI just a couple posts above.

[NateSean]

And you used the CAPS locks key a few times too.

[Slushie Man]

...ok? I fail to see what that has to do with anything...

[NateSean]

That you didn't really make a point so much as you stated that you knew for certain something would never happen.

[Slushie Man]

And then I went on to explain why...