If you were making an Animorphs TV show...

[Bealocwealm]

What would be the top 5 things you'd do? (Conversation starters -- would you try to maintain the air of 'secret narration', would you switch viewpoints more often as in the Megamorphs books, would you do animated or live action, how would you visually represent characters such as the Ellimist, Drode, or Krayak...)

What would be the top 5 things you'd want to cut or change from the books?

Would you introduce new plots to replace any cut material, or to give fans of the books some new surprises?

Do you have any particular people in mind you'd like to cast?

How long would the show be -- half-hour or an hour? (This is counting commercials; in the US at least, a half-hour show is usually closer to 25 minutes, and an hour show is closer to 50. An example of a half-hour show with as much action is Avatar: TLA. Examples of hour shows with similar amounts of action are Buffy and Star Trek.)

DISCUSSSSS

[Bealocwealm]

OK well I'll contribute my ideas...

What would be the top 5 things you'd want to cut or change from the books?

1. Helmacrons. And all similarly 'well that was ok/good, but silly' things like the Nartec and the Starfish Incident and the Andalite Toilet. They're just a little too high on camp value for a story about child soldiers. Now, both the Helmacrons and the Nartec gave us some fantastic visuals, things we might like to see in a TV show. It's not inconceivable, however, that one couldn't find a way to work some of those visuals back in.

2. Plots that went NOWHERE. This doesn't mean I'd cut every plot that went nowhere; I'd make them go somewhere, if possible. Like remember when we had reason to be concerned that maybe the Yeerks might have been able to mess with things just a tiny bit on the Andalite homeworld? I would at least make an EMOTIONAL journey of it -- for instance Ax jumping to that conclusion due to his close involvement with the situation, his emotions running high, and only after he does something foolish does he realize that Visser Three has morphs from the Andalite Homeworld because he has the body of an Andalite. An easy conclusion; but not one he was level-headed enough to make when he should have, with the death of his brother and all. It gives Ax a chance to fail a little and make bad mistakes, something that he didn't do a lot, compared to the rest.

3. Visser Three. The further Visser Three stays away, the more of a threat he seems. As an indirect influence, he's more powerful than he is as the Visser Three who is Always Right There. There's only so many times you can temporarily beat or evade him before he stops looking like a threat. Keep him for the BIG moments in Book One, and maybe find another Boss for some of the early books (Chapman? Then Melissa would remain a character!) I LOVED the Visser Three we saw in the Andalite Chronicles and the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, and some of the later books, and even to an extent in Visser. I loved that he was obsessive about Andalites. I loved that he was clever, but it would be his obsession which blinded him in many cases. I loved that he could be subtle. I loved that he wasn't easily defeated. I want more of that Visser Three.

4. A recurring element of the books was the PTSD-related nightmares all the characters had. I love dream sequences in TV, and I love the idea that even at rest, the Animorphs just don't get a break. I think a lot of the weirder, rule-breakinger ideas could be shown in brief dream sequences -- I'm one of those madpeople who actually LIKED elements of the buffahuman book, but it broke rules too much. But the Buffahuman makes fantastic nightmare material! Ditto the idea of being shrunk down to a miniscule size; ditto some of the visuals with the Nartec; maybe even some of the Starfish things could work their way in there.

5. The end. Of course. I'd keep the majority of things, but not the stuff with The One and all that. I think I might have it actually end with Marco and Cassie forcing Jake to try and heal a little by making him morph dolphin like in the books. And I just couldn't drop a bridge unceremoniously on the Auxilliary Animorphs. One or two of them would survive, and HATE the surviving original Animorphs for trying to just sacrifice them like that. I'm sorry, I feel like they only died because K.A. needed a body count but couldn't have Anybody die; so she just wiped out a ton of people in one go rather than kill any 'main characters'.

Would you introduce new plots to replace any cut material, or to give fans of the books some new surprises?

Honestly I'd like to now and then, but mostly I'd stick to book-related stuff. As I said I really like the nightmare element, and I might have a whole episode dealing with that. One thing I realized is that it's basically impossible to work the "we can't tell you who we are" etc element into a TV show where you're showing their faces, their lives, their enemies, their battles, etc. So it might be interesting to have an episode where they try to write journals of what's happening to them, but eventually of course have to destroy these journals.

Do you have any particular people in mind you'd like to cast?

Not really. I do know a guy who I think would make a fantastic Jake.

How long would the show be -- half-hour or an hour?

I really love hour-long shows. The time allows you to get a good balance of action and rest, emotion and motion. I think Dexter, LOST, Sherlock (hour and a half technically), Star Trek, etc. At the same time, hour-long shows discourage a younger audience, which would be a big theoretical problem with this show -- you can describe immense gory violence in print and publish it for a younger audience, but when you put it on screen, it's not appropriate. Even better, longer shows at least in America are generally run on cable or subscription channels, at night, and thus avoid the watershed problem we saw on Sherlock a couple weeks back (there was a big fuss over them showing a naked woman on TV before the watershed).

Originally I'd thought an animated show, in a Serious Anime style, would be ideal. However, if I were being practical about getting this produced, and watched? It really wouldn't be. Thanks, poparena, for explaining this!

[Chad32]

1) Visser Three wouldn't show up nearly as often. It would be some other guy in charge of most of the foot work, and when s/he failed Visser Three would kill and replace with someone else. The main thing this would do would be to preserve V3's threat level, and add tension as Tom's Yeerk steadily worked up the ranks. Eventually he'd be put in charge, and Jake would have to risk rescuing him or let V3 kill him.

2) Make David a recurring villain. I'd leave what Cassie did, but also have her called out on it and suffer more for it. Come book 27 when the howlers are gone, Crayak brings David back for revenge, and brings him back in a humanoid form that's more dangerous, but also prevents him from blending back in with society. Basically make him kind of a freak, and he'd fight the Anis and Yeerks.

3) Get the Chee, Free Horks, and YPM more involved. Have the Chee start covering for the Anis starting with the mission in book 10, and have them do more stuff. The Free Horks could help the Anis fight. the Chee could make a sanctuary for the YPM, and they could help infiltrate and gain information, as well as giving Yeerks a way to get out from under the government's thumb.

4) Change the ending, and general tone of the series to reflect the theme of hope more than the theme of war being hell. Sure it would still be a dark series, but either main characters would die occasionally through the series, or they wouldn't die (or stay dead) at all. One or the other. Not to mention give the Anis a better ending and not introduce any new villains right at the end.

5) As far as the auxiliaries go, it kind of depends on whether or not I have characters die more often or not. If I do, then obviously replacements will need to be recruited. If I don't, I'm not sure. I know I'd have Eva join, and probably not even have Loren come back (or at least treat her as a character instead of a plot device). I wouldn't have them be recruited the same way. I'd use the Chee to help recruit if I did it.

My episodes would either be an hour long, or have a lot of two parters. Whichever one works better. Avatar did very well with half hour episodes, so I guess just half an hour without a ton of "to be continue" could work.

[XtheoniongirlX]

OK well I'll contribute my ideas...

What would be the top 5 things you'd want to cut or change from the books?

1. Helmacrons. And all similarly 'well that was ok/good, but silly' things like the Nartec and the Starfish Incident and the Andalite Toilet. They're just a little too high on camp value for a story about child soldiers. Now, both the Helmacrons and the Nartec gave us some fantastic visuals, things we might like to see in a TV show. It's not inconceivable, however, that one couldn't find a way to work some of those visuals back in.

2. Plots that went NOWHERE. This doesn't mean I'd cut every plot that went nowhere; I'd make them go somewhere, if possible. Like remember when we had reason to be concerned that maybe the Yeerks might have been able to mess with things just a tiny bit on the Andalite homeworld? I would at least make an EMOTIONAL journey of it -- for instance Ax jumping to that conclusion due to his close involvement with the situation, his emotions running high, and only after he does something foolish does he realize that Visser Three has morphs from the Andalite Homeworld because he has the body of an Andalite. An easy conclusion; but not one he was level-headed enough to make when he should have, with the death of his brother and all. It gives Ax a chance to fail a little and make bad mistakes, something that he didn't do a lot, compared to the rest.

3. Visser Three. The further Visser Three stays away, the more of a threat he seems. As an indirect influence, he's more powerful than he is as the Visser Three who is Always Right There. There's only so many times you can temporarily beat or evade him before he stops looking like a threat. Keep him for the BIG moments in Book One, and maybe find another Boss for some of the early books (Chapman? Then Melissa would remain a character!) I LOVED the Visser Three we saw in the Andalite Chronicles and the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, and some of the later books, and even to an extent in Visser. I loved that he was obsessive about Andalites. I loved that he was clever, but it would be his obsession which blinded him in many cases. I loved that he could be subtle. I loved that he wasn't easily defeated. I want more of that Visser Three.

4. A recurring element of the books was the PTSD-related nightmares all the characters had. I love dream sequences in TV, and I love the idea that even at rest, the Animorphs just don't get a break. I think a lot of the weirder, rule-breakinger ideas could be shown in brief dream sequences -- I'm one of those madpeople who actually LIKED elements of the buffahuman book, but it broke rules too much. But the Buffahuman makes fantastic nightmare material! Ditto the idea of being shrunk down to a miniscule size; ditto some of the visuals with the Nartec; maybe even some of the Starfish things could work their way in there.

5. The end. Of course. I'd keep the majority of things, but not the stuff with The One and all that. I think I might have it actually end with Marco and Cassie forcing Jake to try and heal a little by making him morph dolphin like in the books. And I just couldn't drop a bridge unceremoniously on the Auxilliary Animorphs. One or two of them would survive, and HATE the surviving original Animorphs for trying to just sacrifice them like that. I'm sorry, I feel like they only died because K.A. needed a body count but couldn't have Anybody die; so she just wiped out a ton of people in one go rather than kill any 'main characters'.

Would you introduce new plots to replace any cut material, or to give fans of the books some new surprises?

Honestly I'd like to now and then, but mostly I'd stick to book-related stuff. As I said I really like the nightmare element, and I might have a whole episode dealing with that. One thing I realized is that it's basically impossible to work the "we can't tell you who we are" etc element into a TV show where you're showing their faces, their lives, their enemies, their battles, etc. So it might be interesting to have an episode where they try to write journals of what's happening to them, but eventually of course have to destroy these journals.

Do you have any particular people in mind you'd like to cast?

Not really. I do know a guy who I think would make a fantastic Jake.

How long would the show be -- half-hour or an hour?

I really love hour-long shows. The time allows you to get a good balance of action and rest, emotion and motion. I think Dexter, LOST, Sherlock (hour and a half technically), Star Trek, etc. At the same time, hour-long shows discourage a younger audience, which would be a big theoretical problem with this show -- you can describe immense gory violence in print and publish it for a younger audience, but when you put it on screen, it's not appropriate. Even better, longer shows at least in America are generally run on cable or subscription channels, at night, and thus avoid the watershed problem we saw on Sherlock a couple weeks back (there was a big fuss over them showing a naked woman on TV before the watershed).

Originally I'd thought an animated show, in a Serious Anime style, would be ideal. However, if I were being practical about getting this produced, and watched? It really wouldn't be. Thanks, poparena, for explaining this!

Get out of my head D: Are you me? I pretty much agree with everything you said. Although I'd still consider sticking with the Serious Anime idea, because production costs would be ridiculously high if you're not to take shortcuts. It might be doable on HBO though, but with a subscription channel it might be harder to get as many younger viewers.

Assuming each episode covers a book and we cut out a few of the fillers/horribly-written books we could get a good 4 seasons out of the series if we go with the ~13 episodes a season format.

It's true that the whole secrecy angle won't work in television, but I'd love for them to have internal monologues during their central episodes.

[Bealocwealm]

Get out of my head D: Are you me? I pretty much agree with everything you said. Although I'd still consider sticking with the Serious Anime idea, because production costs would be ridiculously high if you're not to take shortcuts. It might be doable on HBO though, but with a subscription channel it might be harder to get as many younger viewers.

Assuming each episode covers a book and we cut out a few of the fillers/horribly-written books we could get a good 4 seasons out of the series if we go with the ~13 episodes a season format.

It's true that the whole secrecy angle won't work in television, but I'd love for them to have internal monologues during their central episodes.

See, I'd assumed it'd be much cheaper to do an anime, too! But I learned from Poparena's videos that a show like Avatar: TLA costs about a MILLION PER EPISODE. And that while the start-up costs of an Animorphs live action show would indeed be quite high, if you actually MAKE the props and set and costume elements, you don't have to pay for them the second, third, fourth, fifth, or fifteenth time you use them. Whereas you have to account for every element in an animated show, every time it is in there. Obviously some elements (morphing effects) would be like that in a live action show, but it wouldn't be nearly as bad in the long-run (even a single season would be cheaper than an animated version).

[XtheoniongirlX]

Get out of my head D: Are you me? I pretty much agree with everything you said. Although I'd still consider sticking with the Serious Anime idea, because production costs would be ridiculously high if you're not to take shortcuts. It might be doable on HBO though, but with a subscription channel it might be harder to get as many younger viewers.

Assuming each episode covers a book and we cut out a few of the fillers/horribly-written books we could get a good 4 seasons out of the series if we go with the ~13 episodes a season format.

It's true that the whole secrecy angle won't work in television, but I'd love for them to have internal monologues during their central episodes.

See, I'd assumed it'd be much cheaper to do an anime, too! But I learned from Poparena's videos that a show like Avatar: TLA costs about a MILLION PER EPISODE. And that while the start-up costs of an Animorphs live action show would indeed be quite high, if you actually MAKE the props and set and costume elements, you don't have to pay for them the second, third, fourth, fifth, or fifteenth time you use them. Whereas you have to account for every element in an animated show, every time it is in there. Obviously some elements (morphing effects) would be like that in a live action show, but it wouldn't be nearly as bad in the long-run (even a single season would be cheaper than an animated version).

Damn, you've legitimately made me reconsider seeing an anime production as the only possible solution. Granted I've never truly known much about production costs in an animated series, so thank you for the enlightenment!

[NateSean]

This discussion has occurred so many times that I'm just going to copy and paste the post I made in one of the previous ones. I do have some thoughts to add to the current discussion, however, so before you read the quoted post below, my main influences here are The Vampire Diaries. A series with continuity that managed to tell the story very well and cram a lifetime's worth of story into a year long season.

Now, I would like to suggest that you not dismiss the "childish" angles so quickly. The bit about the Andalite toilet for example, could offer a bit of a break from the otherwise dark nature of the story. Remember, even the X-files had the occasional funny episode and that ran for ten years.

Yes, Animorphs is a dark story, but it's still aimed at preteens and young adults. Avatar struck a fine balance between the many themes and the stories of each unique character and I think a newer attempt at the AniTV series could do the same.

Also, on the subject of an animated feature costing millions of dollars, you have to take all of the expenses into account. First of first off is getting the studio space. The animators need their space and this would presumably be a mix of computer animation as well as handdrawn art work, all of which would require money for the materials, the workspaces, the artists' salaries and the power requirements needed for the computers that will be handling the computer animation. Oh and the IT for tech support should something go wrong. And the backup computers should something completely fry.

Then there's the voice actors. You need to pay them for their time, plus the materials and equipment needed to print their scripts and record their voices. Recording studios aren't cheap either, especially if you assume that it will not be in the same building as where all of the animation is taking place.

Then there's the legal stuff. Oh boy is there legal stuff to worry about. How much money do you think you need to pay lawyers to make sure you don't get taken to the cleaners when some idiot sues you because you "stole" their idea.

That's just all of the aspects of creating one half hour animated episode. So yeah, I could see where an animated series would get expensive after awhile.

Personally, I think the guys over at BBC who handle the animation for Primevil, Doctor Who and any BBC series that involves monsters would be the goto people for the morphing sequences and the aliens. But that also depends on what studio gets the rights to produce a new Animorphs series, if it every came about.

               Here is my ideal first season for this series:

     1) The Invasion
     2) The Visitor
     3) The Encounter
     4) The Message
     5) The Predator
     6) The Capture
     7) The Stranger
      The Alien
     9) The Secret
    10) The Android
    11) The Forgotten
    12) The Reaction
    13) The Change

Agreed. Only to keep the series from being episodic (as in a reset button at the end of every episode), certain events should overlap. For example, during the first three "episodes", we should continuously flash to Ax every now and again so that in book four the viewing audience is sympathetic towards his cause. Sort of like how Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we kept getting glimpses of Angel in season One, up until we finally learned his true backstory and how he would fit into the universe from then on out.   


           

    Anyways...Because it's difficult to plan out the second season, we'll leave the layout this way:

     14) The Unknown
     15) The Escape
     16) The Warning
     17) The Underground
     18) The Decision
     19) The Departure
     20) The Discovery
     21) The Threat
     22) The Solution
     23) The Pretender
     24) The Suspicion
     25) The Extreme
     26) The Attack

Agreed again, however, I disagree about the Cassie bit. Weak season openings aren’t unusual, but with some careful planning you could make “The Unknown” more ambiguous. I mean, for all we know, David didn’t start school the very day before he found the blue box. He may very well have begun class on the day the Animorphs go out to find Zone whatever.

So as Cassie and company are out in the fields of horses, David’s family moves in. Viewers don’t know who he is yet, but we readers of the series will be familiar with him. Chapman, who is in charge of the Sharing and the default second-in-command, is laying the groundwork for the plan to infest the foreign diplomats and we see Erek and a few other Androids listening in on this. And that’s “The Unknown”, because the Unknown isn’t just the alien space toilet, but the threat that David poses will also be Unknown, as well as which of the diplomats is actually controlled by a Yeerk. (On a side note, if I’ve heard the word “yeerked” at any point during this series run I will hunt down the writers responsible and tack their eyeballs to a tree)

Animorphs 27: The Exposed
     Animorphs 28: The Experiment
     Animorphs 29: The Sickness
     Animorphs 30: The Reunion
     Animorphs 31: The Conspiracy
     Animorphs 32: The Separation
     Animorphs 33: The Illusion
     Animorphs 34: The Prophecy
     Animorphs 35: The Proposal
     Animorphs 36: The Mutation
     Animorphs 37: The Weakness
     Animorphs 38: The Arrival
     Animorphs 39: The Hidden

Here I would recommend overlapping the events of The Experiment with the Sickness. Maybe imply that whatever experiment Ax was exposed to while in monkey morph was what lead to his sickness. Whatever the Yeerks were doing could have been the reason he got ill and why it spread to the humans, who were the intended target of the experiment to “numb” human free will.

[poparena]

I plan to make a "How to Do an Animorphs Show Right" video when I conclude my review series on the show, but I suppose I can offer a preview:

1) Don't worry about making things "1 book = 1 episode." Don't be afraid to stretch things out or combine stories for the sake of a proper dramatic pace. Personally, I'd combine books one and two and stretch them out as the first four episodes, have episode one conclude with Tobias showing off his powers to Jake, have episode two be the Animorphs trying to figure things out and learning Chapman is a controller, episode three be Rachel morphing cat and sneaking into Chapman's (this being how they learn about the Yeerk Pool instead of the "Tobias-got-a-bunch-of-info-dumped-into-his-head" thing that was only mentioned in the first book) and have the fourth episode be the Animorphs delving into the Yeerk Pool and learning the true scope of the threat. Build up to reveals, hold tension, strike at the right time. Think of things in terms of its own TV show, not "the books as a TV show."

2) Know your history. The first episode of Animorphs should be the middle of the story, there should be hints to a greater picture that viewers may not pick up at first viewing. A subtle example would be, say, a movie poster or two of films starring Jenny Lines hanging around Marco's apartment, and having Marco's Dad comment on how he "could never see what your mother saw in that actress, all her films were crap." Another idea is a character commenting on how unusual it was for Construction Company A1 to suddenly abandon the construction project near the mall, and then later we see Construction Company A1-brand equipment in the Yeerk Pool, implying the reason the construction site was never finished was because the Yeerks took over the company in order to build the Yeerk Pools. Get the audience involved by seeing the same things the Animorphs see, have them solve the mysteries alongside the protagonists, and build a sense of history. (On that note, never cut to Yeerk Labs where Visser Three and Doctor Weenie are planning their next diabolical scheme. Never give the game up like that).

3) Story arches, character arches, arches arched arches. We all love them, and any Animorphs show should embrace them. The story of David shouldn't be a trilogy, it should be an entire season (You could insert David into #19, #24 and #25 would minimal fuss). Cassie's encounter with the termite queen should shake her for at least a few episodes. Keep the battle for the Leerans, the Yeerk conspiracy on the Andalite homeworld, and the Ellimist/Crayak game largely in the peripheral, but always present and moving forward. Don't drop semi-major characters like Melissa Chapman and Joe Bob Fenestre without a good reason. This is part of the show's flow, gives it a proper organic feel, crucial if you want the audience to take things seriously.

4) Emphasize failure, pain and death. The Animorphs should lose more than they succeed, and should succeed through happy accidents more than through their own plans. Make the story a struggle, make it a war. Make every death on both sides be felt, don't have cannon fodder characters. The deaths of Taxxons and Hork-Bajir should be as brutal as they would be in real life. Emphasize the nightmares the characters have, emphasize how empty inside they're getting. Never end an episode on a smile, not a real smile, anyway. A half-hearted smile, a lying smile, a sad smile, but not genuine happiness. Animorphs is largely about violence, grey morality, war, slavery and the loss of innocence.

5) No lassos.

[Chad32]

I can agree with having them lose more than they sicceed, since they're outnumbered and outgunned, but they need to have some times where they feel like they're making progress. Always ending episodes on a bad note, to some extent or another, would be bad. This isn't a horror genre series. It's a dark adventure series. Maybe if it was marketed towards adults, and had adults as the main characters, I think that might work better.

Oh, and I think it's arcs. Not arches. They are excellent, though. I like the idea of bulding things up more before the kids meet Elfangor.

[Noelle]

Wow, I definitely didn't know that animes cost that much, I was definitely in the "make animorphs an anime" camp.  Learn something new everyday.

I can only really think of one thing I'd change right now.


1)CONTINUITY!  If you mention that there are yeerks messing around on the Andalite homeworld...don't act like it was never even brought up and never mention it again.  That's the only example I can think of right now, but towards the end it felt like all the ghost written books were just a bunch of fan fics written by different authors.  They didn't flow, sometimes they didn't even take into account what happened in other books.


Edit: I wonder how much it would cost to make a really high quality CGI movie, like the Final Fantasy movies?  I think that would be a good option too.

[Ginkasa]

I was actually thinking about this a few months ago while reading the series again for the first time in a decade.  A lot of the things that have been brought are pretty true.  I think a TV show would definitely have the benefit of knowing what's coming up so the producers/writers could easily integrate more foreshadowing and a greater sense of cohesiveness with the series as a whole.  However, I think you'd have to be careful and not change too much.  I think that's a trap that Nick show fell into; it was almost unrecognizable in places.

One thing I do think people forget when thinking about a theoretical show is the violence.  Animorphs is two things:

1) A children's series
2) Really violent

It can get away with these seemingly incompatible things because its a book series that can "depict" a whole lot more than what can typically be shown in a more visual format.  When adapting something like this the question becomes: how important is the violence compared to the targeted age group?  Most production companies would go with the pre-existing 13 and and under demographic and nix the violence (you can't just lop off a bear's arm in a children's show).  I think, taken on its own, it would be best to keep the violence.  Not for its own sake, mind you, but because I feel it really sets the tone of the series.  This is a series where there are real and serious consequences of war.

However, I think the inclusion of the violence would mean the series would have to be "aged up" a little bit.  Rather than being a children's show it would have to become a teenage show.  Because of this, I think the characters would need to be aged a couple of years from thirteen and going through jr. high to fifteen and going through high school.  It would hardly change anything in the actual series (updating it to modern technology poses a larger issue), but the perception from viewers would be drastically different.  There's just something about high school kids doing important things that is easier to swallow than jr. high kids (even if you're only talking a two year age difference, like we are).

I also think it should be animated.  Someone above brought up that animation is expensive, but I don't think so comparative to doing a live-action show.  It wouldn't be cheap, but you'd be able to a lot more on a smaller budget with an animated show in regards to the aliens and space ships and set pieces.  That's another failure of the Nickelodeon shown; it just couldn't handle the scope of the series with a live-action budget.  Avatar a few years later showed what can be done with animation.  It also a little more believable, for some reason, to see "kids" doing amazing things in animation.

As stated above, the series wouldn't have to be a book = an episode.  Unless, however, we're wanting to do a metagame where write develop and script actual "episode," I think worrying about that is a little too intense.  With the assumption, then, that the show would at least follow the basic structure the books laid out I think the seasons should be as such:

Season 1: #1 - Megamorphs #2

These stories, I think, are a little simpler and a little more accessible compared to later books.  I think they would work really well as an introductory season.  Most episodes would be fairly self-contained.  Ending it at Megamorphs #2 allows the first season to end on a larger note (no pun intended) than most of the episodes, but still keep that sort of "for fun's sake" tone that the series typically had at this point.

Season 2: #19 - #35

We're starting off a little slow, I know, but I think that's okay.  The Departure follows up well with Cassie's feelings towards Megamorphs #2 and starts steering the series to more serious, philosophical tone than it was last season, so I think it works.  Besides, we jump right into David right after (and then ram into the Hork-Bajir Chronicles after that) so I think it works pretty well.  This season as a whole would be much more serious than the previous (although, of course, there are some humor based episodes [Helmacrons!]) and really starts to show the Animorphs starting to buckle under the stress of the war.  We end, of course, on a really great cliffhanger as Visser One calls Marco at the end of #35.  The Proposal wasn't my favorite book for a number of reason, but I think that cliffhanger would really kill at the end of a TV season.

Season 3: Visser - #54

We would pick up, obviously, with what was going on regarding the call from last season.  It leads in well from that cliffhanger and sets the tone, really, for this final season.  Marco and his mom are really the ones that catapult the series to it conclusion starting with #45, so I think its appropriate the final season starts here at Visser.  The only downside, IMO, is that the first "real" episode would be #36, The Mutation, which is the only book that I found no redeeming qualities in.  It sucks and feels completely separate from the series as a whole.  Honestly, I would come up with something different for that episode.  Otherwise, I think it keeps a pretty good momentum from start to finish.


Anyway, those are my thoughts.

[Blazing Angel]

Origin episodes for Chee.

Visser Three would appear less often, so that when he does show up he has the "Darth Vader" affect so that simply walking into a room on the rare occasion causes you to hold your breath in tension.

They would have done the auxillary animorphs earlier, and they would have died earlier. Genuine angst from actual deaths.

More of the Leeran homeworld.

The andalite and hork bjair chronicles would be entire TV movies, but if I can, hork Bjair would make into theatres.

It would definitely be based in the 90's.

They would have found somethin deeper than an andalite toilet. The comedy, and appeal of horses is too good to pass up. I think a minor andalite ship that can only be flown with thought speak controls.

David would seem a lot less insane. I would keep the trilogy but it would look like he wasn't a sociopath before them. His cat would be named something innocent. His snake would only be something midly sinister. He wouldn't kills crows for fun. The stress of being an animorph is what would have driven him to it on top of the loss.


Their would be an ongoing "Marco can not drive" joke.

They would have at least attempted to get the yeerk out of Tom.


Basically, I fill in plot holes, remove ridiculousness, and add in fan service.

[Chad32]

I'm not really sure if it would be better to tone down the violence, or raise the age demographic, but those are really the only choices. No one if going to make a TV show targeted for children thta does that stuff. Just making it Y17 or something would probably be better, especially if you want to remain as true as possible to the source material. not that I wouldn't watch a toned down version that actually had fights, good effects, and such.

[Andalite_Shorm]

1) Visser Three wouldn't show up nearly as often. It would be some other guy in charge of most of the foot work, and when s/he failed Visser Three would kill and replace with someone else. The main thing this would do would be to preserve V3's threat level, and add tension as Tom's Yeerk steadily worked up the ranks. Eventually he'd be put in charge, and Jake would have to risk rescuing him or let V3 kill him.

I like that idea! :3 It'd be more dark if V3 just didn't randomly pop up everywhere xD
I particulary like the idea of V3 having someone doing his deeds for him, and them chaging every time they fail (which would be, like, every episode XD) because then you could have the running mystery of the Animorphs trying to figure out who the messanger is this time, maybe throw in a few new good guys to confuse them. I don't know, is that too Gerry Anderson? Oh well.

2) Make David a recurring villain. I'd leave what Cassie did, but also have her called out on it and suffer more for it. Come book 27 when the howlers are gone, Crayak brings David back for revenge, and brings him back in a humanoid form that's more dangerous, but also prevents him from blending back in with society. Basically make him kind of a freak, and he'd fight the Anis and Yeerks.

I like that idea too :3 Perhaps not a constantly recurring character, but it would certainly help with the Yeerks idea- you don't want the protagonists fighting the same antagonists every time, am I right?

3) Get the Chee, Free Horks, and YPM more involved. Have the Chee start covering for the Anis starting with the mission in book 10, and have them do more stuff. The Free Horks could help the Anis fight. the Chee could make a sanctuary for the YPM, and they could help infiltrate and gain information, as well as giving Yeerks a way to get out from under the government's thumb.
 

YES! They definitly needed more screen-time for themselves.

4) Change the ending, and general tone of the series to reflect the theme of hope more than the theme of war being hell. Sure it would still be a dark series, but either main characters would die occasionally through the series, or they wouldn't die (or stay dead) at all. One or the other. Not to mention give the Anis a better ending and not introduce any new villains right at the end.

Hm, debatable on that one- I haven't read the last book in quite a while, I need an update, sounds ok though

5) As far as the auxiliaries go, it kind of depends on whether or not I have characters die more often or not. If I do, then obviously replacements will need to be recruited. If I don't, I'm not sure. I know I'd have Eva join, and probably not even have Loren come back (or at least treat her as a character instead of a plot device). I wouldn't have them be recruited the same way. I'd use the Chee to help recruit if I did it.

Hm, that's good Can't say I totally agree with the whole idea of characters dying though, which ones? The Animorphs themselves can't go dying, cos you'd probably mess up some scripts there XD No offence, but I'd rather have some minor characters dying- you know, in for 3 or 4 episodes, let the fans get close then when they're least expecting it... WHAM! They die >
Without such evil ways there, of course.

My episodes would either be an hour long, or have a lot of two parters. Whichever one works better. Avatar did very well with half hour episodes, so I guess just half an hour without a ton of "to be continue" could work.

That would work :3 I think hour long episodes is a bit much- considering the age group who'd be watching it, plus any teens would probably be wandering around throughout. I know many people who get bored with 45 minute episodes- hour long ones may be a bit of a stretch story-wise. I noticed with the Young Indiana Jones' (thanks Animorphs VHS for getting me on to that) "episodes" they were squishing two perfectly fine half hour episodes together to make it more of a film. I don't know about everyone else, but I would have watched self-proclaimed "part 1" then watched self-proclaimed "part 2" later. Rarely would I watch the whole thing through because it just felt like I was watching two long episodes.


Hm, overall like the ideas!
I have one last thing to say though: BECOME A DIRECTOR AND THE FIRST THING YOU MAKE: ANIMORPHS TV SERIES 8DDD

[Blazing Angel]

The main issue with an animorphs TV show would be getting schoolastic to agree to it. It could be a money making opportunity for both of us though. Re-launch the animorphs novels to coincide with the show. Life sized andalite plushies. Hork Bjair beenie babies. That kind of stuff