Animorphs

If they ever did any kind of adaptation or reboot I think they'd definitely need to age the cast up to late teens. Having this stuff happen to young kids just wouldn't fly.

Well, it would depend on the tone you're aiming for and the demographic you're marketing to. Dawson Casting aside, a younger cast could work depending on how the adapters want to present the series. Either play up the horrors of war and its effect on young adolescents if you're marketing on its darkness, or play up the more heroic bits and tone down the implications if you're going for another children's series.

It's a hidden upside of the fluctuating tone of the series from all the ghostwriting: both lighter and darker adaptations are possible, since the series has plenty of both tones.

Fullmetal Alchemist demonstrated rather well that you can tell a horrific story of paranoia and bloody war starring children. I don't see why Animorphs couldn't.

Anime probably has an easier time getting away with that since it's made in Japan. I don't think US companies would be as willing to fund something like Animorphs if it was too dark and starred children.

Funny this should be brought up: I'm actually planning to make, among other things, an Animorphs Anime!

I will be doing them on a one book to one episode basis, fixing all KAS Us, removing the REALLY stupid books (very, very few of these, thankfully), resolve the hanging plot thread of the 'traitor Andalites', extend the David trilogy to a David sextilogy to make his turn to evil more believable, and give Tobias and Ax the same number of episodes as everyone else.

I love this series and read almost the entire thing when I was a kid (The Ellimist Chronicles, while a little rushed, is AMAZING).

edited 20th Jan '16 11:26:32 AM by PushoverMediaCritic

http://screenrant.com/animorphs-movie-director/

Surprised this hasn't been posted yet.

Son of a- the Animorphs series would not work in a movie format; it's too episodic. A show is the only way you could go and an anime is the obvious choice!

Michael Grant and KA Applegate were told by Scholastic that there was no movie deal, apparently. So... who knows.

~Pushover Media Critic, I worry about your mission creep from "fix obvious errors" to "rewrite the entire plotline of the series". Plus, I've gotta ask, wrt "stupid books"... what's your opinion on book 17?

edited 5th Nov '15 10:51:24 PM by Laura

I'm planning, and I promise, to keep the series really faithful to the original. 17 was actually really good; while the plot centering around Instant Maple and Ginger Oatmeal is goofy, it's acknowledged as such in-universe and the moral dilemma is really well-done. The 'REALLY stupid books' I plan to remove are books like 39 (the buffa-human) and its like. The ones 80% of the fanbase agree suck.

edited 5th Nov '15 11:07:06 PM by PushoverMediaCritic

~Pushover Media Critic, I worry about your mission creep from "fix obvious errors" to "rewrite the entire plotline of the series". Plus, I've gotta ask, wrt "stupid books"... what's your opinion on book 17?

Double post!

I don't quite know why everyone acts like the oatmeal being poisonous to yeerks is such a hilariously stupid idea. It seems perfectly reasonable to me; I mean, as long as we're already entertaining the idea that aliens are biologically compatible enough with Earth organic chemistry to be able to eat our plants and parasitise our animals.

I mean... a fake maple flavouring compound is shaped in such a way that it coincidentally mimics a yeerk nervous system receptor, thereby totally irreparably screwing their 'brain'. What's so ridiculous about that? That's how poisonings happen all of the time.

I agree. It seemed silly as a kid because it's oatmeal, but it's not oatmeal. It's a handful of different substances assembled in such a fashion as to create a pleasing byproduct. One of those substances is harmful to the physiology of animals it was not designed for. That happens all the time. Your dog does not want a candy bar.

This is one of those plot points that actually gets better instead of worse as you become old enough to scrutinize it.

edited 6th Nov '15 10:26:43 AM by TobiasDrake

Agree totally.

Was anyone else a fan who only kept up by what was available at the library? So you pick up one book and you turn it over and you read "My name is Firstname Lastname" and you're just like "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?"

Excellent, Pushover, you passed my test. I've seen an awful lot of people ragging on the oatmeal book. Like, the reason it's oatmeal is because if it were some explicit chemical a) it could never be published and b) the kids couldn't dismiss it as "just oatmeal".

It really shows just how traumatising the general, normal grind of the war is. I mean, it's about oatmeal. They make it clear, at length, this is not one of the great battles. It's just a normal day/week, where they attempt mass poisoning and get nightmares about being buried alive. The goofiness lets the horror sidle in unobtrusively.

I wish they'd all got last names.

Didn't they all get last names?

Nope, only Jake Berenson (and presumably Rachel as well seeing as they're cousins via their dads being bothers).

I could have sworn Marco or Cassie had a book after the Yeerks found out who they were.

Yes but only Jake actually revealed his last name.

I totally did that way.

I used to read it big time in elementary school, but then after my family moved to Florida I kind of lost track with it until I started checking out books again at the library.

It was funny to, it was around when I was in Middle School that I noticed the Cerebus Syndrome.

To be fair, Animorphs was pretty dark from the get go.

In the first book alone you have a main character find out his brother is enslaved by a mind-controlling parasite, another gets trapped permanently as a bird, and team's benefactor is devoured in front of them by the Big Bad.

I too kept up with the series via library and read them in all kinds of weird order and missed a bunch of them in between. Heck I only knew about them being found out by the yeerjs because the preview of the next book in the back of one of the last books I read.

When I was a high school freshmen I remember looking the series up online because I wanted to know how it ended. I actually got a look for yyelling in the library when I got to the part about Rachel.

Anyone have any random, pointless moments in the series that really stuck with you? I loved Ax running, full-tilt, through the forest while it's raining and trying to run fast enough that all the rain would hit his chest, leaving his lower back dry.