Animorphs

I don't know, you also lose a lot of the thematic resonance the Animorphs had at the time. See the thing is in today's world? People that look normal plotting your murder or a foreign culture sweeping in to take over our own through insidious methods and random acts of violence is a very serious, very present worry for a lot of modern day Americans. Not saying it's rational or sensible, but it is there. When Animorphs came out that wasn't the case. The 90s were basically alright for people in America, no major global conflicts, the economy was strong, problems were somewhere else in the world. And then 9/11 happened.

Animorphs was about injecting paranoia into the "safety" of the 90s, about reminding a younger generation that probably didn't have a lot of contact with Vets about the horrors of war, and about the grey morality of conflict and picking sides. This was supposed to be kind of a Sci-Fi reminder of something not a lot of people were thinking about. And then 9/11 happened and paranoia wasn't just no unusual, it was fucking order of the day.

I'm not saying that Animorphs 110% couldn't work in modern day, I'm just saying it would lose something pretty central in the process.

I agree that Animorphs would resonate better if it was set in modern day, but I also agree that the series would be nigh-impossible to make work nowadays. The series would either have to undergo heavy revisions to the plot, or it would have to lose the current-day paranoia that is the root of the series.

That's a given. But the series already required massive Suspension of Disbelief anyway, there were plenty of books where the kids should have definitely been caught or figured out.

On the other hand, there's another factor that calls into question how much the advent of modern tech would make a difference, and that is something that's often a stumbling block when adapting old scifi.

Specifically: the difference in our idea of what constitutes an "advanced" culture now versus twenty years ago. For instance, we have handheld recording devices now that we can pull out and turn on in seconds. They didn't have those in the 90's, but why didn't the Yeerks?

The answer is that back then, we could hardly imagine the kind of tech we have today. But if in an adaptation, even one set in the 90's as a period piece, the Yeerks would still need to be presented differently in order to make them seem sufficiently advanced from a modern perspective. Their hardware should not seem fundamentally inferior to the iPhone 7.

So, y'know, headphone jacks everywhere.

edited 22nd Sep '16 12:31:19 PM by TobiasDrake

Not necessarily, Alien Isolation pulled off Classic 70s Advanced Sci-Fi, they just had to commit to it.

edited 22nd Sep '16 12:32:20 PM by odafangirl

Given how the Andalites did weird stuff like inventing computers before books it wouldn't be too odd if the various alien races just never conceived of a smart phone.

Alien Isolation also had the benefit of being an interquel in an existing series that already had an established visual style in film. Being consistent to the movies was an important priority.

The only visual medium Animorphs has ever been in was the TV show on Nick and, uh...the less consistent any hypothetical adaptation is to that, the better.

I'm still losing my shit over the fact that the brother from Royal Pains was Ax's human form.

The Yeerks didn't have handheld communication/recording devices, because most of their technology was given to them by, or stolen from, the Andalites. The Andalites didn't have handheld communication devices because presumably transmitting and receiving thought-speak is more complicated than transmitting and receiving sound waves. No clue on the lack of handheld recording devices, though.

edited 22nd Sep '16 7:08:40 PM by PushoverMediaCritic

Visser Three expected everyone to remember what he said or to remember what they were supposed to tell him. Or else.

See, the more I think about this, the more entertained I am by a modern update.

• Visser Three: There! On the footage! What is that gesture the gorilla is making? Is it some kind of Andalite military signal?
• Tom: Well, according to my host, it's called "flipping you off" and it is, quote, "totes hilarious".

edited 23rd Sep '16 7:08:49 AM by TobiasDrake

You may have just sold me with that alone, good sir.

"Ridiculous humans, that gesture doesn't resemble any earth birds!"

Did V3 ever get himself an Earth morph besides some human impersonations?

As long as Visser Three is still a Satuday morning cartoon villain played nightmarishly straight, I'm cool with any hypothetical adaptation.

There's a combination of incompetent and legitimately dangerous, clever and indomitable when he want to be as well as often dangerous and scary because he's incompetent that made that guy so entertaining.

edited 23rd Sep '16 11:39:06 PM by KnownUnknown

You pretty much just summed up Visser Three's entire appeal and character.

Okay, I have another idea for Animorphs, unrelated to my anime concept, that I've been kicking around for a few years. Honestly, I don't even have that much confidence in this one, it's pretty unfitting for the series. Basically, it's an Animorphs MOBA. You can play as 1 out of 6(?) sapient species: Human, Hork-Bajir, Andalite, Taxxon, Yeerk, and Leeran(maybe?), and choose 5 morphs for your character to have out of dozens of available animals on a 6-person team. The idea is for various animals to counter other animals and for the terrain and environment to be a big influencing factor in the counter-play and mindgames among the animals. A few examples: the Archerfish is a little fish that serves one purpose: sniping insects out of the air with shots of water, the Penguin is a Joke Character, unless you're in an Arctic environment, where it turns into a lightning-fast Lethal Joke Character, and the Fly is small and has a low overall speed, but bigger animals like the Tiger or Elephant almost can't kill it, because of its agility and size.

edited 3rd Jan '17 11:39:13 PM by PushoverMediaCritic

Wow, yeah, nothing at all huh? I thought the idea had merit, since it was the best way I could think of to emulate the mission planning aspects of the series that I love so much in a competitive enviroment, but is it really that hopeless of an idea, to just completely ignore?

Well I, for one, am not really in a position to offer commentary because I don't like MOBAs. Not my genre.

That's fair. It isn't mine either, to be honest.

You know, I would still appreciate some meaningful feedback on this. Am I just asking in the wrong place? Is there a 'have conversations about future theoretical video games you want to make' thread? I know there's a bunch of threads for advice on writing, but I'm more interested in feedback on the conceptual gameplay.

There's a sense of total impossibility that impedes discussion, for the record. MOB As require a level of money and framework that animorphs just doesn't have the pull for, putting aside the fact that I personally don't have any interest in them as a game type to begin with.

Multiple posting needling people for feedback isn't exactly endearing either.

It's been almost two months. And I only bring it up again because I just came back to the idea and started working on it again for the first time in a while.

There is, actually.

Thank you.