Or a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon trying to get the rights. I figured a series like this would be a no brainer to turn into a live-action series.
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Anyone else obsessed with "Animorphs" book series in the 90s?
- Thread starter bixente
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Or a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon trying to get the rights. I figured a series like this would be a no brainer to turn into a live-action series.
It's a shame that the attempt at a television series was so low budget and a butchering of the books.
Imagine a modern day Netflix version with none of the mature content stripped away or muted and a massive budget?
Would be fucking glorious. And be huge. Shame KA Applegate doesn't own the rights to the IP.
Imagine a modern day Netflix version with none of the mature content stripped away or muted and a massive budget?
Would be fucking glorious. And be huge. Shame KA Applegate doesn't own the rights to the IP.
I wouldn't say obsessed. But it does, in my opinion, turn out to be the best depiction of the horrors of war in young adult literature. Hell, better than a lot of adult lit. It doesn't let its heroes walk away without making hard choices and it doesn't portray those choices as unquestionably good. Hell, he never faces consequences for it, but Jake is unequivocally a war criminal by the end and the book points this out.
Nor does it forget that its protagonists are children fighting a real ass guerilla war and they all come out deeply scarred.
Nor does it forget that its protagonists are children fighting a real ass guerilla war and they all come out deeply scarred.
KA Applegate said on a Reddit AMA that she was naive about the contract she signed originally and the rights reside in perpetuity with Scholastic.
A shame, really.
Animorphs was life back in elementary school. A group of friends would roleplay Animorphs because the subject material was so suited for it ("We're Andalites and these jerk-ass teachers are really Yeerk-ass teachers.")
The world-building in the series is some of the most creative scifi I've ever read.
The world-building in the series is some of the most creative scifi I've ever read.
Loved the series but fell off for some reason and read the wiki for the end way later on.
Love how dark it ended. Not sure if my kid mind could have handled it though, perhaps I was fortunate she hadn't finished when I was totally obsessed with it
Love how dark it ended. Not sure if my kid mind could have handled it though, perhaps I was fortunate she hadn't finished when I was totally obsessed with it
Ahh the same
David who impersonated Jake and Rachel's dead cousin in the hospital by acquiring his morph before he died
KA Applegate is great. I wish this series would get a high budget television series. I read the books religiously and then kind of grew out of them, unfortunately.
This series was fucked up considering it was meant to be for kids. Body horror and existentialist dread were concepts my fourth grade mind wasn't equipped to deal with.
I never finished the series either, but I was pretty crazy into them for a while there. I think I have the first 35-odd books and at least a couple of the Chronicles/Megamorphs books at my parents' house somewhere. I should get the ones I'm missing and do a full reread.
About all I remember in the show is them all being obsessed with some CD-looking data disc thing, and me being like, "What is this, this isn't in the books! Why are they wasting time with this made-up plot instead of getting to the good stuff from the books?!"
Tangentially, did anyone ever read anything else Applegate wrote? I remember trying to read Everworld but it didn't hook me like Animorphs had, and that was around the time I was growing out of reading "kids/YA" books, so I didn't read past the first book of that, I think.
About all I remember in the show is them all being obsessed with some CD-looking data disc thing, and me being like, "What is this, this isn't in the books! Why are they wasting time with this made-up plot instead of getting to the good stuff from the books?!"
Tangentially, did anyone ever read anything else Applegate wrote? I remember trying to read Everworld but it didn't hook me like Animorphs had, and that was around the time I was growing out of reading "kids/YA" books, so I didn't read past the first book of that, I think.
I loved them as a kid. Was obsessed with them even. Though for whatever reason I stopped reading them around book 30.
I recently started reading them again. Though pretty slowly. I re-read book 1 and 2, and picked up all my old copies from my mom's house. I just want to give the whole series a proper read. I've started tracking down the books I missed too.
I recently started reading them again. Though pretty slowly. I re-read book 1 and 2, and picked up all my old copies from my mom's house. I just want to give the whole series a proper read. I've started tracking down the books I missed too.
My daughter has a few of her more recent books. Applegate won a Newbery for The One and Only Ivan so I read my daughter's copy. It's pretty good but like tonally nowhere near Animorphs lol
Hell yeah! Tobias was one of the fictional characters that made me realize I was gay. Even on the page, 8 year old me knew there was something to him lol
I'VE FOUND MY PEOPLE
Loved these books. Somehow managed to read the entire series + some of the auxiliary books through the public library system. The ending really stuck with me my entire life, especially considering how the books were meant for like kids/pre-teens.
Highlight of the books for me was the Rachel and David storyline, that was a surprisingly complicated moral dilemma for the intended age audience.
Loved these books. Somehow managed to read the entire series + some of the auxiliary books through the public library system. The ending really stuck with me my entire life, especially considering how the books were meant for like kids/pre-teens.
Highlight of the books for me was the Rachel and David storyline, that was a surprisingly complicated moral dilemma for the intended age audience.
Loved the series as a kid but it got way too long in the tooth after a certain point, and I stopped reading them. I started reading the series right from the beginning and followed it for a while., though.
My brain as a kid really couldn't comprehend the switch in tone the books had torwards the end. I look back really fondly on the series though. I loved how Ax got incorporated as a part of the group. His introduction is pretty much where the story starts to get deeper.
Animorphs is still my go-to example of a series that ended well. The last ten pages or so are kind of out of left field, but the half-dozen books leading up to the end were amazing. I'm talking about how
I reread them about ten years ago: still holds up IMO. Don't think we need another attempt at a live action TV show, but a cartoon could be incredible.
the aliens find out that they're just kids and blow up the whole city, they barely escape with their family to the woods and the colony of freed alien slaves, and the whole dynamic shifts.
I reread them about ten years ago: still holds up IMO. Don't think we need another attempt at a live action TV show, but a cartoon could be incredible.
The last David book was 48 actually (his "return"), that was just
I loved these books at the time. About the time Everworld started hitting the shelves though that appealed to my edgy tween stages and became my new thing so I never finished it (nor do I think I ever finished Everworld to be fair). When the first book starts out with violence and swearing and a main character pissing himself out of fear, captured by a Norse God in a world of warring Gods... That shit was my jam at 11 years old lol.
I actually really liked the Remnants series. The second half specifically is real good
I remember one of the side books had one of the main characters get shot through the head while crossing the delaware with george washington
This was the shit that got you up for the scholastic book fair. There was indeed a lot of meditation on the nature of war, and a surprising amount of body horror.
The third Megamorphs book. That one was nuts. Just this crazy time travel story. Toward the end of it they found Hitler driving a jeep or some shit during World War II and the timeline had been altered so bad he was just a regular solider
I didn't get into Animorphs, but I really enjoyed Everworld. Don't know how it holds up though.
Man, haven't thought about that series in years. Reading up on what happened at the end, I really regret falling off before it finished. I'm mildly tempted to read them all now, but I'm a bit worried that I'll find them silly at my age.
The first half of Remnants is good. The second half is batshit insane. It drops all coherency and just becomes a horrible fever dream. Which is saying something when you consider how weird and dark the first half is.
Seriously, for anyone who hasn't read Remnants, it gets so fucking bizarre. The book focusing on the poor side character who ends up with three different people stuck in her head after she eats them is especially off-putting.
I may have to check it out sometime. I'm reading through her page on Wikipedia and realizing she wrote a lot more than I was aware of, heh.
When I was a kid I thought The Andalite Chronicles was some kinda high art literature that would never be topped by anything my middle school teacher wanted me to read
Alright, now is the time to show us your 3 favourite Animorphs books (apart from the Chronicles, which EVERYONE loves because they're ACE) (Visser counts as Chronicle). I know it's hard but you can do it.
This is mine :
3 - #26 The Duel.
I loved when the conflict really felt bigger than Earth. The Ellimist/Crayak game was weiiiird but damn, the twist about the Iskoort was good. And it genuinely felt like a light at the end on the tunnel. Except bloody Howlers. Also, great world building. Great feels.
2 - #6 The Capture
*THIS* is the first Animorphs book I bought and it SCARED me for MONTHS. The Capture amped the stakes of the overall story because you were LIVING the horror. The first arc (1-5) was good, but this was the "Right. Shit's getting really REAL now" moment.
1 - #19 The Departure
And THIS is the book which took Animorphs to a whole new level. We had just learnt that all Andalite are not good, that they're actually a race of pretentious almighty warmongers (which struck real hard when you learn about the Gulf Wars later in History class), and now, you learn that all the Yeerks are not brain-thirsty manic species. It's emotional and tragic and it's hitting really, really hard. I re-read it again this week-end and shed a tear. God, the Yeerks resistance was such a good subplot.
This is mine :
3 - #26 The Duel.
I loved when the conflict really felt bigger than Earth. The Ellimist/Crayak game was weiiiird but damn, the twist about the Iskoort was good. And it genuinely felt like a light at the end on the tunnel. Except bloody Howlers. Also, great world building. Great feels.
2 - #6 The Capture
*THIS* is the first Animorphs book I bought and it SCARED me for MONTHS. The Capture amped the stakes of the overall story because you were LIVING the horror. The first arc (1-5) was good, but this was the "Right. Shit's getting really REAL now" moment.
1 - #19 The Departure
And THIS is the book which took Animorphs to a whole new level. We had just learnt that all Andalite are not good, that they're actually a race of pretentious almighty warmongers (which struck real hard when you learn about the Gulf Wars later in History class), and now, you learn that all the Yeerks are not brain-thirsty manic species. It's emotional and tragic and it's hitting really, really hard. I re-read it again this week-end and shed a tear. God, the Yeerks resistance was such a good subplot.
Loved this series to death as a kid but was really pissed off at the cliffhanger ending after the
I remember seeing an article about the author defending it saying something along the lines of them ending the series with them fighting as it started but I just wanted Ax, Jake, Cassie, Marco & co to finally be at peace.
I would be so down for a netflix revival at some point.
timeskip.
I would be so down for a netflix revival at some point.
Favorite 3 books
3. Book 29 - The Sickness
Introduces the Yeerk peace movement, finishes the Aftran plotline, and has Cassie perform brain surgery on an alien.
2. Book 26 - The Attack
Easily the most imaginative worldbuilding in the series with the Iskoort world, and the Howlers are a great antagonist.
1. Book 8 - The Alien
Ax is just a wonderful character and this is the first book through his eyes.
3. Book 29 - The Sickness
Introduces the Yeerk peace movement, finishes the Aftran plotline, and has Cassie perform brain surgery on an alien.
2. Book 26 - The Attack
Easily the most imaginative worldbuilding in the series with the Iskoort world, and the Howlers are a great antagonist.
1. Book 8 - The Alien
Ax is just a wonderful character and this is the first book through his eyes.
#26 - The Attack
For the same reasons you listed.
#49 - The Diversion
The book that really ramped up the war. It is the closest Tobias gets to a happy ending, yet his mom doesn't remember him so happy should probably be in quotes.
#53 - The Answer
Everything has led Jake to this and it gets really dark. Not hard to see why this kid is broken after the war.
I always wondered why the Andalites didn't just let the Yeerks morph into better forms than slugs as a compromise end to the war. I always appreciated that the series ended with something obvious like that instead of trying to "subvert expectations" and coming up with some contrived nonsense.
I actually thought the 2nd half was a lot more grounded than the 1st (Aside from the book you mentioned. That was pretty out there). "Post apocalyptic fucked up earth" was a lot simpler than some of the crazy shit they dealt with in the first half were they spend an entire book fighting off literal demons that a giant alien ship generated from a painting it found. It's been a while since I've read the series through. I enjoyed it a lot as a kid even with how fucking crazy it got
Like I said, there was no chance anyone at Scholastic ever read these books. That shit was dark, even compared to some actual YA novels out nowadays
As for my ranking, I can't remember the specific books well, but
#26 - I remember the Howlers and, for the first time, being terrified reading a book and it was awesome. For a series about characters constantly in near hopeless situations, this somehow too it to the next level
The Ellemist - loved learning about his origins, and how he was literally just a kid playing sims before an alien race killed his entire species over a misunderstanding. And then the bizarre journey he took towards being a being that manipulated time and space in an elaborate game with ancient being of chaos
Hork Bajir Chronicles - continuing with the side stories, I just loved learning more about these things. Applegate was amazing at worldbuilding
I wish I knew the titles of my favs, it's been so long. I have to dig out my old books now to reread and continue where I left off.
<You guys are awesome>
<You guys are awesome>
I borrowed these from the library all the time and really liked them, though I read them out of order, lol. One book that really stuck out to me that blew my mind was when they went to an alien planet and were chased by these bloodthirsty monsters. Then they are able to transform into them and learn they are childlike and think they're just playing.
I just sort of fell off at some point. Because I was reading out of order and jumping around, I didn't get a real sense of the overarching story.
I just sort of fell off at some point. Because I was reading out of order and jumping around, I didn't get a real sense of the overarching story.