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Continuing on my little Animorphs nostalgia trip, I started thinking about the extremely short-lived TV series adaptation that aired on Nickelodeon in the late ‘90s. Even when I was 11 years old, I could tell that show sucked. Zero budget, terrible acting, and I don’t think the Animorphs even accomplished anything before series’ end. Surely, with enough money and a bigger format, somebody out there could adapt these books for the screen better than that.

As it so often happens, my mind gravitated back to my love of cinematic storytelling, and I started kicking around ideas for what a theatrical Animorphs movie might be like. Movies based on YA novels are big juju these days, so I think if this series was ever gonna make a comeback, this’d be the way to do it. I think a trilogy would suit this story well – cut out all the goofy pointless filler about semi-sentient buffalo and evil starfish twins and instant maple-ginger oatmeal and just get to the interesting stuff.

In the first movie, you could probably combine all the important plot elements from the first five books into one coherent two-hour story – Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, and Marco meet Elfangor and gain their morphing powers, uncover the Yeerk pool underneath the school, and learn the hard way that this war is going to be a tough fight if they have to do it alone. Ax signals them from his sunken dome ship off the coast, so they team up with him, but get caught by Visser Three, and while they’re in his clutches, they learn that Visser One is using Marco’s mom for a host body. Naturally, they have to fight their way out, with Ax at their side. All the while, Tobias is learning to deal with his fate after getting stuck in his hawk morph, and what that means for him and his budding relationship with Rachel.

I don’t know about you, but I’d watch it. And I think even if you’d never read the books before, this movie could still be a fine introduction to these characters and the concept.

Description
Continuing on my little Animorphs nostalgia trip, I started thinking about the extremely short-lived TV series adaptation that aired on Nickelodeon in the late ‘90s. Even when I was 11 years old, I could tell that show sucked. Zero budget, terrible acting, and I don’t think the Animorphs even accomplished anything before series’ end. Surely, with enough money and a bigger format, somebody out there could adapt these books for the screen better than that.

As it so often happens, my mind gravitated back to my love of cinematic storytelling, and I started kicking around ideas for what a theatrical Animorphs movie might be like. Movies based on YA novels are big juju these days, so I think if this series was ever gonna make a comeback, this’d be the way to do it. I think a trilogy would suit this story well – cut out all the goofy pointless filler about semi-sentient buffalo and evil starfish twins and instant maple-ginger oatmeal and just get to the interesting stuff.

In the first movie, you could probably combine all the important plot elements from the first five books into one coherent two-hour story – Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, and Marco meet Elfangor and gain their morphing powers, uncover the Yeerk pool underneath the school, and learn the hard way that this war is going to be a tough fight if they have to do it alone. Ax signals them from his sunken dome ship off the coast, so they team up with him, but get caught by Visser Three, and while they’re in his clutches, they learn that Visser One is using Marco’s mom for a host body. Naturally, they have to fight their way out, with Ax at their side. All the while, Tobias is learning to deal with his fate after getting stuck in his hawk morph, and what that means for him and his budding relationship with Rachel.

I don’t know about you, but I’d watch it. And I think even if you’d never read the books before, this movie could still be a fine introduction to these characters and the concept.