Is it finally time to re-adapt Animorphs?

[AuRon]

As far as an adaptation goes, I would wonder how they would handle the Ellimist and Crayak stuff, since that would sort of go into Dr. Strange type territory.

There's also the question of tv show or movie series? A tv show would be better for properly develop the characters, and their relationships, and changing attitudes. But a movie would be better for special effects, and action scenes, and all of the bizarre alien creatures. Of course, a movie would also have more pressure to perform big, especially since this would require some money to do properly.

[TheStarWarsTrek]

As far as an adaptation goes, I would wonder how they would handle the Ellimist and Crayak stuff, since that would sort of go into Dr. Strange type territory.

There's also the question of tv show or movie series? A tv show would be better for properly develop the characters, and their relationships, and changing attitudes. But a movie would be better for special effects, and action scenes, and all of the bizarre alien creatures. Of course, a movie would also have more pressure to perform big, especially since this would require some money to do properly.

It's hard to say, but I'm leaning towards tv show. Introducing 6 main characters, plus the introducing the whole premise to the audience and cramming the plot of several books into 2 hours? It's not impossible, but it could be risky. On the one hand, Guardians of the Galaxy managed to flesh out its team of 5 heroes pretty well. On the other hand, The Last Airbender suffered from condensing a whole season of TV into a movie.

I know that effects kind of held back the original tv show, but i'd assume they're easier and cheaper nowadays.

The main question is if there's enough 90's nostalgia for it to get a significant enough following. We did get two Goosebumps movies after all . . .

[Yukaphile]

Yeah, because like I said, to remove the 1990s removes the atmosphere the Animorphs have. The 2011 reprints proved that.

[AuRon]

There's no reason you can't update it. Its like saying you can't do a Sherlock Holmes story that doesn't take place in Victorian era England. Numerous adaptations have proven that false. There's also Stephen King's "It". The original story took place in the 1950s. The recent movie updated it to take place thirty years later. Many people agree that it worked fine. The original time periods for those stories were a part of the stories, but people found a way to make different time periods work.

At any rate, you asked if Animporhs could be adapted now, and I gave my opinion as to why it could be. If you disagree, that's fine.

[TheStarWarsTrek]

Yeah, because like I said, to remove the 1990s removes the atmosphere the Animorphs have. The 2011 reprints proved that.

The 2011 reprints weren't successful, true. Saying "It's because of the 90's atmosphere" is jumping to conclusions. Maybe they weren't marketed well enough. Maybe it's because Harry Potter had changed the focus from short YA books to more novel length YA books. Maybe with the internet being more widely available kids have more options for entertainment and were reading less. Who knows?

[Yukaphile]

The big problem is adapting it for the modern era requires intelligence, given the 1990s atmosphere of the original series, and I don't see intelligence to those who make cinema today. It'd be an adaptation in name only.

[Beelzquill]

You know, I'd actually like an animated Animorphs tv show. That way you don't have the problem of adapting so many events that I think happen in like a 3 to 4 year timeframe in the books and you don't have to worry about a young cast aging out. Then again it's been at least 15 years since I read the books so I could be wrongly remembering it.

[Yukaphile]

I still read them every so often. You are probably misremembering.

[Yukaphile]

A big problem in adapting Animorphs to the small screen, like the problems faced during the 1990s television show, is what books to adapt. Granted, the series was still ongoing then, and they had to introduce elements like Elfangor's disk and its amazingly stupid ability to cure nothlits and give you Yeerk DNA to make sure there was something to balance that out. With the book series wrapped up, they could no doubt adapt every book if they wanted, but then... some books are so awful, you're really not missing anything by skipping them. I know the poparena hates Megamorphs #2 the worst, but that is not an opinion shared by many, so it would definitely be adapted, especially since it probably be like Jurassic Park, very special-effects very, and that draws in views. Then there is the issue with the Chronicles and the Megamorphs. Do you keep them adapted in chronological order, with Megamorphs #2 being set between #18. The Decision and #19. The Departure, or start with the first chronologically, which would technically be The Ellimist Chronicles? Do you ditch the framing device that each Chronicles book has? Like the Ellimist talking to a dying Animorph that's later revealed to be Rachel? That's such huge spoilers, you might wanna set it at the end of the series, and yet... how they go about handling this in an intelligent manner could make or break any potential Animorphs TV franchise. Especially since K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant weren't involved with the first one. Hopefully they would be this time. I do tend to think a new AniTV series would be a lot better than the first, since they never mentioned some of the key terminology in the series, like aristh, Escafil Device, nothlit, and only barely even mentioned the franchise's key word, Animorphs.

[Megabob452]

To be honest the Megamorphs and Chronicles books don't need to be included in an adaptation. Of the Megamorphs books #1 is the only one that's plot relevant, and only because it's story is part of the main conflict. The other three are side stories that change nothing important, #2 is a needless time travel story, #3 has its events literally erased from history, and #4 is just a glorified 'what if' book. The Chronicles books flesh out the backstory, but really aren't needed for the main story. Of the three the most important one is Andalite Chronicles, but the later reappearances of Loren and Arbron and a spoiler would likely be cut anyway. Skipping Hork-Bajir Chronicles would require skipping Aldrea's reappearance, but that's a book that would likely be cut as well. Ellimist Chronicles has nothing at all to do with the main plot so it can be skipped entirely, which gets rid of that book's spoiler problem altogether.

It would be nice to have those books adapted, but they aren't essential. Part of the job of an adaptation is to determine what does and does not fit in the new format. No adaptation uses the entirety of the source material.

As for which books to adapt, well I'd include most of the main series books through the David trilogy, the better books from all the ghostwritten filler, Visser and the books that support that subplot, and then the final arc books. Animated TV series would be the best format for this, with made-for-TV movies for Visser and any Megamorphs/Chronicles books that do get adapted. A TV series could probably cover all of that in 2 or 3 seasons.