“Animorphs” Movie in the Works - Can’t be any worse than the Nickelodeon show

[SteelPlatedHeart]

A live-action Animorphs movie based on the book series is finally in the works, it was revealed Thursday. It's being co-developed alongside Scholastic Entertainment, whose publishing arm released K. A. Applegate's series in the '90s.

"Animorphs has found the perfect home," Applegate tweeted.

The Animorphs book series, which kicked off in 1996, follows five teenagers and an adolescent alien -- Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, Marco and Ax -- who have all been given the power to morph into any animal they touch. Together, they lead Earth's fight against the secret invasion of a brain-dwelling parasite alien species called the Yeerks.

"The central themes of Animorphs have resonated strongly with kids for more than two decades," Lole Lucchese, president of Scholastic Entertainment, said in a statement. "The time is right for a feature film that takes this captivating sci-fi adventure to another level for audiences today."

There were 54 books in the main series, as well as multiple special editions like The Andalite Chronicles, The Hork-Bajir Chronicles, four Megamorphs books and even two choose-your-own-adventure novels called Alternamorphs. (Obviously the best book was the one set in the time of the dinosaurs.) You can read all of them for free online right now thanks to Reddit's Animorphs community.

It's unknown at this point what books will covered in the movie.

Erik Feig, Picturestart CEO, called the series "iconic."

"These books have a deservedly deep bench of passionate fans, ourselves included," Feig added. "We hope to make Katherine Applegate and her co-author, Michael Grant, proud as we bring Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias to life for a new generation."

Animorphs, which was also adapted as a TV series of the same name in the '90s, has been lauded for its unflinchingly dark depiction of war and its aftermath in terms of both physical and mental impact. It's also been trending recently as fans recommend reading Animorphs instead of Harry Potter in the wake of backlash over JK Rowling's transgender comments.

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Everyone’s favorite 90’s book series about the bloody horror and futility of war featuring teenagers that fight brain slug aliens by Turing into animal is getting a film 20 years after most people would know or care about it.

 

[Harnessed Carcass]

get hyped

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

It’s kinda weird to me that it was only years and years later do I realize how dark these books really were.

 

[stuffandthings]

I was so obsessed with Animorphs in the fifth grade. It's shit.

It gradually gets unbearably grimdark. And KA outsourced the writings of the books to underpaid hacks so she can work on weird interspecies fanfiction.

The ending is Sopranosesque, not in a good way. Its a private meme among my friends, we'll shout at random. "Ram the Yerk ship."

 

[Jason Wynn]

I loved these books growing up in the 90s. They felt so much more mature than the competition like Goosebumps. I'd be interested in seeing the movie, just worried they'll find some way to turn it woke.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

I was so obsessed with Animorphs in the fifth grade. It's shit.

It gradually gets unbearably grimdark. And KA outsourced the writings of the books to underpaid hacks so she can work on weird interspecies fanfiction.

The ending is Sopranosesque, not in a good way. Its a private meme among my friends, we'll shout at random. "Ram the Yerk ship."

I was still mostly okay with the grimdark, since it fit the whole “war is getting super desperate so fuck secrecy” thing, but yeah. That ending sucked.

Also, and I cannot believe I remember this, it was called the Blade ship.Not the Yerk ship. Because it was Vissar Three’s personal warship or whatever.

oh, and here’s a download of all the books for free that was mentioned in the article.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Animorphs/comments/3litxl/reformatted_ebook_editions_download_links/

 

[cumrobbery]

I had the shitty Pokemon ripoff adaptation for the GBC

 

[Quijibo69]

'Member the 90's: the movie

 

[Bugs_Galore]

I don't know if I should spoiler this but I'm not going to considering the fact that I fucking doubt anyone here has "Animorphs" very high on their books-to-read list.

Didn't the book series fucking end on a super dark note with every single character dying when they kamikaze'd another spaceship and were subsequently blown to smithereens?

If that is the case then I'm looking forward to the movie adaptation.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

I don't know if I should spoiler this but I'm not going to considering the fact that I doubt anyone here has "Animorphs" very high on their books-to-read list.

Didn't the book series fucking end on a super dark note with every single character dying when they kamikaze'd another spaceship and were subsequently blown to smithereens?

If that is the case then I'm looking forward to the movie adaptation.

Not exactly. It ended with the plan being to ram the ship, but it didn’t actually say what happened. Basically it’s like it ended on a mid-chapter of a full book.

On the other hand, Rachel was dead for years, Tobias was a recluse as a hawk because Rachel died, Jake had massive PTSD and was pretty miserable overall, and Ax got assimilated by the universe big bad. Marco was mostly okay, and only Cassie got a happy ending(she’s also the only one who wasn’t on the ship).

 

[Exigent Circumcisions]

Animorphs already raped my childhood so it can't get any worse, really.

 

[Zero Day Defense]

"White Girls Metamorphose into Dogs"

 

[Creep3r]

This had a tv show with blue centaurs and carnivorous ear worms right?

I used to see the covers of their books all the time in stores and they looked weird as fuck.

 

[inception_state]

Not exactly. It ended with the plan being to ram the ship, but it didn’t actually say what happened. Basically it’s like it ended on a mid-chapter of a full book.

On the other hand, Rachel was dead for years, Tobias was a recluse as a hawk because Rachel died, Jake had massive PTSD and was pretty miserable overall, and Ax got assimilated by the universe big bad. Marco was mostly okay, and only Cassie got a happy ending(she’s also the only one who wasn’t on the ship).

Man, that brings back memories. I vaguely recall being pissed that Cassie somehow was the only one to get a good ending when she was objectively the worst character. Why she was the worst, I don't recall exactly, but did she get Rachel killed maybe?

 

[mindlessobserver]

It’s kinda weird to me that it was only years and years later do I realize how dark these books really were.

I wonder how modern woke hollywood will try to portray "Seerows kindness". How an act of altruism to better a "lesser race" results in a full on galactic war. They could try and shoe horn in a lesson about colonialism I guess, but that is not what was portrayed in the books. The Andalites were so happy to find another Sentient Race that they freely shared everything they knew in the hope of peace and harmony and in paymemt for their naivety they were forced into a genocidal war that dragged in everyone else, including humanity.

Hell, I remember reading these books as a preteen and they leave an impression now decades later.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Man, that brings back memories. I vaguely recall being pissed that Cassie somehow was the only one to get a good ending when she was objectively the worst character. Why she was the worst, I don't recall exactly, but did she get Rachel killed maybe?

No, but her cousin Jake sent her on an almost certain suicide mission to kill his Yerk-infested brother, because they had teamed up to take down Visser Three and end the war(Yerk brother and his minions would steal the Blade Ship and attack from the outside while Jake and his team would sneak aboard the main Yerk mothership and take it out from the inside. Thing is, Jake knew that Yerk-brother was most likely going to betray him(which he did), so he sent Rachel to hide out on the ship and kill Yerk brother if he did try and double cross them. He did, so Rachel killed him, then fought until she couldn’t anymore, turned back to human, and was killed. But Rachel has also become a bit too battle hardened and kill-crazy, knowing she wouldn’t really be able to go back to a normal human life once the war ended, so while Jake did send her on the suicide mission, Rachel herself wanted to go and do it anyway.

I swear I haven’t read these books in over a decade, yet I can still remember all this.

But yeah, I too felt it was unfair that Cassie was the only one allowed to be happy because she was the animal loving pacifist or whatever. Rachel was awesome and Tobias did not deserve to get his life shit on as much as it did.

 

[inception_state]

But yeah, I too felt it was unfair that Cassie was the only one allowed to be happy because she was the animal loving pacifist or whatever. Rachel was awesome and Tobias did not deserve to get his life shit on as much as it did.

Right, that sounds somewhat familiar. It's been ages since I read the books, not much stuck with me beyond the general shapeshifting premise and the mind-control earworms. Here's what I was thinking of I believe, from the fandom wiki:

After the Yeerks find out the Animorphs’ intention, a fight ensues and Jake chases Tom’s Yeerk into the forest. As Tom flees with the morphing cube, Jake stalks him in tiger morph, preparing to kill him and retrieve the cube. Cassie, believing that Tom should escape with the cube for reasons she is unsure of, coupled with a desire to save Jake from crossing a personal line by killing his brother, attacked Jake, allowing Tom to flee with the cube.

Which arguably then led to Rachel getting sent on the suicide mission I guess? Or maybe I'm giving my 9 year old brain too much credit.

 

[CivilianOfTheFandomWars]

I don't care what anyone says, Animorphs was and still is fucking awesome. The books were actually great at slowly destroying these poor kids minds through the trauma of war, and did not fuck around. The one where Jake had a Yeerk in his head was legit horrifying.
It's one of those series you appreciate more as you age, and notice just how raw it could get.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Right, that sounds somewhat familiar. It's been ages since I read the books, not much stuck with me beyond the general shapeshifting premise and the mind-control earworms. Here's what I was thinking of I believe, from the fandom wiki:

Yeah, that was a few books before the end. Shit had escalated hard near the end. The Animorphs identifies were revealed, the war became public, Yerk gained the power to morph, Yerks started breaking into separate factions, people started dying hard and fast....shit was nuts.

 

[CakeCutey]

So is this gonna cover multiple books at once or just one book? Never read the series. All I know about it are the creepy book covers and that weird gameboy game.