Animorphs

Animorphs could have been a lot better. I have to say, they disappointed a whole lot of people, since the books sold pretty good. But as of now, the books are getting bad too. I suspect that KA is using ghost writers. The show could use better FX, and younger actors. Personally, I only watch it because I like Brooke Nevin.

Animorphs had the potential to be a great show had the episodes been longer and more frequent. It was short lived however the cast was full of very talented people. However as with every book based movie/series the books were better. Though I could just be a bit biased since I was a hardcore Animorphs fan. I do truly believe that the show was pretty good even if it was short. I hope to see the Animorphs actors do a lot more in the future. I do think this show was very good and worth any Animorphs' fan time. I hope this comment is helpful to anyone who takes the time to read it. So thank you for reading my comment! Animorphs Rule!

Watched some of it when it first came out. Re-watching it now after re-reading the book series, it's pretty incredible how bad the first few episodes are. Then it's pretty incredible how some of the later episodes are actually genuinely good, and much more accurate to the books than I remember.

Budget concerns force certain things, like Visser Three and Ax being in human morph a lot, or the lack of certain characteristic battle morphs like gorilla, elephant, grizzly bear.

Most of the young actors get better over time but the clear and obvious standout is Paulo Costanzo as Ax. The only other thing i've seen him in is The Expanse. He clearly understands his role better than a lot of the others.

In the strange and foggy No Man's Land of children's literature betwixt R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series and J.K. Rowling's phenomenal Harry Potter novels, K.A. Applegate reigned supreme. Pound for pound, I daresay Animorphs was every bit as intriguing (and probably better written) than Harry Potter, and leaps and bounds more mature than Goosebumps; and while the series developed problems after a few years (an over complicated, meandering mythology, inferior ghostwriting), I contend that the first spate of books are masterpieces in their own right, leveling an often profound gaze at the effects of war and savagery on formerly untroubled minds.

When I, a fresh-faced young lad of 11, first learned that a television show was in the works to bring my favorite books to life on the small screen, I was elated. I admit my heart sank a bit when I heard it was to be produced by Nickelodeon, who by the late '90s had shifted their focus from the preteen and teen market to a demographic exclusively in the 8-12 range; but realistically, what other network would air such an adaptation? The books were too violent and dark to air on a children's network, but no adult was going to watch a show about high school students turning into animals and fighting aliens. Perhaps it could have worked on the WB, following the success of high-school themed shows like Buffy, but alas, that was not the way things worked out.

Apart from the censorship, the biggest problem a Nickelodeon adaptation would run into was budgetary. The books played out on a grand scale, every installation featuring aliens, spaceships, guerrilla warfare, shapeshifting, and occasionally, entirely different planets. Those elements were either scaled back or dropped entirely for the television series. The alien prosthetics were unconvincing, Applegate's concepts being much more ambitious than the average "wrinkly forehead" aliens featured on the average Star Trek episode. I remember my disappointment at the introduction of Elfangor and the Hork Bajir in the pilot episode. They were underwhelming, to say the least.

When I discovered the show was available on Netflix, I watched it on a whim, in the background, with all the preconceptions of my high expectations dissipated in the course of time. The first few episodes are still pretty abysmal, with lackluster writing and facile direction. There just wasn't enough money or creative freedom to accomplish what Applegate did in the books.

As the series progresses, however, it comes into its own, crafting an identity as its own entity separate from the prose. The characters become more three-dimensional on their own terms; the acting improves; the budgetary limitations are circumvented. True, sometimes (oftentimes) the villains are incredibly stupid and the action sequences don't hold up all that well; the psychological and physical effects of a full-fledged war are neutered by the network mandate to remain "kid-friendly", which means no death or serious trauma can ever really befall the characters. But the basic human interaction, the relationships, improve, and the storytelling finds firmer footing. If you allow yourself to forget the source material, Animorphs stands as a worthy piece of family entertainment.

It's also fun to see a "before-they-were-famous" Shawn Ashmore and Paulo Costanzo, who have since achieved mainstream success via the X-Men franchise and the popular USA comedy/drama "Royal Pains", respectively. Maybe this is through glasses tinted with hindsight, but they are easily the strongest members of the cast (and I'm including the adults in that), with Ashmore growing into his own as conflicted "I didn't ask for this" leader Jake, and Costanzo stealing the show as fish-out-of-water alien-posing-as-human Aximili, who turns a simple cab ride into a comedy of errors.

I remembered reading the books I've read when I was a kid and I think I took a view of the episodes of the TV show it was based on, but there are quite some flaws with this film including the part where Tobias revealed that he's the last to morph where as in the book series, he is the first to morph and the part where the Animorphs meet at Cassie's barn after their first alien encounter, they tried out their morphing abilities with Tobias as a hawk. Rachel's animal form was a cat while in the book her animal form was an African elephant, although in this show, she also acquires a lion form and Marco's animal form was a brown rat whilst in the book he never acquired that form.

With the flaws out of the way, there are some good stuff about this show. The acting is great. Shawn Rushmore did great, Brooke Nevin was good, and the rest were terrific. The action for this show is pretty amazing. The special effects aren't that bad including the morphing sequences with our characters and the music (including the theme song) was pretty decent.

Although, not a classic from the late 90s, Animorphs is still a watchable show if fans of the book series could get over it's flaws.