Animorphs
Animorphs
TV-Y7 | 15 September 1998 (USA)

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    Reviews
    Hellen

    I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

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    Plustown

    A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

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    Kien Navarro

    Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

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    Fulke

    Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

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    Pythe

    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.

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    greenheadjawsuniversal

    Animorphs is a 26-episode adaptation made by Nickelodeon of the Scholastic book series of the same name.Like the other popular children's book series of the 1990s, Goosebumps, Animorphs also became a television series. Unlike Goosebumps, which aired on the Fox Network in the United States, Animorphs was aired on the cable network, Nickelodeon. Many fans of the Animorphs book series, including myself felt that the television series strayed too far from the story lines that Animorphs fans around the world had become very familiar with, which may have led to the show's cancellation after just two seasons.One of the show's main story lines, about a mysterious disc given to the Animorphs by Elfangor, was invented for the television series and was never a part of the book series.Many of the animals that the main characters could morph were changed for the book series. For example: Jake's main morph in the books is a Siberian Tiger, but in the TV show, he morphs a White Bengal Tiger. In the books, Rachel's signature morphs are a African elephant and a Grizzly Bear, but in the TV series, she only morphed a bear once, and never morphed an elephant; her signature morph in the show was a lion. Marco, in the book series, often morphed a male Silverback Gorilla, but in the TV series, his battle morph was a Wolf. Cassie, who in the books used a Wolf as her battle morph, only morphed a horse in the TV series. Tobias, whose first morph was his pet cat, then the Red-Tailed Hawk, and many other animals where he got his powers to morph again by the Ellimists', only as a hawk.Also, the aliens in the television series were rarely shown. The Andalites and Hork-Bajir, who play such a large role in the books, were replaced with mostly humans in the television series. Visser Three and Ax, both of whom have Andalite bodies, mainly appeared in their human morphs. In the books, Ax and Visser Three appear in human morph only a handful of times, and for only short periods of time. The Taxxons, another alien race that was very prominent in the book series, was nonexistent in the television series.I felt that since the television show aired on Nickelodeon, a lot of themes, battles, problems, and issues raised in the books were either downplayed or completely eliminated so that the show could be considered G-Rated instead of PG or PG-13. Nickelodeon's other shows at the time, which included the kid-friendly shows Kenan & Kel, The Journey of Allen Strange, All That, Figure It Out, and Cousin Skeeter, were all very non-controversial. Many of the themes common in the Animorphs books, including morality, slavery, and death, simply did not fit in with those of other Nickelodeon shows.I was an Animrophs fan when it first aired, and read all the books written by KA Applegate. I felt, if the show somehow aired on abcFamily, or WB, it would have done better, and could have been a hit like Smallville, I had no problem with the cast, except Boris Cabrera who plays Marco on the show, Jake played by Shawn Ashmore was decent, Shawn is later famous for X-Men, who plays Iceman, Christopher Ralph was an excellent choice for Tobias, a thoughtful loner. Nadia Nascimento, and Brooke Nevin were good choices for Cassie, and Rachel. The special effects, the morphing scenes where just spectacular to watch, it was quite impressive for that time.Animorphs was somewhat a fun show to watch, it had some moments, and some great episodes, but compared to the books, yes, the books are obviously better.

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    Terryfan

    Animorphs was a cool show. This show were come on when I went to work, I would ask my mom and dad to record the show for me. As a Animorphs fan, I enjoy both the books and the show. The acting was good and the story-telling was good. The music was good too. All in all, I thought Animorphs was a very enjoyable show. I would to get the show on DVD.The whole idea of teenagers having the power to Transform into animals sounded cool. I own only two of the books. Animorphs was one of my favorite books and shows because I love Animals and I'm an animal lover. Animorphs has an cool idea for a book that would get it own TV show. I thought all the Animorphs books were cool and I thought the show was good for fans of the books. Animorphs books had so much details into the five teenagers that why they need to trust nobody and watch their back. Because they never knew who side anybody was on. The show rare had parts that was from the books, take the first show for examlpe, Note: I never had the first book. The show and books were different. Animorphs was a good show for the fans, Animoprhs ROCKS!

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    hezza_mccloud

    Animorphs was a great series due to an original plot. The graphics were not the best but very good for a long term tv show. The acting quality was great from all of them except only Shawn Ashmore (Jake) and Paulo Costanzo (Ax) made it into big movies such as X-Men 1 & 2 and 40 Days and 40 Nights.The greatest part of animorphs was that it was different to the Book and had a feel of hope rather than the desperation that the book had. All the actors played their parts well and after watching this its impossible to imagine who else could have played the parts. A movie could've been made since their are several plots the TV series didnt use and the TV actors could be kept on for the movie.(Just a suggestion dont email me complaining about it). Anyway if you do get the chance to see it then do because it is a great tv series!

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