User Reviews

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.

You know, the show REALLY could have done much better than they did. At first, when i watched the first episode the night it premiered, i was like, "this really isn't that great". I didn't care about the actors, the dialog, or even the crappy way the Controllers spoke(typical supreme being dialect). What really turned me off was the use of horrible CG and the way it strayed away from the books. If my brain could turn away from these two, then the show would be a'ight.

Later in life(present day), when i'm 19, almost 20, i decided to give the show another chance and ordered the VHS online(for only a dollar!). You know? The first 3 episodes were really not that bad. The actors were pretty good(except for Rachel) and the story was kinda similar to the books. Even Marco's humor was good. Still, the low-budget way to make this show turned me off. Hork-bajir look like something from the 80's 'Dinosaurs' and andalites really don't look that great. And this is for the first 3 episodes... Don't get me started on the others. ALSO everyone else is right in saying the show shoulda been longer and put on another channel(Nickelodeon is for 'brainless cartoons' like the other guy said).

Read and tell the Animorphs media team this. They've ruined a good series and should regret it hahaha.

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!

I can remember being a little tyke and sitting in the living room staring in total awe as these kids morphed. I used to be enthralled by this show, and I still am. I have the videos. OK, sue me. I can't help myself, this show, I loved it. It's sort of a guilty pleasure. The show didn't exactly do the books justice, but lets face it; most movies and TV shows never can. But it's not bad. Though I was kind of mad when they didn't find Ax like they did in the book, I let it slide because they probably had no idea how to do it.

I loved the books. I loved(and still do)the show.

But it loses points for Effects.

First of all you have to remember that this was a show in the 90's. Of course the special effects are not that great. You can tell the computer effects are computer effects but they didn't have too much of a budget. If you compare the show to the books of course you have a big chance of not liking it. For TV shows or movies based on books you should never compare the show or movie to the book also the same goes for remakes. They show would have also been better if they had given the show a chance and made the show last longer. It is like we had just got to know the characters and gotten attached to them and then the show ended. I think this was the first time I had seen Shawn Ashmore in anything so mostly when I think of him I think of this show and not The X-Men. As a kid this show was one of the best shows on TV but now I think of it as hokey entertainment. All in all it is not too bad of a show.

I read the animorphs books as a kid, and they were my absolute favorite series at the time. Now, 15 years later, I reread them and still love them. I remember when the show first came out, how excited I was that they were turning my favorite series into a TV show. Then I watched it, and was crushed. It was absolutely horrible, nothing at all like the books, and in fact, I only watched a couple episodes before giving up. Now, having reread the books, I decided to give the show another chance. I couldn't watch more than half of an episode before giving up. The actors are much too old, the plot isn't even remotely similar, and as for the aliens, they are NOTHING like they are described in the book, and they look like cheap halloween costumes. When Elfanger-Sirinial-Shamtul is first shown, he has horse legs and his stalk eyes look more like dollar store alien antennae, just stuck on top of his head and not moving around at all, which is something that is mentioned in most of the books. And for the love of all things holy, why is Tobias wearing jesses?! I know that it's just a trained hawk, but that pushes credibility. The writing was terrible, the effects were worse.

Well Animorphs really did kick but in novel form. I never read the entire series but I remember the general story well and watched all episodes that aired to TV. It hit T.V and realistically followed suit with most children's books that get turned into T.V shows...In other words it sucked. Low budgeting, bad scripting, unconvincing stunts, special effect techniques of the 80s and a cast full of noobs not to mention the differences in personalities between the characters in the book and that of the show. Give credit to those brave young actors as they're the only reason the show made it through to 12 episodes. Good thing it did otherwise 2 great upcoming young actors in Shawn Ashmore may never have wound up in X-Men as the Iceman, and, Paul Costanzo who we all loved as Rubin in Road trip. Brooke Nevin's beauty was her saving grace cause I really didn't think she could act at the time as Rachel. But she's managed to hang on with small roles until her minor part as Nikki in the 4400 that has boosted her creditability. Apart from that it's no surprise to see Cassie, Marco and Tobias ended their careers. At least with good writing, bad actors can be made to look better. They only have the show creators to blame. This show had soo much potential to be soo much more but not in the hands of those who created it. Animorphs was sorta of a Heroes crossed with Stargate SG1 in theme, and look how successful those two have done and still do today. Big budgets, great writers, effects, characters and recognizable actors who CAN act. It's does wonders for a show...

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.

Ah Animorphs. I loved the book series and eagerly devoured each one in middle school and when I heard that there was a television adaptation, I was very excited.

Boy what a let down the final product was. I think for me, this was the moment when Nickelodeon stopped being about cool programming and became more generic.

So what was wrong with the series? Let me count the ways:

1. The characters were HORRIFICALLY miscast. In the books, the Animorphs were somewhere between 12-14, the television cast were at least 18. I remember being horrified when I first saw the cast photos.

2. Horrific acting/bad writing. I dunno which was to blame so I'm lumping into the lumpy mass that it was. Perhaps it was the fact that the accelerated age of the cast hampered the humor that is at least cute coming out of a 13 year old because Marco - not funny. In fact, I don't remember a single comical moment from the group and there were a few. The actors were certainly not helped by the writing which was bland at its best and head smackingly pathetic at its worst.

3. My lord they were stingy with the budget. The final result of the Andalites alone should have convinced Viacom to pull the plug...Their heads had clefts that clearly showed which was the helmet.

4. Back to the cast - Rachel by far was the biggest let down, far from being the warrior woman in the books, the best equivalent in the TV series was "scarecrow". Also, I know Cassie was an idealist but there is a difference between "idealist" and "idiot".

5. One of the worst opening titles ever. Did the music have to be THAT obvious?

6. Answering question 5, "yes" because everything else was so dumbed down why shouldn't the supposedly less intelligent viewers receive a thick as a brick song from a lame rap-rock rip-off or whatever the hell that was.

This show sucked and was an abomination to the book series it was supposed to be based from.

When I heard animators had become a show I jumped for joy. I read the first 15 or so books, so I knew the mythology. The acting was amazing but the writing wasn't up to par. I wish they would bring all 26 episodes to DVD.

The stories were fun and worked well to the main plot even though it was different from the books. Keeping some secrets pushed away worked as well. Namely Marco's mom. The show told her story later on, not like the books which told her in the 4th book, I think. Give the show a shot. Just try to think of it as a re imagining of the mythology and you'll like the show.

Everything else was good until they decided to add characters that they did not need (Ax and visser).

There was so much that could have been done to make this a quality show. For one thing, get rid of that Boris kid! Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the obvious choice, as his personality and appearance were both perfect! And Gregory Smith would have been amazing as Jake- he's always the actor I imagined in that part. That said, the other actors were all pretty good choices (and I loved the Tobias pick), so no more problems there.

Next issue: If memory serves me correctly (and it probably doesn't- I only watched the first episode before giving up on it), they did a weekly or nightly half-hour show on Nickelodeon. Wrong length, wrong station. If they had done what Farscape did and made it an hour-long special on Fox or some other channel, they'd have had a lot more flexibility to do it right. Nickelodeon is for brainless cartoons- they no longer know how to handle real quality programming.

They shouldn't have done it without better funding than they had- no sci-fi/fantasy story, even one for kids/teenagers, will work on a shoestring budget. Why not gear some of that book/merchandise revenue to the show, in turn getting good ratings and making more money as you increase interest in both sets of the series? Was their marketer on sedatives?

But even with everything as it was, I believe (and if anyone reads this who has seen the show will probably agree) what lost the fanbase was its nearly complete disregard for the books. It retained the characters, the aliens and the idea of morphing- and that was about it. And it failed utterly, being cancelled not long after it began.

Animorphs was an amazingly well-written series that hooked most of us by the mix of crazy humor and emotion-wrenching drama. Whether it was plausible or even entirely original didn't matter because the author (props to Mrs. Applegate) did such a good job. If anything, the TV show hurt that. From reading the posts, a lot of kids who got a glimpse of the show decided that the books must have been just as awful (or *gasp* unaware that there even were books). The show could have been so much more- it could have contended among the best preteen/teenager programming, and been a guilty pleasure for the adults out there. But it wasn't, so I bid it a wistful but otherwise indifferent farewell. I'll stick to my original sorrow over the book series ending.

An OG teen, drama and SCIFI show based on the books.

I loved every moment of this series, as I liked the novels.

It was a rare successful book to tv shows (honourable mention to Goosebumps).

Acting and story made me want more. AM had a solid 2 seasons.

Great adaption and show.

I think Animorphs series(book) were all very good. I just recently finished what was left of the t.v series....and i was let down. I like Animorphs, and to see it done that poorly was a big let down. But the actors and actress were all fine, and the animations were bad because of limited resources, its just the story line that caused the most problems. Most of it didn't follow the book and was kinda weak, but was a good effort. With the technology we have now I'm hoping the Animorph series can make a comeback on t.v. Im sure all Animorph fans would agree. So please rethink bringing this show back and show it justice for all fans.

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.

My first thought when I heard they were making a television series out of Animorphs? "How the *beep* are they going to that?" Well, apparently I am a primordial gizmo-challenged dinosaur. Nowadays, there is a wonderful shitload of what folks call "Special Effects." Or, "SpEff," if you will.

With Speff, we have managed to create one of the most horrendously adapted small-screen projects ever.

No, I am not a book snob. But really, the only benefit I got from watching this television series was a newfound understanding of the pronunciation of Tobias' name, and an urge to bash open my skull and gouge out every lasting morsel of respect I had for the books.

I had never noticed this before, but the thought-speak is ridiculous! It's like Doctor Dolittle gone Spandex! One day, when the 'Speff' and creative teams for television are better, perhaps they will try again-- with slightly better results.

Till then... 4/10

My expectations of this show were rather low. It didn't look that great but I thought I'd give it a try. It was a pleasant surprise. The show's premise seemed very odd, but it appeared to be more original than most of the stuff on tv today. Give it a look. You might not be disappointed.

The animorphs series of books was truly excellent. It was my primary source of reading material for five years. One afternoon, however, having seen an ad in one of the books for an animorphs television series, I sat down to watch what is quite possibly the greatest abomination in the entire realm of book to screen conversions. What would have been ideal was a series that stuck directly to the books, with one hour episodes. The books are short enough that each one could be covered in one or two episodes. Movies such as stand by me are an excellent example of how a story can be converted almost verbatim into a script. even a cartoon could have done the job well.Instead, we have a truly disgraceful effort.

The actors selected to represent the animorphs are FAR too old. the animorphs were 13 years old at the beginning of the novels, and yet adults were chosen to play them. 13 or 14 year olds would have been much better.

Furthermore, the plot bears little resemblance to the books, even going so far as to change fundamental elements. What on earth was this stupid 'disk' they were running around with on the first few episodes? All in all, very poorly done. 1/10

Fans of the book series will be, for the most part, disappointed. The actors are too old to fit the roles of the 14/15 yo. Characters they are meant to portray. Sadly, the SFX is terrible in many places - mainly in the area of actual creature footage, which would have benefitted far more from being Computer Generated. Good, lightweight entertainment if you enjoyed such series as 'Goosebumps', but if you're a fan of the books you'll be sadly let down by this crude attempt to cash in on the success of the books.

I just rewatched the Animorphs TV series. Despite being obsessed with the books (read every one multiple times), I realized that as a kid I had somehow simply stopped watching the TV series. Wondering why this was, I watched it again. Here are the major reasons why I think the show doesn't work:

5) Too many parts were miscast: Cassie: I just didn't buy it. The real Cassie is so intuitive. Tobias: The real Tobias was basically neglected trailer trash. The guy who plays him in the TV show makes it hard to believe that he would actually get bullied in the ridiculous ways he does. Marco: They got the humor right by choosing this actor, but not the humanity. Marco is not actually macho, like the actor (who I hear went on to become a personal trainer...) Marco likes to think he's macho. But he isn't. Jake: A good actor in other roles, but he's almost too effeminate in this series to be believable. Jake is quite decisive and assertive and I felt let down. Visser Three: Because he was in human form, I'd call this part miscast. The whole "Victor Trent" role was stupid.

(However, some parts were cast very well... Brooke Nevin was a dead-on Rachel, attractive, sweet when she needs to be, aggressive and outspoken otherwise. She could have been a little more intense, but in reality Rachel's intensity and ferocity grew as the books went on-- it wasn't immediate. Paulo Costanzo was a perfect human-Ax. The actor who played Tom was also pretty close to how I had imagined Tom from the books, though I wouldn't say perfect.)

4) Poor special effects and costume. Some of the special effects didn't even exist, i.e. when morphing was shown via a shadow on the wall, rather than directly. The andalite and hork-bajir were two of the sorriest aliens I've ever seen in any type of media.

3) Poor cinematography. Some of the worst camera work I've ever seen. The first person shots were just awful.

2) Awful minor actors and extras/awful editing. They should have cut out a lot of these scenes. Not only is a lot of the acting bad by the so called "controllers", but there are actually scenes were you can hear the extras saying things like "I'm talking to you, you are standing right next to me, you are listening to what I'm saying..." and other filler like that which should never be heard by the audience (and really shouldn't be said by any extra to begin with... not if they want to make it in Hollywood, anyway...)

1) The show was totally disrespectful of K.A. Applegate's brilliant source material. It made up a bunch of awful story lines that had huge plausibility issues. In the show, the Animorphs are seen (and even captured...) by controllers in their HUMAN FORM. And yet, somehow, they aren't questioned by anyone after they escape, or at school the next day. The "disc" idea was idiotic. The "Victor Trent" storyline is also ridiculous. Ax's rescue was completely poorly done, regardless of the fact that it would have been very expensive to make the actual underwater rescue that took place.

When most people read a book they enjoy, they wish that there would be a movie, or tv show about it. Then when it happens they are all upset becuase doesn't turn out the way they imagined it. That's what happened with animorphs. There are thousands of fans of the books, who couldn't wait for the tv show. Out of those people, maybe a couple thousand fans watch the show and like it. Many just watch the show to get a good laugh. Another handful of people watch because they like one of the actors. Then there are the people who watch because they actually like the show.

My guess is that the books have lost out on a lot of readers because of the show. There are people who were thinking about reading Animophs, then saw the show and said "If the books are anything like the show I'm not going to waste my time reading them." There are also people who watch the show and say "The show is so cool. I can't wait to read the books."

They could have improved the show by following the story lines of the books more closely. Also if they had gotten actors and actresses closer to the age of the characters in the books, the show would be better.