I think if you wanted to adapt Animorphs into a tv show today, it should be animated. A decently animated show would probably be cheaper than photorealistic transformations, aliens and trained animals doing things animals don't do.
It's not just the visual aesthetic of anime, thematically and narratively it has so much in common with anime that it's kind of crazy. The stuff with crayak and the howlers and the Chee/pemalites? Vintage anime stuff
"They have KNIFE-TAILS?" I'm so glad that ended up being a talking point. I would love to see an Andalite tail-blade duel on screen with decent effects.
The closest thing I've seen to a decent tail blade fight was Tyrion vs Qrow in RWBY, and well, if the TV show was a slap fight, this was break dance fighting.
I watched the show a fair bit growing up and while I never got SUPER into it, one thing I do vividly remember is watching the scene about ordering 'a cheeseburger without any cheese ' as an 8 year old kid and trying that out at Burger King, only to discover that A) it was not, in fact, a secret password that would lead me in the secret backroom where all the cool shit was happening, and B) Fast food hamburgers actually taste like garbage without cheese on them. In this way, Animorphs made me wiser. More world weary. Anyways thanks for having me on dude! Always happy to voice robots terrified of giving themselves eternal trauma and stuffy lit professors ✌️
no joke, as an adult i'd order cheeseburgers from places with specific toppings, and if i didn't specify that i still wanted cheese, they'd ask if i wanted it. now i'd like to think it's because people like you have been trying to find secret yeerk bases for years keep up the good work (and can't wait for the next pathologic vid!!!)
@@LordRavenscraft I love seeing these interactions because its kind of like watching my childhood fantasy that the people inside the TV all know each other and hang out sometimes
At least you understood what was happening in that scene. The whole point of that asking for cheeseburger without cheese was lost on me when I was a kid. I didn't even wonder about why she was asking for that. Only now watching this video, I found out it was supposed to be a password 🤣
I used to work at a burger joint, and people asked for cheeseburgers without cheese constantly. It used to frustrate me endlessly because that has a name: a goddamn hamburger. I didn't realize they were just Andalite technology-enhanced warrior children, searching for the secret back room.
@@loganrenfrow2544 I would love to trully finish the series, but sadly books 47 to 54 were never translated into my language, we jumped straight to 55 and just pretended that those 8 books didn't even exist and 55 and 56 were actually 47 and 48. Plus, by the end of it it the books were pretty hard to find so even among those that existed in my language I missed at least one or two. I'm still glad I could read the very last book though. All of that being said, the show including this scene with Rachel being the one closest to Jake when his brother is concerned was sweet and I always felt like her being also Tom's cousin should have been brought up more often in the books.
Fun story: when I was a kid and I saw the Animorphs book covers, I didn't realize they were novels. I just assumed they were picture books about people turning into animals.
Well, the TV show had two scenes that in my eyes should've been in the books. 1: The Animorphs let Jake go, and trick him in his dying hours into exposing a secret entrance to the Yeerk Pool. That was a move I was REALLY impressed with, it can be hard to follow someone without alerting the person you're following to their tail, and also, that was an impressive display of cunning that was a genuine surprise in that episode. All in all the ending to Jake's infestation in the TV show is a treat! 2: Escargot, Jake eats it in front of Visser 3 and his brother, very visibly likes it, and the two of them can do absolutely nothing to even voice their offense...need I explain more?
1. Pop Arena: "Cassie is a moron". Lord Ravenscraft: "Cassie was right all along." Yeah, I'm with you on this, since her biggest flaw was her naivete. And being naive is not the same thing as being... not smart. 2. The Capture 2-parter is a really good acting showcase for Shawn Ashmore, too, from the snail scene to him as Ax doing a Jake impersonation. Also the actor for Vissar-3 is SUCH a fun ham. 3. I call shenanigans on Rachel morphing a monkey in the last episode, since she always defaulted to the most violent & destructive animal possible in any given situation.
Thank you for this journey. I think I sort of stumbled on the tv show and the books at the same time? I remember getting some Animorphs books from the library and watching some of the show but this was a fun time to revisit. I really like that guy who plays Ax! He was on Royal Pains!
His best role recently was in the show The Expanse. I found THAT show before the books, and I remember him being one of only two actors I recognized... His departure was shocking for many reasons...
This whole thing is seriously making me wish Paulo got to be in more things. My favorite discovery so far is that he was in the Josie and the Pussycats movie and he killed it there, too!!
As someone who was unreasonably charmed by the Animorphs TV show and also as a person who to this day will see Shawn Ashmore in a production and say "hey it's Jake from the Animorphs TV show!", this was a delightful video.
I mean, I was tearing through the books before I ever saw the show but I did watch the show when it came out. And when I first watched the X-Men movie and saw Ice Man, the first thing that went through my mind was, "Holy crap! That's Jake from Animorphs!" No matter what I see him in, that's always the first name that goes through my mind. "Hey, it's Jake!"
I had weird relationship with the show. I was a huge fan of the books, but my family didn't have cable at the time. Meanwhile I had a friend who had no interest in reading, but they loved the show. I think it aired late enough in the evening that I wasn't allowed to stay over with them to watch it, but it created a cool bridge for us where even though we had different interests, we could still play Animorphs and talk about our favorite characters and plotlines. And since most of what they told me lined up with the books, my dumb kid brain imagined it as some high budget prestige sci-fi drama that was everything I wanted, but it was always just out of reach! One time I got super lucky and found The Capture on VHS at Blockbuster, and aside from wishing Ax wasn't human all the time, it came pretty close to living up to the hype. Then a couple years later I found a tape of the first three or four episodes, which... gave me a much clearer picture of what the show actually was, but it still made me want to see how they adapted my favorite scenes from the later books, since I didn't realize how early it had gotten cancelled. Finally, about a decade after that, I found the entire series on UA-cam and binged it. And yeah, I don't think I would ever recommend the show to another adult, but as an adult I was able to respect when they made clever budget decisions, roll with the camp when they didn't, and my memory of the books was hazy enough that most of the small changes went over my head. I just think it's neat that a bunch of arbitrary media formats that basically don't exist anymore made me care way more about a show than if I'd actually watched it. And that the two versions of Animorphs were close enough that, when you boiled it down to two kids talking about how much they love Rachel or Marco, the differences weren't significant.
@@groofay Probably because animation, especially back in the 90s when digital animation still wasn't readily accessible, was way more expensive than live action with some bad puppets and occasional special effects.
I am a 34 year old woman who grew up during the heyday of Animorphs and never read it but these vids made me start the series out of sheer intense curiosity.
They read just as well for an adult reader as they did when I was a kid, surprisingly enough. I was rereading Goosebumps books not too long ago, and those didn't age nearly as well. The Animorphs books feel far more natural in writing, impressively so. Enjoy the ride!
If you start feeling burned out in the middle of the series, pick up one of the Chronicles books! Andalite is great, Ellimist is stellar, and Hork-Bajir is one of my favorite books of all time. Never read Visser myself.
I just started the series too. One of many I avoided in my younger years though to be fair, I was 10 when it ended. Still on book 2 in audiobook form (no time to sit & read anymore) and I'm having a grand time. Kinda mad I missed out on these the first time around.
I recently watched the whole first season with my 7 year old. He loved it in all it's low budget glory. Then we played a game of seeing how many Animorphs actors we could spot in Goosebumps episodes.
I honestly think that Animorphs should be adapted into an animated show aimed at older audiences, sorta like Amazon Prime's Invincible. Even though the books were for kids and the stars are kids, it's a little hard to make violence and gore fun for the whole family in a visual medium, not to mention that most of the people who grew up with Animorphs... are grown up now. (I mean, I assume. Maybe there's some immortal sixth graders running around somewhere. I'm not omniscient.) I'm inclined to doubt that Animorphs is still super popular with children these days. What do kids these days read? Percy Jackson? What hath Scholastic wrought? edit: also I just rung the notification bell, I think you certainly deserve it :3
Could be because it would be hard to train most of the animals that were in the books. In the show, some of the animals had to be declawed in order to keep them from mauling the actors.
I worked in a library 8 years ago and sub in a school library every now and then. The books are not flying off the shelves like when I was a kid, but they do get checked out a lot
Apropos of 'the critically underrated Paulo Costanzo': I just started watching The Expanse, which only added further evidence to my assessment that that dude is never less than awesome in anything he's in.
"To be… or not to be. That is the question. These disks I hold… Are they a record of what will be, or only of what may? For if the future is indeed immutably fortold… then my demise is but moments from that confirmation. for I… I could not live if not the master of my fate. But… if the future can be changed… if these disks record merely one path of all the myriad ways the cosmos might conform… then the power is infinite, and yet still limited, for they can be used but once, and in that change be rendered fiction forevermore. I could destroy them! But… no. T’would be a coward’s answer. I will know the truth instead. Then, t'will be either them or me that face oblivion... Till then" - Dinobot
There was actually a book where Ax made a lot of TV references and was obsessed with soaps and commercials - I believe it’s the one where they turn into cows.
I remember that. The Animorphs introduced Az to television and in a lot.of Ax's books, it starts with him at some point talking about his tv adventures. I especially remember him talking about the soap operas and such in the slaughter house book (said cows book).
Bless us O Lord, for these thy gifts we are about to receive. Thank you for sharing you art and your gift with us! You made me feel much better about things when I wasn't in a good place, that will always mean a lot to me. Keep doing good and be safe my dear Raven ally
I've never been so emotionally invested in a dissection of a subject matter that debuted before I could obtain my driver's license. Keep up the good work
I've always thought it wasn't anyone's fault that this show was bad, it just wasn't possible to do right on a Nickelodeon budget with 1990s VFX technology. If it had a real budget, they could have done it well, or even if they were doing it now with a comparatively smaller budget. But Nickelodeon was just never going to do it right I think due to a lack of resources more than anything else.
I love your videos because you're not awkward in front of the camera. You make it sound like you're having a conversation and we're actually in the room just overhearing it. Thank you for these!
I always kinda figured a Chee (like Erek) would be resilient and heal emotionally after their actions. Like how a beagle is the preferred dog for animal testing because of their incredible ability to forgive and trust their handlers, a Chee would forgive the people who asked them to commit the Act. They may have perfect memory, but they are also perfectly loving, and they aren't simple playback machines. They can think through their experiences and rationalize... I think Erek would be ok as long as he had a loving figure to guide him right away.
I have been WAITING for this. I've read all 64 Animorphs books, including the Alternamorphs, but have never seen any of the show' I can't wait to suffer through it, as I expect I will.
Me, reading a review of the Animorphs tv series: "Creating a skeleton key by rubbing a card on Ax's nipples." Me: That's some impressive hyperbole. Lord Ravenscraft: Ax's magic computer Andalite nipples! Me: OMG... that nipple thing wasn't hyperbole?!?
Holy smokes dude I'm really excited for your Beast Wars retrospective. I'm expecting a powerful examination of the themes in the episode "transmutate" which might have been the first TV episode that made me so emotional I cried.
Oh my GOD the physical effect that being reminded of those transformers had on me. Most things from my childhood I get reminded of just make me go "oh yeah!", but that memory was *buried*. I had the tiger Jake and the "Tri-Rex" (maybe more?) years before I so much as looked at the series, and they were pretty crappy toys that fell apart and got lost piece by piece, so by the time I picked up an Animorphs book I had mostly forgotten about them and completely forgotten that they were themselves Animorphs. I didn't even remember they were the same toy line as each other, christ, I didn't even know they were actual Transformers. I genuinely just now learned every single detail about them and it's like, deep in the recesses of my mind, my four year old self just got dropkicked by forbidden knowledge.
God, these are amazing videos. Also, I think the scene where Jake calls Tom was actually better than the version in the book. The music, the extended dialogue, the inclusion of Rachel and the others, and finally the shot of Tom’s hand just made it hit so much harder
I was planning on commenting at the end, and again after a rewatch, but "you know how many people skipped the books when they saw the covers, people with no taste" that was me... I never much cared about animals so I just passed by them. I also want to say, the intro is golden, and I love a bunch of little moments you put in. Also, nice ad. I know they paid you so ill pay them, but meal replacement ramen sounds infinitely better then the rest of them, and I too chronically find myself unable to cook for myself so I end up eating a lot of junk... plus I eat the "good stuff" ramen for 2$ each, so... idk anyways, ill continue to watch the end now :) ty for the video, ive loved learning about the animorphs through your videos, and eventually once cobid *truly* settles down I will meet one of my friends who loved the books from childhood and he will lend me a selection of books, I dont think he has them all, but he has the first couple at least so I can get started. ty for the videos, hope you do well, and lots of love :) (as much love as an internet stranger can give without it being creepy, I just wish you well)
Scholastic making a TV show to encourage people to go read the books reminds me of all the anime series that were only ordered for one season because they ONLY exist to encourage people to read the manga.
I started with the Andolite Chronicles. It had a little comic strip at the bottom of each page that showed the Millennium Falcon-esque ship (the ship had a name, but it escapes me) heading into a wormhole. I never read any of the books and watched some of the show.
I actually knew Jonathan Whittaker (the actor who played Jake's dad) when I was a kid, so when I heard he was going to be acting in the Animorphs TV show I was super excited! And then watched the first episode and hated how bad it looked and felt bad cuz it seemed like I was letting him down specifically for not liking it. Also yes, Beasties is objectively the correct Transformers show to enjoy.
This trilogy of retrospectives has been amazingly entertaining and well-written - not to mention hilarious! I loved the few scattered Animorphs books I read back in elementary school, but your retrospectives have really inspired me to read the entire series from the very beginning, and my GOD is it as amazing as you say! Thanks for making these!
The algorithm literally showed me your first two parts of the Animorphs videos just last night; didn't expect to spend my morning at 3am watching those... Time for another!
So fun fact about the "two fifty" bit. In World War II, some German spies landed in Britain. They had no discernable German accent and were trained to fit in with British culture. They were caught pretty much immediately. Why? A store clerk gave them the total for their purchase. In Germany and most of Europe, decimalized currency was the norm, so if a purchase cost "two marks and six cents," that might reasonably be phrased as "two marks six." Britain, however, was still on £sd currency with one pound (£1) being broken into 20 shillings (20s or 20/-) and one shilling being broken into 12 pence (12d). There were also a LOT of coloquial terms. A florin was two shillings (written 2s or 2/-). "Four and threppence" was 4/3. A "guinea" was 21/- or £1. 1s. for reasons that make almost no sense. One such common term was the half crown, which was 2/6, also often read "two and six." That's how the clerk said their total. They paid £2. 6s. The clerk immediately called the authorities because some folks just paid almost 20 times the amount requested and didn't seem to understand British currency and they *might* be German spies. I don't know whether they got their money back.
Couple things! I like the show, because for me it's just a fun time, and I agree that people overstate the changes. Also! Tobias still being aware of the Yeerks in the show's pre-book Megamorphs 4 actually makes sense, because if you look at the first episode, Tobias went through the construction site without the others. So if just Jake and Co didn't go through, Tobias still would and so he'd still get powers
4:47 whenever I read or hear quotes like this I'm always reminded of this one essay titled "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly"
Rewatched first two parts just to get here, will probably watch again cause you did a great job. Thank you for this and I hope the algorithm blesses you for all the hard work and emotional exasperation
These videos are excellent. There is a lack of well made and sincerely passionate Animorphs content on the internet so I really appreciate you making them. Thank you.
I remember being absolutely obsessed with animorphs as a kid. There was one time where i made a deal with mum that if I got a school assignment i was struggling with done by a certain day she'd let me watch the show on TV outside our normal allowed screentime. Then after I'd done rhe assignment it turned out the TV guide I'd been looking at was for the wrong week and the show wasn't on any more and I had a major meltdown because I'd been looking forward to it all week.
So I retwatch the first two videos like. Once every few weeks, I think. I have ADHD and having something in the background helps me focus, and your voice is really perfect for it. Plus the jokes tend to land riiiiight when my attention is wandering and I can refocus. So I was SO EXCITED to see this update! Thank you for sticking with it, it's been a really fun watch/repeated listen. Can't wait for Beast Wars!
The Capture was always my favorite book as a kid because as a kid with serious mental health problems, the description of Jake being tied up on a chair inside his brain screaming impotently at his body to doing stuff was a perfect description of how I felt. It put words on awful feelings I couldn't describe.
As far as live action adaptations made by Nickelodeon go, we've definitely seen worse. ...But yeah, Animorphs is ALWAYS at the top of my list of, "Things that should be an Anime."
I am so happy I found your channel shortly after your Liars Dice video. Long form video essays are my absolute jam, and I have spent so many hours watching and re-watching your videos over the past year. Thanks for giving my brain “The Good Chemicals (TM)”.
Great video as always. If I ever get around to founding an accredited University, I'll make sure to send you that Ph. D. in Animorphs, you've earned it.
I really enjoyed having Eli's perspective on this! They had such fun reactions!! And Zachary was fun to see too! Also, I'll always click on a Lord Ravenscraft video!
I’d forgotten this channel existed, until this popped up in my notifications, and I just spent the past hour enjoying more of a dude just being a fan of something, it’s nice
I remember checking out an Animorphs VHS at the local library (after me and my brother read basically every Animorphs book they had available) and being sorely disappointed by it. Now I have a better understanding of why. Thanks! 1:03:35: And reducing Ax to a punchline also undercuts any credit the show might get for treating Ax as a neurodivergent human character. If he could be solemn, knowledgeable, etc despite sometimes acting goofy, he would have seemed like a full character who incidentally has some quirks. But by reducing neurodivergent(ish) characters _to_ their quirks, you make them less lke people who should be respected and more like...well, punchlines. And a lot of the time, burdens on the "normal" people around them who have to put up with their shit, which is certainly what neurodivergence feels like sometimes but isn't exactly a wholesome message.
This was so great, me and my partners have greatly enjoyed watching all of your deep dives into the animorph series. I literally cheered at your next video announcement
I recently discovered that one of my boyfriends siblings had no idea the book series existed and only knew Animorphs from the tv series. She was truly baffled when I told her I was listening to Animorphs podcasts near the beginning of the pandemic. Her siblings were also baffled, but it was because they had seen the book covers and were surprised that anything of merit was inside and had no idea there was a tv series.
Ohhhh god, I had ALL the VHS tapes of this show (still do!) since I didn't have cable and had no other way to watch it, but I haven't watched them in decades. But just hearing that tiny riff of the opening de-aged me 21 years. Thank you for reminding me of my first all-comsuming obession.
Even if people want to argue over how good the show was, can we at least all agree the opening song for it was freaking awesome? It's a song I'll find my self humming even thou I haven't seen the show in over a decade. Same with the opening to So Weird.
I’ve watched like 10 seconds of this but I already want to say before you get into your own opinion that my friend and I actually enjoy the Animorphs TV show. The theme song is a banger, and we really love what they did with Visser One and the Yeerks adopting human activities to calm their hosts. (Unless I’m misremembering and that wasn’t in the show but I’m pretty sure it was.) It tries, you know? And I appreciate it.
I loved the show as a kid. I'm not gonna go back and ruin it for myself. This was a nice halfway. Thanks for remembering it so I didn't have to... Doug Walker doesn't deserve that phrase, there's so many other people that actually deserve it.
I was 7 when the Animorphs show first came out. This was around when the TV-ratings system was becoming more established, so when I saw that first episode be rated TV-Y7, I had this funny sense of relief like "phew, I'm legally allowed to watch this!" And I feel like that's part of why I have such fond memories of this show. I'm sure it hasn't aged well, but I remember the human aspects of the story being treated really well. Jake and Tom's relation, Marco's awkward relation with this depressed dad... they all really hit. also ftr, I knew about the books before the show and even remember getting mad when classmates would only borrow the volumes from the library exclusively to play with the flipbooks in them. also also: You mentioned the show coming out around when the books were around volume 20 or so, and I feel like this definitely played a part in why so many of the middle volumes were "filler" stories. Must have been wild to see the source material spinning its wheels just so the adaptation wouldn't have to spin its wheels as much. Good video!
The fact that the ramen company person actually read Animorphs just convinced me to give their product a try next time I'm in the mood for ramen. This is a much more fascinating discussion on the Animorphs adaptation and the nature of adaptations as a whole than I expected.
These videos of yours are what got me into the franchise after missing out on it when I was a kid. Thank you so much for making these, I absolutely love the books so far!
Yooo thank you for blessing me with this Animorphs food once again. I have so many strong and conflicting thoughts about the show, I love what it does well and it's at least laughable a lot of the time when it's bad. Also I am SO on board for Beast Wars videos from you, gotta show my preemptive support on that.
God these videos are perfect. They make me laugh so hard and are well produced for a smaller channel. And I just desperately need catharsis on the Animorphs series from somewhere!
I just want to say that when Ice man first came on screen in X-men all my little brain could think was "ANIMORPHS". I am now ready for the next hour Edit: To this day I have no idea why "hold the cheese" is so burned into my memory
I think if you wanted to adapt Animorphs into a tv show today, it should be animated. A decently animated show would probably be cheaper than photorealistic transformations, aliens and trained animals doing things animals don't do.
I mean. They’re making a movie
And now I'm thinking how it would look as an anime. Absolutely awesome.
It's not just the visual aesthetic of anime, thematically and narratively it has so much in common with anime that it's kind of crazy. The stuff with crayak and the howlers and the Chee/pemalites? Vintage anime stuff
Yes, or like Invincible, like that some type of vibe/time.
It could fill the space that Avatar the last air bender had so I like this idea
"They have KNIFE-TAILS?"
I'm so glad that ended up being a talking point. I would love to see an Andalite tail-blade duel on screen with decent effects.
Mouth-Feet?! KNIFETAILS?!
and hacker nipples 🤷🏼♀️
The closest thing I've seen to a decent tail blade fight was Tyrion vs Qrow in RWBY, and well, if the TV show was a slap fight, this was break dance fighting.
I watched the show a fair bit growing up and while I never got SUPER into it, one thing I do vividly remember is watching the scene about ordering 'a cheeseburger without any cheese ' as an 8 year old kid and trying that out at Burger King, only to discover that
A) it was not, in fact, a secret password that would lead me in the secret backroom where all the cool shit was happening,
and B) Fast food hamburgers actually taste like garbage without cheese on them.
In this way, Animorphs made me wiser. More world weary.
Anyways thanks for having me on dude! Always happy to voice robots terrified of giving themselves eternal trauma and stuffy lit professors ✌️
no joke, as an adult i'd order cheeseburgers from places with specific toppings, and if i didn't specify that i still wanted cheese, they'd ask if i wanted it. now i'd like to think it's because people like you have been trying to find secret yeerk bases for years
keep up the good work (and can't wait for the next pathologic vid!!!)
@@LordRavenscraft I love seeing these interactions because its kind of like watching my childhood fantasy that the people inside the TV all know each other and hang out sometimes
At least you understood what was happening in that scene. The whole point of that asking for cheeseburger without cheese was lost on me when I was a kid. I didn't even wonder about why she was asking for that. Only now watching this video, I found out it was supposed to be a password 🤣
I THOUGHT that was you! Lol
I used to work at a burger joint, and people asked for cheeseburgers without cheese constantly. It used to frustrate me endlessly because that has a name: a goddamn hamburger. I didn't realize they were just Andalite technology-enhanced warrior children, searching for the secret back room.
Rachel standing next to Jake as he makes the call to Tom is even more heartbreaking when you consider how Tom's and Rachel's stories end.
I never finished the series but I can feel a chill reading this comment
Seriously, don't tell me
@@QuikVidGuy Please finish the series. I just did and it was worth it.
@@QuikVidGuydid you ever finish the series
@@loganrenfrow2544 I would love to trully finish the series, but sadly books 47 to 54 were never translated into my language, we jumped straight to 55 and just pretended that those 8 books didn't even exist and 55 and 56 were actually 47 and 48. Plus, by the end of it it the books were pretty hard to find so even among those that existed in my language I missed at least one or two. I'm still glad I could read the very last book though.
All of that being said, the show including this scene with Rachel being the one closest to Jake when his brother is concerned was sweet and I always felt like her being also Tom's cousin should have been brought up more often in the books.
I will always recognise Shawn Ashmore as "Jake out of Animorphs" first and foremost, regardless of how many other things I see him in
Me too, and I never watched the tv show
Same
Same
Same.
Me too!
Fun story: when I was a kid and I saw the Animorphs book covers, I didn't realize they were novels. I just assumed they were picture books about people turning into animals.
i thought they were some kind of learning about animals book
@@LeumGaming They kind of were; kind of.
@@CirianAlani you're not wrong (:
Well, in one little corner of each page, they were.
We have different definitions of fun.
Well, the TV show had two scenes that in my eyes should've been in the books.
1: The Animorphs let Jake go, and trick him in his dying hours into exposing a secret entrance to the Yeerk Pool. That was a move I was REALLY impressed with, it can be hard to follow someone without alerting the person you're following to their tail, and also, that was an impressive display of cunning that was a genuine surprise in that episode. All in all the ending to Jake's infestation in the TV show is a treat!
2: Escargot, Jake eats it in front of Visser 3 and his brother, very visibly likes it, and the two of them can do absolutely nothing to even voice their offense...need I explain more?
yeah its just a shame the show did not have more moments like that.
1. Pop Arena: "Cassie is a moron".
Lord Ravenscraft: "Cassie was right all along."
Yeah, I'm with you on this, since her biggest flaw was her naivete. And being naive is not the same thing as being... not smart.
2. The Capture 2-parter is a really good acting showcase for Shawn Ashmore, too, from the snail scene to him as Ax doing a Jake impersonation. Also the actor for Vissar-3 is SUCH a fun ham.
3. I call shenanigans on Rachel morphing a monkey in the last episode, since she always defaulted to the most violent & destructive animal possible in any given situation.
In fairness, Poparena has since expressed a lot of regret for the whole “Cassie is a moron” thing.
Counterpoint for #3: monkeys are both violent and destructive.
@@fredjones2170 I honestly appreciate that, ty for letting us know
@@ham1nator1337Counter-counterpoint: Most animals would be destructive if they had a monkey brain.
Please never stop making hour-long animorphs videos
Thank you for this journey. I think I sort of stumbled on the tv show and the books at the same time? I remember getting some Animorphs books from the library and watching some of the show but this was a fun time to revisit. I really like that guy who plays Ax! He was on Royal Pains!
His best role recently was in the show The Expanse. I found THAT show before the books, and I remember him being one of only two actors I recognized... His departure was shocking for many reasons...
Not surprised to see you here. Fan of ur stuff as well!! Particularly the pacific rim Vid : )
This whole thing is seriously making me wish Paulo got to be in more things. My favorite discovery so far is that he was in the Josie and the Pussycats movie and he killed it there, too!!
I got into animorphs when I accidentally ordered #14 instead of a goosebumps book
Love your videos!
As someone who was unreasonably charmed by the Animorphs TV show and also as a person who to this day will see Shawn Ashmore in a production and say "hey it's Jake from the Animorphs TV show!", this was a delightful video.
Yup that was me when I saw him in the movie Frozen. I was like “holy crap that’s Jake!”
Same
No matter what he does, to me, he will always be Jake from Animorphs
When I think back to moments from the book series, he still is the face I picture as Jake.
I mean, I was tearing through the books before I ever saw the show but I did watch the show when it came out. And when I first watched the X-Men movie and saw Ice Man, the first thing that went through my mind was, "Holy crap! That's Jake from Animorphs!" No matter what I see him in, that's always the first name that goes through my mind. "Hey, it's Jake!"
Knew nothing of Animorphs prior to your content. Now I am enthralled.
ONE OF US
"These are my terrible skeleton children." - LordRavenscraft, First Pope of Animorphs
I had weird relationship with the show. I was a huge fan of the books, but my family didn't have cable at the time. Meanwhile I had a friend who had no interest in reading, but they loved the show. I think it aired late enough in the evening that I wasn't allowed to stay over with them to watch it, but it created a cool bridge for us where even though we had different interests, we could still play Animorphs and talk about our favorite characters and plotlines. And since most of what they told me lined up with the books, my dumb kid brain imagined it as some high budget prestige sci-fi drama that was everything I wanted, but it was always just out of reach!
One time I got super lucky and found The Capture on VHS at Blockbuster, and aside from wishing Ax wasn't human all the time, it came pretty close to living up to the hype. Then a couple years later I found a tape of the first three or four episodes, which... gave me a much clearer picture of what the show actually was, but it still made me want to see how they adapted my favorite scenes from the later books, since I didn't realize how early it had gotten cancelled. Finally, about a decade after that, I found the entire series on UA-cam and binged it. And yeah, I don't think I would ever recommend the show to another adult, but as an adult I was able to respect when they made clever budget decisions, roll with the camp when they didn't, and my memory of the books was hazy enough that most of the small changes went over my head.
I just think it's neat that a bunch of arbitrary media formats that basically don't exist anymore made me care way more about a show than if I'd actually watched it. And that the two versions of Animorphs were close enough that, when you boiled it down to two kids talking about how much they love Rachel or Marco, the differences weren't significant.
this is a lovely story. and *exactly* why i didn't want to write off the show entirely. thank you for sharing!
@@LordRavenscraft humanity first. Down with xeno scum
If only we could've had an Animorphs animated series... that would've at least solved the budget problem (or just made it less of a problem)
At least now we’re getting graphic novels of at least a few books in the series.
And also obviated the awful '90s CG...in fact, why the hell _wasn't_ the show animated?
I've been saying this for years about both Animorphs and Harry Potter.
@@groofay Probably because animation, especially back in the 90s when digital animation still wasn't readily accessible, was way more expensive than live action with some bad puppets and occasional special effects.
@@Cr3zant Ah, fair point.
I am a 34 year old woman who grew up during the heyday of Animorphs and never read it but these vids made me start the series out of sheer intense curiosity.
They read just as well for an adult reader as they did when I was a kid, surprisingly enough. I was rereading Goosebumps books not too long ago, and those didn't age nearly as well. The Animorphs books feel far more natural in writing, impressively so. Enjoy the ride!
If you start feeling burned out in the middle of the series, pick up one of the Chronicles books! Andalite is great, Ellimist is stellar, and Hork-Bajir is one of my favorite books of all time. Never read Visser myself.
I just started the series too. One of many I avoided in my younger years though to be fair, I was 10 when it ended. Still on book 2 in audiobook form (no time to sit & read anymore) and I'm having a grand time. Kinda mad I missed out on these the first time around.
@@tristan8940I think, Visser is actually the only Chronicles book I read. I saw the Elimist Chronicle but never got around to reading it.
I'm so curious - did you finish them? What did you think?? :P
Oh god hearing that theme song again took me places.
What strange twist of fate to see ya outside your channel! That’s cool
Why am I completely unsurprised that you're into Animorphs lmao
I recently watched the whole first season with my 7 year old. He loved it in all it's low budget glory. Then we played a game of seeing how many Animorphs actors we could spot in Goosebumps episodes.
There's hope for the future
You should try out the Kamen Rider series!
I honestly think that Animorphs should be adapted into an animated show aimed at older audiences, sorta like Amazon Prime's Invincible.
Even though the books were for kids and the stars are kids, it's a little hard to make violence and gore fun for the whole family in a visual medium, not to mention that most of the people who grew up with Animorphs... are grown up now. (I mean, I assume. Maybe there's some immortal sixth graders running around somewhere. I'm not omniscient.) I'm inclined to doubt that Animorphs is still super popular with children these days. What do kids these days read? Percy Jackson? What hath Scholastic wrought?
edit: also I just rung the notification bell, I think you certainly deserve it :3
Hopefully that still happns, and nickelodeon gives the rights away. If thats there. It deserves it.
Praying that this happens. I’ll be patient, but the prime time for a series is probably within the next five years.
Could be because it would be hard to train most of the animals that were in the books. In the show, some of the animals had to be declawed in order to keep them from mauling the actors.
An animated show on the level of Invincible sounds so amazing! Now I am sad that it's not going to happen
I worked in a library 8 years ago and sub in a school library every now and then. The books are not flying off the shelves like when I was a kid, but they do get checked out a lot
Apropos of 'the critically underrated Paulo Costanzo': I just started watching The Expanse, which only added further evidence to my assessment that that dude is never less than awesome in anything he's in.
He really dives into a role HEAD first... doesn't he?
okay, i will admit, the snail-eating sequence is a work of art
Can I just say that Shaun Ashmore absolutely *killed it* as Ax in Jake morph. His impression of Pablo Costanzo's version of Ax is great.
Kinda like in Harry Potter. Helena Bonham Carter pretending to be Emma Watson pretending to be Bellatrix pretending to be Hermione.
"To be… or not to be. That is the question. These disks I hold… Are they a record of what will be, or only of what may?
For if the future is indeed immutably fortold… then my demise is but moments from that confirmation.
for I… I could not live if not the master of my fate.
But… if the future can be changed… if these disks record merely one path of all the myriad ways the cosmos might conform… then the power is infinite, and yet still limited, for they can be used but once, and in that change be rendered fiction forevermore.
I could destroy them! But… no. T’would be a coward’s answer.
I will know the truth instead. Then, t'will be either them or me that face oblivion... Till then"
- Dinobot
Tell my story to all who ask of it. Tell it truly, the ill deeds along with the good... That I may be judged accordingly.
The rest... Is silence.
Alas, poor Tarantulas. I knew him, Cheetor!
Why univerze hate Wazzpinator?
There was actually a book where Ax made a lot of TV references and was obsessed with soaps and commercials - I believe it’s the one where they turn into cows.
I remember that. The Animorphs introduced Az to television and in a lot.of Ax's books, it starts with him at some point talking about his tv adventures. I especially remember him talking about the soap operas and such in the slaughter house book (said cows book).
Bless us O Lord, for these thy gifts we are about to receive. Thank you for sharing you art and your gift with us! You made me feel much better about things when I wasn't in a good place, that will always mean a lot to me. Keep doing good and be safe my dear Raven ally
we need more reasons to pull out the "MAGIC ALIEN COMPUTER NIPPLES" graphic, because it is Very funny
If it isn't already, that phrase needs to be on a shirt
I've never been so emotionally invested in a dissection of a subject matter that debuted before I could obtain my driver's license. Keep up the good work
I told my friend (who was WAY more into animorphs than me) that you did this video and I'm pretty sure he recoiled in physical pain.
Good time.
I've always thought it wasn't anyone's fault that this show was bad, it just wasn't possible to do right on a Nickelodeon budget with 1990s VFX technology. If it had a real budget, they could have done it well, or even if they were doing it now with a comparatively smaller budget. But Nickelodeon was just never going to do it right I think due to a lack of resources more than anything else.
I love your videos because you're not awkward in front of the camera. You make it sound like you're having a conversation and we're actually in the room just overhearing it. Thank you for these!
I always kinda figured a Chee (like Erek) would be resilient and heal emotionally after their actions. Like how a beagle is the preferred dog for animal testing because of their incredible ability to forgive and trust their handlers, a Chee would forgive the people who asked them to commit the Act. They may have perfect memory, but they are also perfectly loving, and they aren't simple playback machines. They can think through their experiences and rationalize... I think Erek would be ok as long as he had a loving figure to guide him right away.
It’s not perfect, but you can’t tell me that the theme song for the show isn’t awesome.
It's all in your head
I have been WAITING for this. I've read all 64 Animorphs books, including the Alternamorphs, but have never seen any of the show' I can't wait to suffer through it, as I expect I will.
I love the fact that while animorphs is a main stay, you still do the others topics which I find super neat!
Me, reading a review of the Animorphs tv series: "Creating a skeleton key by rubbing a card on Ax's nipples."
Me: That's some impressive hyperbole.
Lord Ravenscraft: Ax's magic computer Andalite nipples!
Me: OMG... that nipple thing wasn't hyperbole?!?
Holy smokes dude I'm really excited for your Beast Wars retrospective. I'm expecting a powerful examination of the themes in the episode "transmutate" which might have been the first TV episode that made me so emotional I cried.
yoo you made your own model for the crowd at the beginning? absolute madlad. big respect!
Oh my GOD the physical effect that being reminded of those transformers had on me. Most things from my childhood I get reminded of just make me go "oh yeah!", but that memory was *buried*. I had the tiger Jake and the "Tri-Rex" (maybe more?) years before I so much as looked at the series, and they were pretty crappy toys that fell apart and got lost piece by piece, so by the time I picked up an Animorphs book I had mostly forgotten about them and completely forgotten that they were themselves Animorphs. I didn't even remember they were the same toy line as each other, christ, I didn't even know they were actual Transformers. I genuinely just now learned every single detail about them and it's like, deep in the recesses of my mind, my four year old self just got dropkicked by forbidden knowledge.
God, these are amazing videos. Also, I think the scene where Jake calls Tom was actually better than the version in the book. The music, the extended dialogue, the inclusion of Rachel and the others, and finally the shot of Tom’s hand just made it hit so much harder
"Mouth feet, computer hands, knife tails" is my sleeper agent activation code
your reaction to CYBERIA made me chuckle because there's a cyberia cafe in the town i went to college in lol
I have been waiting for this.
I honestly forgot the tv show even existed until it appeared on Netflix.
Awesome to know I can get a nostalgia fix from Netflix on this series! Thanks for sharing the info comrade! Glad we can enjoy this together ❤!!
Damn, seems like its not on US Netflix, that's a shame
@@radicalpokemaniacs VPN to the rescue!!!!!!!
I was planning on commenting at the end, and again after a rewatch, but "you know how many people skipped the books when they saw the covers, people with no taste" that was me... I never much cared about animals so I just passed by them.
I also want to say, the intro is golden, and I love a bunch of little moments you put in. Also, nice ad. I know they paid you so ill pay them, but meal replacement ramen sounds infinitely better then the rest of them, and I too chronically find myself unable to cook for myself so I end up eating a lot of junk... plus I eat the "good stuff" ramen for 2$ each, so... idk
anyways, ill continue to watch the end now :) ty for the video, ive loved learning about the animorphs through your videos, and eventually once cobid *truly* settles down I will meet one of my friends who loved the books from childhood and he will lend me a selection of books, I dont think he has them all, but he has the first couple at least so I can get started.
ty for the videos, hope you do well, and lots of love :) (as much love as an internet stranger can give without it being creepy, I just wish you well)
Scholastic making a TV show to encourage people to go read the books reminds me of all the anime series that were only ordered for one season because they ONLY exist to encourage people to read the manga.
I started with the Andolite Chronicles. It had a little comic strip at the bottom of each page that showed the Millennium Falcon-esque ship (the ship had a name, but it escapes me) heading into a wormhole.
I never read any of the books and watched some of the show.
I actually knew Jonathan Whittaker (the actor who played Jake's dad) when I was a kid, so when I heard he was going to be acting in the Animorphs TV show I was super excited! And then watched the first episode and hated how bad it looked and felt bad cuz it seemed like I was letting him down specifically for not liking it.
Also yes, Beasties is objectively the correct Transformers show to enjoy.
Conversely, any time I see Shawn Ashmore, I think, "Is that Jake from Animorphs?" Shows were I was at the turn of the century...
I feel vindicated for all the times I've had to defend enjoying that show as a kid.
Huge Anifan here. Throughly enjoyed all of these videos. Thanks for speaking on it.
This trilogy of retrospectives has been amazingly entertaining and well-written - not to mention hilarious! I loved the few scattered Animorphs books I read back in elementary school, but your retrospectives have really inspired me to read the entire series from the very beginning, and my GOD is it as amazing as you say! Thanks for making these!
The algorithm literally showed me your first two parts of the Animorphs videos just last night; didn't expect to spend my morning at 3am watching those... Time for another!
imagine just having an itchy ear then being attacked by some kids
So fun fact about the "two fifty" bit.
In World War II, some German spies landed in Britain. They had no discernable German accent and were trained to fit in with British culture.
They were caught pretty much immediately. Why? A store clerk gave them the total for their purchase. In Germany and most of Europe, decimalized currency was the norm, so if a purchase cost "two marks and six cents," that might reasonably be phrased as "two marks six."
Britain, however, was still on £sd currency with one pound (£1) being broken into 20 shillings (20s or 20/-) and one shilling being broken into 12 pence (12d). There were also a LOT of coloquial terms. A florin was two shillings (written 2s or 2/-). "Four and threppence" was 4/3. A "guinea" was 21/- or £1. 1s. for reasons that make almost no sense.
One such common term was the half crown, which was 2/6, also often read "two and six." That's how the clerk said their total. They paid £2. 6s. The clerk immediately called the authorities because some folks just paid almost 20 times the amount requested and didn't seem to understand British currency and they *might* be German spies.
I don't know whether they got their money back.
Couple things! I like the show, because for me it's just a fun time, and I agree that people overstate the changes.
Also! Tobias still being aware of the Yeerks in the show's pre-book Megamorphs 4 actually makes sense, because if you look at the first episode, Tobias went through the construction site without the others. So if just Jake and Co didn't go through, Tobias still would and so he'd still get powers
4:47 whenever I read or hear quotes like this I'm always reminded of this one essay titled "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly"
Rewatched first two parts just to get here, will probably watch again cause you did a great job. Thank you for this and I hope the algorithm blesses you for all the hard work and emotional exasperation
These videos are excellent. There is a lack of well made and sincerely passionate Animorphs content on the internet so I really appreciate you making them. Thank you.
I remember being absolutely obsessed with animorphs as a kid. There was one time where i made a deal with mum that if I got a school assignment i was struggling with done by a certain day she'd let me watch the show on TV outside our normal allowed screentime.
Then after I'd done rhe assignment it turned out the TV guide I'd been looking at was for the wrong week and the show wasn't on any more and I had a major meltdown because I'd been looking forward to it all week.
So I retwatch the first two videos like. Once every few weeks, I think. I have ADHD and having something in the background helps me focus, and your voice is really perfect for it. Plus the jokes tend to land riiiiight when my attention is wandering and I can refocus. So I was SO EXCITED to see this update! Thank you for sticking with it, it's been a really fun watch/repeated listen. Can't wait for Beast Wars!
Credit where credit is due, those Controller Jake scenes in the show hurt in the best ways
The Capture was always my favorite book as a kid because as a kid with serious mental health problems, the description of Jake being tied up on a chair inside his brain screaming impotently at his body to doing stuff was a perfect description of how I felt. It put words on awful feelings I couldn't describe.
As far as live action adaptations made by Nickelodeon go, we've definitely seen worse.
...But yeah, Animorphs is ALWAYS at the top of my list of, "Things that should be an Anime."
"So, using the Blockbuster card Ax hacked with his nipple.." That's not something you hear everyday
This show was actually my introduction to Animorphs, it was interesting; but in retrospect the vibe is probably "they tried"
I am so happy I found your channel shortly after your Liars Dice video. Long form video essays are my absolute jam, and I have spent so many hours watching and re-watching your videos over the past year. Thanks for giving my brain “The Good Chemicals (TM)”.
Amazing work! Your videos help us through the day with a fat dose of nostalgia, coated in a thick layer of amazing! Keep up the great work!
Great video as always. If I ever get around to founding an accredited University, I'll make sure to send you that Ph. D. in Animorphs, you've earned it.
I really enjoyed having Eli's perspective on this! They had such fun reactions!! And Zachary was fun to see too! Also, I'll always click on a Lord Ravenscraft video!
I’d forgotten this channel existed, until this popped up in my notifications, and I just spent the past hour enjoying more of a dude just being a fan of something, it’s nice
i love your work a great deal, and I love the passion that's clearly behind it
I remember checking out an Animorphs VHS at the local library (after me and my brother read basically every Animorphs book they had available) and being sorely disappointed by it. Now I have a better understanding of why. Thanks!
1:03:35: And reducing Ax to a punchline also undercuts any credit the show might get for treating Ax as a neurodivergent human character. If he could be solemn, knowledgeable, etc despite sometimes acting goofy, he would have seemed like a full character who incidentally has some quirks. But by reducing neurodivergent(ish) characters _to_ their quirks, you make them less lke people who should be respected and more like...well, punchlines. And a lot of the time, burdens on the "normal" people around them who have to put up with their shit, which is certainly what neurodivergence feels like sometimes but isn't exactly a wholesome message.
Ax lactates nanomachines, got it. And that's impressive for a species that doesn't orally nurse its young.
This was so great, me and my partners have greatly enjoyed watching all of your deep dives into the animorph series. I literally cheered at your next video announcement
I recently discovered that one of my boyfriends siblings had no idea the book series existed and only knew Animorphs from the tv series. She was truly baffled when I told her I was listening to Animorphs podcasts near the beginning of the pandemic. Her siblings were also baffled, but it was because they had seen the book covers and were surprised that anything of merit was inside and had no idea there was a tv series.
This made me actively laugh multiple times, it was great, thanks for being great
Ohhhh god, I had ALL the VHS tapes of this show (still do!) since I didn't have cable and had no other way to watch it, but I haven't watched them in decades. But just hearing that tiny riff of the opening de-aged me 21 years.
Thank you for reminding me of my first all-comsuming obession.
can we get some love for that intro?? 👏👏
I recently discovered your channel and now I’m sad that I’m about to have nothing else to watch.
I’ve been digging your Animorphs coverage!
Even if people want to argue over how good the show was, can we at least all agree the opening song for it was freaking awesome? It's a song I'll find my self humming even thou I haven't seen the show in over a decade. Same with the opening to So Weird.
I ran across your previous episodes like a week ago and seeing this on my feed so soon after just watching the others is delightful!
I’ve watched like 10 seconds of this but I already want to say before you get into your own opinion that my friend and I actually enjoy the Animorphs TV show. The theme song is a banger, and we really love what they did with Visser One and the Yeerks adopting human activities to calm their hosts. (Unless I’m misremembering and that wasn’t in the show but I’m pretty sure it was.) It tries, you know? And I appreciate it.
oh my god this timing is impeccable! i just watched your animorphs videos yesterday and subscribed :D lucky me didn't have to wait at all
Also "beast wars" is kind of a joke about the animorphs fighting in an animal war
I loved the show as a kid. I'm not gonna go back and ruin it for myself. This was a nice halfway. Thanks for remembering it so I didn't have to... Doug Walker doesn't deserve that phrase, there's so many other people that actually deserve it.
I HAVE THAT! I won a vizier 3 animorph at a School carnival as a kid
and always wondered where this crazy fire monster came from!
I have very fond memories of Animorphs, the books and series. Love your video!
to this date anytime i see Shawn Ashmore I go "hey it's Jake"
I was 7 when the Animorphs show first came out. This was around when the TV-ratings system was becoming more established, so when I saw that first episode be rated TV-Y7, I had this funny sense of relief like "phew, I'm legally allowed to watch this!" And I feel like that's part of why I have such fond memories of this show. I'm sure it hasn't aged well, but I remember the human aspects of the story being treated really well. Jake and Tom's relation, Marco's awkward relation with this depressed dad... they all really hit.
also ftr, I knew about the books before the show and even remember getting mad when classmates would only borrow the volumes from the library exclusively to play with the flipbooks in them.
also also: You mentioned the show coming out around when the books were around volume 20 or so, and I feel like this definitely played a part in why so many of the middle volumes were "filler" stories. Must have been wild to see the source material spinning its wheels just so the adaptation wouldn't have to spin its wheels as much. Good video!
The Animorphs tv show was my Pink Opaque! I know it's bad but I love it.
Thanks!
Thank you
The fact that the ramen company person actually read Animorphs just convinced me to give their product a try next time I'm in the mood for ramen.
This is a much more fascinating discussion on the Animorphs adaptation and the nature of adaptations as a whole than I expected.
These videos of yours are what got me into the franchise after missing out on it when I was a kid. Thank you so much for making these, I absolutely love the books so far!
I appreciate that you've made this series of videos.
Thanks.
Yooo thank you for blessing me with this Animorphs food once again. I have so many strong and conflicting thoughts about the show, I love what it does well and it's at least laughable a lot of the time when it's bad.
Also I am SO on board for Beast Wars videos from you, gotta show my preemptive support on that.
God these videos are perfect. They make me laugh so hard and are well produced for a smaller channel. And I just desperately need catharsis on the Animorphs series from somewhere!
I have needed a GIF of Ax dunking his burger in his drink for decades. Thanks for making it possible
I just want to say that when Ice man first came on screen in X-men all my little brain could think was "ANIMORPHS". I am now ready for the next hour
Edit: To this day I have no idea why "hold the cheese" is so burned into my memory
the art in the corner keeps me alive.
YESS I KNEW YOU WERE GONNA BRING UP GOOSEBUMPS
Okay, that is hands down the best ad transition I've ever seen.
Also, I am HYPE for Beast Wars. Hell yeah.