It should be done as an animated series. Then you don't have to worry as much about the actors aging faster than the characters (on Walking Dead, Carl was supposed to be 12 when he died), or about wonky vfx or bad cgi animals and aliens.
And structure it as a horror series. It should make Evangelion look like My Little Pony. Transformation sequences? Cronenberg shit. Fight scenes? Gonna need more red ink. Every scene should DRIP dread, exhaustion and paranoia. It should HURT to watch.
Animorphs was alway a stealth horror story about the terror of war, a gut-wrenching warning that war has no heroes or victors, only survivors. And more often than not barely even that.
Any successful adaptation NEEDS to have that as its core or it will be a pale imitation.
Yeah. I found the revelation that the Hork-Bajir are just peaceful herbivores covered in spikes because they eat bark to be so shattering. Just a great way of showing how everything can be twisted for the war machine.
Sadly, its peak popularity happened in the 90s, right before higher quality YA adaptations took off with Harry Potter.
At the same time, I can only imagine how difficult it would be to adapt, given its level of violence, heavy use of live animals, and spawling storyline.
You would have to make it animated. Of course animating animals is notoriously difficult. The real issue is that you have a series ostensibly for children, starring 14 year olds, with brutal violence and adult situations in every single episode.
By book 10 they are already several warcrimes deep.
honestly the best time they could have made a faithful adaptation was during the height of more mature, politically conscious YA adaptations like The Hunger Games
I never did read the Hunger Games books or watch the movies; the former since I preferred Battle Royale, and the latter out of disgust with how some white fans treated Amandla Stenberg.
But from what I read about THG, Suzanne Collins didn't fuck around with showing how brutal war can really be.
idk, that comparison was always kinda tired since they have LITERALLY nothing in common other then the same surface-level premise
but the series was really good up till Catching Fire where where they try to "both sides" a rebellion at a time where it that wasn't the best thing to hear... 😬
Eh, that's fair. THG did more with its world building and the rebellion, which Battle Royale didn't quite do.
I do admit to being biased since I loved the BR manga and novel in high school. It just seemed strange that THG got popular when Hollywood wouldn't touch BR, due to Columbine.
Comments
Any successful adaptation NEEDS to have that as its core or it will be a pale imitation.
At the same time, I can only imagine how difficult it would be to adapt, given its level of violence, heavy use of live animals, and spawling storyline.
By book 10 they are already several warcrimes deep.
Animation can get around most of those problems, considering all the crazy shenanigans shonen anime often does with its child/teen characters.
The animals being tough to animate might be an issue, though.
But from what I read about THG, Suzanne Collins didn't fuck around with showing how brutal war can really be.
but the series was really good up till Catching Fire where where they try to "both sides" a rebellion at a time where it that wasn't the best thing to hear... 😬
I do admit to being biased since I loved the BR manga and novel in high school. It just seemed strange that THG got popular when Hollywood wouldn't touch BR, due to Columbine.
Also...