For those who don’t remember the 90s, here’s a history lesson. Around the turn of the decade a hot new computer-assisted special effect started becoming popular. Terminator 2 and Michael Jackson’s “Black Or White” music video popularized the technique of “morphing” — seamlessly warping one object into another one. It was so trendy that entire properties based themselves on morphing as a superpower. “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” was introduced in 1993, despite its Sentai origin having nothing to do with morphing at all. Then in 1996 Scholastic started publishing Animorphs — a series of books where morphing was in the name and on the cover, with each depicting a photo of a real kid shifting into a real animal through several steps.
Animorphs was an instant hit for creator K.A. Applegate, who would (mostly) write 54 books in the main series, plus a few specials, until its end in 2001. The premise is not unlike that of Invasion of the Body Snatchers or They Live where it’s discovered aliens have not only invaded Earth, they’re already taking over humanity one body at a time. But there are good aliens called the Adalites, and they grant their shape-shifting powers to some trustworthy teenagers in hopes they can defeat the evil Yeerks.
It wasn’t as optimistic or as goofy as its 90s contemporaries, though. For all its marketing as a kids series with bright colors and visual cover gimmicks, Animorphs told a dark tale of abuse, war, and suffering. Applegate has stated her intent was to make kids think seriously about the cost of war and hammer home that it wasn’t a “cool” thing. She hoped she could use her influence to push us to peace, but, well. it didn’t work out that way.
It would be nice if an Animorphs show didn’t gloss over this aspect of it (a two-season series was produced for Nickelodeon that was somewhat sunnier), but this new show we’re talking about is headed for Disney+, and they’ve sanded the edge off other books they’ve adapted, like Artemis Fowl. That being said, Ryan Coogler has been handed the reins of the production, and Bayan Wolcott (who is writing episodes of Hulu’s dystopian The Testaments) is penning the scripts, so…there’s hope they will keep the tone authentic.
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