Amph The Animorphs Thread!

This is the thread for talking about the classic Animorphs book series written by K.A. Applegate, that was published I believe from 1996 to 2001.

This series is of course about the five teenagers Jake, Tobias, Rachel, Cassie, and Marco, and later their andalite friend Ax, who are given the power to morph into any creature they touch, so that they can battle the yeerk menace and save the earth!

There were 54 regular books in the series, I believe 4 "Mega Morphs" books, and a few "Chronicles" books, such as "The Andalite Chronicles."

I read the first Animorphs book, "The Invasion" back when the series first started in 1996, when I was in sixth grade. From then on I read every book as soon as it came out up until about 1999 or so, which was somewhere in the 30's for book numbers, and then unfortunately I stopped. Recently however I reread all of the ones I have (they are very short books and quick reads) and I purchased the last few books in the series off of Amazon, because I wanted to see how it ended. Sad ending!

In this thread you can talk about any topic about Animorphs. For example you might say "Who is your favorite Animorph character!?" and somebody might say "Tobias of course!" Or you might say "Remember in that one book when such and such happened?" or you might say "The best book is such and such". Anything about Animorphs, the classic series! Surely there are many folks who read this series?

Ok talk about Animorphs now.

 

I forgot alot about this series, but I remember being freaked out by how anyone could be one of those aliens, it was a pretty tense series for a little kid. Weren't some of the books writtin by a ghost author?

 

I think some of the later books in the series were written by a ghost author, or so I've read on the internet anyway, but she did write the very last books.

 

Gosh I was hooked on these books when I was younger, but then the TV series came out and it was horrible and that took some fun out of the whole thing.

I read the last book a few years ago and was surprised at how sad/depressing it was!

 

"GET THAT BUTTERFLY!!!"

and

"Do you hate trash cans?!? Is that it?! Do you just hate trash cans?!?!" *bump bump bump*

and

"Don't call me prince."
< Yes, Prince Jake. >



I'll stop now. Loved that book series.

 

wasn't there a TV show based on the books that had a couple episodes before it was cancelled?

 

The TV show was horrible. It was different from the books and it had ridiculous special effects and battles, and they turned Rachels morph into a lion! Absurd. The tone was also entirely different. In the books there is a sense of urgency and danger in which the characters are constantly aware of the fact that they could very well be killed any day, but in the show they are more like "Oh la la, fighting some aliens, whatever, la la la everything is alright." It's silly.

 

I'm crazy about this series. I just reread all the ones i had about a year ago. I'm only missing like 6 books.

I love the second half much better than the first half.

I wish they'd make a good animorph movie!

 

An Animorphs movie would be neat, IF they did it correctly! It might have to be three or so movies though.

 

I loved the Animorphs so much when I was kid. I never did finish all the books.

 

MariahJSkywalker you should find books 53 and 54! Very epic conclusion!

 

Very sad ending I thought. I read the entire series while in college, felt like a big dork carrying those around.

Didn't they have a couple episodes on video?

 

They have the entire series on video, but they're hard to find now. In increments of three episodes, I think.

But like Andalite Bandit said, the books were WAY better.

 

I read part of one book, and wasn't impressed. I saw one part of one episode on TV, and was even less impressed. I heard something about Oatmeal.

Point is, I'm just interested enough to want spoilers. How did it end? Tell.

 

I first read an Animorphs book when I was in fourth grade for a book report - it had to be sci-fi. I was hooked after that.

Every month I'd beg my parents to take me to B&N so I could get the new book...I was obsessed. I think I have around forty of the books, mostly the end ones because I was able to read the earlier ones from the library. Books #1 to the early forties were good. After that, I felt the quality of the stories declined. Book #54, I felt, good and yet strange. The way the character's lives turned out. But I spent two years of my young life (not to mention money) on Animorphs.

 

They finally destroy the bad guys, but one of the girls dies on a ship. At the end the Andalite get possessed be something else and the rest of the kids have to go save him, that's where it ends.

 

I thought Rachels death was extremely sad, but it didn't seem necessary to me, so it annoyed me a bit. Jakes final strategy didn't make any sense. He could have send three or four auxillary Animorphs with Rachel and they would have been fine! I do however love the moment when the Visser realizes that the Animorphs are on the pool ship, and the moment when they storm into the control room and the Visser is standing there by the window, realizing at last that he has been beaten.

 

Ah, some of the first sci-fi I got into was Animorphs (yes, even before I got into SW). I was the only one I knew who liked it. Grabbed one of the Megamorph books and worked my way from there.

Never read all of them though. I liked Tobias as a character, and I liked the book where Jake had a Yerk inside him.


Ah, memories.

 

Tobias is the best Animorph! Hooray Tobias.

 

I love the Animorphs series, but it's been awhile since I've read it. Marco is my favorite. With Tobias a close second, of course, because his books were always so angsty-good.

And the TV show? I was so excited when I first found out about it, but it was quite a disappointment.

 

Another problem with the tv show is that a Nickoledian show meant for young kids can't really capture the intense battles of the book series, even though the books were for young adults too. I mean in the books, when they are in battle morphs and get into fights, they are biting and ripping people and aliens to shreds, and they suffer some pretty bad injuries too, getting cut by Hork Bajir blades, hit with dracon beams, and shot. I'm fairly certain I remember an instance or two when one of the Animorphs actually had their guts falling out. That's some graphic stuff. I remember a battle fairly early in the series in which Ax has his arm cut off, Marco is choking a Hork Bajir to death while trying to hold shut a hole that was kicked into his stomach, and the other Animorphs are unconscious. They are rescued by Erek the Chee, who kills all of the remaining yeerks. The only time a Chee fought. In Book 7, Rachel is so into the fight that she doesn't notice that one of her paws has been cut off until somebody tells her to look at it. There is an entire book about Tobias being captured and tortured. There's stuff like that all over the series.

 

I didn't like how Rachel died. But I did know that a character wasn't going to survive - The Ellimist Chronicles came out a few months before #54 and the beginning and end of the book was of a dead Animorph talking to the Ellimist.

Tobias was my favorite character, too. The Illusion - AKA, the tortured Tobias book - was my favorite. I've read it so many times that the cover and spine are falling apart.

I never got to see the show since I didn't get satellite until the fall after it was cancelled. Even if it was bad, I still would have liked to have seen it.

 

Something I'd been waiting for that I had always thought would be in the last book was an Ax vs. Visser duel. In the very first Ax book it was clear that by Andalite custom, Ax was supposed to avenge the death of his brother and kill Visser 3. Never happened!

 

Yeah. In a way, he was able to avenge Elfangor's murder, but it wasn't in tradional Andalite fashion. The thing that got to me was towards the end of the series, the battles were more general than before - they didn't describe what was going on with the characters individually as much. It was more general like "they were fighting and winning" or "they were fighting and losing terribly."

 

Wow. Great thread.

I loved the Animorphs and could not wait to go get the new books when they came out back when they were popular.

I think Tobias was probably my favorite character, though I did actually enjoy Marco's jokes. They were corny yes, but they were always well-timed and lightened up the (sometimes very) dark mood of the books.

I don't know how I feel about the ending still. Rachel going out bugged me, especially in the sense that Tobias lost the last tie to the human world. Also, Jake and Cassie never became a couple.

I'll have to go off and reminisce some more, thanks for starting this up Andalite-Bandit!