Morph Club

May 31, 2016 11:40 AM

The Morph Club Podcast - Two comix illustrator friends revisit Katherine Applegate's popular 1990's YA book series Animorphs! Join them as they laugh and cry about sad morphing teens and the horrible aliens who hate them.

I read the heck out of these books as a kid, and it's been a lot of fun following along as hosts Megan Brennan and Carey Pietsch dive back into that world. The books... mostly seem to hold up!

Episode 1

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posted by One Second Before Awakening (12 comments total)

Are Animorphs still considered part of the Hasbro Transformers universe?
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:03 PM on May 31, 2016

The Literary Disco podcast (which is co-hosted by Rider Strong, for extra 90s-ness) did an episode on Animorphs. As adults, they... weren't impressed.
posted by Flannery Culp at 12:22 PM on May 31, 2016

I lie awake at night wondering what could have been if the series had all the obvious monthly filler stripped out and condensed down to, say, the equivalent length of The Hunger Games or similar dystopian YA novels.

Also to this day I scream GET SOME, TOBIAS! at every hawk I pass while driving.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 12:30 PM on May 31, 2016 [9 favorites]

I lie awake at night wondering what could have been if the series had all the obvious monthly filler stripped out and condensed down to, say, the equivalent length of The Hunger Games or similar dystopian YA novels.

But how many kids would never have gotten into it if it hadn't been $5 a volume in the Scholastic catalog?
posted by J.K. Seazer at 1:00 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

don't get me wrong, The New Animorphs Is Out Today was like, the highlight of my month (and I had to promise not to start reading it in the car ride home or else it'd be done too quickly).

but there were definitely issues that had a more Monster of the Week feel than anything else.

To make another 90s comparison -- I think Sailor Moon would have been a stronger entity narratively if the plot moved forward more week to week...

but then again, that's an adult's tastes talking more than anything else. maybe I just don't want to admit I don't have the time or the inclination to slog through 60-odd volumes for nostalgia's sake.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 1:13 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

The demon that lives in the air, that's why I've been enjoying this podcast so much. The hosts really go into a lot of detail when talking about each book, so listening to it feels like I'm rereading the books without having to actually track them all down and slog through them.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 1:45 PM on May 31, 2016

Man I loved these. Somehow I never actually read the ending though - thankfully the Internet was there to fill me in years later.
posted by atoxyl at 2:04 PM on May 31, 2016

but there were definitely issues that had a more Monster of the Week feel than anything else.

I think this is related to the second half of the series (except for the finale) being ghostwritten. KA Applegate wrote the outlines and reviewed the manuscripts, but there was still a definite sense that not all the writers were totally on the same page.
posted by teraflop at 3:10 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

Around 5 years ago KA Applegate did an extensive AMA on reddit.
posted by Proofs and Refutations at 3:22 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

Haha, I forgot about that AMA.

"14 books a year? That's insane... How do you manage to keep thinking of fresh ideas at that kind of clip?!"
"Rip off old Star Treks. That helps."
posted by teraflop at 8:35 PM on May 31, 2016 [4 favorites]

I lie awake at night wondering what could have been if the series had all the obvious monthly filler stripped out and condensed down to, say, the equivalent length of The Hunger Games or similar dystopian YA novels.

Animorphs has so. much. potential for a dark and gritty reboot. Because when you think about it, the book series was kind of like a dark and gritty reboot of itself.

I've been waiting for someone to make a Neon Genesis Evangelion-style TV adaptation. I feel like, now that the people who read the series as kids are getting to the age where they can become producers and showrunners, it's just a matter of time. Maybe that's just wishful thinking. (And man, I wish I had the entertainment industry connections to be involved, because I have so many ideas!)
posted by Anyamatopoeia at 4:38 AM on June 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

There was a TV show at some point that got canned after like three episodes, wasn't there?

Oh, I guess it lasted two seasons.
posted by tivalasvegas at 11:27 AM on June 2, 2016