HHHHHHHH that is pretty much how I feel about it right now!!!! I’ve been watching while I work on sewing a thing so I can LOOK AWAY during the cringeworthy parts but it. I just.
ALLOW ME TO SPEND THE NEXT PORTION OF THIS POST DESCRIBING EXACTLY HOW A NEW ANIMORPHS SHOW SHOULD BE CREATED AND WHY NOW IS THE PERFECT TIME TO LAUNCH IT.
for starters: I 100% agree that animated is the way to go. You can have the characters portrayed as their actual ages (children), no worries about the actors aging during fimling, you don’t have to blow your entire budget on cgi morphing effects, no need to hire TRAINED LIONS to jump around a set–it just makes more sense. You’re not limited to sets, you can animate anywhere in the world–in the universe!
And do you know who I think would be perfect to take this on????
DC.
Now–If you’ve never watched any of their animated shows, dear reader, you might be confused! I’m not talking about DC comics live action films, where they’re pumping out gritty emo batman movies and taking the most optimistic heroes like superman and trying to make them ‘dark’ and angsty.
I’m talking about the crews who did Teen Titans!!! Young Justice!!!!!!! The animated Green Lanturn series!!!!!!!!!! if you’ve never seen these PLEASE please do yourself a favor and watch them (I highly recommend Young Justice) because they do what the live actions failed: they show the real, dark sides of the characters and their struggles as well as the optimism and hope they keep despite it. They’re shows that are being produced for young viewers but are still gripping and entertaining for adults, and they OFTEN feature children or young adults as the main cast. They don’t shy away from showing violence, like other companies, because they’ve been doing it for so long. As well as a precedent for complex female characters, pov switching from episode to episode, and character growth for everyone!!
like as much as the broadcasting studios and the organization can suck the scripts and voice actors put so much heart into these things and just. gosh. they’re gems. I think if anyone was gonna be able to pull it off, it’d be DC at this point.
Child superheroes is BASICALLY THEIR THEME AND MARKET ALREADY!!!! They have the time slots, the advertising–it’s all already figured out!!! the fanbase is there. the fanbase is WAITING. it would be a hit.
There’s an excellent post by @perianfrost about this too here, about how each book would condense nicely into a 23 minute episode. Throw in an associated 90 minute movie each season for megamorphs, hork bajir/andalite chronicles–an excellent idea. DC already often do animated movies, sometimes associated with shows/sometimes not, their run of batman movies are AMAZING and reflect batman SO MUCH BETTER as a character than the live actions did. Hell, they’re better than the actual comics half the time.
I think each season could be around 20 episodes instead of 10, which would give you 2-3 seasons depending on how many filler books you cut out of the lineup (a lot of the ghostwritten ones aren’t super necessary to overall plot, so you could either condense the series or stretch it a bit). Having a relatively small number of seasons I think would increase chances for funding, and would make it less likely to be cancelled only halfway through (can you tell I’m bitter about Young Justice???? yeah).
Here’s examples of the art style I would like to see it as:
Not TOO cartoony, with realistically proportioned figures, with a simple yet dynamic style. Every now and then with beautiful shots of different landscapes or scenery.
And honestly?? This is the time for a reboot. Animated shows are a HIT right now. Gravity Falls, Stephen Universe, Adventure Time–it’s all been SUPER popular. You’re also hitting the current young crowd as well as the 20-year-olds who grew up with them, probably the second biggest demographic for kids shows.
It’s just. It’d be perfect. I want it so bad. Someone pay me to write all the scripts for them and I’ll drop everything else it just has so much potential.