Animorphs, TV, and the Media
or
A Polite AniTV Rant
As you can see from the duel title, I've done one of the infamous "AniTV" articles, many of which abound on the 'Net. (My two favorites are done by Chee-Dolus of TCDB and Guili of C.A.W, who has some scathing editorials on AniTV which give you a slight sense of guilt -- but often not enough to make you feel bad. ^_^). But I decided that I would try a slightly different approach to complaining about AniTV. Because if it were my usual casual rant, I would probably end up incoherent before the end. And believe me, I'm not going to write three pages of telling how angry I am that Jake's tiger morph is white instead of orange or Rachel should have a bear instead of a lion. So, in order to get my message across, I've taken exerpts from various critical reviews, writings and news bits of the Animorphs TV show.
Most of the reports done by groups such as USA Today, Hollywood Reporter Review, and TV Guide Review have the same sort of tone when talking about Animorphs. They dutifully tell the same worn-out summary which is the usual explanation for the broad Animorphs story: Five kids who can change into any animal that they touch (it makes it sound more like a stretch of suspension of disbelief accomplished by magical means rather than a piece of technology from an extremely advanced alien race). They got their power, the article intro goes on, from the alien prince Elfangor who warned them of evil aliens called Yeerks who crawl into people's heads and turn them into Controllers (this would be okay for an intro, except the writers usually put in irritating little things like "robotic Controllers" or "vaguely resembling beetles or trilobites). Plus, it simply reflects a total apathy for the Yeerks and ignorance of their other facets which unfold as the story goes on (sorry, that's a pet peeve of mine. You have to admit, for people with such a strong resemblance to aliens in a 1950's movie, they're pretty cool But most importantly, they are people; a race of sentient, thinking, beings, not slugs that are to be stomped on).
And there's another thing that bothers me. They seem to have a dry, tongue-in-cheek attitude while giving the synopsis. They seem to be sending a low-frequency message to all the other adults saying "Warning: Content very shallow and childish. Read on with caution."
According to an article in USA Today:
"It sounds like a science-fiction show at first glance,
but it's not," says Deborah Forte, president of Scholastic Productions and
executive producer of Animorphs. "It's about real kids and empowerment. These kids
use the strength of their character to deal with this alien invasion."
This sounds like a good thing at first, but I have two problems with this. One
is that, like it or not, Animorphs is a science-fiction story. If what she means
is that the story doesn't only involve the "sci-fi" element, well, every decent
piece of sci-fi work, written, on TV or movie, involves science fiction (which basically
means introducing, in a universe the same as our own, fantastic elements which can be
explained by science) as well as the elements like drama and comedy from regular fiction.
And in the Animorphs I hold dear, the book series, that is one of the things that happens,
the kids become empowered (but you know what they say about power . . .). And, about the
last line: in the TV show -- what character?
The end of the article states:
The Animorphs books are aimed at a
slightly wider following than Nickelodeon's target age of 6-11, so Nick executives worked
with producers to make the show understandable to younger kids, with more action and less
dialogue.
I think this is a little odd. When they said "the books are aimed at a slightly
wider following than Nick's target age," I was thinking, "Oh good, they're going
to recognize that the books are being read by some older kids too," (like myself).
But no, they're trying to get younger kids, so they "try to make the show
understandable . . . more action and less dialogue." There's a simple, if less polite
phrase for that process. It's called "dumbing it down." And any person who's job
it is to appeal to a wide age range that includes children will tell you, you don't want
to dumb it down. Not only does it turn off half of your audience, it deprives the younger
section of greater depth and appreciation that they could have gained.
"But the 6-to-11 set are curious about teens, and appreciative of their humor," says Nick senior vice president Marge Cohn. "We have no concerns that they won't be able to follow or enjoy the show."
Won't be able to follow the show? Wouldn't give it a second thought. But enjoy? Hmm . . . And I hate to say this, too, but I know firsthand about teens, and have to respond to this: What humor in the show? Some parts of it are funny because of the situation, but dialogue humor?
There is one from Hollywood Reporter which
particularly gets on my nerves. It has a positive tone, (which may in itself be an
irritation factor) but one gets the sense that the author of the article not only didn't
skim the books, he didn't bother to watch the show, either.
Quoth the article:
Morphing involves transforming from one physical and spiritual form to another;
with animorphing, a human is transformed to the body and spirit of an animal. The object
is to disguise yourself and be able to go places a human could never travel without being
obvious. (That part isn't exactly explained in the first two episodes, but it doesn't seem
to matter.) After you morph you can save the world.
What is this "spiritual" thing going
on? It's a neat thing to theorize about, especially with Cassie, but morphing is a purely
scientific process. One's body is converted into the animal's body by using the acquired
DNA, and any mental interference that comes from the animal is purely inborn instinct that
comes with the DNA. From the way the writer describes it, one would suppose that it was
all a game. But actually, there is only one "object:" to halt the invasion of
Earth. Morphing is useful for traveling and spy purposes, but it's also used for fighting.
And somehow "after you morph you can save the world," seems mocking, like,
"Okay, I turned into a tiger, now all we have to do is find the Yeerk pool and kick
their butts and the world is saved!"
Editor's Alter Ego's Note: The previous statement would have been true, except the
Animorphs made the shocking discovery that the Yeerks had absolutly no qualms with
eliminating the "Andalite bandits," and that any one of Visser Three's morphs
could kick all their butts at once.
The five teens are entrusted by Elfangor with the power to morph -- to transform themselves into animals and to save the Earth from total Yeerk domination. Writers Jeffrey Vlaming and Neal Shusterman provide the teens with snappy, smart dialogue and director Timothy Bond (who also directs the second part of the first installment) creates a chilling yet inviting mood. Robert K. Sprogis' editing is a bit on the jerky side yet the series' special effects, by Brock Jolliffe, are eerily delightful (and may be too frightening for very young viewers).
This, I totally disagree with. "Snappy, smart dialogue." At best it's plain, simple dialogue, which probably would have been alright if it weren't relying on that assumption. "A chilling yet inviting mood." Hardly. It entirely failed to be chilling and it certainly wasn't inviting. I agree with the editing being a bit on the jerky side, but "eerily delightful"? More like not quite reaching credibility. Some of them, like the scene of a Yeerk infesting a human head would have been effectively creepy if I hadn't been thinking "What the HECK is that crawling into that person's ear? No -- I know. I saw it in our biology book. They're called trilobites." I normally wouldn't think it would be "frightening to young viewers," except I've heard of some that were. Well, they say very young kids have bigger imagination which shrink around elementary and middle-school years. I always thought I had a large imagination, but even it couldn't breathe life into those Hork-Bajir.
At least one article was frank about the whole matter. This was a TV Guide review, by David Hiltbrand (props to him for being honest and for making such a well-written article) found in the Family Pages. I have the whole article, unexerpted. It's pretty good, and if you just added a little something about it falling short of the books it's supposed to be based on, you'd have a perfect article.
Anyone recall Manimal? It was a preposterous (and short-lived) NBC drama starring the dapper Simon MacCorkindale as a professor who could turn himself into any kind of bird or beast at will. Nickelodeon's new series Animorphs (Fridays, 8:30 P.M./ET) is an adolescent version of Manimal. It seems destined for a similarly abbreviated existence.
Editor's Interruption: Normally I would agree, but you're forgetting one little thing, Davie, the motivating force of AniTV from day one: cool backstory, familiar characters, and *lots* of young kids.
In Animorphs, based on the book series by K.A. Applegate, five teens have been granted the ability to transform themselves into any animal with which they have come into contact. Conveniently, one of their moms works at an exotic animal sanctuary, so the changelings have far more alternatives than canaries and golden retrievers.
Now here's the twist: These mutant teens
are our last line of defense against an insidious alien invasion. Yeerks are sluglike
parasites that crawl into our ears and completely body-snatch us. The kids are
understandably paranoid because anyone could be (and usually is) part of this secret
conspiracy. In fact, the leader of the Animorph pack, Jake (Shawn Ashmore, a Mark Wahlberg
look-alike) has
an older brother under the Yeerk influence. Promising premise, right? But Animorphs flubs
it. The show is neither suspenseful nor scary. And the transformation scenes are
disappointing (you see better special effects on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch). But the real
problem is that the five young protagonists never become sympathetic or believable.
They're too dull and one-dimensional. Maybe when the kids were borrowing all that DNA
material from the beasts of the field, they should have siphoned off some personality, a
soupçon of animal magnetism.
The last three sentences hit the nail on the head. Of course, there's a lot more I could say, but it's probably already been said better by eight others. The point of this editorial: Down with AniTV! Just as long as it doesn't take the rest of Animorphs down with it . . .
The articles quoted here are
from:
USA Today
Hollywood Reporter
TV Guide