Customer Reviews

Animorphs - The Invasion Series, Part 1: The Invasion Begins [VHS]

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I watched this video 2 days ago and it fascinated me and my 8-year old son...the acting is good and these kids are more or less similar to the characters in the book but totally different. With books turned into a TV series, you cannot really expect a "literal" copy of the book to be turned into a TV series but it's still entertaining to watch. I just wish they have this series in reruns or something....and continue to fascinate young generations like my son.

This show is pure sacrilege to the book series, even more so than book 54. It might be interesting for those reviewers that say people must hate everything Animorphs if they hate the show to learn that K.A. Applegate hates the show, and even made fun of it in the books once! I can't remember which book it is, but she says in the introduction, "Controllers don't pull their ears or anything."

I only got through the first three episodes before swearing off the show forevermore, but what I can tell you is that it stinks. I'm not against original plotlines, but every time an episode is not based on one of the books it ends up a horrible mess. Even the episodes based on the books are terrible, from what I've gathered from episode guides.

Did the people at Scholastic actually go out of their way to find 20 year olds that looked nothing like the teenage book characters? Also, the Animorphs' personalities themselves are pretty separate, so it wouldn't seem very difficult to get the characters mixed up. For no apparent reason, Rachel's and Cassie's personalities are completely switched. Cassie's the belligerent mall girl, while Rachel's the messy pacifist. This isn't helped by the fact that a lot of the characters' trademark morphs are changed. Jake has a white tiger, Rachel has a lion, and Marco has a rat. Apparently, this is also just for the hell of it. Plus, they can now morph any kind of clothing, which takes away one of the biggest problems the Animorphs of the books had.

Also, although the first book was spread over three episodes, Scholastic then decided there would be one episode per book. This means that a 150+ page book is being constantly crushed into 22 minutes of air time. This would be a tight fit even without showing every other shot from three different angles in slow motion.

In short, read the books (possibly making up your own ending and skipping 54) and forget the show ever existed. You'll be glad you did.

In part one of the four-part movie series, the video is exactly the same as book #1- The Invasion.In the first episode,"My name is Jake Part 1", the Animorphs recieve their Andalite powers. In " My name is Jake Part 2", the five teens get their first morphs- But Tobias is missing! The team re-enters the construction site in morph with a plan. It gets them a robotic alien disk. In the third and final episode, " The Underground", the Animorphs go down into the Yeerk pool and at the end, Tobias is missing AGAIN! Then they leave you hanging wondering if he's alive, but if you read the series, you know the truth.

Having been a fan of the books by K. A. Applegate, I was most eager to see this. Nevertheless, I was let down somewhat, on how they put twentysomething actors and make them play high-school characters and at how thin the plot and the script really are.

I wasn't terribly disappointed, you have to give the show credit for what it has; a creepy atmosphere, fitting soundtrack, good special effects and somewhat effective acting by all six. I watched nearly all of the episodes, with the exception of the first TV "movie" (in actuality, a movie composed of three episodes edited to seem like a movie).

But the script uneffectively blends about two to three books into one storyline and make up completely different ones also. The flaws of this show is the running time of the shows, which is about thirty minutes or an hour at least, the actors don't bring all of their respective fictional personas out like in the books and the quickness of the "morphing."

After reading the last Animorphs book (which I hated), I feel like watching the shows that I have on videotape again, which are Parts I and II. They seem (and some of them are), better than the last...[book].

The show brings about 65% of the series out from the pages, which is pretty good, but really the first book should have been made into a movie, instead of a series. The series is fine, but I'd rather settle with a more accurate movie than a comparable TV series.

If you ask me, you should read the books first, then watch the movies. The other way around kinda spiols it. I like how the movies are visual, I am a visual person after all (kinda). I still think that the books are better than the videos because they have a longer storyline and a really interesting one, not that I am saying that the videos don't, because they do, they are just kinda dilluting it, that's all. Read book #1, then go down to your local video renting store and check out the first video in the series and you'll see what I mean. The videos are pretty good though, beleive me. The books are better, however, if you want a really good book to read, choose the Holy Bible, God's word.

Anyway, I really like the tv series.The only problem I have with it was the writing I think that they should have got some of the quotes and stuff from the books.But I really don't like the fans dissing the tv series.I thought that it was awesome!Even though that Brooke(which don't get me wrong I like her)she wasn't a very convincing rachel she wasn't ruthless enough or reckless enough,but everyone else I think did great.Yes!the show could had been better a whole lot better but still it will never be as good as the books.If it wasn't for the series I would had never started to reading the books.And people who don't like are just being petty and stupid.The show was great give it up there was some stuff here and there but please it was great and it was really good.Everyone just needs to leave the show alone.And if you do like it,thaks you have very good taste.And you know that there is a difference between real-life and books.

I'll start with the bad then go to the good...

BAD:the andalites are really cheap-looking.The producers shoulden't have tried to stick a whole book in 30min.They also should have stayed in order following the books(1,2,3so-on not 1,2,3,16) GOOD:the morphing was really cool and the suspence was awsome. The plot sort-of followed the books and the computer animation was great IN A NUT SHELL:the books where definatly better but the movie/series was okay and the grapics/com. animation was great.

When Jake and his friends witness the crash of an alien spacecraft, they meet Elfangor, a warrior from the Andalite home planet, who greets them with a WARNING: Earth is under attack by an empire of evil Yeerks. To help them resist the invasion, Elfangor gives these five ordinary kids the ability to MORPH, Andalite technology no human has ever possessed. Now hey can transform into any animal they touch, but will this power be enough to battle an army of ruthless alien slugs? The THREAT is too close to home not to try...

I don't believe that the Animorphs videos are bad at all. I noticed that one person mention that they thought it was a movie. No, it is a mini-series based on books written by K. A. Applegate. I believe they did an exceptional job for using limited materials. I am hoping that the four part series is not all they are going to make, I hope to see more. It keeps the kids entertained with thier favorite book series and it's nothing that the monitors have to worry about. It is all around good for everyone.

While I like it, the numerous inconsistancies with the books are most displeasing. But Christopher Ralph is sooooooo cute!