I just rewatched the Animorphs TV series. Despite being obsessed with the books (read every one multiple times), I realized that as a kid I had somehow simply stopped watching the TV series. Wondering why this was, I watched it again. Here are the major reasons why I think the show doesn't work:
5) Too many parts were miscast: Cassie: I just didn't buy it. The real Cassie is so intuitive. Tobias: The real Tobias was basically neglected trailer trash. The guy who plays him in the TV show makes it hard to believe that he would actually get bullied in the ridiculous ways he does. Marco: They got the humor right by choosing this actor, but not the humanity. Marco is not actually macho, like the actor (who I hear went on to become a personal trainer...) Marco likes to think he's macho. But he isn't. Jake: A good actor in other roles, but he's almost too effeminate in this series to be believable. Jake is quite decisive and assertive and I felt let down. Visser Three: Because he was in human form, I'd call this part miscast. The whole "Victor Trent" role was stupid.
(However, some parts were cast very well... Brooke Nevin was a dead-on Rachel, attractive, sweet when she needs to be, aggressive and outspoken otherwise. She could have been a little more intense, but in reality Rachel's intensity and ferocity grew as the books went on-- it wasn't immediate. Paulo Costanzo was a perfect human-Ax. The actor who played Tom was also pretty close to how I had imagined Tom from the books, though I wouldn't say perfect.)
4) Poor special effects and costume. Some of the special effects didn't even exist, i.e. when morphing was shown via a shadow on the wall, rather than directly. The andalite and hork-bajir were two of the sorriest aliens I've ever seen in any type of media.
3) Poor cinematography. Some of the worst camera work I've ever seen. The first person shots were just awful.
2) Awful minor actors and extras/awful editing. They should have cut out a lot of these scenes. Not only is a lot of the acting bad by the so called "controllers", but there are actually scenes were you can hear the extras saying things like "I'm talking to you, you are standing right next to me, you are listening to what I'm saying..." and other filler like that which should never be heard by the audience (and really shouldn't be said by any extra to begin with... not if they want to make it in Hollywood, anyway...)
1) The show was totally disrespectful of K.A. Applegate's brilliant source material. It made up a bunch of awful story lines that had huge plausibility issues. In the show, the Animorphs are seen (and even captured...) by controllers in their HUMAN FORM. And yet, somehow, they aren't questioned by anyone after they escape, or at school the next day. The "disc" idea was idiotic. The "Victor Trent" storyline is also ridiculous. Ax's rescue was completely poorly done, regardless of the fact that it would have been very expensive to make the actual underwater rescue that took place.
5) Too many parts were miscast: Cassie: I just didn't buy it. The real Cassie is so intuitive. Tobias: The real Tobias was basically neglected trailer trash. The guy who plays him in the TV show makes it hard to believe that he would actually get bullied in the ridiculous ways he does. Marco: They got the humor right by choosing this actor, but not the humanity. Marco is not actually macho, like the actor (who I hear went on to become a personal trainer...) Marco likes to think he's macho. But he isn't. Jake: A good actor in other roles, but he's almost too effeminate in this series to be believable. Jake is quite decisive and assertive and I felt let down. Visser Three: Because he was in human form, I'd call this part miscast. The whole "Victor Trent" role was stupid.
(However, some parts were cast very well... Brooke Nevin was a dead-on Rachel, attractive, sweet when she needs to be, aggressive and outspoken otherwise. She could have been a little more intense, but in reality Rachel's intensity and ferocity grew as the books went on-- it wasn't immediate. Paulo Costanzo was a perfect human-Ax. The actor who played Tom was also pretty close to how I had imagined Tom from the books, though I wouldn't say perfect.)
4) Poor special effects and costume. Some of the special effects didn't even exist, i.e. when morphing was shown via a shadow on the wall, rather than directly. The andalite and hork-bajir were two of the sorriest aliens I've ever seen in any type of media.
3) Poor cinematography. Some of the worst camera work I've ever seen. The first person shots were just awful.
2) Awful minor actors and extras/awful editing. They should have cut out a lot of these scenes. Not only is a lot of the acting bad by the so called "controllers", but there are actually scenes were you can hear the extras saying things like "I'm talking to you, you are standing right next to me, you are listening to what I'm saying..." and other filler like that which should never be heard by the audience (and really shouldn't be said by any extra to begin with... not if they want to make it in Hollywood, anyway...)
1) The show was totally disrespectful of K.A. Applegate's brilliant source material. It made up a bunch of awful story lines that had huge plausibility issues. In the show, the Animorphs are seen (and even captured...) by controllers in their HUMAN FORM. And yet, somehow, they aren't questioned by anyone after they escape, or at school the next day. The "disc" idea was idiotic. The "Victor Trent" storyline is also ridiculous. Ax's rescue was completely poorly done, regardless of the fact that it would have been very expensive to make the actual underwater rescue that took place.