The Longevity of Animorphs

[blue_rampion]

While combing through old posts for tagging, I came across this post, comparing the Animorphs fandom to the Harry Potter fandom, and arguing that with Harry Potter fans, "unlike Animorphs, this obsession can last beyond their teen years well into their adulthoods". At the time of this post, the Harry Potter series hadn't finished yet.

And I think this idea of the series's longevity is an interesting one to consider now, in with a re-release coming up and the decline of Harry Potter hype. Now, Harry Potter is a freakish event of a cultural phenomenon - I know it still has a fandom today (though I don't know the status of it), and I imagine it will continue for some time. I imagine it will continue to feature in pop cultural references everywhere. Animorphs, obviously, did not reach the same freakish levels of hype. It was not a cultural phenomenon.

But I'd argue that Animorphs has had an amazing longevity. The fact that all of us are still here in our twenties (and possibly above!), sitting around, having regular discussions about an out of print children's series speaks to the that. Harry Potter may have defined my teens, but Animorphs was my childhood Sure, it wasn't a freaking cultural phenomenon, but quite frankly Harry Potter was a bizarre and strange one in a million event. Compare Animorphs to any other children's book series, and I think the long-lasting impact it had on it's readers holds up pretty darn well!

Comments

[chiapetzukamori.livejournal.com]

I think you could say the same thing about nearly any series. I'm sure there are still die-hard fans of Nancy Drew, Hardey Boys, Babysitters Club and Boxcar Children. I think if you really enjoyed something as a child, you're bound to look back on it fondly as an adult. Animorphs never reached the same levels of popularity as the aforementioned books (to the best of my knowledge, I was the only one in my 6th grade class who was reading them) so our group is smaller, but the series touched our own lives in such a way that we remember them and still enjoy them. So, no, it's long-lasting impact is no less than that of Harry Potter and those other series I mentioned. Or any other thing that anybody has truly loved as a child.

Another thing about Harry Potter though...that series was a world-wide thing that was spurred on by movie deals (the ultimate advertisement). The same thing with Twilight - I had never heard of it before the movie came out, and now it's everywhere. Imagine where Animorphs could've gone if they had gotten movie deals early on in the series! (Sure we got a TV show, but it was a poorly made disaster that wasn't popular even among established die-hard Animorph fans, so that doesn't count lol)

[blue_rampion]

Well, I don't think every series out there ends up having longevity. Sadly, there are some books that get forgotten. Possibly you could say the same of any series that managed to have reasonable success during it's hey day, though.

I don't think Harry Potter was spurred on my movie deals - from my recollection, the movies cam after the series was already huge. (I can't speak for Twilight, since I know pretty much nothing about how it turned into a media blitz and I gave up on the first book after a chapter even when I was stuck at Abu Dhabi airport for eight hours and had nothing else to read)

One strange thing I've noticed from some of these old posts, though - a lot of people seem to suggest that Animorphs was huge in it's day. Like everyone was reading it. Over here in Australia, I can safely say that the only people I knew of who read Animorphs were the people I introduced to Animorphs, so I find all these mentions of how huge Animorphs apparently was rather baffling. Perhaps Animorphs was big in the US, but didn't quite gain the same worldwide market that Harry Potter and Twilight did?

[chiapetzukamori.livejournal.com]

Babysitters Club did! They had a TV show and a movie. Those came out 1990 and 1995 respectively. Goosebumps had a TV show too. That was released in 1995 or something like that, so that sort of thing wasn't unheard of when Animorphs came around.
But BSC and Goosebumps were both extremely popular series, moreso than Animorphs (in my whole life I've only met about 6 people off the internet who've read Animorphs, but I know maaany people who've read at least one Goosebumps book). Animorphs was popular, no doubt about it, but all that merchandise they got didn't come around until after the TV show was announced. Look at it all - it's all got the TV logo, and not the original book logo.
And yes, the same type of thing happened with Harry Potter. That series was popular before the movies, but it exploded after the movies came out. I doubt there'd be a Harry Potter theme park today if the movies were never released. That's when we got all that merchandise, which helped to further the spread of Harry Potter fandom.

So, anyway, I don't know if I'd call Animorphs a mainstream series, but yes it was definitely more popular than other books.

[acts_of_tekla]

Yeah, Star Wars isn't sci fi, it's a space opera -- essentially, fantasy set in space.

[acts_of_tekla]

Exactly: it's a space opera. I'm hardly saying that to disparage Star Wars -- I'm kind of a crazy fangirl -- and it's an established genre. Some consider it a subgenre of sci fi.

[acts_of_tekla]

Ah, gotcha.

[iapetusneume.livejournal.com]

It's also interesting to see the size of the books changing for the intended age group. Even the first HP book was a lot longer than any of the regular Animorphs books, but the series was a whole lot shorter in number and more passage of time happened (in HP's case, it was usually a whole year or close to it). One of my favorite book series that is currently being released right now (Skulduggery Pleasant) is following a similar format, and the book sizes are comparable to HP (minus GoF and OotP).

I never talked about Animorphs much outside the few friends I had in school who also read about it when I was younger, but even then I always got the impression that it was popular, and this is without the internet to help me. (I didn't even grasp the concept of fandom online until I was older.)

If the reboot inspires there to be another version of Animorphs again, I will be thrilled. I'm still trying to figure out how I'd want to see it.

So to stop my rambling... sure it may look like Animorphs got shafted in some ways, but the enjoyment I got out of the books was so wonderful that I can often overlook it. Discovering that it has an active fandom, years later, was the icing on the cake.

[iapetusneume.livejournal.com]

There was a Harry Potter class taught at my university. There was a special topics class at a senior level, and then later there was a sophomore level one. They all filled up within the first three minutes of registration and there were over 300 people on the waiting list.

I know that one big difference between Skulduggery Pleasant (which is much better written than HP, though I love both) and Animorphs is that in SP, there's more going on at once. Animorphs reminds me of a saying from the Sailor Moon fandom of "monster of the week." Animorphs is much more episodic in that sense, and you're right, publishers are moving away from that model. This isn't to say that Animorphs is less engrossing than other series - in some ways it's moreso because you see so much more of their lives.

And if we're talking ways to reboot the story, I think that this is where moving to a different medium would be excellent. If K.A. wrote a script for a cartoon (I'm thinking along the lines of Avatar: The Last Airbender in terms of the creators taking it seriously) or a graphic novel series, I think that would be excellent. It would allow her to update, edit, and maybe go in directions that weren't possible before. I'd love a more "meat and potatoes" Animorphs without all the filler.

Animorphs was, in many ways, marketed to kids who were already reading. Harry Potter was a system-changer, as you said, and suddenly kids who weren't reading were. It is hard to compare them.

[acts_of_tekla]

Although IIRC there was a study that found that kids didn't actually become readers from Harry Potter -- they just read HP and went back to whatever else they were doing.

[frameacloud]

Yes, Animorphs was pretty big in the US. It was pretty heavily advertised, for a book series, all the way back when there were only six books out yet. It was popular enough that I could be sure that any kids of that particular generation would have read at least the first few books. It worked as a great conversation-starter for that reason. The craze for Animorphs died out about halfway through the series, when collecting all the books started to look like a daunting hobby, and some of the individual books were of lower calibre. As far as I know, it was never as big as Harry Potter: I don't remember hearing about anybody dressing up as the Animorphs characters, or inventing Animorph-themed recipes (like Taxxon loaf or something) for Animorph-themed parties. Although maybe that's just because Animorphs lends itself less to that kind of thing. It's harder to dress up as an Andalite than to wear a Hogwarts uniform.

[blue_rampion]

...Actually there has been Animorphs cosplay. See exhibit A.

But aside from that - I don't think anything has been as big as Harry Potter, and I doubt anything will be for a while. Like I said, it was a whole freakish cultural phenomenon.

I wonder though - if they hadn't hadn't the books over to the ghostwriters, and had kept up the quality better in the later books, would the 'craze' for Animorphs grown more rather than died off?

[natural-blue-26.livejournal.com]

...Actually there has been Animorphs cosplay.

....That's really freaking awesome, actually. <3 <3 <3

[blue_rampion]

I KNOW, ISN'T IT?

It's one of the things I plan to put up in an "awesome stuff found while going through old tags" post later on :P

[frameacloud]

We do have a tag called "especially awesome post," which has been used for stuff like tattoos and actual conversations with the author.

[blue_rampion]

Admittedly, I haven't been focusing on adding that one, since it's highly subjective and all. That, and I've only been skimming most entries just to know what they're about (There are many of them, after all :P). So, I wouldn't everything that counts anyways.

and okay, I kind of just want an excuse to post things like the Andalite cosplay again :P)

[frameacloud]

Oh, yeah, that's right! [laughs]

But... it's still some cosplay instead of tons of it, you know? I still see lots of people going around wearing the colors of their favorite House of Hogwarts. It's easy to wear a scarf.

I thought Twilight was about as big as Harry Potter right now?

Or... well, I guess there isn't really a metric unit for measuring the size of a cultural phenomenon, is there... even though it's usually pretty easy to compare the size of one cultural phenomenon to another...

It would have been really interesting if the craze for Animorphs got bigger. For that to happen, it would have helped to have better-quality books at the end of the series. It wasn't all the fault of the ghostwriters, some of whom were great. What was really bad was this feeling like "we all just stopped caring, we won't try to tie up any loose threads in awesome ways" near the end. Another thing that would have helped: a movie instead of a TV series, so that the special effects would have been able to hold up the story.

[blue_rampion]

I'm not highly knowledgeable about cosplay, but I get the impression that for the most part, people are inspired by visual mediums. Sure, people can and do cosplay characters from text mediums (I know there's been Discworld cosplay...) but for the most part, people go with stories told in visual mediums. Manga, Anime, movie. And they also seem to go for characters with highly memorable and iconic looks. And sure, the aliens are memorable, but the humans themselves aren't particularly memorable or iconic. Someone cosplaying Rachel could just be any other blond girl.

...although talking about this, while I have never actually been to a comm I am now tempted to try and go to one with some blue stalk eyes on or something XD

ANYWAYS. Twilight is huge yes, but it's not the same level of completely altering pop culture. Or at least I don't think it is. (Admittedly, I pay pretty much no attention to it). Harry Potter seemed to be read by anyone and everyone - Twilight tends to be confined to certain demographics, and has a whole social stigma attached to it.

[acts_of_tekla]

Yep -- IIRC, Animorphs was Scholastic's best selling book series before HP, and their second best-selling after HP. And the last time I checked, it was still on their main Kids Series page, so clearly its never really stopped doing well even after they stopped publishing it. (They were probably still making money from library loans.) They aren't reprinting the books for the LULZ after all.

[blue_rampion]

...makes you wonder why they stopped publishing it, really.

[acts_of_tekla]

*shrugs* Probably figured there were enough copies in circulation. And it's possible they didn't expect it to continue in popularity as it has -- especially considering that it dropped a bit in popularity through the 30s and 40s. Also, since HP changed the paradigm, they might have thought that a series of little books wouldn't continue doing well.

Actually, a sort of...distilled/compressed/partial rewrite/best of Animorphs might make a good fan project. If you could get it down to ~1000 pages, that would be a fairly standard sized epic trilogy, right?

[blue_rampion]

Possibly, possibly. who knows?

Hmm, I'm not really a fan of abridged versions myself. And I don't think it would work into a trilogy, either - there aren't really "three sections" to the series as a whole.

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

IDK, the longest Harry Potter book and the longest Twilight book are around 750-800 pages each, so total for the epic? *brb, runs to bookshelf* About 4,100 for Harry Potter and 2,600 for Twilight. The total Animorphs canon is over 10,000 pages, and I didn't even factor in the Chronicles/Megamorphs, which would probably be fine left as is. So I think even 2,000 pages total would do nicely. You could cut a lot of filler books; maybe have the plots of two or three of the originals going on within the same volume.

Though, given the way they're narrated, you'd have to do either one or two for each character, or have everyone narrate every book. Two books per Animorph would be 12...166 pages each. Hm. Maybe 6 around 300 pages each?

[lisacharly.livejournal.com]

How many discussion communities and active forums are their for Hardy Boys, Babysitter's Club, so on? I have no doubts that Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone might be assigned in schools in the future and given the same weight as, say, Black Beauty or Treasure Island or other kids' books that are regarded as classics. I don't think I see Animorphs taking that route.

There's also generational longevity. Sure, we're still active on this comm as adults, but will twenty year-olds in a few years still be discussing Animorphs? Will we pass these books on to our children and our friends' children? I know I plan to, but will the kids of tomorrow enjoy them?

[odette-river.livejournal.com]

Kids are still reading the, because whenever I get the chance I ask kids. They're harder to get a hold of, though, and I the kids I've talked to haven't been that into them. Possibly it's all the 90's references? Or possibly they're just not that into sci-fi. (But it'll be interesting to see how the re-releases change things.)

[iapetusneume.livejournal.com]

It's sad that one of the things that made me laugh the most (both then and now) is something that's probably holding it back now. Book 16 keeps getting funnier as technology advances.

On the flip side, I think that Marco would love being able to say "The Governator." He would totally do the voice, too.

[blue_rampion]

...would that mean that if the series was set today, Marco would in fact end up morphing Arnold Schwarzenegger? :P

[iapetusneume.livejournal.com]

I think a part of him would be tempted, for sure. But maybe in that way like he was with betting on horses in book 14, where everyone keeps on going "No, Marco, it's not happening."

[blue_rampion]

Well, he canonically morphs the governor near the end.

The series is set in California, therefore the governor is the governor of California.

And THEREFORE the Governor is the Governator, and Marco morphing him would be possible.

Although in this case I imagine Ax and Marco and Tobias would never end up sitting around wondering who the governor is

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

My head asplodes w/awesome.

[linaliem.livejournal.com]

I have a pet theory that part of what will and has hurt Animorphs' longevity is the format of the books. They are short, there's a ton of them, many in the 30s and 40s aren't that good (and are in fact why I eventually lost interest in the series as a kid); while for Harry Potter, there are seven books so each one is epic, and the divisions you'd make a movie around are much more obvious. For Animorphs, how many books would you cover in a movie? How many would you make, if more than one?

(compare, for example, his dark materials, the uglies series, hunger games, harry potter, eragon-ones that come to mind)

Also, the short format as well as the fact that the books are meant for kids, as opposed to young adults, meant that the writing was somewhat simplified and some of the issues didn't get the in-depth exploration they could have been given in a longer form written as YA.

Plus, maybe "kids-turn-into-animals/aliens" isn't as ready a concept for a classic than "girl solves mysteries" (nancy drew) or "boy solves magical mysteries" (harry potter)? I wonder if a lot of people might look at the covers and concept and think the books are too weird or juvenile for them.

[blue_rampion]

Format-wise, I think Animorphs is much more suited to being adapted into a television series. (which makes it all the more depressing that THEY SCREWED IT UP SO BAD). Done well, as a cartoon? I think it could do very well, especially in this age of high quality children's cartoon series'.

WELL I would argue that yes it COULD be a classic, people are just resistant to the idea of it because of biases regarding genre and so forth, but that's probably a whole nother argument, really...

[linaliem.livejournal.com]

oh, and they are veeeery 90s dated, with the tons of pop culture references. In comparison to most classics and other books referenced here, which try a lot to avoid pop culture, probably for this reason.

[acts_of_tekla]

Harry Potter had a massive and unprecedented media machine behind it as well. Animorphs had no chance to be that popular because books -- especially kids books -- flat out did not get publicized like that at the time. JKR was a photogenic woman with a good underdog story, so the publicity machine ran with it.

[embergryphon.livejournal.com]

On a personal level, Animorphs has always had more longevity than Harry Potter. When I turned twelve and was not admitted to Hogwarts, I got over it pretty well- but to this day I'm not sure I've accepted that I'm never going to meet an Andalite and I will never get morphing abilities. D=

(Although I should point out that, unfairly, Firefox has marked "Animorphs" and "Andalite" as misspelled, but believes "Hogwarts" to be fine. Pfft.)

[blue_rampion]

I have to admit, I feel the same! Although Harry Potter was, for me, the thing that filled the void that Animorphs left in my life, now that it's over I don't quite feel the same connection to it as I do to Animorphs.

Though, it's entirely possible that years later I will come back to Harry Potter like I did with Animorphs, but I suspect that won't be so.

(darn you firefox!)

[faerykore.livejournal.com]

I think it just has to do with the age at which we read Animorphs more than anything else. I think Animorphs (read at age 7 and 8) has just stuck to my subconscious more than Harry Potter did (which I first read when I was 11 or 12). I think the childhood wish of "being an Animorph" is stronger than the preteen/teen wish of "going to Hogwarts." I suppose it's kind of like how younger kids can pick up languages easier than older kids and adults.

[tygerwulfe.livejournal.com]

It's more the "out-of-print" fact that makes Animorphs fascinating. That it HAS such a loyal, large following, when it's been out of print since JUST after it's completion is the fascinating part to me.

[tygerwulfe.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way! References everywhere since I got to college. 0.o I've used examples from Animorphs in PAPERS and the TEACHER knew what I was talking about!

[lit-wolf.livejournal.com]

I had to make a website in my Basics of Computing class my freshman year of college (three years ago). It was aloud to be on any topic of our choosing. I went with Animorphs and even got feed back from friends and fellow students who fondly remembered reading the series so long ago.

In fact, let me check... yep, it's still up on my school's website: http://sampson.washcoll.edu/~egray2/FinalProject/WelcomeVid.htm
Ignore the badness of the website, though I will admit I'm pleased with my dedication to reread the entire Animorphs series so that I could give accurate summaries of each books :) And I got an 'A' on the project!

[tobiahawk.livejournal.com]

This. The facts that the series stopped almost 10 years ago, it's been out of print for probably about as long, there were no movies made, and it was aimed at a younger audience than HP (though, as I said before, KAA's handling of war was pretty "adult," esp. near the end), and yet there's still an active fan community is amazing to me.

FWIW, a friend of mine presented on Animorphs for a senior year of college project (on students' their favorite books as a kids), and she said about half the class openly admitted to crying at the end of 54, let alone remembering the series.

I don't think the Animorphs will have the same cultural impact as HP, but I do think they strongly impacted many of those who read them. It will be really interesting to see how the re-release goes.

[mint-samosa.livejournal.com]

Alas, I disagree. Animorphs was huge for about 3 years and then became pretty obscure. It will always have a special place in my heart, and the hearts of everyone here. However, "everyone here" comprises people who were in the target demographic (8-12ish) at the height of the series' popularity who now feel nostalgic. It didn't accumulate many new fans after that. Also, the fact that this is the biggest Animorphs fan community out there (?) with only about 1,000 members does not speak to wide-spread longevity of its impact on readers.
Now, it's true that its impact probably compares well to other kid's series besides Harry Potter. But where on earth did you get the idea that the Harry Potter hype was in decline? The franchise has a film coming out in a month that's expected to take in $1.03 billion worldwide. And then another film next summer.
I realize I sound really cynical about both, so I want to add that I love Animorphs and Harry Potter.