RATINGS: 4.0 (A record for a Nickelodeon Series Premiere)
SHORT SUMMARY: A visitor from another planet gives the gift to morph into animals to five teenage kids, to stop an evil race called the Yeerks
QUOTES:
"You know, a funny thing happened to me last night. This blue dude, with four
legs, put me and a few other idiots in charge of saving the world" --MARCO
"Trust no one" --JAKE
"So now what? Save the world? Can we eat first?" --MARCO
Well...Let me tell why the line is so wrong for this scene...Jake is walking down the sidewalk around 3pm, with a worried expression, which tells you that he has already received the gift from Elfangor...But, it was dark (Probably about 8pm) when he received it. So, it wouldn't make sense.
Tobias beat level: M8GI
When Tobias runs out of money, playing the video game "Galactic Warriors", it
says he got 13,520 points, but when he hits the space bar to exit the game,
his score changes to 26,160 points.
After Rachel says "I'm in," Marco says "You're insane"...5 minutes later, when everyone touches Elfangor's cube, Marco says "This is insane."
When emerging from the ship, Elfangor's hands seem to be empty. But, after 2 minutes of talking to the Animorphs he magically has his cube in his hand.
In the eye shot of Elfangor, you can see a size difference in Elfangor's pupils and sockets.
Although Tobias never met Jake, Rachel, Marco and Cassie, He seemed to know their names. For example, When Cassie's foot got caught in the wire, Tobias yells "Cassie's Stuck!"
Below is a script snip:
As the five run from the controllers, the Hork-Bajir suddenly appears behind
them
MARCO:
"What is that?!"
JAKE:
"You wanna wait and find out?"
MARCO:
No thanks. I'll read the book.
hmmm....What book may they be referring to? Maybe a little book called ANIMORPHS?
BEHIND THE SCENES:
The finished product of the 1st and 2nd ANIMORPHS episodes were originally
supposed to be a made for television movie for fox kids, but Nickelodeon was
so interested in the idea, they asked them to adapt the book into an on going
series. So, they had to cut the budget and shorten it to a two parter and
explain the loose ends in later episodes.
The original script of this episode was supposed to be an exact copy of the
first book. It was even called "The Invasion"...But, writer Jeffrey Vlaming
had other ideas...
"I read the first book, and I was totally blown away!" said Vlaming "After
reading each chapter, I just had a rush of ideas. I was also surprised that
the 'leading man' (JAKE) and 'leading lady' (RACHEL) were related because in
most stories of science fiction, they usually get together in later episodes.
So, it was something new. The plot that Katherine (Applegate) had was so
good. But, that's when I was thinking of how I could make it better. So I
talked with my fellow writers and directors and Katherine, and we decided that
we'd go farther with the series."
Jeffrey Vlaming also talked about the character changes
" We had fun with the star Animorphs," chuckles Vlaming "We thought it would be
better to make the characters older, because in our eyes, older characters
would fit the dialogue."
The following is an out take from the first episode script... As Elfangor screams in pain before the vicious Visser 3, he still manages to keep his cool for a little longer
ELFANGOR:
(Thoughtspeech to Tobias)
"Take care of them my son...take care of them"
Tobias nods slowly to himself, even though he does not understand.
NOTES: This whole episodes had only 3 scenes