"Animorphs is our pick for the next big Nick hit.
"It's a live-action spin off the Scholastic book series by K.A. Applegate about teenagers who morph into animals to save Earth from alien slugs.
"The first two episodes of Animorphs have mood, logic, special effects. And a breathless pace that doesn't leave you too much time to look for the seams in any of the above. But most importantly, it has a cast of five kids who could all be book-locker pinups tomorrow.
"The leader of the group is played by Shawn Ashmore, who's part Kurt Russell, part Neil Patrick Harris and part River Phoenix.
"There's also a mysterious newcomer (Christopher Ralph) with an undercurrent of eternal cool, and a goofball sidekick (Boris Cabrera).
"But the girls - Brooke Nevin and Nadia Nascimento - are great role-model as well as fashion-model material. "They are always first to see the right thing to do and to make sure the group will do it.
"Watching these kids change into animals takes a little getting used to. "Oddly, the idea of them waging guerrilla (and dog, cat, horse and hawk) war on body-snatching aliens - the worst of them their high school principal - does not."

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