By Frank Lovece
The Power Rangers? That's soooo five minutes ago. Goosebumps? Been scared, done that. Don't
you have something with Yeerks and Andalites in it? And how about a Sario Rip and the Hork-
Bajir?
If it sounds like your kid is speaking an alien language lately (and so what else is new?), he or she
probably really is. It's the jargon of K.A. Applegate's sci-fi book series Animorphs, which has
supplanted R.L. Stine's Goosebumps novels as tops among pre-teens. The ongoing saga of five
teenagers imbued with an alien power to change, or "morph," into animals, it's currently the best-
selling children's book series in the country. So of course it would morph into a TV show.
Like the books, the new TV series (NIK, premiering Friday, Sept. 4, 8:30 to 9 p.m. ET) has a tone
far closer to the X-Files than the Power Rangers; one character in the premiere even says, "Trust
no one." The scripts, says executive producer Deborah Forte, "will be based on the books for the
most part, but we're not doing each story based on a book. We've used Katherine's characters and
overall story arc, and telling stories both from the book and new stories for the television series."
Applegate, 42, who lives in Minneapolis with her one-year-old son, Jake, sees each TV script but
doesn't have formal approval. "She's involved," maintains Forte, "but she's so busy writing these
books. She writes a book a month, so it's hard for her to take on more [professional responsibilities]
than that. If she has comments, she lets us know."
And kids being kids, yours will probably have comments and let you know. How to respond so as
to seem da bomb and not a dweeb? Just tune in below for an Animorphs primer.
Elfangor (pronounced El-FANG-or), a warrior prince from the Andalite world, crashed his spaceship onto Earth while battling the Yeerks. Mortally wounded, he explained to the five teens who discovered him that the parasitic Yeerks have begun taking over human host bodies. He used a glowing blue box to imbue the teens with the ability to morph into animals (even insects) and so defend Earth. Each teen need but touch an animal once in order to absorb its DNA pattern, and can then change into that animal anytime at will. However, if they remain in animal form more than two hours, they cannot change back.
Elfangor (full name Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul) was killed minutes afterward by the Yeerk known as Visser Three. In Applegate's spin-off book series The Andalite Chronicles, we learn Elfangor had come to Earth once before, and sired a son with a human named Loren.
Jake (Shawn Ashmore): The serious-minded natural leader, red-headed Jake is Rachel's cousin and Marco's best friend. He's developing romantic feelings toward Cassie. Jake lives with his father Greg, a pediatrician, and his mother Nikki, a writer. His older brother Tom has been taken over by a Yeerk.
Rachel (Brooke Nevin): A pretty blond with a fearless attitude, she's acquired the nickname "Xena: Warrior Princess." Rachel lives with her divorced mother, Naomi, a lawyer, and two sisters, Jordan and Sara; her father, Dan, is a TV weatherperson. She's Jake's cousin and Cassie's best friend, and is developing romantic feelings toward Tobias.
Cassie (Nadia Nascimento): An African-American who lives with her veterinarian parents, John and Aisha, at the Wildlife Rehablitation Clinic animal preserve, Cassie is best friends with Rachel and is fond of Jake.
Marco (Boris Cabrera): Marco, whose darkly humorous asides mask a real concern about the danger and responsibilities of what they're doing, lives with his engineer dad, Jeremy. Jake's best friend, he came up with the team name "Animorphs." Marco believes his mother, Laura, is dead. However, in the book series and almost certainly in the TV show, he discovers that mom had actually been taken over a Yeerk—the powerful Visser One (see "Aliens: Yeerks," below).
Tobias (Christopher Ralph): A parentless loner, shuttled among relatives, the soulful Tobias shortly overstays his two-hour animal limit and remains stuck in the form of a red-tailed hawk. This lasted through ten books before his morphing powers were returned—and ten books after that, Tobias discovered his parents were Elfangor and Loren, and his uncle is the Andalite called Ax (see below). Tobias is developing romantic feelings toward Rachel.
Yeerks: These are slug-sized, vaguely trilobite-looking parasites who enter host bodies through the ear canal and take over the host's brain. Humans or animals inhabited by them are known as Controllers. The primary Yeerks in the series are Visser Three, who initially inhabits an Andalite when killing Elfangor, and who runs the invasion force; and Visser One, 14th in command of the race, who inhabits the body of Marco's mom.
Since the Yeerks inhabit humans without any outer sign of takeover, most of Earth is unaware of the invasion. (The Animorphs can detect Yeerks by their scent.) Among the known human- Controllers is high-school principal Mr. Chapman (Richard Sali).
Ax (played by Paulo Costanzo): Elfangor's brother (full name Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill), Ax was the sole survivor of the Yeerk-Andalite battle above Earth. He later morphs into a humanoid disguise using the combined DNA of Jake, Rachel, Cassie and Marco. Ax wants to avenge his brother's death by killing Visser Three.
The Hork-Bajir, the Ellimists, the Leerans, the Taxxon: Some of the other alien races the Animorphs encounter. Most have been conquered by the Yeerks. A Hork-Bajir-Controller hunts Jake in the first TV episode. The Leerans are orange frog-like telepaths.
Katherine Applegate proposed the series, then called "The Changelings," in 1995. An editor at Scholastic suggested the title "Animorphs." The first of the monthly books came out in June 1996. Applegate had previously written, by her count, more than 100 teen and children's books, including entries in the young-adult series "Sweet Valley Twins," "Girl Talk," "Ocean City," "Summer" and "Making Out," as well as movie novelizations, Disney books, Harlequin Romances (pseudonymously) and the American Library Award-winning Sharing Sam.
Zero-Space: An otherdimensional place that stores the excess mass when someone morphs into a small creature. And just where else would it go?
Kandrona Generator: Well, how else would the Yeerks get their Kandrona energy? Geez, the things we have to teach you humans...!