"When Tobias becomes a hawk, I want the reader to see the world as a hawk might see it-to soar on the warm breezes and hurtle toward the ground to make a kill", she said.
Applegate tried to accurately depict the various animals, and did research such as visiting "a raptor center where they rehabilitate injured birds". In an interview with Publishers Weekly, Applegate talked about the source of inspiration and realization for the Animorphs series: "I grew up loving animals and lived with the usual suburban menagerie of dogs, cats and gerbils", she said "I really wanted to find a way to get kids into the heads of various species and decided that a science-fiction premise was the way to do this". Also, while in morph, they can telepathically communicate with anyone nearby. A benefit to morphing is that it allows the team to heal any superficial, non-genetic injury, sustained as a human or in a morph. Others include having to de-morph back to human in between morphs, only tight clothing being able to be carried over with a morph, and having to consistently maintain concentration during a morph to prevent the animal's natural instincts from overwhelming the human intellect. The most vital is that they cannot stay in animal form for more than two hours, or they will be unable to return to human form and the morphs become permanent.
Though the Animorphs can assume the form of any animal they touch to acquire the DNA, there are several limitations to the ability. To protect their families from Yeerk reprisals, the Animorphs maintain this façade. Throughout the series, the Animorphs carefully protect their identities the Yeerks assume that the Animorphs are a strike force sent by the Andalites, the alien race to which Ax belongs that created the transformation technology, to prevent them from conquering Earth. The Animorphs fight as a guerilla force against the Yeerks who are led by Visser Three. Naming themselves "Animorphs" (a portmanteau of "animal morphers"), they use their ability to battle a secret alien infiltration of Earth by a parasitic race of aliens resembling large slugs called Yeerks, that can take any living creatures as a host by entering and merging with their brain through the ear canal. The story revolves around five humans: Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel and Tobias, and one alien, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill (nicknamed Ax), who obtain the ability to transform into any animal they touch. A film adaptation was announced in September 2015.
#The visitor returns mutation ending series
The series has also been adapted to audiobook form as well as a series of graphic novels starting in 2020.
The books were adapted into a television series of the same name on Nickelodeon, YTV and Global Television Network, which ran from 1998 to 1999. Published between June 1996 and May 2001, the series consists of 54 books and includes ten companion books, eight of which fit into the series' continuity (the Animorphs Chronicles and Megamorphs books) and two that are gamebooks not fitting into the continuity (the Alternamorphs books). The series was originally conceived as a three-part series called The Changelings, in which Jake was named Matt, and his little brother Joseph took the place of Cassie. Horror, war, dehumanization, sanity, morality, innocence, leadership, freedom, family, and growing up are the core themes of the series. It is told in first person, with all six main characters taking turns narrating the books through their own perspectives. Print ( hardcover and paperback), audiobookĥ4 main series books 10 companion books ( List of books)Īnimorphs is a science fantasy series of children's books written by Katherine Applegate and her husband Michael Grant, writing together under the name K.