The old Animorphs TV show opening
This is not a review of the story itself; merely points that I want to discuss and highlight as a longtime die-hard fan of Animorphs (spoiler alert).
To me, what makes Animorphs tick is its unique concoction of all the elements that make up a great story: the amazing plot, wonderful characters, deep moral themes, awesome sci-fi, adventure, emotion and last but not least, generous smatterings of humor. This is a story that can make you experience a wide range of emotions, and actually weep one time and laugh out loud the next, and make you fall in love with the awesome people you get to meet in the books, who would help shape your view of the world and become a source of courage and inspiration. Due to being labelled as a kids' story (when it really isn't, judging by its complex thematic material), having highly colloquial first-person narration and with the first few books having seemingly simple plots that are episodic, one may be lured into dismissing the saga as merely an interesting read. However, that is just the sweet sugar-coating and it is once you progress further in the series that you start scratching through the surface to the deep, ongoing story beneath, complete with awe-inspiring and emotional companion books. In fact, the more I revisit the Animorphs universe and analyze it, the more surprised I get by the wisdom embedded in the story.
What strikes the reader from the beginning is the amazing prospect of being able to see and interact with the world in exotic new ways through animal bodies. The books truly highlight how wonderful planet Earth really is and we find ourselves awed at its biodiversity. Eloquent language and descriptions capture the true essence of the fearsome power and beauty of Earth's animal life, from large whales and elephants to insects such as cockroaches.
The most prominent features of the story are the moral dilemmas. Such complex situations are found throughout the books that it's hard to decide on a clear-cut solution that is morally sound. The characters often find themselves struggling with these, and end up doing what they think is best, which is far from perfect; so that we see gray shades of morality, rather than black and white. One instance of this is when the Animorphs end up killing Hork Bajir controllers (Hork Bajir infested with Yeerks) during their battles and end up killing innocent Hork Bajir trapped in their own bodies in the process, and when the Animorphs in their desperation to save humanity from the Yeerks, blow up a Yeerk pool full of defenseless Yeerks.
In spite of the story dealing with alien invasions, morphing into animals and sci-fi warfare, there are remarkable parallels drawn with situations in our own universe; not to mention, giving us an insight into things from a whole new perspective. For instance, Animorphs captures the true tragedy of war; innocents dying as pawns, heartrending decisions made as war tactics and the horrifying suffering of war victims. It also brings out torture, psychological torment and more of those who experience war.
Through the experiences of the Andalite cadet, Ax, who starts living on Earth among humans, we get to see humans in the perspective of an alien. Ax's species is docile, eco-friendly and vegan, so he is shocked by the violence and aggression exhibited by humans: engaging in disastrous wars and killing each other pointlessly, killing certain animals for food, and more. But it shows that evil can exist everywhere since even Ax's people have blood on their hands such as the time an Andalite released what is known as a quantum virus to cause a genocide in order to thwart the enemy. Ax often comments about the "artificial skins" worn by humans—clothing, and other rather funny observations he has on human society. Since Andalites have no mouths or sense of taste, Ax in his human morph finds taste overpowering, especially when he tries fast food. This is poignant since many people are addicted to fast food, and these dietary choices have become a huge problem to the planet; practically devouring the Earth. People can hardly control their appetites, just like Ax, and instead of eating what's good for them and for the planet, they're making themselves sick and dying in the process of satiating their gluttony.
It's not just through Ax that we evaluate ourselves and our actions. The Yeerks are a parasitic species that live by taking over the brains of other animals, and they are infesting entire species, building an interstellar empire. They are the antagonists of the story and we view them as cold, ruthless enemies who enslave humans. They kill as they please and cause countless atrocities. Does this ring a bell?
Man by Steve Cutts
The oppression humans experience at the hands of the "superior" species, the Yeerks, is very much what other animals on Earth experience at the hands of the "superior" humans. Humans have practically created a nonhuman holocaust complete with concentration camps (factory farms). As the saying goes, "in relation to animals, all humans are Nazis"; it is indeed how we view Yeerks for enslaving and killing us for their purposes. Just like the Yeerks, we are also building an "empire" by destroying the planet we should be sharing with all of Earth's inhabitants, stealing their habitats, enslaving them and killing them for our purposes. We are not even biologically parasites, but we behave like them. We are the despicable Yeerks on Earth.
As if to drive this point home, a human named Hildy accuses the Yeerk, Visser One, of being evil, and Vissor One responds by saying that humans are no better:
Your race is sick! Sick and twisted and evil!” It was Hildy talking, on his own, uncontrolled.
“We are parasite, Mr. Gervais,” I said. “You’re a predator. Go ask a cow or a pig what they
think of humans. We do what we are born to do.
In another book, the Animorphs morph into cows and experience what it's like to be humanity's slaves, which drive them to consider vegetarianism. What I find implausible here is that the Animorphs, even though they get to experience the world as nonhuman animals just through morphing alone, do not go vegan, and even after their experience as cows, about to be slaughtered too, they are still wavering. It is even more surprising given that they are pretty decent kids who care a lot.
Up to the nineteenth book, we view Yeerks as uncompromising, relentless evil. Then we meet the Yeerk, Aftran 942, who after seeing that the human Cassie would do the same if she was in this situation, actually relinquishes her host body because she does not wish to live at the expense of the suffering of others. Although the story shows the reader that there is hope for the Yeerks to obtain host bodies without enslavement, through the depiction of symbiotic species known as Iskoort, Aftran 942 is unaware of this and simply chooses to live blind, deaf and cut off from the world in her slug-like Yeerk form without enslaving others. Aftran 942 and her "Yeerk Peace Movement" would be similar to the vegan movement we see in our world. There is however, a big difference. Humans are not biologically carnivorous or parasitic and can live perfectly fine without meat; not to mention, meat-free food comes in a variety of delicious dishes. The Yeerks however, are biological parasites and this is their nature by birth. The true altruism of Aftran 942 is that she goes against her very nature and lives in total deprivation to do what is right, and judging by how hard it is to further the vegan movement in our world, even though it is far less daunting a task, the odds of the Yeerk Peace Movement succeeding seems impossible. It gives us an important message that where there's a will, there's a way, and that as civilized beings, we should never compromise ethics for our benefit, even if it means the alternative is bleak and finally, "it's natural" is not an argument to inflict suffering.
A Yeerk in its slug-like body.
We see this depth in another species, the Taxxons, whom we come to see as mindless, raging monsters, similar to how the heroes of the story view them; until we run across an unexpected turn of events. Earlier in the story, through a companion book, we learn that an Andalite named Arbron gets trapped in a Taxxon morph, the worst possible torture imaginable. Surprisingly, Arbron makes an appearance at the end of the story as the champion and leader of the Taxxons, whom he identifies now as his people. He explains that the Taxxons suffer greatly from insatiable hunger from their overpowering instincts and seek salvation by obtaining the power to morph into another form. This incident drastically transforms our image of Taxxons from monsters to pitiable victims. This shows that the way someone is by birth does not make them evil, but it's decided by their thoughts and actions.
Also, these examples demonstrate that it is not wise to stereotype groups of individuals based on outward appearance or by the actions of some; that there are bad guys among the good, and good guys among the bad. In fact, later on, among the "bad guys", the Yeerks, we see a strange behavior. Many Yeerks, when they get the power to morph and see a way to live happily without hurting others, actually choose to do so, while those in power try to use them as pawns for their own political goals.
Appearance versus reality is further conveyed when the "shock troops" of the Yeerk empire, towering creatures covered in dangerous blades known as Hork Bajir, happen to be the most harmless species there are. They are also a vegan people and use their blades to cut bark off trees for food.
The cover of Hork-Bajir Chronicles featuring the Andalite female Aldrea, and the Hork-Bajir Seer, Dak.
Another layer of awesomeness in the story is its depiction of alien life and technology with many similarities with Star Trek. What many may not notice is that despite not being too concerned about scientific detail, the story does play with modern hypotheses by scientists and futurists, as well as building intriguing, scientifically plausible phenomena of its own like Z-space. Z-space is a dimension where space-time does not work as we normally perceive it, allowing FTL travel and communication for advanced species. Nothing can exceed the speed of light and the sheer scale of the galaxy would mean having to travel for thousands of years even at the speed of light. In order to explain space-faring, advanced civilizations traveling vast distances in less time, the story has devised Z-space. Z-space is also used to explain what happens to matter when the Animorphs morph. Z-space seems to draw on string theory according to which there are 10 dimensions to space-time or more, as well as the hypothesis that gravity particles or gravitons "leak" into other dimensions (so in Animorphs, excess matter goes into Z-space). The quantum virus is an example of a futuristic bioweapon disintegrating enemies at the subatomic level; effective and disastrous. As Seerowpedia describes it:
It is an advanced simulated-life program that is a combination of Andalite physics with Arn biology and genetic knowledge. It is composed of tiny airborne units which apparently are structured like viruses.
Since it attacks the very building blocks of a species, it can even cause genocide with efficiency. Animorphs also dwells on alternate timelines or parallel universes, drawing on the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. We see futuristic dystopias and past events playing out differently; we even see a disturbing universe where Hitler's regime has continued undefeated with racism built into the fabric of society where it is invisible, similar to speciesism/carnism being invisible in the current dystopia we live in so that normal, decent people live by it. Furthermore, the malleable nature of space-time is also used to explore time travel, which the powerful being, the Ellimist, is capable of executing. The Ellimist is a mysterious being that appears in the story with godlike power, bringing to mind the famous saying by Arthur C. Clarke, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" and later "any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God" by the American science writer, Michael Shermer. As described by Ax:
They are all-powerful. They can cross a million light-years in a single instant. They can make entire worlds disappear. They can stop time itself. That's not his body. He has no body. He is... everywhere at once. Inside your head. Inside this planet. Inside the fabric of space and time.
This description sounds like the commonly-held, age-long human belief of a "god". The Ellimist even creates life and designs complex sentient species, such as the Pemalites, instilling good in them which reminds one even more of theism. Through a companion book however, we are exposed to his fascinating backstory which shows that far from being a "god", he is the last of an advanced civilization known as the Ketrans, who seem to be a Type 2 civilization or more in the Kardashev scale. A curious fact is that the Ketrans have a rich gaming culture (similar to the rapidly growing gaming culture of humans; which blossoms with technology), so much so that they run complex simulations of universe creation and evolution as a game, drawing on the simulation hypothesis which proposes that all of reality, including the earth and the universe, is in fact an artificial simulation, most likely a computer simulation, which could be powered by a megastructure such as a matrioshka brain. It is plausible since humans with far lesser technology prefer simulations and alternate worlds so much so that millions of dollars are poured into booming industries revolving around it, such as animation and gaming. The Ketran simulations are so complex and realistic that they become their downfall after alien civilizations believe them to be real and are alarmed into attacking the peaceful Ketrans. If their simulations really work according to the simulation hypothesis, it means that to those dwelling in the simulations, the Ketrans are an all-powerful "God" or "gods" who created their universe. Later on, the Ellimist himself, the sole survivor of his species, becomes so advanced that he alters himself to be more and more machine than biological (drawing on the idea that advanced civilizations may opt to be machines than have biological bodies) and eventually, his power seems to make him immaterial. To the Pemalites, he is their creator and he could very well have been "God" to humans too; though in reality, he is just a highly advanced being which we humans might one day become too since we can already edit our own genetic code, thereby, playing God, which reinforces the observation that "God" or "gods" is nothing more than a fanciful construct; the imagination of a primitive species to have some closure to the questions of scary unknowns (when looking at history, the magical unknowns were explained away by the human mind as the work of "god" whether it is the sun rising in the sky, thought to be a sun god driving his chariot or disease as divine wrath; all of which are discarded one by one with scientific discovery and understanding as the civilization progresses), as well as playing on a rather agnostic perspective on how a "creator" with unimaginable "magical" power can exist; just not the fanciful notion of "God" or "gods" of old, but an advanced alien being or beings.
Animorphs may not look it at first glance, but it contains the most heartwarming love stories and bonds. The Animorphs who are formed from a seemingly miscellaneous bunch of kids develop an inseparable friendship, as close as family. Within the Animorphs, Jake and Cassie are in a relationship as well as Tobias and Rachel. Jake is a white person while Cassie is black so that they are an interracial couple. What Tobias and Rachel share is very complicated. Tobias was once a quiet kid who was a bully magnet, until he got stuck in a hawk morph. He does obtain the power to morph but he is a human with a body of a hawk with the ability to morph human on occasion. Rachel is known as "Xena, the warrior princess" because she is an outgoing, reckless girl. In spite of all odds, and Tobias actually not even possessing a human body, they love each other. Both relationships highlight how love transcends all boundaries, and that in the case of Tobias and Rachel, true love means a meeting of minds rather than a carnal affair.
This is reinforced with two other amazing and heartrending love stories we encounter in the saga: that of Elfangor and Loren, and then Dak and Aldrea. Elfangor is an Andalite, with the body of a furry blue centaur, while Loren is a human girl. Dak is a Hork-Bajir while Aldrea is an Andalite.
When it comes to questions that the reader may feel the story has not addressed, I have quite a few. Why do the Yeerks bother to control morph-capable humans later on in the story, when they can easily obtain the morphing power and morph into whatever they want? Why are the Yeerks hell-bent on conquering a puny species like humans, when they can infest the other amazing Earth animals with superior senses? Humans are plentiful but then the Yeerks can easily breed animals they want, to obtain sufficient host bodies. Yeerks do not breed humans at all in fact; is it a Yeerk social taboo? How do Vissor Three's alien morphs function fine on Earth when they would not be designed for Earth's gravity and atmosphere? Have they been genetically altered to suit Earth now that the Yeerk invasion of Earth is underway? How do these different species function so well on alien planets without any breathing difficulties in alien atmospheres? What about them being exposed to alien pathogens they have no defenses against? Again, genetic alterations? And in turn, infecting native fauna and flora with the microorganisms they carry? Animorphs obtain DNA to morph, so can they morph plants? How does age translate to morphs when that information would not be stored in DNA? What about haircuts since when the Animorphs demorph, those remain intact. And most importantly, how can the Animorphs morph clothes when those are certainly not part of our bodies, but more like conjuring objects? Does morphing share technology similar to Star Trek's transporter which seems to disassemble and assemble atoms? It should be noted that the author has taken the liberty to add clothing against logic just to avoid awkward situations. In a pornified world where writers would add nakedness and sensation into the story using this opportunity, K.A. Applegate has opted to add the unreasonable element of morphing clothes and focus on the important aspects such as plot and themes instead.
Animorphs in general, throughout the books, give us one resounding message again and again: that no matter how the odds are stacked up against us, we should not give up, and that in the face of injustice and wrong, we need to make a stand against it.
