The VHS Corner: Animorphs: The Invasion Series (1999)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Tuesday. Welcome back to the VHS Corner. Today I'm going to be talking about Animorphs and it's North American home video release history. I only had the first tape when I was a kid, so that's the tape I'm going to be focusing on the most in this post. So without further ado, let's get into it, because, "It's all in your hands. Hold on. Hold back darkness. Gotta take a stand. It's all in your hands". Yes, I just typed out the chorus of the TV show's original theme song. Let's get into it.

Based on the popular book series by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant, Animorphs was produced by Scholastic Productions and Protocol Entertainment and aired on Nickelodeon in the United States from 1998 until 2000 and on Global and YTV here in Canada from 1998 until 1999. I watched it on Thursday nights on YTV and on Sunday mornings on Global, before my mom, brother, sister and I went to church (my dad worked weekends at the time). Global had all of the reruns while YTV aired the new episodes. I started watching the series near the end of the first season, and my first episode was "The Release", the final episode before the three part season 1 finale/season 2 premiere, "Face-Off". Which I watched on YTV. During the months between seasons, I mostly watched the show on Global as I caught up on the previous episodes that I had missed. And then I saw the six remaining episodes and that was it. The series was over. However it would live on.

Columbia TriStar Home Video (now known as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) released four volumes on VHS with each volume containing three episodes for a total of twelve episodes on home video. These four volumes were the only physical media releases that the Animorphs TV series ever got. Now the show is on iTunes, Vudu, and Amazon Video, spread out into three volumes. The show was apparently also on Netflix, but I don't know if that was just in the U.S. or if that includes Canada as well. Wikipedia, the fansite, Hirac Delest, and Seerowpedia (the Animorphs Wiki) don't give a release date for the tapes, but I would put the release of the first tape in early 1999 because Godzilla and The Mask of Zorro were both out on home video as per the previews shown in the opening of the first volume, Ghostbusters (1984) was about to be re-released on VHS (and released on DVD for the first time if I remember correctly), and the preview for Animorphs: The Invasion Series Part 2 - Nowhere to Run said that the tape was going to be released in April of 1999. Plus the promo for the book series at the beginning of the previews show the covers up to Book #29 The Sickness and Megamorphs #3 Elfangor's Secret, which came out in the April/May 1999 time frame. And the copyright info on the back covers of Volumes 3 and 4 both say 1999, so they were probably May and June respectively, or both out in May or whatever the case is. Let's get into the tapes themselves shall we?

 The Invasion Begins is the first volume of the series and it's the tape that I had when I was a kid. I watched this tape all the time. As mentioned above there were previews for the Animorphs books, Godzilla (1998) and The Mask of Zorro (1998) on VHS and DVD, the 1999 VHS re-release of Ghostbusters (1984), and the April 1999 VHS release of Animorphs: The Invasion Series Part 2 - Nowhere to Run at the beginning of the tape. After that is a special message from Jake (Shawn Ashmore) who basically gives the background for the series, which is basically the opening narration for Book #1 The Invasion, and then it goes into the three episodes contained on the tape, "My Name is Jake Part 1", "My Name is Jake Part 2", and "The Underground", which are based on Book #1 The Invasion, before showing more footage of Shawn Ashmore as Jake, relating how he felt about morphing, becoming the leader of the Animorphs, and finding out that his brother, Tom, was a Controller. It's similar to the live action bookends that the Teddy Ruxpin VHS tapes had in 1987. 

This tape was the first time I saw "My Name is Jake Part 1". I say that because for whatever reason Global and YTV never aired it in reruns as they tended not to run the pilot episode of kids shows, though "A Moon Star is Born" the pilot episode of the DIC English dub of Sailor Moon did get rerun by Global AND by YTV. It was a rare occurrence. Anyway, I saw it for the first time on this tape and I enjoyed it. These first three episodes aren't as goofy as subsequent episodes would be. They're also very atmospheric compared to the rest of the series. Let's go onto the rest of the tapes.

 I only owned the first tape in the series, so I don't have anything to say about the openings for these other tapes since they aren't on YouTube. Cassie is in the bookend footage for Nowhere to Run. This tape skipped episode 4, "On the Run" and just included episode 5, "Between Friends" which is based on Book #2 The Visitor, episode 6, "The Message" which is based on Book #4 The Message and episode 11, "The Reaction" which is based on Book #12 The Reaction. All interesting episodes. 

I think Marco (Boris Cabrera) is in the bookend footage for tape #3 The Enemy Among Us. I can't confirm it because the footage isn't on YouTube or the Internet Archive, or anywhere. But I think the idea is, whoever is on the front cover of the VHS release opens and closes the tape. The episodes on this tape are episode 12, "The Stranger", which is based on Book #7 The Stranger, episode 14, "The Leader Part 1" and episode 15, "The Leader Part 2" which are based on Book #5 The Predator. 

The final tape in the series, The Legacy Survives, has both Rachel and Tobias on the front cover. I remember seeing the bookends for this tape on YouTube a long time ago, and I know that Rachel (Brooke Nevin) opens the tape, but if I remember correctly both she and Tobias (Christopher Ralph) close the tape together. The episodes on this tape are episode 9, "The Capture Part 1" and episode 10, "The Capture Part 2" which are based on Book #6 The Capture, and episode 17, "Not My Problem" which shares plot elements with Megamorphs #4 Back to Before, which was published in April 2000, a full 15 months after the TV episode originally aired. 

And that my friends is it for Animorphs on VHS. Just a quick post since I only had the first tape in the series and with there only being four of them, there wasn't a whole lot to talk about. But I decided to talk about them anyway because I owned the first volume when I was a kid and I watched it quite often. Especially after 2002 when the series was no longer on TV and I had the TV/VCR combo set in my bedroom.

That's all for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for my review of Obi-Wan Kenobi and then who knows what I'm going to be posting on Thursday. I guess we'll see. In the meantime have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.