Status Report

The Official Scholastic Youtube Channel has just released another video featuring K.A. Applegate, author of the Animorphs series. It looks like this was filmed during her first-ever autograph session at the L.A. Times: Festival of Books. Here it is:

OR, you can directly launch the video on Youtube.

UPDATE: The launch of the video and L.A. Times event is further covered by Scholastic’s OOM (On Our Minds) Blog. Full article: oomscholasticblog.com.

Interesting thing to note: Kheetor84, who we previously mentioned in our community highlight post, got a mention in the article as well! In addition to this, there is also another K.A. Applegate interview posted by the Scholastic Kid Reporter. You can read it here.

Michael Grant has informed me that there is an official AMA (ask me anything) thread going on at Reddit by K.A. Applegate. She even posted a picture (see right) to remove any doubt of her being an imposter. You can check out the thread at reddit.com and ask any questions you wish there.

Along with this, I also want to follow up from our previous update and remind everyone again about K.A. Applegate’s First Ever Autograph Sessions! These are happening in 2 days, so here are the details again:

L.A. Times: Festival of Books

Saturday, April 30, 2011
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Scholastic/Diesel Booth #524

Saturday, April 30, 2011
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
CM School Supplies Booth #546

See: Full Autograph Details, and Official Program Schedule

Lastly, I have also gone ahead and updated the Support section of the site. I have been receiving repeats of many questions regarding the relaunch, so I thought it was time to devote a part of the site specifically for FAQs. Feel free to pass these along to those who are still yet unaware of the relaunch!

I have also branched off the Help Wanted part into its own page, and have now updated what we are looking for. Not everything is listed, of course, but the main idea is still that if you have something that we don’t already have, then send it to us!

That’s everything for now, but be on the look out for another update soon!

Poparena, of the Opinionated Animorphs Book Guide, recently did an audio interview with Ron Oliver, who worked as a writer and director for several of the Animorphs TV episodes during the show’s run. The interview covers many behind-the-scene insights to the show’s budget, actors, crew, creative decisions, and effects.

Ron Oliver Interview, by Poparena
Download Here (38MB)

The interview is approximately 40 minutes long, so for those who want to skip ahead, the Animorphs TV discussion begins around the 8:50 mark. (Source: Animorphs LiveJournal)

Also, following up from our previous post, Michael Grant has now posted several Q&A video responses at Youtube (Here is the first one). Fans of the GONE series will appreciate it the most. There is also an answer to the Gone TV/Movie situation, which hasn’t really changed from last time, but is there for those who are interested:

That covers everything for now. The relaunch is also almost here, so I hope everyone has their pre-orders ready! Until next time!

It was inevitable that when the new models were released on the official website, that the fans would compare them to the original models they grew up with from the first run of the series. However, one particular issue took priority over all other nitpicks as fans quickly noticed that the new Marco was paler and lighter from any of the previous models, and who did not match the half-Hispanic “dark complexion” (with dark skin and dark hair) that the character was often described by.

For those unfamiliar, this practice is most commonly known as whitewashing, where characters from minority backgrounds are often misrepresented in the media by being given favour to models or actors with lighter and paler skin. (If you’re looking for a more in-depth discussion about this, take a look at The Book Smugglers. They wrote a great article about some of the more popular cases from last year.)

Once fans realized what had happened, they sent out a petition and contacted both Scholastic and Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs). Marissa from Racebending also published a really well written article on her blog, as a show of support to the fans. The topic and concerns from the fans were well covered in that article, and I would recommend everyone to go read it at racebending.com

However, the issue didn’t linger for very long. Scholastic replied back quickly and confirmed that they were already going ahead to change the Marco cover model. The change will be reflected onto the new cover and official website once the photo shoot and morphing animations have been completed. Here is their full response, thanks to Blue Rampion:

“Thank you again for getting in touch with us about the Marco model for the cover of Animorphs #5: The Predator. We always appreciate hearing from Animorphs fans, and we want you to know that we have heard and share your concerns. We will, in fact, be using a different model for the actual books from the one that currently appears in our catalog and on the Animorphs web site. The first Marco book won’t be published until December 2011, so there is plenty of time to make sure we have a model who truly represents the description of the character in the books. (Please note that the website will be corrected as soon as the new photo shoot has been completed and the morph animation can be redone; in the meantime, the placeholder Marco will remain.)

While getting a new model was something we were already planning to do, we truly appreciate you advocacy on behalf of Marco. The support and passion of the Animorphs fan community has always been a crucial part of the success of the series, and we certainly want to be responsive when concerns arise.” -Scholastic

Along with this, Michael Grant also responded (for both him and K.A. Applegate) to the fans via Twitter, thanks to LisaCharly:

So there you have it. A very big congrats to the fans for sticking up for this (especially to those in the Animorphs LiveJournal Community), as well as big thank you to the great Scholastic team in charge of the Animorphs Relaunch for being so positively receptive to the fanbase’s concerns!

As for the new model, there’s no telling how long this will take, but we’ll be sure to keep you all updated as soon as the change is reflected onto the official site. For those who are interested in reading more about this subject, I’ve assembled a collection of related links for you here:

Discussion: Official Site launch & models
Discussion: Marco model petition launch
Michael Grant and K.A. Applegate respond
Racebending.com article for Animorphs
Discussion: Scholastic responds about Marco’s model
Michael Grant and K.A. Applegate apologize to fans

Until next time!

Michael Grant has released a video on his Facebook, informing the fans that K.A. Applegate will be signing autographs for the new relaunch Animorphs books at the L.A. Times Festival of Books! Here is the video:

So for those that missed it:

April 30th, 2011
L.A. Times Festival of Books

12:00PM to 1:00PM
Scholastic Booth

1:30PM to 2:30PM
School Supplies Booth

A full program schedule should be up at the official website, so be on the look out for that at events.latimes.com.

On top of this, Michael Grant is also hosting a video FAQ at his Youtube Channel (Watch the Introduction Video here). This is mostly being done for the release of his latest book Plague, the newest book in his GONE series, but I doubt that he’d turn down questions for Animorphs, Everworld, or any of his other series as well. This video FAQ is going to last until April 6th, so make sure you get those questions in while you can!

That’s all for now!

Okay, here is that ridiculously large update that I promised. Lots of new things, as you can tell right away from the title, so let us not waste any more time. First up:

The Mission (Book) Database: There are 80+ new international Classic covers added (And by Classic, I mean the 90’s books, so don’t freak out thinking that it’s for the relaunch). There is also 1 new inside cover added for Megamorphs #2, thanks to Matt. It was the last inside cover we were missing, so we are now officially complete with those! (I think.)

On top of this, I have also gone through all of the book pages and added videos for the ones that had their cover animations released. You will be able to see these videos right on their individual pages as opposed to the way we had it before. The book page layouts have also been slightly tweaked and rearranged to give everything a more uniform and organized look.

In addition to this, the Database has a Relaunch books section now too! I debated on how to handle this for a while, but I eventually decided that it would be best to separate it from the current Classic book pages, rather than try to merge them together. For one, it would be clutter-hell to try and organize the different marketing campaigns, promotions, products, etc, that would be related with the two book runs. I also thought it would be best to not compromise on the comprehensive amounts of detail on those current Classic pages, for fear that new readers would start reading them. Hopefully the two sections will keep things organized and at the same time be spoiler-friendly for those new to the series. I may merge them in the future, once the relaunch has run its course, but for now they are best to be kept separate.

Moving on from that, the Articles Section is now also updated: A relaunch category has been added, along with all of the official news for it so far: Scholastic’s library webcast, press release, K.A’s video, cover animation, etc.

This brings me to our very last part of the update: The Video Section. Everything is changed in there, from the way it operates, to the way it is structured behind the scenes. I have new categories set up for future Relaunch related media, and all of the videos so far have also been added in there, along with stuff we had before: morphing animations, tv show clips, trailers, etc.

So, to sum up (and for those that didn’t bother reading any of that), here is a brief rundown of everything added in for this update:

 
ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS

– Scholastic’s 2011 Spring Library Preview Webcast
– Scholastic’s Relaunch Press Release, including:

• K.A. Applegate’s video
• #1 Cover Animation

 
VIDEOS

– Restructured and new layout redesign.
– Categories and videos added for Relaunch Media (from articles).

 
MISSION (BOOK) DATABASE

Relaunch Books:

New pages for #1-6.
01: Cover Animation, Alternate cover, and related media.
02: Alternate cover, and related media.

Classic Books:

01 – Morph animation.
02 – Morph animation.
03 – Morph animation.
07 – U.K. Cover.
13 – Cover animation.
16 – U.K. Cover. Cover animation.
17 – U.K, German, and French Covers. Cover animation.
18 – German, and French Covers. Cover animation. New Trivia.
19 – U.K, German, and French Covers. Cover animation.
20 – U.K, German, and French Covers
21 – U.K, and French Covers. Cover animation.
22 – U.K, German, and French Covers. Cover animation.
23 – U.K, and French Covers. Cover animation.
24 – U.K, and French Covers. Cover animation.
25 – U.K, German, and French Covers. Cover animation.
26 – U.K, and French Covers. Cover animation.
27 – German, and French Covers
28 – U.K, German, and French Covers
29 – U.K, German, and French Covers
30 – U.K, German, and French Covers. Cover animation.
31 – U.K, and French Covers
32 – U.K, and French Covers
33 – U.K, and French Covers. Cover animation. New Trivia.
34 – U.K, and French Covers. Cover animation.
35 – U.K, and French Covers
36 – U.K, and French Covers
37 – U.K, and French Covers
38 – U.K, and French Covers
39 – U.K, and French Covers
40 – U.K, and French Covers
41 – U.K, and French Covers
42 – French Cover
43 – U.K, and French Covers
44 – French Cover
45 – U.K, and French Covers
46 – U.K, and French Covers
47 & 48 – U.K Combo Cover
49 $ 50 – U.K Combo Cover
51 $ 52 – U.K Combo Cover
53 – French Cover
54 – French Cover
MM#1 – U.K, German, and French Covers
MM#2 – 7th Inside (thanks to Matt), German, French, & U.K Covers.
MM#3 – French Cover
Alternamorphs #1 – French Cover
Andalite Chronicles – U.K, and French Covers
Visser Chronicles – French Cover
Hork-Bajir Chronicles – French, and U.K Covers (Didn’t notice this until now, but the U.K one has Aldrea looking at the reader!)

Phew! At this point I’d also like to add that I will forever hate Amazon and other book sites for unnecessarily adding white space to all of their cover pictures. I had to individually crop every one of those covers folks!

Anyway, I think that’s it for now. The archive is no where near complete, but we are making progress, and this update was another huge step forward. Look around, enjoy. If you see anything wrong that needs fixing, or if you have something that I don’t already have (or have it in better quality), then please get a hold of me as usual. I will do my best to get it up there as soon as I possibly can.

Until next time! 🙂

I still surprise myself when I get a little adrenaline rush from stumbling onto something like this, and realize just how much of an impact this series still has on me. Here is a very exciting new promo by Scholastic that features K.A. Applegate herself. In here, she talks about the story origins of Animorphs, about the 90s culture, and about the new relaunch coming next year! On top of that, the video also gives us our first glimpse of the new Rachel model from Animorphs #2! (Why are you still reading this? I know most of you have already clicked play):

You can also see it directly by going to Scholastic’s website!

As for Rachel’s new cover model, you can see her along with Jake at the 1:40 mark, or by clicking on the snapshot I took (above). Also, as last time, if anyone is able to get me a downloadable copy of this video, then please forward it to my email so that I can save it for the archive.

UPDATE: Thanks to a speedy response from Veronica, we now also have the actual video file for the interview! I’ll be sure to add that into the archive once I get some time.

That’s all for now! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more updates like this on the Animorphs relaunch. Until next time! 🙂

About an hour ago, Scholastic made an official press release for the Animorphs relaunch, and at the same time revealed the morphing animation for Animorphs #1’s Lenticular Cover! You can see the animation here: http://bit.ly/fSdVQp. (The animation is in flash, so if anyone is able to save a copy of it, either as a gif or avi, please email me!)

As for Scholastic’s press release, it highlights a new quote by K.A. Applegate:

“I am thrilled at the re-launch of Animorphs,” said K.A. Applegate. “Animorphs had far more impact on readers than I ever expected. Animorphs fan sites and works of fan fiction number in the thousands even today. Every library I visit has the old tattered copies, some now barely held together with glue and tape. So I’m very excited at the chance to retire those dog-eared old books, to ratify the enduring faith of the die-hard fans, and most of all, to reach a whole new generation of readers. The invasion is on, the Yeerks are everywhere, and the only ones who can stop them are the small band of kids with the power to become any living creature: the Animorphs are back.”

You can see the entire press release at: mediaroom.scholastic.com.

Most of the details in there are things we already know from the 2011 Library Webcast, however it now gives us an updated release date for Animorphs #4 and #5, which are now released in September and December 2011. So the new official release schedule (along with the ISBN) is as follows:

May 2011

Animorphs #1: The Invasion (ISBN: 978-0-545-29151-4)
Animorphs #2: The Visitor (ISBN: 978-0-545-29152-1)

July 2011

Animorphs #3: The Encounter (ISBN: 978-0-545-29153-8)

September 2011

Animorphs #4: The Message (ISBN: 978-0-545-29156-9)

December 2011

Animorphs #5: The Predator

That’s all for now, but be on the lookout for more news as Scholastic moves ahead with its marketing plans for next year. And be sure to let us know if you stumble across anything interesting!

Until next time!

UPDATE: I just found out that this is our 100th Blog Post on Hirac Delest! How awesome is that?! Makes this news post even better!

For fans in Australia and New Zealand, a schedule is finally available for the upcoming appearances by Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs). He will be there to promote GONE and Magnificent 12 with his son Jake (aka, the REAL Computer Jack).

Australia
Oct 27th – Nov 6th

New Zealand
Nov 9th – Nov 13th.

Specific time & locations: See michaelgrantdownunder.com

Also, here is a new promo for GONE, starring Michael Grant himself!

Following up from our previous post, you can now watch the entire webcast by going to the Scholastic Librarian Preview website and clicking “Watch Replay”. The entire thing is about an hour long, so if you want to skip directly to the Animorphs bit, scroll down to the 36:20 mark to see David Levithan talk about the series.

Update: Major thanks to Kyle Maloney (who commented below) for the quick overnight delivery of this video! You can now watch the entire Animorphs portion of the Scholastic webcast in the video above. Heck, go ahead and even watch it on his Youtube page so that he gets the views, and click ‘Like’!

More importantly, be sure to spread the word! New fans, old fans, and even readers who you think might be interested in Animorphs. Share the video, share HiracDelest.com. Animorphs is out next year!

At this point, we have no way of embedding or saving the video for our own site. However, I’ll do my best to see if I can collect it for our video section before Scholastic replaces it with their next webcast in April. (If anyone knows the best way to do this, then feel free to contact me. Either by email, Facebook, or Twitter). Also, if anyone wants to transcribe the video for me, then feel free to do so, and I’ll add it along with the video!

That’s all for now. More coming soon!