8-Bit Book Club: Animorphs - The Invasion

richard Parker is already the name of Peter's father but i guess he named his kids May so i guess it tracks that he'd name his spider pal after his father

Big crash, in the middle of the night! An andalite stumbles out into my life He gives me powers cause his time left is short And kids just wanna morph Oh kids, they just wanna morph

Emily mentioned Z-Space which is basically hyperspace and is used that way but also if the kids ever morph into something bigger or smaller than they are, like an elephant, the extra mass is sent to/gained from Z-Space

I think Emily’s idea about a detective spliced with a dog is the premise of Dav Pilkey’s “Dog Man”

I know it’s been four years but yall should read the Hork Bajir Chronicles, it’s from the pov of a Hork Bajir on their planet as well as an andalite and I think a yeerk but I haven’t read it since I was a child, I do know it deeply affected me to the point that to fall asleep I imagine being a reptilian alien living in the trees. I assume it was on par with the other novels which I also haven’t read since I was a child but remember being pretty good

Listening for the first time in 2026. I hope they find out who Tobias dad is in the wiki wander

Sounds like Emily needs to read Dogman lol

I confirm that I LOVE when everyone is yelling at Murph.

8-bit Book Club is ever green☺️

golf carts go like 35mph depending on the model lmao slow ones still go around 20mph... you arent out running them unless you can sprint a sustained 20mph longer than a battery can

I think its so funny I've listened to them talk about animorphs so much now it's finally getting a show from Ryan coogler who's also doing x files too. I also like how it's stretched to dungeon and daddies doing grandpa's and galaxies. One character a grandpa who made insecmorphs kids that turn into only insects.

My love of reading was cemented because of animorphs. My family all hate reading, they constantly remind me of how i was the weird bookworm of the family. I got nothing but animorph books on my 11th birthday, with the Eliminster chronicles being the highlight. I gave up on Harry Potter after the fifth book, but i stayed loyal to the Animorphs! For Rachel!

Conspiracy theory: Murph dropped the spoiler bomb on purpose to avoid having to read all the animorphs books

Jake's broccoli take is correct.

Actual years late but Emily is describing Dogman?? it's about a dog and a cop who get spliced together and then he solves crimes as dogman!! I'm genuinely surprised she didn't say it by accident talking about spider-man. past Emily,,,,,your pitch is out there it's just a kids comic from 2016

Beak (peak) mentioned

I started listening to Audiomorphs on Spotify because of this and so far I've listened to 41 books (that's how many they've recorded so far, I think there's official audiobooks somewhere for the rest of the collection but I'm not sure where to find them). I spent roughly the first 27 books terrified of [SPOILER ALERT] R*ch*l d***g at some point!

I remember Animorphs books, but don't remember reading them. But listening to this, being able to picture the aliens, recognizing the names, I'm now realizing that I did read at least this book!

Emily is basically describing McGruff the crime dog

After all that Tobias-hawk talk, Emily really needs to see the movie, Ladyhawke.

I would like to go on the record and say that I am on team "Jake Would Have Finished Animorphs"

Golf carts travel at 15 mph Max Jake is correct but I guarantee you couldn't outrun a golf cart especially a random security guard, not to mention the average running speed of a human being is 12mph so you would need to go full hog and out MAINTAIN a machine that doesn't require stamina. In short your a fool and you have misled your friends

The absolute restraint in Caldwell’s voice when he said “what do you- what do you think Spider-Man’s about?”

I need you guys to read the Animorphs Time Travel special. The cosmic whiplash you'll feel will send you spiralling. It's called "Megamorphs #3: Elfangor's Secret" if you're interested.

All this broccoli talk at 52:00 and I'm over here like "Yeah steamed broccoli from the frozen aisle bag is pretty good"

I still burst out laughing at "That sick fuck loves being a bird"

Animorphs is very formative. Those are the books I would read in the middle school library during lunch. Absolutely iconic of me I think

Teenagers can't treapas on construction sites anymore because there are cameras everywhere. So easy to get caught.

i also would happily listen to more animorph book club episodes, i really loved this episode!! <33

Core memory: in 4th grade, Mrs. Katabi used to read these to us after lunch.

I would listen to a full animorphs book club podcast religiously

Emily and Caldwell are pitching a Scooby Doo esque cartoon called "Sherlock's Web."

2/3 of my schools vice principals were legitimately awful

I wanna see jake out run a golfcart

Spider friend lol

Maybe you wouldn’t care if you were 10 but once your in middle school things change

I wonder what was going through Murph's mind in d20: starstruck, when Zac Oyama's character had the reveal.

Murph turned into a finch

This episode let me make a Animorphs joke on tiktok. Great success

I love this! I got up to over 200 books as a kid and the fact that yall share this is 👌

What if it took moonshine that long to wild shape

I love this because I missed out on these books as a child and I would have loved them

I think Emily was just describing Mcgruff the crime dog.

She's visser 1. Marcos mom

You should let us know the week before you release the episode what book you'll be reading so that the fans have time to read it beforehand too! It would be a fun way for us to be able to kind of participate in the book club 💕

this made me wanna read the books - i think I had only ever read a couple?

What are the chances we can get Jake to narrate the audiobooks 👀👀

So this is a series about child soldiers.

my name is richard so when they were talking about the spider actor i looked up like "yeah?"

There's apparently a couple of animorphs game books! That would be a super fun episode of 8bbc!

Fun fact— I went to elementary school with the son of the authors until 5th grade and the reason the main character in the first book is named Jake is because their son’s name is Jake! They were very anti-TV as parents but also he was the first person/child I ever met with an iPhone so… confusing

Both my principal and vice principal in high school were extremely sweet people. My vice principal had the grip strength of a forget clamp. He maxed out, and broke, every single one of those grip trainers he had. My principal was ex army and was extremely nice until a kid took a swing at him so he choke slammed him.

Y’all have no idea how happy it makes me y’all picked up this series. It literally taught me English when I immigrated into the US. Imagine my heart when I saw a character dumped into a new world trying to make sense of these new people. Oof.

This was great, I LOVED Animorphs as a kid! I agree that the series is pretty fucked up and dark, also really violent.

Pleaseeeeee keep doing Animorph 8-Bit Bookclub!!! I was a HUGE fan of the series and this is unlocking deeply buried core memories.

When will they do Brian’s Animorph fan fiction?

Would love to see a read through of the Animorphs choose your own adventure book that was just a self insert of a 6th kid into the first book.

Can I please share with everyone a song about Tobias that my friends wrote…I feel like everyone here will appreciate it (because who doesn’t love a 2 minute punk song about the animorphs) https://open.spotify.com/track/6mAYNk2HqZTJZbULY5GZkp?si=_6yFxTARQN6nxqZ99lBALQ

You can use a 1999 calendar in 2027.

How did *nobody* say Animurph?

I have a spider in my bathroom window, and his name is Richard!

Also really hope y'all can do the adventure book I sent now that everyone is primed on the Animorphs universe!!

I think an Animorph one shot is needed now

I read a completely random and out of order selection of animorphs books that had been donated to my library as a kid. Then I drew terrible animorphs transitions in notebooks for years after

Just wanted to say I grew up with a cat named Kitty Dude, who was named before I started reading Animorphs (which I was super into as a kid). She was the fluffiest and most chill and patient cat who was also deaf and was probably the best thing to come out of a Walmart parking lot.

Lost girl has a detective that is a werewolf. And about the Fey

On the topic of Beak, his is truly a tortured existence. He a mutant in the way that he is a human and a bird mashed together and has all the downsides of that cursed fusion.

which came first mighty morphin power rangers or anamorphs

Ok so if you're looking for a very WEIRD series about a man-dog person check out cuticle detective inaba a very strange anime about a man who uses hair and dog abilities and solve crime. Also the villain is a small goat

So much fun! I love this discussion of Animporphs. Despite being of the age when they were big, never read them... and boy it seems I was missing out a lot!

Good news! All of the books are still available online for free as pdfs with KA's permission!! At least good news for Jake who (correctly) wants to continue reading the books

This Marco slander cannot be borne. He gets better / worse in a character-relevant way, I swear!

Ask me about my Gex life.

If you’re looking for a half dog half man detective check out the dog-man graphic novels. They also frequent scholastic bookfairs

I have two wishes from this episode. I would love to see an Animorphs themed multi shot with you all DM’d by 3BH’s Jeremy Cobb. Second please do a follow up episode where you read the Ellimist chronicles which is the origin story of the good side god of the animorphs and it’s a wild ride to say the least.

Rachel is DTM, down to morph.

Murph's a finch

I want them to keep reading until they react to how much these kids go through

My only interaction with the anamorph series is renting a vhs of the first few episodes of the TV show, from the library and flip book animating the transformations that happen in the corner of the books whenever I came across, one and with the description of three minute grotesque morph times, fighting against animal instincts while morphed, and threat of permanent morphs after 2 hours, this series sounds sick as fuck! And now I really want to read it.

One of my favorite kids series even today I still read the series. Gets way more adult and dark than I remembered as a kid.

So we've got bon frere behavior and now yeerk behavior

BEGGING for a follow up episode where u create ur animorph OCs a la the tub brisket characters

A couple months back I found The Library Ladies had done a huge Animorphs re-read and I highly recommend it for anyone else who wants to revisit the whole series but is having trouble accessing all the books or wants the info more in depth than on a wiki dive https://thelibraryladies.com/category/great-animorphs-re-read/

Okay but think about how much we could learn about prehistoric animals if animorphs were real. Go touch some dinosaur bones and then turn into all these cool dinosaurs and let scientists study you? Rad as hell

1. there is definitely a Animorph audiobook out there. Not Official but decent quality. 2. Would it be possible for the two crew to play a animorphs type game. Animurphs

Also I think you guys are seriously underestimating 13 year olds. Would love powers and stuff but I don't think I'd want to be in a war at that age. Or maybe I would and the second we had a battle I'd be like whoa fuck this. I wanted to be a wizard not Harry Potter with psychos after me, you know?

I love this. But Marco is my favorite character of the series and his character growth through the series. I loved him when I was reading it. I can't believe they hate him.

I fucking loved this!

Loved this series growing up. To Jake's point, the books are pretty repetitive. A few years I started reading the series to my son and he pointed out the repetitiveness as well

YEEES! This was awesome! Would love to hear you guys do the whole series!! I remember watching the series growing up! :D

Oh man i hope they make a series of them just reading each book. I would totally love listening to them just go wild with this series.

Really hope this continues because god animorphs is so rad and I'd love to see the reactions to some of the wild shit from the later books

It was only a tangent. But I would 100% listen to two hours of Caldwell talking about the X-Men lol

Fun fact-in Andalite culture some people have a "talent" for Morphing and can do it quickly &beautifully. Elfangors young er brothwr joining the team. Rachel getting cut in half as a starfish and de-morphing into good and evil versions of herself. Tiny ant-sized aliens, time-travel, dinosaurs, POW torture, PTSD, suicide missions, oh man it's a beautiful, brutal series and I love it.

Just joining the hype for the wiki wander. Wait until you find out about God and the devil aliens, Android-dog aliens, Tobias getting his morphing back, The child army of disabled children they have at the end of the series, all the 'chronicles' books.

I am begging for a full series review, I've never read these books before and this got me absolutely hooked, I never knew the lore of these books was so goddamn crazy

Please wiki the David trilogy, I would love to see your reaction!

Animorphs were my favourite book as a kid, so happy to hear you all liked it! Also, dogs are kind of a big deal in animorphs - and I'm pretty sure they do turn into dogs and solve a mystery in book 10.

Murph’s going in pretty hard on Tobias for a guy who wanted to be a finch lol

Would love for them to read just the last book next and absolutely need a neck brace from the whiplash. The series gets less and less fun (in a very good way) as you read and gives perspectives from other beings like the taxxons and stuff and as an adult rereading the series I really appreciate the turn the series takes.

I love the insert of Jake in the thumbnail 🤣🤣🤣

I’m pretty sure at the author, K.A. Applegate, released all the books online for free.

It's AniMorbin' time!

I am really enjoying 8bit coming back

Am I the only one that thinks “lore lords” should just be “loreds”?

I have gone back to listen to 8 bit for them start and sweeties, this shit s gold!!!!!

There are like FIFTY mainline books, something like 4 or 5 'megamorphs' adventures, two CYOA novels where YOU, the READER, become an animorph, and then a few chronicles books detailing lives of specific aliens; the Andalite Chronicles, the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, etc. Y'all probably all find this out in your wiki wander anyway.

Man I was such an Animorphs fan as a kid just introduced my two pre-teen boys to it...and we have a discussion every week about it

I don’t know who will read the comments for this, but I used to work at a theater summer camp, and staff would have to write the shows for the kids. One year the theme was “books” so my friend and I wrote a 14 minute Play about Animorphs, it was written to make fun of how buck-wild the series can get. I also made a small CD of Animorph parody songs to play for scene transitions. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-c4vqMw1lUhW3C0kDJ2UJP02_HeYVO0mW-bmHshPhb8/edit I gave the ability to make comments. Please be kind, I’m well aware that it won’t win a Pulitzer any time soon. Edit: I did not read any of the books to prepare, but I did do a lot of online research, my friend read the first quarter of one of the books.

I would pay another tier level for a full series review!! I was an Ani-murph way back in the 90s, this series gets so fucking intense, I adored it and it often made me full heaving sob at age 12. I would die for the Prince and for this to become a regular series!

That Beak shout-out really warmed my heart ^_^ <3

8bbc on the NADDPOD feed: its different, its hip, and I enjoyed it

I have book #46. There are at least 47 books. It also lists 4 Megamorphs books!

They should read the Applegate letter in the short rest and when they used disabled kids to fight the war or when Jake gets trial as a war criminal

I absolutely love 8bbc and I'd never listened to it until you guys did it on naddpod

I've listened to and loved every peice of naddpod content, however, if they decided to become only an animorphs book club i would be okay with that.

This is SUCH funny timing because I have never listened to 8 bit book club but I DID just start a re read of the entire animorphs series because I only read like 5 of them as a kid and they're FUCKING WILD MY DUDE

I vote yes to more Animorphs 8BBC, this really cheered me up! Edit: also, I for one would continue to support the Patreon if you make the jump from podcasting to full time Animorphing

i love this!! can’t wait to listen to y’all talk more about animorphs

Tobias has complicated feelings when Rachel bird morphs. Mostly because she usually morphs male birds.

My grade school had a vice principal who was also the disciplinarian. He was occasionally the health teacher and definitely a jerk. By the time I graduated, I was aware of him dating 20 year olds, in spite of him being in mid 50s. The principal was awesome.

Idk who this new guy is but he's pretty good

You guys, you need to do the rest of the books. Please. Please. My mental health depends on it.

I really want this to continue. Like, this is my everything right now. Missing critical role for this.

God I love animorphs

Shout out to Barnell Bohusk.

Hey everybody. My name is Brian. I wish I could tell you my real name but I can't.

what a perfect thing to wake up to on a chaotic friday 😌

I love this season. The normal cast does such a great job between the main line as well w the :monster of the week' aspect. That said, guest star Jake Hurwitz, has premiered him(their)self as a great lead

This series was pivotal to my teen self. Can't wait to listen!

HELL YEAH. I can't wait until you get to the war crimes. Fun fact: the actor who played Ax also played Shed Garvey in the Expanse.

RETURN OF BRIAN THE FINCH