Tophat665

I agree with you except on the adverb. I would have gone with "Delightfully".

That said, there is always a huge risk that any good book with get bowlderized, pasteurized, and otherwise dumbed down when it is made into a movie. Look at Lynch's treatment of Dune or Sci-Fi network's version of Ringworld. They're both awful. I'd say two out of three adaptations are crap. Howard the Duck is the poster child here. Most are just bad enough to be forgettable. Cast a Deadly Spell is one best forgotten. Don't recall the specific book it's from, but it's ar really really ultra hokey Lovecraft pastiche. I think I've seen the lead actor in porn. He's just that bad. So many or most are crap.

The ones that aren't, though, can be golden. LOTR, Blade, a whole mess of Shakespeare from the <i>Julius Ceasar</i> with Marlon Brando as Mark Antony to Brannaugh's <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i>, Starship Troopers. Fight Club. You can argue specifics, and they never please everybody, but it can be done well. This one doesn't seem to be unusually hard for Fantasy. Doesn't mean it will be done well, but that it could be.

I also agree that CGI isn't (quite) to the place where an Armored Polar bear is going to look realistic.

Look at what I just said: Is there any way at all that an armored polar bear could look realistic? Should it? Frankly CGI might be right at the place where the bear would be just the right flavor of unrealistic, particularly if they resist the temptation to exaggerate facial expressions for emotive effect. If it were done as well as Jar Jar Binks (just the visuals mind you, there is no excuse for the writing or acting on the execrable JJB) I think that would be plenty effective.

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