A lot of the graphic novels getting snapped up and adapted for the movies these days are dark, adult-focused titles—think Sin City, or the upcoming Watchmen, But Jeff Smith’s Bone series, picked up recently by Warner Bros., seems headed for a much more family-friendly future. According to Variety, the studio plans to make a big-budget, CGI-animated movie based on the graphic novel series, more like Over the Hedge than The Dark Knight.

The Variety article also says they might consider a live-action version, which seems kind of difficult when you’re basing it off a series of books about white blobby characters that make the Smurfs look human. The books are compared to Lord of the Rings, though, in terms of their action focus and epic scope. A lot more active than the Smurfs, and probably a lot more exciting as well.

Smith published the graphic novel series on his own before it eventually got picked up and published by Scholastic. There’s a cult following going back years and years that will probably be thrilled and anxious to hear about this. I admit I can’t really make heads or tails of this—is it’s a children’s story, or is it darker than that? I’ll need the fans to step in and help me out here, to decide if this is yet another misguided Warner Bros. graphic novel adaptation (seriously, it’s like all they do anymore) or a brilliant idea that will bring a genius graphic novel series to the wide audience it deserves. Suggestions, guys?