This is probably the biggest break for Anne Hathaway! Hopefully she can pull it off and grab awards through it.

Do producers choose actors purely based on recent accolades? Doesn't a credible physical resemblance count for anything? Anne is a great actress and has a beautiful singing voice, but I just don't think she is the right person to portray Judy Garland.

Judy was teeny, not even 5' tall, had a petite nose, and her vocal range was mezzo soprano/alto. Anne is a full 5'8", has a long nose, and sings first soprano. (I've only heard her sing twice, but she sounded like a first to me.) My choir director said most altos have bunny faces -- small and roundish -- and most sopranos have gazelle faces -- long and angular. (It has to do with the facial bones and the shape of the sinus cavity.) I have noticed over the years the accuracy of the analogy. Judy the mezzo/alto had a bunny-ish face, and Anne the soprano has a gazelle-ish face.

My point in all this is, unless Anne has at least a 4 octave vocal range that allows her to really belt it out as a rich mezzo like Judy, she'll have a tough time singing these songs convincingly... at least without damaging her vocal cords.

This reminds me of when the amazonian Eva La Rue -- her IMDb profile says she's 5'7", but puh-leeze! She's 5'10" if she's an inch! -- was cast as the 5'4" Annette Funicello in a TV movie, and it was just silly. All they had in common was a big bosom and dark hair. They were physically different in every other way, not just in height. Did the producers really think being dark-haired and busty was enough to make us overlook the massive differences between them?? It wasn't! I realize that a physical resemblance is usually lower on the list of priorities when casting a role like this, but if the look is too far off, it's a distraction.

Honestly, I see a much stronger resemblance between Anne and Liza than Anne and Judy. Anne's taller than Liza, but only by 4 inches, and I can get over that because they have a lot more in common physically. The one problem is, again, the singing voice, because Liza sings just like Judy. Anne might be able to stretch down for it, but I would hate it if it sounded forced.

Mainly, though, it's the look that makes or breaks something like this for me. Voices can be dubbed, hair can be dyed, but what do they intend to do about Anne's prominent nose and 8 extra inches of legs? CG off the end of her nose and have her walk in trenches through the whole movie?