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Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) is a stubborn girl who wants to be included in the adventures of her uncle, the Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig). For one particularly important mission Lord Asriel heads to "The North," and again Lyra is left behind. Her savior comes in the form of a woman, the Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman), who says she is about to travel to the North and could use an assistant. For safety on her voyage with Mrs. Coulter, Lyra is given a strange instrument and told to keep it a secret. The instrument is an Alethiometer and if you can read it, it always shows you the truth. With the help of the Alethiometer and some new friends she meets along the way, Lyra must find and save kidnapped children and then find her uncle.

The movie is based on the world created by Philip Pullman in the His Dark Materials series, a three-book set with The Golden Compass being the first. While I have not read the books, I will assume that much of the movie was as it was in the books. For example, I will credit Pullman with the dæmons -- in this parallel world a person's soul travels alongside the body, in animal form, rather than inside it. This was a wildly imaginative element to the story and one of those "Why didn't I come up with that?" ideas.

I really like Daniel Craig, but he is not in the movie very long. You get the impression that he might get more on-screen time later in the story, but Lyra is our star. As Lyra, Dakota Blue Richards was everything she needed to be, when she need to be. She was stubborn, sassy, strong, and lots of other things that don't start with the letter S.

I don't like Nicole Kidman. In almost every role she is sneaky, rude, cold and nasty. And that is exactly how she was in The Golden Compass, and I loved it. Mrs. Coulter is each and every one of those things.

The animation for the movie was very well done. There were many parts of the movie where the animators could have made it look less animated, but they didn't. I think it added to the fantasy element of the story to keep it this way.

The story moves pretty quickly. There is a lot of information packed into just one movie. Normally I would gripe about the lack of depth given to certain parts of the plot, but I am making an exception for The Golden Compass under the assumption that things will be explained in the next two installments of the series.

It was PG-13 and the only reason I could see was for animated violence. Many people died, but there was little or no blood.

You can call this a children's movie if you want, but I think it is time we re-evaluated that category. You will like this movie if you like fun fantasy/adventure stories. I loved it.

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