The book The Golden Compass is about a girl named Lyra and her daemon Pan, who embark on a dangerous journey to save her kidnapped friend Roger. The only problem is that he was kidnapped by the notorious “Gobblers”, which is a organization that experiments on children and the elusive dust. Lyra’s only way to save him is by convincing a woman named Mrs. Coulter to take her to the north where Roger is supposedly being held. This proves to be a problem, so Lyra consults her alethiometer or golden compass, which tells the truth about anything, to help her find her lost friend and possibly others. On the way she meets armored bears, witches, and gyptians who help in Lyra’s adventure.
Even though the book was a very good read, the movie lacked in detail, and the plot events were very disheveled and hard to follow. If you had not read the book before watching the movie it would have been very confusing. The characters were also not as we had imagined them to our disappointment, but that happens in a lot of movies, and they can’t be helped. Much of the ending was left out and the story seemed very unfinished, not on cliffhanger, but unfinished. The graphics sort of made up for what the movie lacked, for example, the look of the daemons and armored bears, which were very well done. The movie appeared to be set in a futuristic term, whilst the book seemed to be set somewhere in the past. Overall the movie was not satisfactory and lacked in detail but the animation was very thorough and was realistic.