So Drew and I went to go see The Golden Compass this past Saturday, and it was pretty good. I read the book way back in Jr High, and I seemed to remember liking it, but that was so long ago that I had forgotten most of the story. I think the movie was a pretty good adaptation from what I remember, it was just a little rushed, I think, in order to fit in all the important/cool stuff. The acting was pretty good and the special effects were awesome. They did a really good job of animating the changeable spirit totem animal thingies, and the polar bears were beyond amazing. I personally think the polar bear fight was the best part of the film. Its definitely worth seeing, and I think it greatly benefits you to see it on the big screen.
One of the stranger and I suppose more interesting parts of the movie is that everyone in it has some kind of physical manifestation of an animal spirit totem that can change shape when you are young but eventually picks one animal to stick to when you hit puberty. There are also weird rules surrounding them such as, no one else is allowed to touch it, and it can only be but so far away from you at any point in time. Drew and I decided that this second rule could potentially be very inconvenient. What if your spirit totem is a hippo? How do you bring that in the car with you? How can you take it to the grocery store? This led us to the decision that for maximum efficiency your spirit totem should either be small enough to carry around, or large enough to ride. In other words it should either be smaller than a bread box or larger than a Civic.
Drew decided that my spirit totem would be a tiger, putting it in the "can ride it like a pony" category, and I decided that he would have a labrador retriever, which is larger than a bread box, but still small enough to fit comfortably in a station wagon.
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