WWYDB?

What Would Your Daemon Be? This is the question that I have pondered since watching "The Golden Compass" for the second time earlier this week. This film is based on Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy of books. There was quite an uproar over the film when it was originally released in theaters by the Catholic Church, who thought that the film's portrayal of The Magisterium hit a little too close to home, and fans of the book, who were disappointed by what they viewed as the generalization and elimination of some of the book's religious themes. I haven't read the books yet, but plan to and the movie very much intrigued me. In the alternate world that "His Dark Materials" takes place in, every human is born with a daemon that represents his/her soul. This daemon changes shape at will during childhood, but upon reaching adolescence, settles into one form. Our heroine Lyra Belacqua's daemon is Pantalaimon (Pan). Some forms of daemons are reserved for classes of people - servant daemons are dogs, scholars/Master daemons are birds, and so on. I am going to give this movie four stars but with a couple caveats - first, I don't think you should read the book first. Second, if you don't like "The Fellowship of the Rings" or "Harry Potter", don't bother.