Kids in London - Golden Compass

Well. What a treat! My son had read these books but not me and my daughter. I had seen varying reviews so wasn't sure what to expect and didn't know whether we would know enough to keep up. But my fears were completely unfounded.

Both me and my daughter were pretty tired when we went to see the film - both of us dozing off. But that soon stopped when the film started.

A young girl as the heroine. Bands of goodies and baddies. Witches (happily on the side of the goodies). Polar bears in armour (this is SO much better than those nasty creatures in Lord of the Rings for family entertainment). Even the arch enemy is a girl - and doesn't (in the words of X Factor judges) Nicole Kidman own this film? And with Daniel Craig looking as lovely as ever in various parts of the film what more could any accompanying Mum want?

Anyway. We were both entranched with the idea of having demons for each person - a small creature that embodies your soul and accompanies you everywhere and chats to you so that you are never alone. Me and my daughter chatted for ages afterwards about our choice of demon. And what a delightful idea that when kids are younger their demons are unsettled and can morph from ferret, to humming bird, to bat, to fluffy cat and back again within a few minutes. We want one! And what a great game to think of appropriate demon animals for various pop stars, celebrities and politicians...how we laughed.

Anyway. There was a great story that we followed easily enough. An assortment of interesting characters. Even a kind of cowboy. Fantastic scenery - and we were never quite sure what was real and what was fantasy/computer generated.

In fact, we both got completely lost in the characters and story and scenery and ideas and everything that we didn't notice the 1 hour 45 minutes slip by. Magic. One of the best films we have seen for ages. And the other adult we took with us with similarly impressed.

Mind you, I wasn't quite prepared for the onslaught of questions afterwards about people's souls and what would happen if our souls were separate or lost....so make sure you are! :)