As far as the rest of the performances go, they were all pretty much wonderful. From Christopher Lee's creepy cameo as a high ranking official in the Magisterium, Sam Elliott as Lee Scoresby, the airman from Texas, to Daniel Craig as Lyra's Uncle Lord Asriel, everybody not only gives lovely performances, but look like they are having a great time doing so. Even Nicole Kidman, who I've only liked in a very few roles before, seems to be having fun as the very scary Mrs. Coulter. It says a lot for the director that everybody's performance has that extra spark that only happens when an actor remembers what it is to make believe again.

As this was the two disc special edition version of the DVD, the second disc was all special features. While the technical features about how they shot the CGI sequences will probably be of interest to some, I've reached the point where I've 'seen one blue/green screen, seen them all'. The parts I did enjoy were the interviews with both the author Philip Pullman and the director Chris Weitz. I'm always fascinated to listen to somebody discuss their process when it comes to creating, and it was interesting to see the two men talking about the same material from their respective perspectives of creator and adapter.

The Golden Compass is a wonderful movie, full of magic and adventure that will appeal to anyone whose imaginations were ever fired by the great children's literature that has come out of England. I can't speak to how the movie worked as an adaptation of the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, but I can say that this is a great piece of cinematic magic, and I am looking forward to its sequels. Now if I can only get my hands on the books I'll really be happy.