Analysis Of The Golden Compass Opening Sequence

Based on author Philip Pullman's bestselling and award-winning novel, The Golden Compass tells the first story in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The Golden Compass is an exciting fantasy adventure, set in an alternative world where people's souls manifest themselves as animals, talking bears fight wars, and Gyptians and witches co-exist. At the center of the story is Lyra (played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards), a 12-year-old girl who starts out trying to rescue a friend who's been kidnapped by a mysterious organization known as the Gobblers - and winds up on an epic quest to save not only her world, but ours as well. The Golden Compass stars an ensemble cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, and Ian McShane. The film is written and directed by Chris Weitz (About A Boy, Antz) and produced by Deborah Forte and Bill Carraro (Frequency). It is executive produced by Andrew Miano and Paul Weitz (In Good Company)

Genre:
Adventure
Family
Fantasy

Opening credits, floaty and effects like fireflies, giving an immediate feel of magic and fantasy.
After The Golden Compass title has shown up, the shot merges into a starry atmospheric night sky, with a womens voice over talking about the two dimensions and our dimension as being the one that is unusual by having our souls inside our bodies. The first block of voice over tells us how the story is going to plan out, by telling us about the compass and that the fate will depend on it.

We can tell that the film is a children's fantasy from a combination of misce-en-scene, camerawork, sound and editing. From the opening, we can tell who the main character of the film is from the voice-over that says "Only once can read it", the camera then cuts off to the shot of the girl who finds a compass. The camera zooms in on her and that gives us reason to think that she is the main character. This shows that kids can identify with the main character if they see the movie through her eyes.

We can tell that the theme is fantasy based from the title of the film "The Golden Compass". The font is golden and sparkly and seems magical. The voice-over talks about another world which also shows that it's fantasy.


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