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A story about a stubborn little girl named Lyra she Has a daemon named Pantalaimon he is part of her soul, a shape shifter, I was moved by this trilogy of adventure,slight romance and mystery.

read the first one a while ago, it was pretty good.

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I read all three of the books, damn good series. I was pretty pissed that the movie crashed and burned though.

Yeah, what was with that? It was a really, really well loved book but the movie was a massive flop. Was it inaccurate to the book or just a really bad movie?

It seems pretty normal to me - like they botched 'Witcher' movie/serial adaptation... although this abomination as far as I know was only made available in Polish.

Yeah, that makes sense. They made a truly terrible movie of the Wizard of Earthsea which was really disappointing since the book's awesome. Thing is, I watched The Golden Compass when I was a kid and I don't remember it being all that bad. It wasn't fantastic but it wasn't gut wrenchingly awful, so since the book had such a huge following, I'm surprised the movie didn't do better.

I didn't watch the Golden Compass, but for me Neverending Story was the movie I've revisited after many years which made me wonder about the suspension of disbelief in children. Besides I read something about mind remembering mostly good things from the past. Something about self defense mechanisms or other stuff.

Well one could say that bad movie adaptations of books are made because book is so much 'deeper' medium where reader/user creates his own little world. These are similar, but not the same considering how carefully one reads, how deep is his knowledge or just imagination etc. While movies are vision of one man/woman (or a small group of them) forced upon people. And that of course brews dissatisfaction. Also technical limitations.

So while I can understand why great books are hard to adapt there is also aspect of 'cashing in', using the popularity of to create flow of money... although that kind of thing happens mainly when people try to make movie from a game or other way around. So that's that.

I friggin' love Never Ending Story! That film was awesome!!! And yeah, all the stuff you said was right too, but I REALLY love Never Ending Story! Was kind of disappointed about an hour and a half through though... It ends. Stupid misleading title. 

Hah, yeah I was too a bit disappointed when the movie ended even though title suggested otherwise... Still I was pretty shocked when I watched it again a year or so ago. Special effects really age poorly. Or maybe it is just that I'm too old? Because the same feeling of 'missing the point of movie' or just 'lack of suspension of disbelief' goes with Dragon Ball series or even Flash Gordon! Still I can read books which are clearly geared towards teenagers... so yeah there seem to be difference

If you guys want to discuss The Neverending story you should probably make a new thread.

I know! I love the book and I love miyazaki and studio ghibli but really they don't go well together at all!

AWESOME series. It is very interesting to see Lyra sort of go from being a feisty young girl into this sophisticated young woman. Interesting concepts in there, too-romance, adventure, a little bit of stuff about religion. Plus really three-dimentional characters, like Mr. Scoresby or Mrs. Coulter.

Philip Pullman is a great author.  I've read several of his books, but His Dark Materials and the Sally Lockhart books are my favorite.  Pullman has an amazing way of writing about dark and/or controversial topics by weaving them perfectly into the story.  He is as good as blending the moral and the story as CS Lewis was in Narnia, albeit with a bit more serious topics.

Daemons were an imaginative addition to the story, especially that they change form until a child grows up.  Beautiful imagery in a steampunk type world.  Overall, HDM were a delight to read.

Interesting you brought up C.S. Lewis...one of the reasons Phillip Pullman supposedly wrote His Dark Materials was because he couldn't stand the Narnia series and C.S. Lewis' morality and way of viewing the world and wanted to present his own take on things. He "hates the Narnia books, and hates them with deep and bitter passion" and has called the series "one of the most ugly, poisonous things I have ever read".

...which seems like a bit of strong language to sling at a children's series about British kids having awesome adventures with magical talking animals, but different strokes and all that.

I read His Dark Materials as a kid but don't have as fond of a memory of them as the Narnia books, and I don't think I could really warm up to them now, the idea of the author spitting on such a huge warm and fuzzy part of my childhood would sort of get in the way. :(