Firefox and Opera compatible

Client: New Line Cinema

The release of Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass" may still be far off, but that hasn't tapered the interest of its fans. New Line Cinema has created a beautiful site dedicated to immersing the audience in a fantasy world -- Lyra's parallel universe -- providing intriguing insights to the movie and artful downloads for the fans.

Downloadable wallpapers are hidden throughout the site for your PC or iPod; the trailer is also downloadable for iPod and can be embedded on a  blog.

You can explore the different meanings of the symbols on "The Golden Compass" and take a quiz to find out the unique name and meaning of your "Daemon."

The site delves into the different characters and subplots of the film exciting the mind and whetting the palate, making the idea of waiting till December to see the film torturous.
-- Krisserin Canary, associate editor, iMedia Connection

Probably one of the most beautifully orchestrated movie sites in a long time, the "Golden Compass" micro-site presents a rich and engaging tapestry that unfolds in a choose-your-own-adventure style.

Most companies don't really get the importance of sound on the web; it makes good creative great and great creative ooze with involvement. I also like the fact that the voice-over has a text companion to start the adventure. My only concern is that we get to the meat of the story a little too quickly, almost like arriving at a play after intermission. If the "About the Movie" trailer played first to set the stage, then I think New Line would prevent some confusion."
-- Matt Wright, director, online video strategy, How Stuff Works

The website for the upcoming film "The Golden Compass" is decisively simple in its design and mission: to present Lyra's world and to introduce a couple of narrative concepts that will clearly matter to those future young moviegoers that New Line hopes will pack the theaters. Going live well in advance of the film's December release, the site is obviously set to get the buzz started with kids, asking questions like "what's your daemon?" (a variation of the "what's your sign?" that I used to ask little girls when I was a kid) and "can you work the Althieometer?".

Instead of presenting the trailer on the homepage, the site uses audio to introduce the characters of the film and their respective daemons, and then provides a prompt to "Meet Your Daemon". Twenty questions are presented which promise to reveal "your true character and the form of your daemon." Once you complete the questionnaire, you can send your resulting daemon to your friends, presumably to build a community of young daemons who will all later commune at the theater. The site does a commendable job on its decidedly simple mission by not overwhelming visitors with a bunch of extraneous features, and is a good example of how restraint in design can actually improve intended results.
-- Jason Scheidt, director of marketing, EyeWonder, Inc.