Riding a polar bear bareback has always struck me as the kind of activity best left to drunken zoologists. But watching the young girl, Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), sprint across artic wastelands atop Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Ian McKellen), exiled prince of the polar bears, is a moment of such visual poetry that any worry about the blood-alcohol level of the rider - or whether the bear is rushing to the nearest 7-Eleven for condiments - simply evaporates in its wake.

This is the kind of image that allows fantasy films to burrow into our imagination like no other genre, and it is one of many such images that give "The Golden Compass" its exotic visual allure.

"The Golden Compass" is adapted from the popular fantasy novels of Philip Pullman. It chronicles the adventures of Lyra, an 11-year-old girl living in a parallel universe where a person's soul walks beside them in animal form, often playing the role of sassy sidekick. When two of Lyra's friends are kidnapped by a sinister group called The Gobblers, a series of events are triggered that sends her into the frozen north to rescue them.

Along the way we are treated to a visual rendering of Lyra's world that looks like a collaboration between Jules Verne and The Brothers Grimm. All the gadgets have brass gears, bears wear armor, and the witches...well, it could be argued that Eva Green is sexier as the clan queen of the witches than she was as a Bond girl. This is a coffee-table book of a fantasy film.

On her journey, Lyra carries the added burden of destiny. Like Frodo and Harry Potter before her, Lyra has been chosen to hold the hope of her world in a coming struggle of good against evil. To that end, she has been entrusted with a golden alethiometer, a compass-like device that helps her intuit the truth when it is hidden.

There's been some controversy that Pullman's novel carries an anti-religious theme. If that's the case, it's been diluted in this film adaptation. If anyone should feel a little uncomfortable, it is Dick Cheney. The only vice president in American history presaged by a "Star Wars" character, Cheney seems to have been saddled with the hapless task of role model for cinematic villainy. Whether it's a literal representation in "The Day After Tomorrow" or the pink-cashmere shenanigans of "Harry Potter's" Dolores Umbridge, Hollywood is big on the idea that menace emanates from the shadowy actions of one's own government.

In "The Golden Compass" that menace comes from the Magisterium, an organization that blends political and religious authority to hold control over Lyra's world. The Magisterium finds those soul-critters, called daemons, to be an impediment to its vision for an autocratic utopia, as they tend to inspire a little too much free will.

The Magisterium's solution involves the Gobblers that have taken Lyra's friends and has brought her to the attention of one of its most powerful figures, the coolly manipulative Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman).

"The Golden Compass" is as well acted as it is visually satisfying. Kidman, Sam Elliott, and Christopher Lee all create compelling characters to fill out the exotic landscape. Dakota Blue Richards is appropriately feisty as Lyra.

And yet, as dazzling as "The Golden Compass" is, you don't leave the theater with the same magical afterglow as with "Harry Potter." Fantasy films need to do more than paint an alien landscape; they need to draw us in and make us feel at home. "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" needed the cozy abode of Mr. Tumnus in the way the "The Lord of the Rings" needed the chummy banter of the hobbits to give its world some dimension. It's a sense of dimension that "The Golden Compass" doesn't quite achieve.

For all of its compelling imagery and exceptional performances, "The Golden Compass" keeps you at arm's length, admiring its beauty but never joining in the fun.

Bruce Bulloch may be reached at wseditor@robinsonnews.com

'The Golden Compass

Directed by Chris Weitz

Rated PG-13

(Three stars)