(CNSNews.com) - Parents are being urged to avoid a new movie coming out in time for the holidays - one which has all the fantasy appeal of "Harry Potter" and "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," as well as the special effects wizardry of "The Lord of the Rings."

But the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights said "The Golden Compass"" is not the harmless fantasy it appears to be. It is an entr_e to the anti-religious writings of its avowedly atheist creator.

The group is calling for a boycott of the film, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, which is due in theatres Dec. 7.

"We're not saying picket this movie, we're saying don't go to it, and certainly don't buy the books as Christmas gifts for your children," said Kiera McCaffrey, director of communications for the Catholic League.

The group's objections center not on the film itself, McCaffrey said, but on the now 10-year-old trilogy of books from which "The Golden Compass" is taken, titled "His Dark Materials."

"The three novels are extremely anti-faith in general, anti-Christian and anti-Catholic in particular, and pro-atheism," McCaffrey told Cybercast News Service. "In each successive book, the anti-God agenda gets progressively stronger."

She said the New Line Cinema movie is designed to suck unwitting kids and their parents into the atheistic agenda of the books' British author, Philip Pullman.

"This man has been on the record for the last 12 years saying things such as, 'I am all for the death of God,' and 'My books are all about killing God,' and 'I am of the Devil's party and I know it,' " McCaffrey said.

His darkening materials

Indeed, the overarching story behind the award-winning "His Dark Materials" (which includes "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass"), involves a battle against God, who is conceived of as an illegitimate usurper of authority, and the central good is individual autonomy. Anything that places itself over individual authority is considered villainous.

"All of the believers are shown to be cruel, horrible men who do things such as kidnap children and murder people," McCaffrey said. "They perform torture on a mass scale - all to keep everybody oppressed and under this fake God."

Throughout the books, which are more popular in Britain than J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, Pullman refers to the Magisterium - a term real-world Catholics use for the teaching authority of the Pope and the bishops of the Church.

"These aren't throwaway lines in the novels - they are integral to the plot," McCaffrey said. "The Church is portrayed as a totally corrupt, oppressive institution - all churches are. There is no God. It's just an idea that's been concocted to keep people in chains."

Kurt Bruner, co-author of the book, "Shedding Light on His Dark Materials," said the Pullman books are extremely well-written but are definitely anti-religious.

"Pullman is brilliant at creating worlds, and he is brilliant at fantasy writing, but he is also the village atheist. He's got an agenda he's driving - a very overt agenda," Bruner told Cybercast News Service.

"The agenda is less overt in the first book. By the third book, however, it just overwhelms the story - and his craft as a writer, at times."

Both the film and the books are set in a universe of alternative worlds where people's souls are mirrored in animal companions, called daemons. The novels derive their title - and their impetus - from a line in John Milton's classic poem on Satan's fall from heaven, "Paradise Lost."

"In many ways, Philip Pullman has taken Satan's side of the argument and has created a world and a story which is all about Satan overthrowing the authority of God," Bruner said.

Bruner said Pullman sees himself as the antidote to the theistic fantasy worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

"He's using fantasy to 'free' children from the 'oppression' of belief in God."

Time magazine has favorably compared "His Dark Materials" with J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, and in Britain, they are more popular than Harry Potter. But they are far from alike, Bruner said.

"I would call Harry Potter harmless fun," Bruner said. "This is more like Harry Potter meets 'The DaVinci Code.' It is a direct assault on the church, but it is greater than that. It is a direct assault on God himself - his existence and his legitimacy."

Pullman, for his part, denies he has written an anti-Christian polemic. But the well-known atheist and humanist has been widely quoted for his views.

"When you look at organized religion of whatever sort - whether it's Christianity in all its variants, or whether it's Islam or some forms of extreme Hinduism - wherever you see organized religion and priesthoods and power, you see cruelty and tyranny and repression," Pullman said in a 2002 British interview. "It's almost a universal law."

Kidman, meanwhile, has appealed to audiences not to boycott the film.

"I was raised Catholic, the Catholic Church is part of my essence," she told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. "I wouldn't be able to do this film if I thought it were at all anti-Catholic."

The producers, meanwhile, acknowledge that they have scrubbed many of Pullman's more anti-religious elements. But that is part of the problem, according to McCaffrey.

"Our concern is that, even though many of these elements have been scrubbed from the film, it's going to serve as bait for the books," McCaffrey said.

"An unsuspecting parent may not know what these books are about - they take their kids to see the movie, right before Christmas, the kid likes the movie, and the parent thinks -'Wow, what a great Christmas gift to pick up the trilogy for my kid!' What parent wouldn't be thrilled to have their children reading something exciting like this?" she added.

The movie is co-produced by Scholastic Books - a major publisher of books aimed at young people.

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