Review of The NeverEnding Story (1984) by Kai82 — 09 Apr 2020

A modern fantasy fairy tale based on the book of the same name by German author Michael Ende. It is a pretty faithful and loyal adaption of the first half of the book. Don't worry it is not open ended and you will even not notice that there is more to it.

Side-note: The sequel is not the other half of the story. It is the story of Bastian Balthasar Bux who is bullied at school and escapes to a book store where he finds “The Neverending Story” book.

He starts reading it. This is the story of Atreyu, who is on the quest to save Fantasia which slowly destroyed by the “The Nothing” that devours everything. As the story progresses you learn that there is more to the story than you had imagined.

It has a clever story full of fantastic ideas and themes. This is also valid for the characters. I must admit the fail a bit in comparison to the book but this was expected. I wont spoil the twists as it would be a crime.

It is one of the best journeys in fantasy. The practical effects were pretty got for its time. The visuals, sets and costumes were pretty good. Remember this is a German production from 1984 and not Hollywood.

There is also the excellent soundtrack. Limahls Never Ending Story became a classic that is still played in radio. The rest is a pretty good soundtrack. I must warn you as there is a scene that has traumatized many peoples childhood involving Atreyus horse Artax.

Overall a solid adaptation and great movie. Bonus knowledge: The book is even better by a magnitude and I will recommend it. The unfilmed second half has a great story about corruption of power starting with best intentions, true friendship and probably the greatest final battle in fantasy.

Think all battles of Lord of the Rings combined and all sides have fantasy creatures like Dragons, Rock-eaters, Centaurs and more on their side. Also both sides think that they are the good guys fighting an evil menace so that neither side can give up and let evil win.

The conclusion was so heartwarming that I had tears in my eyes. Michael Ende was a genius author who created also Jim Knopf and Momo. He fought hard to stop this movie but lost. I thing he wanted to stop the sellout of ideas and that people read his books as some things can be well transferred.

I think I should thank him here for his awesome works. There are other adaptations for his stories but that is another story;-).