A Young Boy Goes on a Magical Adventure in The Neverending Story
Written: Jan 09 '08 (Updated Oct 09 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fun, entertaining family friendly adventure movie.
Cons: A few sad and upsetting moments.
The Bottom Line: The Neverending Story was a very entertaining family friendly movie that adults can enjoy too.
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| dragonfire88's Full Review: Neverending Story |
My love of movies started when I was a child even though I didn't get to see as many as I would have liked. I have fond memories of watching certain movies, some several times, as I was growing up. I recently watched The Neverending Story again for the first time in years.
A young boy named Bastian ended up hiding in a bookstore when bullies were chasing him. Bastian talked to a man in the store for a few minutes before leaving with a book he took. He left a note promising to return the book. When he got to school, he saw that a math test was underway and he decided to take the book up into the attic to read. The book was set in Fantasia, a magical world that was facing danger from something called the nothing. Atreyu, a young warrior, set off on a quest to find a way to save Fantasia and all the magical creatures living there.
The Neverending Story was based on the book by Michael Ende. I’ve never read the book, so I don’t know what might have been changed for the movie. I have a feeling at least something was changed since that tends to happen when books are turned into the movies. The movie did end up spawning two sequels that weren’t as good as this movie.
The Neverending Story is a family friendly adventure movie. It was just fun to watch and very interesting. The adventure was provided by what Atreyu was doing in Fantasia along. He did end up in some dangerous situations which did add a little bit of suspense. I was never bored with what was going on and I remember being really engrossed when I watched the movie as a child. I also remember thinking that the movie was a lot longer then. It moved at a good pace without rushing what was happening. There wasn’t any swearing and very little minor violence. It was rated PG, so there really wasn’t anything offensive in the movie that parents should have to worry about. There were one or two sadder moments that could upset some children.
The plot was fairly straightforward and not really complicated even with everything that was going on. Most of the movie focused on Atreyu and his adventure in Fantasia. Some time was taken at the beginning of the movie to introduce Bastian and show how he had a few things troubling him. Once he had the book and started reading, the movie jumped between showing Bastian reading the book and what was happening with Atreyu. That did work well for the movie. The way the movie was done did remind me of what was done in The Princess Bride.
Special effects of some sort had to be used to create certain shots in The Neverending Story. I’m fairly certain that effects were used in at least some of the scenes that showed the luck dragon flying. I did learn that a large mechanical version of the luck dragon had been built that I think was used for the close ups. Something else had to be used when the luck dragon was shown flying from a distance. The effects were good for the time the movie came out and they have held up well for the most part. Only a couple of the shots looked a bit dated or showed obvious signs of some type of effect. The score, including the theme song, worked wonderfully. The music always perfectly matched what was happening and did add to the movie.
Bastian was very important to the overall plot. He was the one reading the book which started the entire adventure. He was trying to deal with some things which could have been why he was so eager to escape into the adventure provided by the book. He was a nice, likable boy. Barret Oliver handled the part well. His father was only briefly shown in the movie and was only identified as Bastian’s father in the credits. Gerald McRaney, who I mostly know from the work he has done on television, didn’t have much to do.
Atreyu was a well-known warrior even though he was still very young. He was considered to be the only person who could deal with what was happening and find a way to save Fantasia. I think he was shown a little more than Bastian had been. Noah Hathaway handled the part well. Several other characters, mostly ones who lived in Fantasia and somehow helped Bastian, were also shown. Several of them really didn’t do a lot. Teeny Weeny and Carion were really just in a couple of scenes. Deep Roy, the man who performed as all the Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was Teeny Weeny. Falkor the luck dragon became more important a bit later in the movie. I did remember him from seeing the movie as a child, though he looked slightly different from how I remembered. Alan Oppenheimer provided the voice for Falkor, G’mork, and did the narration. Tami Stronach didn’t have much to do as the Childlike Empress since she was only seen for a few minutes.
Main Cast
Noah Hathaway - Atreyu
Gerald McRaney - Bastian’s father
Barret Oliver - Bastian
Alan Oppenheimer - Voice of Falkor/G’mork/Narrator
Tilo Pruckner - Night Hob
Deep Roy - Teeny Weeny
Tami Stronach - Childlike Empress
Wolfgang Peterson - Director
DVD Information
When I recently watched The Neverending Story again, it was on the DVD. The disc had the widescreen version on one side and the full screen version on the other side. There were only a few extras, none of which were documentaries. There was a little bit of information about how a few things - like Falkor - were created for the movie. There was also a little bit of information about the characters. The information was shown in text on the screen with only a sentence or two for each item. It would have been nice if there had been some kind of documentary.
I remember really enjoying The Neverending Story when I saw it as a child and I enjoyed it just as much when I recently watched it again. The movie was very fun and entertaining overall, though there were a few sad moments as well. This is a wonderful family, friendly movie that parents can enjoy with their children.
Recommended:
Yes
Viewing Format: DVD
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