The NeverEnding Story (film)

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This article is about the motion picture. For the novel, see The Neverending Story.

The NeverEnding Story
Directed by	Wolfgang Petersen
Produced by	Bernd Eichinger Bernd Schaffers
Written by	Michael Ende (book) Wolfgang Petersen (screenplay) Herman Weigel (screenplay)
Starring	Noah Hathaway Barret Oliver Tami Stronach Patricia Haynes Sydney Bromley Gerald McRaney Moses Gunn
Music by	Klaus Doldinger & Giorgio Moroder
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release date(s)	April 6, 1984 (West Germany) — July 20, 1984 (United States)
Running time	102 min
Language	English
Budget	US$27,000,000 (estimate)
IMDb profile

The NeverEnding Story (original German title Die Unendliche Geschichte) is the 1984 film adaptation of the German fantasy novel by Michael Ende. The Germany-US co-production was directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starred Barret Oliver as Bastian Balthazar Bux (named only "Bastian Bux" in the movie), Noah Hathaway as Atreyu, and Tami Stronach as The Childlike Empress. This film adaptation only covered the first half of the book. The majority of the movie was filmed in Germany, except for Barret Oliver's scenes, which were shot in Canada. It was Germany's highest budgeted film of the time. The novel's author, Michael Ende, felt that this adaptation's content deviated so far from his book that he requested they either halt production or change the name; when they did neither, he sued them and subsequently lost the case.[1] He did succeed in having his name removed from the opening credits, although his name does appear in the closing. Music for the movie was composed by Klaus Doldinger of the German jazz group Passport. The theme song to the American version of the film was composed by Giorgio Moroder with lyrics by Keith Forsey, and performed by Limahl, the fired lead singer of Kajagoogoo. This song, along with other "techno-pop" treatments to the soundtrack are not present in the German version of the film, which features Doldinger's score exclusively.

[edit] Plot summary

Bastian (Barret Oliver) is a young boy with his head in the clouds. A frequent daydreamer, he would rather read classic novels than pay attention at school. His weird behavior causes him to be the target of bullying, as we see him get thrown into a rubbish container by three bullies near the start of the movie. When he escapes the container, he encounters the bullies again and runs into a nearby bookstore to avoid them. Inside the bookstore, he meets a strange old man reading an unusual looking book. When Bastian asks to read the book ("The Neverending Story"), the man replies that the book is "not safe" - hinting that Bastian will not be the same once he reads it and is pulled into the book's world. Ignoring his warnings, Bastian steals the book (with the intention of bringing it back) and heads for school, only to realize he is again late. Frightened to go into class late, he heads upstairs to the school's large abandoned upper floor, where he sits down and starts to read the book.

This is the book's story: A group of unique, fantastical creatures in the world of Fantasia have all crossed paths in the forest - most notable among them is a rock-biter, a gigantic rock man who eats rocks to survive. As the different creatures talk about their respective lands of Fantasia, they discover they all have the same problem: a strange "nothing" is starting to take over their world and make things disappear. These patches of Nothing are essentially eating away their world and growing bigger by the day. With no idea what to do, they were all on their way to see Fantasia's Empress at the Ivory Tower and ask her for help. The group of travelers finish their journey to the Ivory Tower together, and quickly find many other strange species of beings in Fantasia all gathered there for the same reason. Unfortunately, their pleas cannot be heard because the Empress is dying and does not appear. The Empress's assistant tells the beings of Fantasia that just as this strange Nothing takes over the land, the Empress gets sicker, and cannot be of any help. With no plan of how to save their world, the beings call upon a great man-warrior from a tribe that hunts the purple buffalo - "Atreyu." Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) arrives, but all are shocked to see that he's simply a young boy. (The age of the boy is similar to Bastian himself, who stops reading, surprised, as he sees this.) Though shocked by his young age, the collected beings of Fantasia ask Atreyu to go on a quest to save the Empress and their world. They give him no instructions and nothing to use besides a guiding necklace with a medallion called the Auryn, simply telling him to act fast or their world will be destroyed by the Nothing.

Atreyu begins his journey with his trusty horse, Artax. Unbeknowst to him, the Nothing, an actual living presence, has summoned a warrior of its own - a hideous wolf-vampire - to kill Atreyu during his journey. Atreyu's journey is fruitless early on and, with no options, he's forced to trudge through the Swamps of Sadness in an effort to find Morla, a wise being who can assist him. On his way through the swamps, Artax is overcome by depression and sadness, and begins to sink to his doom. Though Atreyu pulls, pleads and screams at him to keep moving, Artax drowns in the swamps, leaving Atreyu heartbroken and alone. Soon after moving on, he finds Morla, who is actually a giant turtle-like creature. (After reading a description of Morla in the book, Bastian screams - a scream which is then heard quite clearly by both Morla and Atreyu, who look around the swamps confusedly. Bastian then reads that the characters indeed heard a child's scream just now, and is frightened himself at this.) Morla says he doesn't know how to help the Empress, but he does know who would know: The Southern Oracle. But, Morla says, The Southern Oracle is 10,000 miles away and the Empress/Fantasia will long be gone before he traveled the distance. With no hope left, Atreyu leaves Morla and continues through the swamps. At one point, he lets the sadness take him and he starts to sink. The Nothing's wolf creature is nearly upon him at this point, but Atreyu escapes both deaths after a flying white creature swoops down from the sky and picks him up just before he passes out.

Atreyu awakens and finds his life was saved by Falkor, a flying luckdragon (who resembles a dragon crossed with a dog). Falkor is helpful and kind, and has flown Atreyu 99.9% of the way to the Southern Oracle. Falkor's caretakers - two old people named Engywook and Urgl - give Atreyu advice on crossing the last lengths to the Southern Oracle. To reach his destination, Atreyu must first cross by the Sphinxes. Those who cross with fear in their heart will be killed by the Sphinxes. Atreyu bravely walks up to the large Sphinx statues and keeps his composure, but soon loses his cool when he sees the remains of those less fortunate around him. He makes a mad dash for the other side and avoids the Sphinxes' attacks while crossing over safely. Next, he trudges through a snowstorm to the Magic Mirror Gate, where he will see a true version of himself in the reflection - a version of himself designed to terrify him. When Atreyu looks into the mirror, he actually sees a young boy reading a book in a school. (Bastian reads this and scarily realizes this is describing him. He puts the book down and gathers his wits.) When Bastian continues reading, Atreyu walks into the mirror and crosses through. Finally, Atreyu reaches the Southern Oracle, which is a blue glowing version of the Sphinx gate that was seen earlier. The Southern Oracle statues begin to crumble and die as they finally tell Atreyu what he must to do: To save the Childlike Empress, he must give her a new name. But the only person who can tell him this new name is a human child, who can only be found outside the boundaries of Fantasia. He must hurry or Fantasia will disappear forever. (Bastian smiles and considers this task; he remembers his mother, who had a wonderful name and passed away not long ago.)

Atreyu runs back all the way to Falkor and then flies around Fantasia looking for its boundaries so he can find a human child. Their search is ended quickly though, as they run into a large, malevolent storm - The Nothing - which is seemingly an unstoppable vortex that consumes everyone and everything. Atreyu falls off Falkor into the Sea of Possibilities and loses the Auryn. He awakens on a beach with the Nothing's storms not far away. There he meets the rock-biter, who says his friends (from the beginning) were taken by the Nothing as he will soon be too. Atreyu, seemingly defeated, walks in sorrow to a stone garden not far away. There, on the walls, he sees a pictoral story - actually HIS story, from his moments at the Ivory Tower to Artax dying to Falkor. Stunned, Atreyu is then confronted by the wolf-vampire creature we briefly saw at the swamps, who introduces itself as Gmork - the "servant of the nothing." The Gmork does not recognize Atreyu, as he never saw the boy up close, and Atreyu no longer has the Auryn. Atreyu uneasily asks questions to the large and frightening Gmork, who is somewhat at ease, knowing that the Nothing will soon destroy everything, including both of them. A frustrated Atreyu relays his problem - that he can't get outside Fantasia to find a human child. (He keeps his real motivation - the Empress - hidden.) Gmork, a wise creature, tells him that Fantastia is actually the parallel dream world of human beings. Because thoughts and dreams have no boundaries, neither does Fantastia. Gmork explains that The Nothing is a product of human apathy and despair, that is, essentially, "eating away" at their dreams and goals - and thereby, eating away at Fantasia, while all Fantasia's creations are suffering. Gmork says that only one brave young boy could have saved Fantasia - a warrior named Atreyu who he lost after tracking him to the Swamps of Sadness. With The Nothing moments away, Atreyu reveals his identity and picks up a sharp slab of stone, challenging Gmork to a battle. Gmork, infuriated, charges Atreyu and slashes him, but is killed by the stone slab. The Nothing begins to enter the area and tear the world apart, but Falkor arrives at the last moment - with the Auryn, which he found at the bottom of the sea - to save Atreyu.

When we next see Falkor and Atreyu, they are flying around the emptiness of space with only small fragments of earth and rock floating around them, as the rest of Fantasia is gone. With the guide of the Auryn, they fly back toward the area of the Ivory Tower, hoping it still stands. Remarkably, it does, and Atreyu goes inside the tower and comes face to face with The Childlike Empress (Tami Stronach). Atreyu sadly tells her that he has failed, as he traveled all around Fantasia just to learn of her cure but now can't find a human child to give her a new name. The Empress tells him he hasn't failed, and has indeed brought a human child with him to this very place. Looking around, Atreyu asks how this can be true. The Empress begins to tell of the human child, who escaped bullies in a bookstore, then accompanied Atreyu on his journey all along. (Bastian, reading this, begins to get terrified again, realizing the book is alive and discussing his presence reading of Atreyu's journey.) The Empress reiterates that all Fantasia needs is for the human child to give her a new name. The Ivory Tower then starts to crumble, as it itself is about to be destroyed. (Bastian debates whether this experience can be real, but decides he has to stay realistic and keep his head out of the clouds - as what he pledged to do at the beginning of the movie.) As the Ivory Tower starts to fall apart and Atreyu is knocked out in the ensuing chaos, the Empress tearfully addresses Bastian by name in the book's text: "Bastian...why don't you do what you dream, Bastian?...Call my name! Bastian...please! Save us!" (Finally, Bastian realizes what he must do, goes to the nearest open window where a storm rages, and screams a name out into the night.)

The screen goes black. When it becomes light again, Bastian is standing with the Empress, who says that all of Fantasia was destroyed by The Nothing, but Bastian's bravery helped one grain of sand from the dream survive. With this one grain of sand, Bastian can rebuild the entire world through wishes and imagination. For his first wish, Bastian wishes for Fantasia's restoration, and riding on Falkor, Bastian flies over the land finding all its citizens alive and well, including Atreyu and Artax. Then Bastian makes his second wish, as he and Falkor fly into the city and terrorize the three bullies. He is successful and manages to scare one of the bullies into falling into a pile of garbage and the other two into the same dumpster they threw him into before.

As Bastian and Falkor fly off into the distance, the movie ends with this narration: "Bastian made many other wishes and had many other amazing adventures before finally returning to the ordinary world. But that...is another story." This last phrase was a constant one in Ende's actual book; and the "more adventures" the narrator speaks of reference how the book's tales continued past that moment.

The film recieved very good reception, recieving an 82% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.com (14 fresh, 3 rotten).

Roger Ebert gave the film a 3 out of 4 star rating.

[edit] Analysis and Trivia

• The name Bastian screams out almost indecipherably is "Moonchild," as evidenced in Ende's novel.
• Bastian's full name, though never said in the movie, is Bastian Balthazar Bux.
• The world of Fantasia is called "Fantastica" in the English version of the book. Its name in the original, German version of both the book and the movie is "Phantásien."
• The name "Atreyu" was later used as the name of the post-hardcore band Atreyu.
• Lionel Hutz in the Simpsons sued the creators of the Neverending Story for false advertising in the episode New Kid On The Block.

[edit] External links

• The NeverEnding Story Online
• The NeverEnding Story at the Internet Movie Database
• The Neverending Story Web Page
• The Neverending Story fansite
• Neverending Story Pictures and Video Clips

The NeverEnding Story series v • d • e
Book:	The Neverending Story
Films:	The NeverEnding Story (film) | The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter | The NeverEnding Story III
Television:	cartoon | Tales from the Neverending Story
Characters:	Atreyu | Bastian Balthazar Bux | Childlike Empress | Gmork | Luckdragon | Southern Oracle | Ygramul
Other:	Auryn | Fantastica