Review: The NeverEnding Story

Bastian (Barret Oliver) flees from school bullies and hides in an old bookstore. Curious as to what the bookstore owner is reading, he is told that the book is too intense for young readers. Bastian nonetheless manages to swipe it when he leaves his desk, and hides out in the school attic to read it. There he is told the tale of a place called Fantasia, ruled by the Childlike Empress (Played by Israeli-born Tami Stronach, who is now a dancer), and plagued by a hellacious non-entity known as The Nothing, that threatens to swallow up Fantasia into non-existence. A boy warrior named Artreyu (Noah Hathaway) steps up to try and be Fantasia’s saviour, however as Bastian reads more and more of the story, the more he realises that he too has a role to play in Fantasia’ future.

 

Talk about irony upon irony. I mean, not only does the film defy its title by actually ending, but it’s a film about the importance of reading and using your imagination, which in and of itself is rather ironic. And to top it all off, it’s an adaptation (apparently very loose) of a novel (which also had an ending)! Amazingly, director Wolfgang Petersen (“Das Boot”, “Outbreak”, “The Perfect Storm”, “Troy”) pulled it off in this truly magical, imaginative, thoroughly timeless 1984 fantasy/adventure for kids, that I’m proud to say is still a favourite of mine in my mid-30s. The original author of the novel “Die Unendliche Geschichte”, Michael Ende may not have been happy with the loose film translation by Petersen and co-writer Herman Weigel, but I think it’s pretty close to perfect family entertainment myself. I even love the cheesy as hell title song by former Kajagoogoo lead singer (and all-round giant wanker) Limahl, AKA Christopher Hamill and synth pop/disco score by the master of 1980s synth pop/disco scores Giorgio Moroder (“Flashdance”, “Electric Dreams”). It’s one of the greatest synth scores of all-time as far as I’m concerned. And hell, forget the kids, before Peter Jackson and “Lord of the Rings”, this was the standard bearer of the entire fantasy film genre as far as I’m concerned.

 

When you think about it, this is one helluva weird fantasy film. A little Indian fella riding a giant ‘racing snail’? A so-called ‘Luck Dragon’ that actually looks like a giant Golden Retriever? There are scary parts to the film, but it’s not to the point where it’s a relentlessly joyless film like the following year’s nightmarish “Return to Oz”. This one gets the balance right. Having said that, the film’s villain The Nothing is on a conceptual level genuinely frightening. I mean, as an agnostic atheist, I find absolutely nothing more frightening than the thought of total nothingness when one dies. Given the film’s theme of using your brain and your imagination, The Nothing is really the perfect villain if you ask me, albeit risky when you can’t actually visualise The Nothing, can you? Petersen manages to find a way to kinda give us something, without showing us The Nothing, though. This is in the character of the black wolf Gmork (amazingly enough voiced by Alan Oppenheimer, who also voices Falkor, the Luck Dragon, as well as Skeletor on the animated kids favourite “He-Man and The Masters of the Universe”). He’s not so much the physical representation of The Nothing, as he is a mere servant, but tell that to the millions of people who saw this film as kids and have all these years mistaken Gmork for The Nothing. OK, I have no idea if anyone other than me did, but c’mon…I was a kid, cut me some slack! Some might find it hard to look at the scenes with Falkor and not think of what they did to him on “Robot Chicken”, but c’mon you cynics, he’s a wonderful, endearing creation. The design is really interesting, as he’s both furry and scaly.

 

***** SPOILER WARNING ***** The other key cinematic moment from my childhood is the fate of Artreyu’s horse Artax, and I don’t think I’m alone here. All I need to do to someone around my age is yell out ‘Artax!’ and they share my pain immediately. For some it’s the death of Bambi’s mum. For a younger generation it might be Mufasa. For me, and those around my age it’s the tragic, harrowing, slow-sinking death of Artax. I don’t even like horses and yet it breaks my heart every time. Noah Hathaway is a bit uneven as boy warrior Artreyu, but his work in this scene is heartbreakingly effective. Full credit here for not being afraid to make this journey perilous and offering up casualties. Life is tough, all must die. Kids need to learn this. ***** END SPOILER ***** As bad as the sequels were, I for one would’ve liked a spin-off focussed solely on the prior adventures of boy warrior Artreyu. He wasn’t even allowed to carry his weapons in this story! I wanna see his weapons, damn it!

 

The Swamp of Sadness, in addition to being aptly named, is amazing-looking. I assume it’s a set, but it doesn’t really look it. It’s a mostly still very impressive-looking film, some 30+ years later, with the only drawback as far as I’m concerned being some regrettable matte lines, especially with Falkor (“Fight Club” and “Se7en” director David Fincher, a former ILM employee, served as a Matte Photography Assistant, by the way!). The rest looks terrific, however, with Fantasia itself a wonderful fantasy world creation. Particularly good are the puppetry work and makeup. There’s some really eye-popping, bizarre creatures in Fantasia (I especially like the sad, rather slow-witted Rock Biter and the catastrophically allergic turtle), and it’s always great to see character actor Moses Gunn lending a film great dignity and quiet majesty as Cairon, the servant of the Childlike Empress of Fantasia.

 

I said before that the film is about the use of imagination and the joy of reading. Even Bastian’s aloof, non-understanding father (played by “Major Dad” himself, Gerald McRaney) wants him to use his brain, but this is in terms of schoolwork, not reading for fun. The film fully sides with Bastian’s daydreaming and fantasising/imagination. In fact, it goes all-in on it by having a real reader participation element to it, almost like something out of a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ (or my fantasy genre-loving equivalent, the ‘Fighting Fantasy’ series) book. What I love about it is the way the film goes about it. Instead of going so far as to overtly transplant Bastian into the world of Fantasia (though one could argue that Artreyu is a Bastian substitute I suppose), he only gradually learns that through reading and immersing himself in the story and the world within it, he can actually have an impact on Fantasia’s future. He can change its destiny, without actually being in Fantasia and becoming an actual action hero (though the ending does suggest a cross-over between the two worlds on a physical level, if only to provide a cute comeuppance for some school bullies).

 

This is a truly timeless, imaginative and thoroughly wonderful fantasy film for all ages. It’s a lot of fun, but it also has an undeniable gravity, sorrow, and sense of hopelessness in the face of The Nothing’s wrath that other juvenile fantasy films don’t dare have. Hell, few fantasy films aimed at any age can claim to have such an all-powerful evil force as The Nothing. That truly does set this one apart. Magical. A masterpiece of the genre, and just great all-round entertainment.

 

Rating: A+