ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Film Review: The NeverEnding Story

Updated on March 24, 2017
Film Frenzy profile image

Jason Wheeler is the Senior Writer and Editor at Film Frenzy. He reviews films from across the cinematic landscape.

Background

In 1984, Wolfgang Petersen released The NeverEnding Story¸ based on the 1979 novel of the same name written by Michael Ende. Starring Barret Oliver, Noah Hathaway, Tami Stronach, Alan Oppenheimer, Thomas Hill, Deep Roy, Tilo Pruckner, Moses Gunn, Sydney Bromley, Patricia Hayes, Gerald McRaney and Darryl Cooksey, the film grossed $100 million at the box office.

Synopsis

Bastian, an ostracized young boy who loves to read, steals a book he's told has no ending. In it, he reads of a magical land where Atreyu goes on a quest to save said land from vanishing. However, as Bastian continues to read the book, he finds it seems to be aware of him.

Review

With well-done instances of breaking the fourth wall, The NeverEnding Story is a great and very well made fantasy film with wonderful moments and good characters.

The film has quite a few memorable moments laden throughout it as Bastian reads on and Atreyu journeys onward to discover the Childlike Empress’ cure. However, not all of those moments are joyful. One of the most memorable moments in the film is when Artax becomes lost in the Swamp of Sadness. While losing a horse in and of itself is pretty depressing, it’s coupled with Hathaway’s acting, making Atreyu into a blathering mess in trying to pull the horse and make it move. The implication makes it memorable as well. The Swamp of Sadness is said to drain anyone who travels through it of all joy and happiness and cause them to not want to go on. This means Artax lost the will to go on and became suicidal. Another very memorable moment is when Atreyu goes through the trials to reach the Oracle. It’s established grown men and brave warriors don’t make it through, which makes sense seeing as they’re designed to evoke anxiousness and fright. Yet Atreyu is able to pass those trials because while he is anxious and does have fear, he has the bravery and determination to power through them.

Additionally, the trials are one of the more interesting points, especially in how the fourth wall is broken in terms of Bastian and the book. When Atreyu finds his true self either looks or is blatantly Bastian, both are surprised, but the latter gets so scared, he has to convince himself to finish.

The best part of the film comes in the ending, where it’s revealed Bastian has the power to save the entire land from vanishing. It speaks very well of the power and the gift of imagination and what can be done with it.

All of this means Bastian is not just an important character, but the most important character, seeing as he’s co-ordained to be the Chosen One who saves the land along with Atreyu. The former because he must understand it’s his job and the latter because he has to show the other he must. Still, there’s many other interesting characters in the film, such as the Childlike Empress, a completely True Neutral character who sees the coexistence of good and evil as necessary for the land’s existence. Further, even though she has great power, she doesn’t use it because doing so would violate her neutrality and ability to be a fair empress.

Furthermore, the film presents the void of nothing as a character in and of itself, known as The Nothing. Simply appearing as a destructive storm, it’s essentially without form and erases everything in its path, making it the villain of the story. Fascinatingly the method of defeating it isn't head on as it merely touching something makes that thing disappear. It can only be defeated by the power of a creative imagination pushing back the power of nothing and destruction.

5 stars for The NeverEnding Story

the postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent WNI's positions, strategies or opinions.

Awards won

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Awards

  • Best Performance by a Younger Actor (Noah Hathaway)

Bambi Awards

  • Film - National

Bavarian Film Awards

  • Best Production

German Film Awards

  • Film Award in Gold - Best Production Design

Golden Screen, Germany

  • Golden Screen Award

Nominated for

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Awards

  • Best Fantasy Film
  • Best Music

Fantasporto International Fantasy Film Award

  • Best Production

Young Artist Awards

  • Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical, Comedy, Adventure or Drama (Tami Stronach)
  • Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical, Comedy, Adventure or Drama (Noah Hathaway)
  • Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical, Comedy, Adventure or Drama (Barret Oliver)
  • Best Family Motion Picture - Adventure

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)