The NeverEnding Story
The NeverEnding Story was released on 6 April in West Germany and on 20 July in the USA.
The movie was co-written and directed by Wolfgang Peterson. A West German production, it was filmed in English.
The script was based on the 1979 novel with the same name.
The film’s theme song became an instant hit, and a full-length soundtrack was released. The production was a box-office success, earning a whopping $100 million on a budget of $27 million.
The Movie
The plot revolves around a young boy called Bastion Bux (Oliver), who loves books. His father is widowed and the boy spends a lot of time alone reading.
After fleeing from bullies, Bastion finds refuge in the local bookshop, where he spends a lot of time. It is here that he discovers the book called “The NeverEnding Story”. The shopkeeper warns him not to read the book, but Bastion sneaks out with it and hides in the school’s attic where he starts to read it.
The book draws Bastion into a fantasy world called Fantasia, which is slowly destroyed by an evil force called “The Nothing”. He meets the young warrior Atreyu, a young empress that rules Fantasia, and a gigantic white flying dog called Falkor.
The Cast
- Barret Oliver as Bastian Balthazar Bux.
- Noah Hathaway as Atreyu.
- Tami Stronach as The Childlike Empress, to whom Bastian gives the new name “Moon Child”.
- Patricia Hayes as Urgl, Engywook’s wife and a healer.
- Sydney Bromley as Engywook, Urgl’s husband and a scientist.
- Gerald McRaney as Mr. Bux, Bastian’s widowed, workaholic father.
- Moses Gunn as Cairon, a servant of the Empress.
- Alan Oppenheimer as the voices of Falkor, Gmork, Rockbiter, and the Narrator
- Thomas Hill as Carl Conrad Coreander, the grumpy bookseller.
- Deep Roy as Teeny Weeny, a messenger riding on a racing snail.
- Tilo Prückner as Nighthob, a messenger riding a narcoleptic hang-glider bat.
- Darryl Cooksey, Drum Garrett, and Nicholas Gilbert as Ethan, Todd, and Lucas, three bullies who torment Bastian.
- Robert Easton as the voice of Morla (uncredited)
The Motion Picture Soundtrack
- The NeverEnding Story
- Swamps Of Sadness
- Ivory Tower
- Ruined Landscape
- Sleepy Dragon
- Bastion’s Happy Flight
- Fantasia
- Atreyu’s Quest
- Theme Of Sadness
- Areyu Meets Falkor
- Mirror Gate – Southern Oracle
- Gmork
- Moon Child
- AURYN
- Happy Flight
Conclusion
The NeverEnding Story is a West German production, and at the time, the most expensive movie outside of the USA. According to the book it was based on, the story was supposed to run over two movies. However, the two sequel films released in 1990 and 1994 respectively, were not based on the book, but rather had their own plots.
Critics weren’t too kind, as Image magazine wrote:
“Perhaps the heroic quest of young Atreyu to save the land of Fantasia from the all-consuming Nothing might have been more convincing if it hadn’t been so clumsily edited.”
Regardless, the film has become an eighties cult movie, remembered by the masses of fans for the big flying dog called Falcor.
