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The NeverEnding Story | Year: 1984 Classification: Feature Film Family Directed: - Wolfgang Petersen Actors/Actresses: - Barret Oliver - Noah Hathaway - Tami Stronach A Beautiful Fantastic Movie!! I had loved this movie since I was a kid and I had to get it on DVD. This movie is spectacular! Above anything else it teaches children what a wonderful gift of reading can do for the imagination and how important reading is. The story takes us through an oridinary world of Bastian, who's having trouble in life with the recent death of his mother. And his father who wants him to put both feet on the ground and stop living in the clouds. However, when Bastian is being chased by bully's from school he finds a bookstore that has a rather thick but interesting cover. The bookstores owner warns him its not your typical book and that he couldn't have it. However, he steals it and then finds himself in the school's attick. He finds himself soon lost in an adventure of The Neverending Story. Which the book is about a land being destroyed by The Nothing. As Sabastian is being led on the adventure following another young boy in hopes to save Fantasia and it's people, named Atrial. When all along it's only Bastian who can save them.<BR>This movie has everything you could possibly want in a fantisy. It's full of adventure, special effects, and all through a little boy that is using his adventure through a not so ordinary book. This show's how important again it is for kids to read, and to use their imaginations, and what books can do to take you on a realistic adventure. It's amazing and I call it a classic as well as millions of other fan's across the world. The DVD is pretty good, the sound seemed a bit faded but its a pretty good DVD. Only thing is it doesn't give you the opition to have it full screen like some of them do. However, it's got Notes and Trivia on the book and characters, interactive menus, theatrical trailer, and language selections. All in all a great buy you won't be sorry. I give the movie an A+ and the DVD a B! Defense for the movie For those who are complaining that the movie doesn't stand towards the book or the book is much better then the movie. Majority of the time isn't any book better than any movie, because you are the one who is making up story and character in your head while the moviemaker (storyteller) is 'feeding' it to you. I know this is true for some of Stephen King's film adaptations, such as It and Dolores Claiborne. I do love both the film and the books, but as always the book gives more detail and allows the reader to become more involved. I'm reading what people are saying 'Neverending Story didn't do this.....according to the book. And that.....according to the book'. I must admit, I haven't read the book, but know what they are talking about. Only thing though is that the book and the film are their own entity and it's very hard to compile the book into 1 hour 30 minutes or 2 hours. Not enough time. Personally, I thought this movie was great. Especailly compared to Neverending Story 2 and 3. It has fantastic eye-candy (A.K.A. special effect) a nice dream world (well, other then the fact that it's being destoryed by Nothing), and it keeps me as well as everyone that I show it to interested. Just dont get too caught up in comparing books with movies because most likely, it won't be 100 percent the same. Instead watch it as a different entity with a different storyteller and a different way of perceiving it - visually. Triumph of human Imagination Sir Adam got it almost right! Good review, by the way. This is an awesome story about the importance of the story. Yes, the moral lesson of "The Neverending Story" is the importance of the story itself (and by extension the importance of human imagination). If one has read some of Joseph Campbell's "The Power of Myth" one understands this completely. It is that Native American idea of "he who does not have the stories has nothing." The key force of destruction in this tale is "the Nothing" literally non-existence or the lack of imagination. The world in which "The Neverending Story" takes place, Fantasia, is a conglomerate universe composed of the dreams and hopes of all people. Every story ever told and every character who has ever lived exists somewhere in Fantasia. So that somewhere in Fantasia, Paul Atreides wanders a desert landscape while somewhere else in Fantasia Alice falls down the rabbit hole. Fantasia, this conglomerate world of human dreams, is dying. The reason is that people in the real world no longer dream... of anything. It is a very modern tale about the death of the human capacity to, as John Lennon put it, IMAGINE. Without the capability to imagine anything, people become easily manipulated by forces greater than them... this is where the real villain comes in (more about that after the next paragraph). The main protagonist, Atreyu, is the alter ego of the real life boy who is reading the story. The real life boy, therefore, is filled with imagination, brimming with it, in fact. He exists in a real world where nobody imagines anything anymore. Therefore, the alter ego (in Fantasia) of the real life boy with imagination is a young champion who is trying to save imagination itself and its conglomerate world, Fantasia. The real villain of the story is, at least from a Christian context, Lucifer, or the Devil himself. He is the "force behind the Nothing" who is attempting the death of all imagination. This explains the creature known as the Morg. As Sir Adam mentioned in his review, this is the major adversary for Atreyu (and the real life boy who is his generator). The Morg is, in his own words, "a servant of the force behind the Nothing." The Morg is, I believe, a demon, or fallen angel servant who has somehow crossed the border into Fantasia and put on the guise of that mythical creature of destruction, the werewolf. The Wolf image is only a guise used by the demon to try to blend in with his surroundings. Of course, we know who wins in the end. This is a very complex movie and a VERY relevant one to the times in which we are living. I see people around me who are quite literally mental cripples who are incapable of imagination. Without the stories, we are nothing. Buy The Neverending Story at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on The Neverending Story Search with the Priority Search Engine on The Neverending Story This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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