The NeverEnding Story 1984 (one of my favorite movies from my childhood)

A film I loved when I was 5 years old, a movie my kids love today, 27 years later.

The Endless Story (Die unendliche Geschichte) is a 1984 German-American film directed by Wolfgang Petersen. This is the adaptation of the first half of Michael Ende's novel, The Endless Story.

Synopsis

Bastien, a boy of about ten years, of introverted and solitary nature, has trouble communicating with his father since the death of his mother. One morning, before leaving for school, his father asks him to stop being in the moon, and to have his feet on the ground.

On the way to school, he is pursued by three boys who try to rackete him, then put in a trash. By fleeing them, he finds refuge in a bookstore. The bookseller tells him enigmatic words about a book entitled The Endless Story, after Bastien gave him his taste for reading. Arrived late to school, Bastien decides to hide in the attic of the establishment and begins to read the book.

This one tells a story taking place in the fantasy world of Fantasia. Nothingness has appeared recently, it makes disappear pieces of this world. To solve this problem, the inhabitants call upon Atreyu, a warrior who has the features of a child and a look of Native American. His mission is to find a cure for the sick empress, which will save this world. Elsewhere on Fantasia, Gmork, a shadow creature who looks like a huge wolf, gets on his trail.

Atreyu walks Fantasia without finding a cure, and decides to go to see Morla the Venerable, a giant turtle. On the way to Morla, Atreyu will see Artax his horse die, swept away by the swamps of melancholy. Morla points it to the Southern Oracle, which is thousands of miles away. He continues the road on foot through these swamps, and ends up being immobilized by his mud. Just before being totally engulfed, the lucky dragon Falkor comes to save him. Having lost consciousness, Atreyu wakes up several days later. Falkor took him near the Oracle, to Urgl and Engywook, a doctor and a scientist. Engywook shows him where the South American Oracle is, the subject of his research. Atreyu must go through the trials to present himself to the Oracle, and ask him what is the cure for the Empress. The Oracle answers him that it is necessary that a human child gives a new name to the empress, which makes Atreyu perplexed. The Oracle tells him to look for the child beyond the limits of Fantasia, and disintegrates soon after, a victim of the Void.

Riding Falkor, he tries to reach the confines of Fantasia. He finally meets Gmork who tells him that Fantasia is the world where the fantasy of the man flourishes, and that he is being destroyed because people have begun to lose hope and have forgotten their dreams. He also explains that Fantasia, by definition, has no limits ... He finally reveals to him that he is the servant of power behind the Void and that he is responsible for killing him, to prevent him from save Fantasia. The purpose of the Void is to make people lose hope, to facilitate their submission. Atreyu then reveals his identity, Gmork attacks Atreyu, who defends himself by planting a blade-shaped stone in the creature.

Fantasia is fragmenting, and plots of land are floating in space. Atreyu finds the Empress's tower, which he informs of his failure. The Empress then reveals to her that she already knew how to finish her quest and that the goal was to get in touch with the human child, through The Neverending Story. At the same time, it exposes, by mise en abîme, that Bastien is also part of a story, which also has spectators. She then speaks directly to Bastien, asking him to give him his name that he is the only one to know. Bastien, thinking back to his discussion with his father in the morning, refuses at first, but ends by pronouncing the name he has chosen: Marina.

He finds himself next to the Empress, who presents him with a grain of sand, the only remnant of Fantasia. She tells him that Fantasia can be reborn according to his wishes. Bastien then recreates Fantasia, vow after vow; he also takes the opportunity to take revenge on the three boys.

Production

The film is shot in English and its scenes are mainly shot at the Bavaria Film studios in Grünwald in the suburbs of Munich, but also in Vancouver in Canada and Spain. Shot mostly in Germany during the summer of 1983, the hottest in the country for 25 years, the production of the film is complicated. One of the statues of the Ivory Tower melts especially under the effect of heat, and the blue backgrounds are several times impossible to use2.

The actor Noah Hathaway who plays Atreyu plays bad luck during the production of the film. He is slightly trampled by his steed when he learns to ride. When shooting the sequence of Artax's drowning in the melancholy swamp, the actor's leg is caught in an elevator, he is drawn into the water and remains unconscious until he is brought back to the surface. Finally the actor misses an eye during the fight against Gmork when one of the claws of the beast accidentally hits his face. In the book, the character of Atreyu has green skin, but makeup tests proved inconclusive, the character is then presented as an ordinary boy in the film.

A 13-meter-long motorized creature is made to illustrate the Falkor dragon on the screen. It is covered with 6000 plastic scales and pink fur.

Michael Ende claims to be dissatisfied with the film and refuses to have his name appear in the opening credits, but he still appears in the end credits. When it was released, the film is the most expensive ever produced in Germany, averaging 60 million marks.

Music

The song The NeverEnding Story, which is a classic of the 1980s, was re-mixed and included in many compilations. It was composed by Giorgio Moroder and sung by Limahl, ex-member of the band Kajagoogoo, and Ann Calvert.

Home

The film has had mixed success in North America, earning approximately $ 20,158,000 in box office in this part of the world for a budget of $ 27 million. In France, it carries 739 766 entries. It is, however, largely in spending with nearly $ 100,000,000 at the global box office.

It receives a favorable critical reception, receiving 81% of positive reviews, with an average score of 6.8 / 10 and based on 31 reviews collected, on the Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator site.

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