Never ending Story books or watch the films, TV show etc?

[PunkMaister]

So has anyone read The never ending story books or watch the films, TV show etc?

[Rhyanidd]

I've seen the movies....they were like my favorites! I was told the book was kinda boring and well never ending...to a point of frustration.....

[PunkMaister]

I've seen the movies....they were like my favorites! I was told the book was kinda boring and well never ending...to a point of frustration.....
:D LOL :D
Yeah I guess the "Never ending" part would be even to the most avid reader.

As the oracle said to Neo in the Matrix films "Everything that has a beginning has an end."

Still the movies especially the first were pretty good. (The last 2 ones were so-so in comparison)
I have not the TV run miniseries but would love too...

[~JadisTheWhiteWitch~]

I have only seen two of the flims

[Sunrise]

I love the first movie, but then I saw it in my formative years. Every kid who grew up in the 80's remembers seeing it and mostly loving it, other than a few anti-fantasy folks. I show it to my young friends today and their first reaction is usually, "What's with this weird synthesized music?" :p

I tried to read the book as a kid and couldn't get through it. It IS really long, and often seems to ramble, but I think part of the difficulty is that it was originally written in German, and some of the subtleties got lost in translation. I picked it up again a few years ago and enjoyed it very much. There's a lot of symbolism and interesting psychology involved; it would make a great book for required reading and critical analysis in school, if schools weren't so biased against fantasy literature.

The second film was stupid - they could have at least used a similar voice for Falkor instead of that "I'm a big dumb dragon derrrrr..." thing they had going. The third was an abomination that completely destroyed every character and the very nature of Fantasia itself. I wanted to gouge out my eyeballs after twenty minutes of it.

[Swimfan1918]

omg i grew up with the neverending story. i love it i remember i was so scared too watch some parts but itsa reaally good movie. but ya i heard the books were boring. oh that also brings me to saying that i miss all these old disney movies i hate the new disney and nickolodeon its so wasteful of time like it seriously wastes ppl's lives everything is so stupid i miss the old disney and nick!

[QA48]

i love the films!! Too bad the lead actor, Jonathan something, commited suicide :(

[Swimfan1918]

oh ya he did so sad he was such a good actor. omg he was in "IT"! i just noticed that!ahh that movie scares me.

[QA48]

oh ya he did so sad he was such a good actor. omg he was in "IT"! i just noticed that!ahh that movie scares me.
oh and robocop!!! what was his name Jonathan what?

[Swimfan1918]

ooh i still think i have the "PEOPLE" article of when he commited suicide let me chek!

[Swimfan1918]

his name is jonathen brandis.

[QA48]

his name is jonathen brandis.

There you guy. he was so cute. too bad he had to end his life that way :(
i also remember him from seaquest.

[Ithilien]

I can't believe I never saw this thread! The neverending story is my all-time favourite book. It's neverending quality is one of its more defining qualities. I'll never see the movie because I can never survive if it wasn't exactly as I pictured in my mind. Just curiousity though, is it a good production?

[Sunrise]

Ithilien, there's a lot of debate on that topic. :D

I personally love the film, but that is partially because I saw it very young, before I had ever read the book (and before I would have been able to get through the book, honestly). It was my first exposure to fantasy ever, and thus shaped my young mind's impressions about what fantasy was all about. It was sheer magic, and I still love it, and consider it an impressive bit of filmmaking even today.

I'll try to be objective about its pros and cons.

Pros:
Visually impressive. Some great special FX, especially considering when it was made (early 80's, before bluescreen and CGI and all the other things we've come to depend on). The sets are amazing, and have just enough of a glittery, dreamy quality to let you know that nothing here is "of earth".

Great cast. Barret Oliver was a believable Bastian - very dreamy and introverted and a little nerdy, if not exactly the fat geek from the book. Tami Stronach played the empress and was just gorgeous. Noah Hathaway, who had to carry most of the movie, was an excellent young actor, but does not look like the Atreyu from the book - he doesn't have green skin. The voice talent for Falkor is great, and bit characters like the tiny, the nighthob, and the rock biter were all done superbly.

Emotional hooks. It's very engaging. You really care about the characters and whether they will succeed in their efforts. This is due partially to a good script but mostly to the talent of the young actors.

Cons:
The writers truncated the book. Like REALLY truncated. The first movie only goes up to the point where Bastian names the Empress and winds up in Fantasia (the movie's word for Fantastica, and it's actually a more accurate translation - go figure). Even with the entire second half of the book gone, they still took out a lot of material. This is pretty much to be expected in any book-to-film effort, but it ticks off a lot of literary purists. Several key characters are missing, and many scenes are done away with. How much this bothers you is really a matter of personal opinion. For some, it's a minor annoyance. For others, it ruins the whole film. I've heard that the author of the book hated what they did in the movie, although I've never heard what he objected to specifically, but I'd bet it was the way the material was chopped up.

The music. To be fair, this is only a con if you are not an 80's child, because I and many of my peers rather like the music. But the fact remains that the score is very dated; it's a synthesized, very 80's-pop flavor soundtrack and it turns off a lot of kids who are used to thinking of 80's stuff as weird and old.

So there you go. If you ever want to watch the films, I suggest sticking with the first, in spite of its ending halfway through the book. The second film attempts to begin where the first ended, and tries to finish the book plot (i.e. Bastian using AURYN to wish Fantasia back to splendour while continuously losing his memories) but if anything it makes even more mincemeat of the second half of the book than the first film did with the first, and uses an entirely different cast, since it was made over ten years later. And DO NOT, if you value your sanity, watch the third film, which was nothing but an attempt to milk more money out of the franchise and contains such atrocities as the rock biter riding his motorcycle while singing "Born to Be Wild," while the Empress mouths off to her advisors and wonders why she never thought to take AURYN to the mall and wish for a new wardrobe. Horrifying in the extreme.

[Ithilien]

Sorry Sunrise, I'm a little slow on the uptake. I heard from quite a number of people that the movie was really good. But, the thing that is holding me back is that this novel is my number one favourite novel. A different interpretation could ruin everything. That is why I hesistated in seeing Narnia.

[High Peter King]

I like the book, I have read it two and a half times.

First movie was good the later ones were bad to me.

They should make them again. :)

[Wunderkind]

I've seen the movie.It was like one of my fave movies 5 years ago :)

[Sunrise]

Sorry Sunrise, I'm a little slow on the uptake. I heard from quite a number of people that the movie was really good. But, the thing that is holding me back is that this novel is my number one favourite novel. A different interpretation could ruin everything. That is why I hesistated in seeing Narnia.

Sorry for what? I'm always willing to expound at length on things I like, so you just gave me a good excuse. :D

Seriously, if the book means that much to you, you would probably hate the movie, because they really are very different. The fact that most people saw the film before they even knew there was a book is probably what throws most of them in favor of the film. I have the same problem with that horrible Black Cauldron movie from Disney. People who say how much they love it bug me because I can't forgive it for putting the Prydain books through the meat grinder. :mad:

[Ithilien]

There's a movie on that series too? Have i been living under a rock for a while? Actually, I always knew there was a movie on the Neverending Story but not on other novels like A Wrinkle In Time etc.

Off topic: how horrible was the movie?

[Sunrise]

There's a movie on that series too? Have i been living under a rock for a while? Actually, I always knew there was a movie on the Neverending Story but not on other novels like A Wrinkle In Time etc.

Off topic: how horrible was the movie?

Only if you were under a rock in the mid-80's. It was bad. So bad that Disney pretended it didn't exist for almost fifteen years. They finally released it to home video in the late 90's. But you've found my other thread on Prydain, so I'll discuss further there.

[Ithilien]

I wasn't even alive in the mid-80s.

Back to Neverending Story, what's everyone's favourite part?

[Hope96]

I've never read the books. But I love the movies. I grew up with them too, so they bring back childhood memories.

[Moe92]

oh ya he did so sad he was such a good actor. omg he was in "IT"! i just noticed that!ahh that movie scares me.

i've seen that movie "IT" who did he play! gosh thats a freaky movie. i can only remember the beginning. or something. but i do remember watching them when i was like.....five

[Moe92]

I wasn't even alive in the mid-80s.

niether was i. but i saw them.

[Ithilien]

I get the hint: I'll see it - if I can drag myself to do so!

[NarniaFanatic]

Ithilien, there's a lot of debate on that topic. :D

I personally love the film, but that is partially because I saw it very young, before I had ever read the book (and before I would have been able to get through the book, honestly). It was my first exposure to fantasy ever, and thus shaped my young mind's impressions about what fantasy was all about. It was sheer magic, and I still love it, and consider it an impressive bit of filmmaking even today.

I'll try to be objective about its pros and cons.

Pros:
Visually impressive. Some great special FX, especially considering when it was made (early 80's, before bluescreen and CGI and all the other things we've come to depend on). The sets are amazing, and have just enough of a glittery, dreamy quality to let you know that nothing here is "of earth".

Great cast. Barret Oliver was a believable Bastian - very dreamy and introverted and a little nerdy, if not exactly the fat geek from the book. Tami Stronach played the empress and was just gorgeous. Noah Hathaway, who had to carry most of the movie, was an excellent young actor, but does not look like the Atreyu from the book - he doesn't have green skin. The voice talent for Falkor is great, and bit characters like the tiny, the nighthob, and the rock biter were all done superbly.

Emotional hooks. It's very engaging. You really care about the characters and whether they will succeed in their efforts. This is due partially to a good script but mostly to the talent of the young actors.

Cons:
The writers truncated the book. Like REALLY truncated. The first movie only goes up to the point where Bastian names the Empress and winds up in Fantasia (the movie's word for Fantastica, and it's actually a more accurate translation - go figure). Even with the entire second half of the book gone, they still took out a lot of material. This is pretty much to be expected in any book-to-film effort, but it ticks off a lot of literary purists. Several key characters are missing, and many scenes are done away with. How much this bothers you is really a matter of personal opinion. For some, it's a minor annoyance. For others, it ruins the whole film. I've heard that the author of the book hated what they did in the movie, although I've never heard what he objected to specifically, but I'd bet it was the way the material was chopped up.

The music. To be fair, this is only a con if you are not an 80's child, because I and many of my peers rather like the music. But the fact remains that the score is very dated; it's a synthesized, very 80's-pop flavor soundtrack and it turns off a lot of kids who are used to thinking of 80's stuff as weird and old.

So there you go. If you ever want to watch the films, I suggest sticking with the first, in spite of its ending halfway through the book. The second film attempts to begin where the first ended, and tries to finish the book plot (i.e. Bastian using AURYN to wish Fantasia back to splendour while continuously losing his memories) but if anything it makes even more mincemeat of the second half of the book than the first film did with the first, and uses an entirely different cast, since it was made over ten years later. And DO NOT, if you value your sanity, watch the third film, which was nothing but an attempt to milk more money out of the franchise and contains such atrocities as the rock biter riding his motorcycle while singing "Born to Be Wild," while the Empress mouths off to her advisors and wonders why she never thought to take AURYN to the mall and wish for a new wardrobe. Horrifying in the extreme.

I totally agree with you! The first Neverending Story film is the only one worth watching and the best one out of all of them. I saw it when I was about 5 and I fell in love with it. I cried when Artax sank in the swamp and dreamed of flying on Falkor. It's one of the best movies out there because it makes me laugh, cry, and actually feel a little scared. But I was disappointed with the second film and the third one was a total disaster! A complete nightmare! :eek:
Gosh, I never realized how many 80's movies I like...Karate Kid, Breakfast Club, Neverending Story, etc.

So, Atreyu has green skin in the book? I've never read the book as I was young when I first knew about The Neverending Story and wouldn't have been particulary interested in a long book (although I was a bookworm when I was little). I'm a lot like you, Sunrise.

[Aravis_Tarkheena]

So has anyone read The never ending story books or watch the films, TV show etc?

Yippers I have! And i have the book at home as well as the first movie...I thought that in the first movie, Atreyu was kinda hott...but then, in the second movie, Bastian became hotter...I wanna see the third, but I don't know where to look for it...Oh, and i think I like the Childlike Empress in the first movie better than the second one...since the second one had curly hair...and she wasn't supposed to have curly hair...but whatever.........Oh, if anyone wanna be my friend, just pm me, or look for me...kk? thankies! ;) :p

[Sunrise]

So, Atreyu has green skin in the book? I've never read the book as I was young when I first knew about The Neverending Story and wouldn't have been particulary interested in a long book (although I was a bookworm when I was little). I'm a lot like you, Sunrise.

Yeah, green skin, with zebra stripes. Actually I've read that they tried to give Noah Hathaway the green skin and he was allergic to the makeup or it wouldn't work for whatever reason. I confess I'm rather glad - I had such a crush on him as a kid! :p

I think now he runs a motorcycle shop in Miami. Oh, how the mighty fall! :D

[The White Stag]

The enver ending story moive is fantastic it's amazing, I love all the characters and all the cast who played them. I think it was really sad when the horse died I kept crying every time. But I love the whole story its clever. I don't like the mork.
See what I mean Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!1 :eek:

[Lucy for 3 nights]

No I don't like the mork either. You have to watch the other one with Zieda where she steals Bastian's memories.

[inkspot]

iMerge with older thread on the subject.
:)

[AllAmericanGirl]

Yeah i've seen the movie. But it was aloooooonnnnnnngggggggg time ago lol :p :o.

[QueenSusanofNarnia]

what Is The Never Ending Story???

[fernshirehobbit]

i am reading the neverending story right now. so far it is pretty good. :D

[Into the Wardrobe]

Yeah, green skin, with zebra stripes. Actually I've read that they tried to give Noah Hathaway the green skin and he was allergic to the makeup or it wouldn't work for whatever reason. I confess I'm rather glad - I had such a crush on him as a kid! :p

I think now he runs a motorcycle shop in Miami. Oh, how the mighty fall! :D

I think that he decided to go back to California...I'm not sure, but still is working on choppers. He got away from show business because the business end was sssooooooo bad. He was almost killed on the set of NES a few times and was banned from the premiere. I've read interviews where he said he'd never ever work with Wolfgang Peterson ever again. He's only now considered getting back in to the world of show biz. Who knows what will happen. I wouldn't consider him a great role model personally, but there it is.

[MrBob]

I will always suggest books over every other media. Books can describe a story in such a way that no movie or TV series can.

In the book, the author actually gave a few definitions for a neverending story, but the important one was left out of the movie, one whose ending is its beginning. One complete loop. It was driving him crazy to hear the same story over and over and over.

The first movie was actually pretty good. After that, however, the movies just drop off in quality. I call the third one Jim Henson's Neverending Story as it is so far off the book story that it is unrecognisable. The second one was horrible in that they made Xayide kidnap the Childlike Emperess, something that is impossible as the CE is Fantasia and Fantasia is her. With a mere thought, she could change anything she wanted. It would be like holding G*d hostage.

I have never seen the TV shows so I cannot comment on them.

MrBob

[fernshirehobbit]

the neverending story had a television show?

i am halfway through reading the book. i just read last night, the part about the book being a loop. yah, it was driving bastian crazy!

[MrBob]

See here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0271308/

That is the IMDB listing for the TV Series. My brother actually gave me the series on DVDs for my b-day a few years ago, but I haven't watched them yet. In fact, I had no idea the series even existed until I got the DVD collection. I'm not even sure what station it was on. It must have been on Showtime or HBO or something like that otherwise, I would have heard of it.

fernshire, just wait until you get to what i call the second half of the book. It is just as great as the first half.

MrBob

[fernshirehobbit]

i pretty much wish that falkor was mine. he is like a giant cute puppy and so sweet.:D

[Wunderkind]

Haha.The movie was my favorite for a loooong time.

[Gondorgirl]

wow it's been forever since I watched those movies. I always liked them, though I found them a bit weird at times.

I was told that I looked like the childlike empress when I was younger....

[Swimfan1918]

wow it's been forever since I watched those movies. I always liked them, though I found them a bit weird at times.

I was told that I looked like the childlike empress when I was younger....

i kno same here...except for the childlike empress part :p

the part where the kid is up in the attic or whatever and theres thunder scared me so much

[sukapesta]

the film used to be my ultimate favorite when i was like... 4 years old.

[Mrs Gil-Galad Took]

When I was younger and saw the movie (I was about 10 or 11 when the movie was released) I hated the childish empress because I thought she was way too much a child but now I am older and see it back, I think she is adorable :D I could hug her. People change. How older, the more crazier :D

[Gondorgirl]

i kno same here...except for the childlike empress part :p

the part where the kid is up in the attic or whatever and theres thunder scared me so much

I actually remember that part. now that I think back I think I would enjoy that part if I watched it again

[Final Dreamer]

I saw the first movie. It was pretty cool.