Its utopian and environmentalist message appealed to West German anti-nuclear and peace activists, and the novel was seen as way more than a children's book.
Various critical interpretations analyzed its meaning. Ende, who died in , refused to provide an answer to that question.
The popular author of other classics of children's literature , including his books Momo and Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver , said that every good interpretation was right. Michael Ende is one of the most popular and famous German authors of the 20th century. After an initial print run of 20, copies, The Neverending Story stayed at the top of bestsellers' charts for years. The award-winning bookwas translated into over 40 languages, selling millions of copies worldwide.
The English translation by Ralph Manheim reached the United States in , and the film came out a year later. German director Wolfgang Petersen , who was known at the time for the war film Das Boot , was looking for new material for his next project. Although Ende initially had a role in co-writing the screenplay with Peterson, their visions clashed over time. The script deviated from the book, and Ende was crushed knowing his story would be changed in a number of ways.
He called the film a "gigantic melodrama of kitsch, commerce, plush and plastic," and was unhappy with it to the point that he sued the movie studio — but he didn't win the case. The German production was Petersen's first English-language film; he would go on to direct Hollywood epics including Troy and Poseidon Released in , The NeverEnding Stor y was the most expensive film ever produced in Germany at the time; the incredible box office results that followed made the ambitious investment worthwhile.
Today, it's still possible to visit Bavaria Filmstadt, where fans can "ride" on Falkor. Bastian riding Falkor is an iconic scene of the film: Fans get to reproduce it with a blue screen at Bavaria Filmstadt.
Drawing on the first film's success, there were also two sequels. English musician Christopher "Limahl" Hamill, formerly of the band Kajagoogoo, and Beth Anderson performed the vocals. With its dream-like synthesizers, the song perfectly reflected the feel of the film's fantasy world.
For many fans, the single was the only thing to hear over and over to remind themselves of the movie — until it came out on VHS. When I asked my mom, she took me over to the audition. I didn't have an agent, so I didn't understand what the stakes were.
Everyone comes from all over Fantasia to find a cure to save the sick empress and she's up there on her throne high up on the ivory tower. She's the queen of everything and the most powerful, but also vulnerable because she's so sick. I can imagine little girls saw her and were in awe that that was possible. Audiences were so used to seeing men who were at the center of stories and that they were the powerful ones, not little girls.
So, what a surprise it must have been for them. It was just such an awesome, awesome thing to watch. It was so smart that Michael Ende created this character, that he made this little girl an empress. She reigns and she is the top. And if she's sick, the whole world is in trouble. He was so clear about what he wanted, and I love the fact that he treated us with so much respect. In some ways, that's the heart of the story.
Bastian is underestimated by everyone and he's capable of so much: imagination and compassion. Somehow, at the heart of this film, there's this desire to validate children's experience and treating kids like they are smart, capable beings is sort of philosophically in line with that. I remember this moment where [Petersen] took Barrett aside and said to him, "Listen, this is the moment where you're going to give her the name, which changes everything.
And if you want to create your own name, you don't have to say Moon Child. Moon Child is her chosen name in the book and in the script. At the time, I didn't know there was going to be a big thunderclap and it was going to be muffled so I didn't think much of it. I remember Barrett really concentrating and thinking and deciding what he was going to say. It was such a sweet process. He then goes to Wolfgang and says, "I think Moon Child is right," so they decided to stick with that.
This is a serious business and they were serious actors. We are all very different. I would say Noah was very athletic and he was a dancer—very confident. Barret was a little more into his G. Joe action figures, and a little bit more introverted. And I was a girl, during this weird age around 10 or 11 where boys and girls are not supposed to hang out. They're so weird with each other, with no idea if they're supposed to be friends or not like each other or be romantic with each other.
It was just a very strange age for us as kids. But we're all stuck in the middle of nowhere in Germany together and we became these unlikely friends. I'm not sure we would've gravitated towards one another outside of that context but in that context we really did.
He showed me a drawing or a cell of [Falkor]. At this point, the shooting of the film had already been completed and now, they had to put a voice to the character. He had a scratch track with him that somebody had done of it and so I had somewhat of an idea of what he was looking for. I immediately saw this furry luckdragon and the voice came to me. He told me, "That was fine," and they made arrangements to fly me to Munich.
I went into the studios and they played the film for me and I put a voice to it. After I completed the whole thing, I asked them for a playback. I knew as I was listening that I didn't get it quite right, so I said I wanted to do it again. Wolfgang was surprised because he liked what we recorded but agreed that we could try again the next day.
They ended up using my second take in the film. The big difference between the first and the second is that in the second, Falkor had great heart and humanity. When I finished, Wolfgang asked me to have a look at the Rockbiter. I immediately identified with the Rockbiter and knew just what I would do. It was so easy to give him a voice and I love that character.
As I finished up that one, Wolfgang tells me, "Wait, there's one more! Would you do the character of Gmork? Again, I thanked him, but he had one more request, "Would you also be the narrator? That day, Wolfgang got four voices for the price of one and I really loved it. I just really love that movie. PETERSEN: If you have this creature that is so tough and difficult to put together with all its movements and its body language, you really needed the perfect voice to make him believable.
Especially because he's a luckdragon, a creature full of positivity and that is very, very friendly. We needed a voice that had a special gravitas and depth to it, with a low, low voice because of his size. But on the other hand, he should also have a smile in his voice with warmth. It was very hard to find, and finally, I was introduced to Alan and when I heard that voice, I thought he was just fantastic. He really brought to life the last and probably the most important character left, Falkor.
He brought this rich, beautiful, and warm voice. The way he read those lines was truly unforgettable, just beautiful. That's why kids all over the world wanted to fly all over the world with a big, incredible creature like Falkor. They had this foot head and neck attached to a forklift motor and it was probably about 15 or 20 feet off the ground with some boxes and pads underneath in case you fell off.
Sometimes, it would overheat, and it would start going out of control probably once every 20 minutes. It ended up being like riding a bucking bronco. I just had to hold on for dear life from time to time, but it was fun! Being a year-old maniac like I was back then, it was a blast. We had to create all these beings and creatures, build them and animate them mechanically. For example, with the luckdragon Falkor, he's this huge creature that we had to build.
You could actually touch it; it was not a computer animation. It took about 15 people to animate this creature, but they were all invisible, of course. They had their strings to use as they were hiding somewhere underneath the costume and sometimes even under the floor. There was a little monitor they had where they could check their work.
So, there was one person that was in charge of the movements of the nose, and there were two others in charge of either eyebrow. Altogether, they had this concerto grosso of movements with 15 people to bring this creature to life. This task was very, very unusual and very difficult to coordinate it all.
At the same time, this creature was talking so we had a tape running with a pre-recorded voice and it all had to go smoothly together so that the body language and his smile, and things like that all were perfect. It was just fascinating to watch that and how that came together. It took a lot of work to have it come out the way it did on film, and I believe that's what gives this movie such a great quality that can be appreciated after all these years. The creatures were so real how they had to interact with the actors, it wasn't like they were just standing in front of this green screen and pretending.
The actors had to work directly with the creatures. That's the special thing about The NeverEnding Story that gives the whole project its special charm. It was truly magical. I'm really so lucky that it wasn't shot with CGI.
There were human being's puppeteering all of those creatures, and multiple humans pressing levels making the expressions on all of the faces of the puppets.
There's something really charming about the fact that the human hand was really involved in everything. An astonishing amount of people go every year and visit the luckdragon. There's also some sets from the film available for visits, too. First of all, we had two identical white horses that played Artax. They were so beautiful. They were trained for a long, long time by a professional horse handler with this almost impossible task for a horse to, without resistance, sink slowly down in the mud all the way up to their head.
It did not go over their head, no horse would ever do that. It took months to train them. I'm always asked about this and the rumors aren't true. In the film, you never see the horse's face go into the mud. And also, by having two horses, we would alternate which would be in the scene while the other relaxed. Barret Oliver Bastian as Bastian. Darryl Cooksey 2nd Bully as 2nd Bully. Nicholas Gilbert 3rd Bully as 3rd Bully.
Moses Gunn Cairon as Cairon. Sydney Bromley Engywook as Engywook. Patricia Hayes Urgl as Urgl. Wolfgang Petersen.
More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. Bastian is a young boy who lives a dreary life being tormented by school bullies. On one such occasion he escapes into a book shop where the old proprieter reveals an ancient story-book to him, which he is warned can be dangerous.
Shortly after, he "borrows" the book and begins to read it in the school attic where he is drawn into the mythical land of Fantasia, which desperately needs a hero to save it from destruction. A boy who needs a friend finds a world that needs a hero in a land beyond imagination! Adventure Drama Family Fantasy. Did you know Edit. Trivia Noah Hathaway was hurt twice during the making of the movie. While learning to ride a horse, his horse threw him off, then stepped on him.
While shooting the drowning sequence in the "swamp of sadness," his leg got caught on the elevator and he was pulled under water. He was unconscious by the time he was brought to the surface. Goofs When Atreyu is in the Swamps of Sadness with his horse, the horse sinks because it gives into the sadness, but Atreyu doesn't sink, even though he is crying and sad that his friend has died. His eventual near-sinking at the end of the scene, which never occurred in the book, is due to the plot changes that were made for the movie.
Quotes Rock Biter : They look like big, good, strong hands, don't they? Connections Edited into Everything Wrong with User reviews Review. Top review. Dark, if not surreal fantasy delivers a good message.
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