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The Neverending Story (1984)

(14,215)7.41 h 34 min1984X-RayPG

A family fantasy/adventure epic based on the acclaimed best-seller about a troubled boy who discovers an extraordinary storybook-and the fantastical world within its pages.

Directors: Wolfgang Petersen

Starring: Alan Oppenheimer Noah Hathaway Barret Oliver

Genres: Science Fiction Action

Subtitles: English [CC]

Audio languages: EnglishEnglish [Audio Description]

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Supporting actors: Tami Stronach Moses Gunn Patricia Hayes Sydney Bromley Gerald McRaney

Producers: Dieter Geissler Bernd Eichinger

Studio: Warner Bros.

Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Content advisory: Foul languageviolence

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5 star		85%
4 star		9%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Simple Man

My eyes see this movie better now than 30 years ago

Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2018

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Well it was time for my kids to see what their dad watched when he was a kid. This is a movie that surpasses the test of time. I really don't like to give full details of the movie/s, actors, and, plot etc. I will though let you know that the visuals on Blu ray looked so good I just don't know how they managed to clean up this 30 year old movie. If you have seen this movie when you were a child and want to spend some time with your kids being entertained or amazed by the characters in the movie I recommend you purchase this one.

58 people found this helpful

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Julian Kennedy

The title is a lie

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2019

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The NeverEnding Story: 4 out of 10: The title is a lie. The movie ends after one hour and forty-five minutes. I was glad it was over.

You reach a certain age where you realize the song “Rainbow Connection” is about schizophrenia. If you have reached this point in your life, I would avoid The NeverEnding Story.

Now I am a sucker for stories about young boys with dead mothers (See that Bruce Willis vehicle The Kid), but this film never really got its claws into me.

The Good: During the early eighties there was a rash of strange puppet-oriented fantasy epics for children (Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal ext). The NeverEnding Story is cut from this cloth. There is a lot of good in this film from amazing characters to a real sense of adventure. I would have loved an experience in Fantasia without well everything else surrounding it. I found most the creatures and characters exciting and easy to develop an emotional attachment to, as supposed to some other people in this film.

Here is another children's film from the early eighties with complete out of left field animated nudity. I am not against this per se, but I have always found it both strange and amusing that the early to mid-eighties kids films always seemed chock full of nudity and darkness where one would not expect such things. (The less said about David Bowie’s pants in Labyrinth the better)

The Bad: The main character is Bastian and is played by Barret Oliver. I don’t like the character of Bastian. First of all, he whines incessantly. Besides the whining, Bastian also screams and whoops like a developmentally disabled eight-year-old. Oh, and he has a big scene where he is supposed to shout a name out the window. Bastian does it so unintelligibly there were unable to put in what he said in the closed captioning. His scenes overall are insufferable and only get worse as the film goes on.

Not to be left out our main character in the Fantasy world Atreyu played by Noah Hathaway also gets his whine on a little too much for comfort. He is practically stoic compared to his real-world counterpart, however.

The Ugly: The ending. I am trying to put into words how much goodwill drained out of this film in the last ten minutes. I am pretty sure all of it.

Have you been fast asleep
And have you heard voices,
I've heard them calling my name,
Is this the sweet sound that calls
The young sailors,
The voice might be one and the same.

Yeah, the protagonist goes full Birdman at the end. I suppose we are to cheer his clear break from reality?

In Conclusion: Some nice concepts and characters are lost in a movie whose main character is like nails on a chalkboard and whose ending counteracts everything that came before it.

26 people found this helpful

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Ben30

THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY U.S. EDITION BLU-RAY VS THE 2012 GERMAN BLU-RAY RELEASE

Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2014

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The old 2010 blu-ray of this classic Timeless film was insulting had no special features at all
and the blu-ray transfer was s***
for some fans that don't know this film was 60% German made, German filmed
and about 40% American/British made
the film is based on German author Michael ende book of the same name of the film

there's 2 blu-ray versions, the WB 30th Aniversary edition & the 2012 German blu-ray version
first the 30th Anniversary edition
this time Warner bros have given fans brand new special features
1st Featurette RE-IMAGINING THE NEVERENDING STORY
which is 25min new recollections from the German Production team from the film
Wolfgang peterson, Producer Dieter Geissler, Screenplay writer Herman Weigal
Cinematographer Jost Vacano & Music Composer Klaus Doldinger
plus interviews with American executives Mark Damon & John Hyde.
the German crew speak English for this new featurette, no subtitles
only 2 Actors from the film have been newly interviewed Tami stronach & Gerald McRaney who played Bastian's father
Barret oliver & Noah hathaway who played Atreyu are not interviewed for some reason
maybe they were asked but Declined
this new featurette should've gone for maybe 40mins i think, but still very interesting to watch

2nd new featurette is RESTORATION
which is 10min interview with the person who did the blu-ray restoration for the film
the interview is German with English subtitles obviously, no surprise there
i couldn't see the point watching it, but it's here on the blu-ray

plus a new Audio commentary by Wolfgang peterson, very interesting commentary to
he gives more recollections on the film

there's also 2 Documentaries on this blu-ray
1st Doco is a 20mins featurette
MAKING OF THE NEVERENDING STORY
filmed in 2004 for the 2 Disc dvd German release only
in German language with English subtitles again

the 2nd Doco A WORLD OF FANTASIES
which has previously been watched on youtube.com as bootleg footage is now officially released on this blu-ray
55mins Behind the scenes on set footage in Germany 1983-1984 of the making of the film
very interesting behind the scenes footage if you can tolerate the English subtitles

there's also the 2012 German blu-ray release by Constantine film
which is the Extended version of The Neverending story run time 101mins
which i bought from amazon.de just to watch for curiosity reasons
this German version has roughly 4-5mins of extra scenes & Dialogue in the film
the extra scenes are not new scenes but are extra Dialogue & footage from the original scenes
in the U.S. version that's all
most noticeably is the end scene with Child empress crying out to Sebastian
this has been extended for an extra minute with footage of the Ivory tower crumbling

so both German & U.S. versions are very similar to each other
you can easily select English language 5.1 surround sound option in setup
so there are no English subtitles
but some of the Characters have been Dubbed in American English thou
for eg Indian Actor Deep roy who played Teeny weeny with his Racing snail has been Dubbed
by a very thick Texan Actor which does sound bizarre
Actor Tilo pruckner who plays Nighthob has been Dubbed aswell
Alan Oppenheimer who did the voice over work for the Gmork in the U.S. version
has a completely different voice, someone else did the Gmork voice in the German version
apart from that Falkor and the other Actors Patricia Hayes & sydney bromley voices are exact the same
Childlike empress & Atreyu voice's have not been Dubbed it's the same voice as the U.S. version.
the blu-ray transfer for the German release is exactly the same as the U.S. blu-ray
nice sharp & clear picture quality in 2:35:1 widescreen
the extras on the German blu-ray are 2004 retrospective German TV broadcast in German language
with English subtitles

the new special features is 30 years in the making & finally on blu-ray
this film has finally been given the respect it Deserves
personally i like both versions so i'm Happy i bought the German blu-ray aswell
i gave this 30th Anniversary & the German blu-ray 5 stars for sure, worth the cash for sure
you can easily buy the German blu-ray of amazon.de and get it shipped to the U.S.

65 people found this helpful

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Dave & Robyn

Terrible movie, but good memories

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2019

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My granddaughter was spending the night and she wanted to see The Never Ending Story because she is a Stranger Things fan. We didn’t mean to purchase the movie, just rent it...we pushed the wrong button and now it is ours forever.
It is a TERRIBLE movie. The acting is just awful! We laughed so hard because of how bad it is. I guess it was worth the $ to have the memories with my granddaughter. I remember thinking it was “good” when I was younger.
I wouldn’t recommend it as a good movie for kids today though.

8 people found this helpful

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James Connolly

The Never Aging Story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 24, 2014

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I decided to upgrade my dvd copy of TNS as it's one of my childhood faves. For me the picture quality is a big improvement from the dvd and it has been a pleasure to re-watch this classic in HD. I like the fact that this simple but somehow complex and alternative fantasy tale is nicely compressed into one film, rather than dragged across 3 'epics' as it would be today. Strong characters help this one stand alongside the likes of Time Bandits, Labyrinth and Willow. Sadly, the extras are pretty much non-existent.

DS+R

Ende auf Bluray

Reviewed in Germany on March 21, 2018

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Ich war noch sehr klein, als ich mit dem Buch von Michael Ende in Berührung kam. Es war schön. Dann kam der Film in die Kinos und ich saß als kleiner Junge wie gefesselt. Natürlich gab's dann die Version auf VHS für Zuhause.
Nach heutigen Maßstäben eine unterirdische Bild- und Tonqualität :)))

Nunmehr auf Bluray...Natürlich musste ich die auch haben!!
Das Bild kommt überraschend scharf rüber...schwarz ist schwarz und ein "kriseln" ist nicht zu sehen. Der Ton ist ausgewogen, auch über eine 7.1 Anlage.

Ich bin nur Leihe was die technische Umsetzung angeht, aber von VHS über DVD auf nunmehr diese Bluray ist die Qualität Welten besser.

Der Film ist der gleiche und das ist gut so!

Eine klare Kaufempfehlung für alle, die diesen Film nochmal und nochmal sehen wollen und für alle Kinder die eine unendliche Geschichte zum ersten Mal sehen möchten....

23 people found this helpful

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Doktor von Pain

Kann nicht mit der Romanvorlage mithalten

Reviewed in Germany on August 10, 2018

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Die unendliche Geschichte von Michael Ende (ich weiß bis heute nicht, ob er sich mit dem Titel bewusst selbst auf die Schippe genommen hat) habe ich als Kind begeistert gelesen. Die 1984 erschienene Verfilmung von Wolfgang Petersen hingegen habe ich erst etliche Jahre später gesehen, obwohl der Film da schon sehr lange draußen war. Ich konnte mich daran nicht mehr so wirklich erinnern - kein wirklich gutes Zeichen -, also habe ich mir kürzlich noch mal 'ne gebrauchte DVD zugelegt, um meine Erinnerungen aufzufrischen (für die olle Kamelle muss es keine Blu-ray sein, dachte mich mir).
Die Handlung dürfte allgemein bekannt sein: Der Schüler Bastian Bux (Barret Oliver) kommt in einem mysteriösen Laden an ein Buch mit dem Titel Die unendliche Geschichte. Auf dem Dachboden seiner Schule vertieft sich Bastian immer mehr in das Buch, das von dem Königreich Phantásien handelt. Phantásien ist vom sogenannten Nichts bedroht, das das Land Stück für Stück verschluckt. Der junge Atréju (Noah Hathaway) wird von der kindlichen Kaiserin (Tami Stronach) entsandt, um das Königreich zu retten. Beim Lesen merkt Bastian mit fortschreitender Zeit immer mehr, dass er regelrecht in die Geschichte hineingezogen wird. Das nur als kurze Zusammenfassung.

An sich ist Petersens Verfilmung gar nicht schlecht - so lange man das Buch nicht gelesen hat. Die Optik ist toll, auch wenn die Puppen und Kulissen aus heutiger Sicht recht angestaubt wirken und sehr nach Filmstudio aussehen. Aber das war eben vor der Zeit der CGI-Effekte, das muss man immer bedenken. Und richtige Handarbeit beim Film ist eh meist charmanter als irgendwelche Computereffekte. Das größte Problem des Films ist allerdings sein Umfang: Mit nur etwas mehr als anderthalb Stunden ist er viel zu kurz, und das, obwohl er nur den ersten Teil der Buchvorlage behandelt. Trotzdem wurde die Handlung hier arg zusammengekürzt, es wirkt fast so, als würde man das Buch nur überfliegen und dabei auch noch einige Kapitel überspringen. Petersen hetzt regelrecht durch die Story, wodurch diese gar keine Chance hat, sich richtig zu entfalten.
Für Kenner des Romans könnte die Verfilmung von Die unendliche Geschichte also eine kleine bis größere Enttäuschung sein, alle anderen bekommen einen immer noch ordentlichen Fantasy-Film vorgesetzt. Übrigens gibt es zwei Film-Nachfolger, allerdings nicht von Wolfgang Petersen - und die wurden von Teil zu Teil schlechter. Die kann man sich also komplett sparen - idealerweise liest man ja eh das Buch.

16 people found this helpful

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John Owens

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2017

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Top old classic. 10 out of 10.

s_jane23

Winner for the family much loved by by partner and i and now our kids ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 3, 2016

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Winner for the family much loved by by partner and i and now our kids really enjoy it too nostalgia

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