The NeverEnding Story
1984 · Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
Original language: German
- adventure
- fantasy
- family
The story
While hiding from bullies in his school's attic, a young boy discovers the extraordinary land of Fantasia, through a magical book called The Neverending Story. The book tells the tale of Atreyu, a young warrior who, with the help of a luck dragon named Falkor, must save Fantasia from the destruction of The Nothing.
What it’s like
Warm, earnest fantasy with a painterly storybook look: soft, saturated colour, misty forests and glowing candlelit attic scenes that feel handmade rather than polished. The real-world sections are muted and grey, with a schoolboy's dim, dusty loneliness, while Fantasia opens into sweeping, slightly theatrical vistas of sunlit meadows, crystalline caves and a dark, ashen wasteland where the colour simply drains away. Practical creature work gives the wolves, horses and the long-whiskered luck dragon Falkor a tactile, puppet-like presence, and the synth-heavy score by Klaus Doldinger and Giorgio Moroder swells with wonder and then turns eerie and mournful. The mood is bittersweet and dreamy, with a childlike sense of awe and a steady undertow of melancholy, best suited to a rainy afternoon, a comfort rewatch, or a family film night. Pacing is episodic and unhurried, with a few tense chases and a bleak, creeping dread around The Nothing rather than outright horror. Violence is mild: a bullying scene, some scuffles, a sad death, and a few frightening monsters, but no gore. It suits children and adults who love old-fashioned fairy tales and a story about imagination, courage and a lonely boy finding himself.
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