Midway through The NeverEnding Story is a scene I haven’t watched for 34 years, but which is seared forever on my mind. I warn my daughter about it, and watch her anxiously as the moment approaches.
The film’s young hero Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) has reached the Swamp Of Sadness, a place that feeds off misery and drowns those who surrender to despair. Atreyu is bold (and has cheekbones to die for), but Artax, his beautiful white horse and only friend, is not so fortunate. As the horse obstinately refuses to think happy thoughts, it slowly sinks beneath the thick black muck. Atreyu howls in anguish. Watching it again, I’m almost as upset as I was when I was a child. My six-year-old doesn’t even flinch.
So much for generation snowflake.
This is the first time I’ve seen The NeverEnding Story since a 1984 trip to my local cinema – it is being re-released in the Iconic Moments Collection from Warner Bros. Cinema trips back in the 80s were genuinely unforgettable, because you really didn’t know if you’d ever see the film again. There was no such thing as streaming, we only had four TV channels and nobody I knew had a VHS player, so when you went to the cinema you paid attention. If you missed something special, it could be gone forever.
The NeverEnding Story was definitely something special. I was captivated by the amazing locations and weird creatures of a fantasy world that was helpfully called Fantasia. There was Falkor, a friendly dog-dragon that looked like a draught excluder but would, I thought, make a perfect pet – the sort of wise old animal that would help with homework after flying me to school every day (before lying against the door to keep the chill out).
Another favourite was the stone-eating giant Rockbiter, genially stupid in a way guaranteed to make a 10-year-old chuckle. And then there was the elderly pair of squabbling stargazing gnomes, who travelled around on what seemed to be an antique zip wire and reminded me of my grandparents. These all existed within a universe of quests, heroes and trials of strength, bravery and intelligence. It was like discovering the Greek myths for the first time – but the best thing was that the drama was told through the eyes of somebody around my own age.
The NeverEnding Story has not one, but two child heroes. Atreyu is your conventional fantasy hero, slaying monsters, solving puzzles, smiling toothily and saving the Empress. But more important is Bastian Bux (Barret Oliver), a book-loving nerd and loner. It’s only when Bastian ignores his dad’s instructions to stop wallowing in the fantasies of children’s literature and instead starts reading a mysterious old book that we learn that Fantasia is being devoured by the dark force of The Nothing. And it’s Bastian who later saves the day when he realises fantasies can come true. I was the sort of kid who would bunk off school to visit the library, so I loved seeing somebody a bit like me saving the world through the simple – and generally not-very-heroic – act of reading.
My rewatch took place in the company of my daughters, who are six and 11. I pressed “play” with some trepidation. My kids have lived through an era of Harry Potter and slick digital animation, and I worried that the slower pace and primitive special effects of The NeverEnding Story would put them off. And that was before I even mentioned the horse-sucking swamp.
To my delight, I needn’t have worried. They were captivated right from the theme tune, a belting piece of synth pop by Giorgio Moroder that I recall being a fixture on Capital Radio for several weeks. I also didn’t need to fret about pace. The film flies by. Unlike many modern children’s films, which stretch out for more than two hours, The NeverEnding Story is wonderfully brisk, wrapping up in just over 90 minutes.
The six-year-old was particularly charmed by the young Empress (played by Tami Stronach), whose shaved head makes her look like a young Sinead O’Connor, while the 11-year-old admitted it was “kind of cool because the effects made it quite quirky”. We were also struck by the bleakness of Bastian’s back story. His mum has died, his dad doesn’t seem to understand him, he’s bullied at school: no wonder he seeks escape in the world of books.
My elder daughter liked the fact that all the action stemmed from Bastian’s love of reading and we were able to bond over that. Because even though The NeverEnding Story has plenty of strange creatures and fiendish puzzles, it’s really a 90-minute homage to the joy of books, and 34 years after it was made that message still resonates with both children and parents.
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