Film Credits

Screenplay by: Wolfgang Petersen and Herman Weigel

Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

Starring: Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Tami Stronach, Moses Gunn, Patricia Hayes, Sydney Bromley, Gerald MacRaney, Alan Oppenheimer

Review

The NeverEnding Story has been previously available on laserdisc for the past six years in an unsatisfying and wretched pan-and-scan edition. However, that earlier "misguided" disc release can finally be considered null and void. Warner Home Video has gone back and remastered The NeverEnding Story in a gorgeous letterboxed edition, produced in order to tie in with the recent letterboxed disc release of The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter.

Filmed in Technovision (which generally has a 2.35:1 aspect ratio standard), The NeverEnding Story has been letterboxed with only an approximate 2.06:1 aspect ratio. However, while not quite wide enough, all of the action does fit comfortably within the disc parameters, and the only time you'll really notice anything missing is when you see that both the film's opening title and one end credit are cut off on the left side of the screen. The print is in great shape, the image sharply focused, and the colors precise. A very few scenes feature some minor grain, but they also appeared that way during the film's original theatrical run. Some video noise also appears from time to time. The CX-encoded digital Dolby surround stereo is in excellent condition and has a fairly intricate mix, although some of the "cutesy" music (by Klaus Doldinger and Giorgio Morodor) will probably get to you after a short while. The disc was pressed at Pioneer and contains 27 chapter markers (indexed on the jacket).

For those of you who've never seen it, this terrific fantasy film is based upon a popular novel of the same name by Michael Ende. The story is about a young boy, Bastian (Barrett Oliver), who borrows an old mysterious hardbound book, strangely enough called The NeverEnding Story. The book tells of the mystical kingdom of Fantasia, ruled by the Childlike Empress (Tami Stronach), whose kingdom is threatened by an all-devouring black wave of destruction known as The Nothing. The Empress sends young warrior Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) on a mission to save Fantasia, and the book details his adventures. As Bastian reads the book, he not only experiences everything that the characters do, but soon discovers that he himself is also a part of the book -- Bastian knows the characters, and the characters know of him! The film is elaborately-designed and full of wonder, imagination, special effects and neat creatures (such as the Rock Biter, an enormous giant made out of stone, and Falkor, a flying dragon). It also has a really great moral, too -- everyone should read books and let their imaginations run loose.