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.

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.

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.

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.

I grew up watching this movie a lot as a kid, and now as an adult I'm pleased to say that it has held up quite nicely! The fantasy setting is well produced and we can all relate to Bastion as he struggles with his life, whether it be bullies or the loss of a parent. The grumpy bookkeeper claims the Neverending Story is no safe book and he sure isn't lying. The imaginative world is chock full of hazards, including a frightening wolf, a swamp of sadness that can swallow you if you let sorrow go to your head, statues that shoot energies from their eyes, and above all: A destructive force that tears worlds apart and pulls people into a vast void. Only one person can save the world of Fantasia, Atreyu a warrior with nothing but a magical amulet, the Auryn to aid him in his quest and a few friends. Will Atreyu save Fantasia? Watch on and find out!

Parental Advisory: This fantasy world, as mentioned above is full of frightening moments, some creatures such as a giant turtle, and the wolf are convincing puppets that can give nightmares to children, the wolf is the most frightening. The Nothing itself is a mixture of weather events such as strong winds, earthquakes, cyclones, and mention of a drought which could be nerve wracking for those who have been traumatized by fierce weather events and children. Two pairs of statues are bare-breasted females.

Although we all know that the production value of this film pales in comparison to modern movies, it's still a hit with my kids. They enjoy it as much as I did, and they have asked for it multiple times. I have a five year old boy and a six year old girl, and there's a boy hero and a girl empress - plus, the actors are close enough to their ages that it really hits home. How does it get better? Yes, there are a couple of hard spots when a character gets taken by the nothing (the horse is particularly hard), but remember - spoiler - that everything works out in the end. Bonus for kids is that you can pause it so that you can explain that they don't have to worry because they do win in the end and all of the things that went wrong will be put right. Exciting and nothing tacky or abrasive. Plus, good triumphs over evil and it gives kids a sense of control that they can make a difference.

One of my favorite movies! While it does lean more toward a younger audience, I would say that this movie is still a must see for fantasy lovers of all ages. It's story is beautifully told with amazing visuals that come straight out of an imagination run wild!! (this movie does not use CGI, so if you are looking for something along those lines, this movie may not be for you)!! The actors portrayal of there characters are amazingly spot on so you can really FEEL what they are experiencing. Cannot recommend this movie enough for those who love fantasy!!

The only reason this veritable dumpster fire of childhood nightmare fuel is on my purchase list is I forgot to set the parental controls on my grandmothers Fire tv when I set it up for her. She is 84, all her tech is set up through me because I am the one she calls over to "fix" things when she forgets how she got there. Thinking everything on the amazon app was free she bypassed all the "do you want to purchase" and bought it while I was at the grocery store.

Amazon, you need a child/grandparent setting that lets us just put the things they are allowed into a category for them... possibly a "who is watching" setting like all the other streaming services. And defaulting to an alphabetical sorting instead of a recent sorting so that those that aren't as savvy can just use what they learned in kindergarten instead of trying to figure out what algorithm you used to give that suggestion.

As far as this movie goes. I was 5 when this amalgamation of horrors came out. My mom just bought it on vhs and her boyfriend was watching it... I was playing not paying any attention. He asked me to stop and rewind the movie cause he missed something. Being a goobery little kid, I was standing right in front of the tv "larger" than me (at least it felt that way) hit play and started watching right as the blasted saber-toothed wolf jerk gmok leapt at the screen. I screamed, jumped clear over my coffee table, and have nightmares of his animatronic ass ever since. "Friends" in junior high tried ridding me of the fear of this movie by tying me to a chair and making me rewatch it with them cracking jokes only to reaffirm that this movie will be forever the thing that haunts my dreams. Watch at your own risk.