Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
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.
The NeverEnding Story is visually extraordinary for its era — Wolfgang Petersen and cinematographer Jost Vacano craft a genuinely immersive fantasy world with memorable creature design (Falkor, Gmork, Morla) that still holds up. The film's nested meta-narrative concept — a boy reading a story that increasingly involves him — is genuinely distinctive and philosophically rich for a children's fantasy, earning high Novelty. Acting is serviceable; Barret Oliver is adequate as Bastian while Noah Hathaway carries Atreyu's quest with appropriate earnestness. The plot is episodic and somewhat thin by modern standards, hitting quest-genre beats but elevated by its thematic weight about imagination and nihilism. The ending, however, is the film's weakest link — the transition from Fantasia back to the real world feels rushed and tonally awkward, undercutting the emotional payoff the story had been building toward.