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Critics Consensus: A magical journey about the power of a young boy's imagination to save a dying fantasy land, The NeverEnding Story remains a much-loved kids adventure.
Critic Consensus: A magical journey about the power of a young boy's imagination to save a dying fantasy land, The NeverEnding Story remains a much-loved kids adventure.
All Critics (39) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (32) | Rotten (7) | DVD (4)
A marvelously realized flight of pure fantasy.
Despite the sophistication of the source material, the film isn't particularly successful.
A fairytale of the very best kind.
The world of this movie looks like a very particular place, and the art direction involved a lot of imagination.
The Neverending Story may have cost a mint to produce, but the result is bargain-basement.
...takes viewers back to a pre-CGI era when fantastic beasts and amazing worlds were created on screen using puppets and models.
Carries with it a healthy amount of menace, and intensity, but it's also a remarkable adventure.
This utterly enchanting, family treat of a film should leave you and yours wide-eyed with wonder.
Something dark, entrancing and even a little special.
Fantasies as hearty and original as this are rare at the movies.
The story is a touch simplistic, but Petersen's direction is assured and children will be dazzled by the imaginative effects and stunning sets.
It pokes along at times and lapses occasionally into dark moments of preachy philosophy, but this is still a charming, amusing and harmless film for kids.
Liked this when I was little. Still pretty good for a kids film. Not my taste these days, but have to admit the child actors are very good and the luck dragon is cute.
Super Reviewer
Good old fashioned family entertainment at it's finest. "The Neverending Story" is a film for all ages. Released in 1984, this film still holds up today as a family classic. Following Bastian as he discovers a book called "The Neverending Story" at his local book store, he takes it home out of pure curiousness put in his head by the book store owner. Upon his reading, he is immediately immersed in the story at hand. The story follows Atreyu, a young boy set on a quest to save their world from being consumed by what is known as the nothing. Becoming so immersed that he himself becomes a part of the story in his own mind, the characters begin to hear him. This film is chalk-full of imagination. This picture is the epitome of originality for all ages. With weird looking creatures to bizarre characters and storylines, this film never strays from clever and will have you immersed from the opening credits. It does scream 80's, but in the best way possible. I found myself smiling, tearing up, and being totally invested in what was happening to each and every character, even though it is totally a fictional world. I love every second of this film. It is not very often that we get films as original as this nowadays, especially when it comes to children's films. Sure, Pixar still does wonders for originality, but as far as live action family films go, this is a prime example of what filmmakers should be looking at achieving. Technology has come so far to the point where films like this can be achieved better than ever. For it's time though, "The Neverending Story" looks absolutely beautiful. Overall, this is an incredibly uplifting tale with hardship and fun sprinkled throughout. Younger audiences may get slightly more out of it, but it has a few very scary moments for younger audiences and adults may just feel their childhood screaming to come back out. From beginning to end, it finds new ways of being original and never once did I find myself rolling my eyes. For it's time, this was perfect family entertainment, and to this day, I still believe that it is. This film is (for what it is) is spectacular. Sure, it can be chuckle-worthy at times, but the story itself is worth telling over and over. Highly recommended to those who have yet to see this film.
Nope, I didn't enjoy it. Perhaps in 1984 it was entertaining, but neither the acting nor the special effects were satisfactory. I gave it 2 out of 5 as the story has possibilities.
this film is strange but clever and for the 80s the effects are fantastic to look at, the rockbiter at the beginning is amazing to watch and i still wonder how they do it. This film isn't the best film in the fantasy genre but when you compare it to the second film with the swapped cast and plot holes this film is God
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