Ways The NeverEnding Story Is Different From The Book | Netflix

The 1984 fantasy film The NeverEnding Story is a beloved modern classic that's still used as a pop-culture touchstone to this day.

Based on the best-selling, critically-acclaimed 1979 novel of the same name by German author Michael Ende, The NeverEnding Story tells the tale of a shy, outcast boy named Bastian who finds himself immersed in a magical book about a fantasy land that's on the brink of destruction.

While the movie captures the essence of the book, there are some subtle differences. For starters, in the movie, the mythical land Bastian becomes engrossed in is called Fantasia, while in the book it's called Fantastica. But that's far from the only variation. Here are a few more ways The NeverEnding Story movie differs from the book.

The NeverEnding Story immortalized on screen only tells half of the story told in the book. When we first meet Bastian, both in the movie and on the page, he has taken refuge in a vintage bookstore after running away from some bullies. There, he stumbles upon an unusual book titled The NeverEnding Story that he's instantly drawn to.

After running off with it without paying, Bastian holes himself up in his school's attic to read the tale that follows a young warrior named Atreyu. Atreyu must undertake a treacherous journey to find a cure for the ill Childlike Empress, who rules over a fantastical land that's being destroyed by a malicious force called The Nothing.

In both the movie and the book, Bastian follows Atreyu's obstacle-filled odyssey until it becomes apparent that Bastian himself has also become part of the narrative. He must accept that he now plays a role in The NeverEnding Story - he is the one who can save the empress. All he has to do is actively join the adventure and give her a new name, which he does. Here's where the movie ends.

But the book continues on, with Bastian getting sucked into the pages and using his imagination to shape the world around him. But every time he makes a wish, he loses an earthly memory. This leads to him down a dark path as he slowly forgets who he is and where he came from.

Enter the 1990 film The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, which tackles the second half of the book. While none of the original NeverEnding Story movie cast returns, many of the same characters are featured. Meanwhile, a third film, The NeverEnding Story III: Escape From Fantasia, was released in 1994, but it follows a new story line that has nothing to do with the book.

Half the story | 0:00
A Talking Horse!?! | 2:35
Much ado about The Nothing | 4:02
Means to an ending | 5:11

Find Netflix Film Club on:

About Netflix:
Netflix is the world's leading streaming entertainment service with 193 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments.

Ways The NeverEnding Story Is Different From The Book | Netflix

In Partnership With Looper

[cdnnmoonpie]

The Neverending Story 2 is even less accurate to the book. It adapts some of the main elements, but I hope anybody who loves the films reads the book. It has so much more story to offer.

[mayfield]

In the book there are actually 3 gates before reaching the southern oracle. The southern oracle itself is also very different in the book. Instead of being another pairs of sphinxes, it's only a voice. Everything she says, rhymes. And she bounces around a series of columns.

[nevet]

You say none of the original cast where in the sequel, but the book shop keeper, Karl Konrad Koreanders actor returned.

[SomeRandomGuyx]

I'm not certain that the prevailing themes book can adequately be adapted for the screen. First, part of why the book is so compelling is because it is a metadiegetic text that interacts with its reader. This creates an experience in which it appears that, in addition to being Bastian's story, the book is also a story about ourselves, the readers. This creates an experience in which we, like Bastian, are a part of the neverending story. This effect is much harder to achieve in film, and I would say impossible to fully recreate.

I feel this is connected to one of the main differences between the themes of the film vs the source material. The emotional arcs in the first and second films focus primarily on Bastian's grief about the loss of his mother. While this plays a part in the book, the thematic thrust in the novel is more centered around Bastian's relationship with himself - his moving away from shame towards self-love and the capacity to love others. This, too, is less easily translated into film language, and frankly would probably be tedious to watch.

I'd gladly watch any media that emerged from this property, but I think any visual storytelling would struggle to achieve what the book does on a philosophical level. Not because films cannot make us feel things or have philosophical underpinnings, but because the medium is deeply connected to what The Neverending Story is trying to say.

[johnbower]

In the Book Artax was still gone at the end. He and the other lost people still didn't come back to life as they did in the film.

[makeitsonumberone]

Happy childhood watching this on repeat on a grainy vhs tape.

[miroslavtomic]

The movie also ommits several important characters from the book, which in turn made them change some plot points and events from the book. Interesting fact is that both events revolve around Atreyu, Falcor and Gmork.
1. The movie ommits the character of Ygramul the Many, a shapeshifter who turns into gigantic spider and traps Falcor in his gigantic net. This is actually where Atreyu meets Falcor for the first time in the book and saves him Ygramul. Since Ygramul was ommited from the movie, they simply decided to have Falcor save Atreyu from Gmork. Likewise, Gmork attacking Atreyu during this scene also does not happen in the book.
2. Near the end of the movie, Atreyu and Falcor encounter Nothing and Atreyu is thrown off Falcor's back which eventually leads him to meeting Gmork. This, however, is not what happens in the book. In the book Atreyu and Falcor never once encounter Nothing. Instead they encounter four Wind Giants who do nothing all day every day but fight among themselves. Atreyu and Falcor get caught up in one of their fights and that is what throws Atreyu off of Falcor's back which leads him to meeting Gmork. The rest of that scene is faithful to the book. Likewise, in the book this is the only time Atreyu meets Gmork.
3. All the events featuring Bastian at the beginning of the movie, including his father and the bullies, do not appear in the book. Bullies are mentioned in the book, however. The book starts with Bastian running into Mr. Coreander's shop.
4. In the movie, it is never explained why Atreyu didn't sink into Swamp of Sadness along with Atrax despite very obviously falling into dispair. Book explains it - Auryn was protecting him. This, however, is not mentioned in the movie at all.
5. In the book, Nothing does not have shape of stormy clouds. Since it is nothing, it does not have any shape in the book.

[lucad]

A part that no one really talks about that was also left out of the movie is the way the Childlike Empress gets Bastian to finally gather up the courage to give her a new name. Because in the book, it's not done with just a "pretty please". Bastian is so deeply in self-doubt that the Empress sees no other way than to seek out the Old Man on the Wandering Mountain, someone she is never supposed to meet.
The Old Man lives inside an egg with a ladder made of letters that basically all spell out to the empress that her approach is a bad idea and that she should turn back right now, but she presses on. When she enters the egg, she finds the Old Man sitting in the dark, writing inside a book that turns out to be the very same book Bastian is reading at the same moment. He only communicates through writing, and everything that is happening in Phantasia is written in the book by him. And then the Childlike Empress forces him to do the unthinkable: she makes turn the pages back to the beginning, basically starting the story again only to arrive at the same moment again where turns the pages back, creating an infinite loop to force Bastian to finally end it.

The Childlike Empress and the Old Man of the Wandering Mountain are basically two halves of the same whole. One young, one old; one speaks, one stays silent; one is the beginning of the story, the other the end.

[kushfairyny]

I thought I'd never get over Artex but at the end when he came back my tears of sadness became literal tears of joy. Crazy has unreal characters and stories have such impact on our lives

[miroslavtomic]

During a convention appearance at Dragoncon in 2010, Noah Hathaway revealed they used virtually none of his recorded dialogue and instead hired a different actor to dub his lines. Hathaway's voice is actually rather high and has no accent.

[vicki]

Wow i remember seeing that so many times in cuba 😍😘

[tuckjesst]

I remember watching this movie repeatedly until my VHS wore out! I used to sing the opening song just like on Stranger Things!

[puterboy]

You know, if they actually hired an overweight actor to play Bastian, he would have been as seen as an icon for kids who had bullied for fat-shaming.

[blackphoenix]

Chiron was a centaur in the book, not... whatever the hell he was supposed to be in the movie.

[miroslavtomic]

Second movie borrowed the story from second half of the book but virtually nothing from the book is kept in the movie, except for most characters and part of Bastian losing himself by wishing over and over. Apart from that, second movie is pretty much original story just based on the second half of the book.

[kushfairyny]

This movie and Princess Bride has to be my top 2 favorite "childhood" 80s movies. I have many 80s favorites but childhood favorites are these 😊

[triton]

I remember reading the book, and in one part, Atreyu is in a forest. There is a group of talking trees, one of them damaged by the Nothing. They tell Atreyu to not go any further, but to climb one of the bigger trees to see what was ahead of him. He sees the nearest trees still green, but a bit farther down the trees turn gray. Farther away still they become like vapor. And beyond that, no more forest, only an empty void.

[miroslavtomic]

Thomas Hill returns in Neverending Story II as Mr. Coreander. He is the only actor who appears in both movies. Plus, Hoah Hataway does appear in the second movie. All the faraway shots of Atreyu riding his horse, are actually reused shots from the first movie.

[robertofulton]

Bastion in the film doesn’t turn into a ruthless dictator waging war on most of Fantasia…I mean that’s a pretty big difference.

[malinhessedahl]

Love both movies of the neverinding story❤❤❤