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Review of Tales From the Neverending Story

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Comments for Tales From the Neverending Story

• Posted on 2008-07-12
  I don't know where this piece of crap came from...
  
  ...but it basically fails on almost every level. It takes the name of "The Neverending Story", but shares very little with the book. This raises the first question, which is: why make a "re-imagining" when the book is filled with so much stuff that has yet to be put to film? Most of the altered plot really does nothing to enhance the story. It is pretty much boring drivel that takes away from the themes in the book.
  
  For example, naming is an important theme that is well explored through the danger to the child-like empress. Making an agent from Fantasia disappear by erasing his name just debases the idea. Similarly the constant incursions into the real world from Fantasia make little sense, and screws up the idea that Fantasia is a fantasy world.
  
  These incursions are a perfect example of the bad plot changes. Most of them make little sense, especially the constant failure of Xayide's agents to recover the book from Bastion. At many times they are just staring at the book, and they could just take it, but don't. If, like Oren, the book cannot be lost or stolen (and I never noticed them mention it to be so) they never really ask him or try to leverage it either.
  
  The plot changes also bring in a bunch of annoying characters. Fly Girl is a boring name for a badly written character, and the rat-faced salesman is no better. For some reason, all the kids at Bastion's school are about 5 years older and at least a foot taller. Coriander is now a wizard, but typically waivers between impotence and omnipotence. The G'mork just kind of looks retarded.
  
  The casting is problematic too. There is nothing child-like about the child-like empress. In fact, she looks like a failed beauty pageant freak, far from the innocent dignity of the girl in the original movie. There is nothing even remotely menacing about the evil queen Xayide. In any case, they both share bad writing and expressionless acting. Most of the other main characters, however, are both cast and portrayed fairly well.
  
  The sets do seem impressive at first. However they increasingly follow the story into making Fantasia into some sort of technomagic monstrosity. Without giving away any spoilers, some of the CG gets really bad towards the end.
  
  In summary, the movie fails because they take a good story and change the plot in a really bad way. I don't mind that they weren't true to the story, just that they did a really bad job of it all. The production, writing and casting were all bad as well. The movie got 2 stars instead of 1 because it's not exactly unwatchable and even has a few laughs from time to time.
  Score: 2
• Posted on 2004-04-06
  The COMPLETE AND UNCUT ENTIRE Tales series!!!
  
  At long last, an uncut version(the previous two volumes were severely edited for time and so that it would run like a movie) version of Tales From The Neverending Story. This set boast all 13 episodes and comes in a cool box shaped like the book! This set is actualy very rare. I own it on DVD, as the quality is better and so forth, but since the DVD sold out in the blink of an eye and was a VERY limited priting(i'm sure this is too) I have to review the VHS set. The picture and audio quality is simply amazing. The cover art for each individual VHS/DVD in the set once removed from the box,leaves a little to be desired,but they still look nice. The box art for the edited versions is very nice, too bad they only have two volumes instead of 4, otherwise you could house all of the volumes in those cases. As for the show itself, it's simply amazing. The best version of the Story next to the original 1980's movie, and the book itself. Now, it's not very true to the book, but the plot adjustments and changes realy make the show quite exciting. The story is as follows: A young boy named Bastian Bux discovers a mysterious book after his mothers untimely death. The book is actualy a window to another world, a world of fantasy and magic called Fantasia. And little does he know that the story he is reading is actualy happening and that he has a major impact on events. The Dark Princess, Xyide is destroying Fantasia with an evil force known as the nothing. The nothng is powered by peoples neglagence and hatred toward each other, and the loss of the ability to hope, dream, and fantasize. A youg woodland boy, Atreyu, sets out on a quest to discover a way to save Fantasia, and to cure The Child Like Empress who has become deathly ill because she is connected to her world and when it begins to die, so does she. The Child Like Empress lives in the great ivory tower, and rules over all Fantasia. All the people love her because all of them are equal in her eyes.
  As Bastian reads the book, be feels a strange connection with the story and finds it nearly impossible to stop reading. I find this show impossible to stop watching because it's so good. I recomend this series to everyone. Especially those who have hopes, dreams, or wish they could escape reality and go to another world. I give this series 5 stars.
  Score: 5