Neverending Story (1984)

Editor's Note In director Wolfgang Petersen's charming fantasy, Bastian (Barrett Oliver), a lonely schoolboy alienated from his father and bullied by his classmates, retreats to an attic where he becomes engrossed in a book entitled THE NEVERENDING STORY. It is the tale of a magical kingdom appropriately named Fantasia, since it is a world born of human fantasies. However, as humanity loses faith in the power of imagination, the once-thriving Fantasia is being destroyed by great storms of Nothingness. Dangerously ill herself, Fantasia's youthful empress (Tami Stronach) sends the young warrior Atreju (Noah Hathaway) on a quest to find a cure for the kingdom. After encountering flying dragons, swamp monsters and a vast assortment of other strange creatures, the young hero discovers that only a human boy can save Fantasia, at which point Bastian is drawn, literally, into the pages of the story.

	Barret Oliver
	Tami Stronach
	Noah Hathaway
	Moses Gunn
	Wolfgang Petersen - Director

In THE NEVERENDING STORY, a young boy is physically drawn into a fantasy novel he is reading, and there he struggles to save an incredible world from destruction.

"The video arcade is down the street. Here we just sell small rectangular objects. They're called books. They require a little effort on your part, and make no beep--beep--beep--beeps. On your way please."----Mr. Koreander (Thomas Hill) to Bastian (Barrett Oliver)

"Never give up and good luck will find you."----Falcor to Bastian

Variety
"...A marvelously realized flight of pure fantasy..." 07/04/1984

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "Barret Oliver, the nine year-old lead, suits the bookwormish loner who opens the pages to Fantasia's world of rock-eating giants...[and] unforgiving swamps..." 09/01/2008 p.159