Overview and critical examination of The Never Ending Story.

On the Surface The Never Ending Story is a beautifully sad fantasy about a boy who must help save a magical land called Fantasia by becoming a part of the stories he grew up loving. This puts him at odds with his father, the bullies that prey on him, and his studies. Taking a deeper look at the The Never Ending Story becomes an intensely psychological exploration of a brilliant child in a lot of pain.

Let me preface this by admitting that I have yet to read the original book so I am basing my examination only on the film.

Bastian is a dreamer, and we are introduced to him post a dream of an ominous storm building. He has a conversation with his no nonsense, all business father over breakfast. We learn that his mother has passed away recently and his studies are suffering, and his love of horses hasn't helped him overcome his apparent fear of actually riding one. His father implores him to "take his head out of the clouds" and grow up. He agrees to behave more like an adult, taking his stories and fantasies less seriously.

On his way to school Bastian is bullied by three kids who chase him into a bookstore. The Owner is less than thrilled to have a kid in his store and he is quick to judge Bastian's reading habits. Eventually enticing him with a book unlike anything he's ever ready before. A phone call pulls the store owner away from the book. Bastian leaves him a note promising to bring the book back when he's done reading it.

Bastian arrives at school and skips his classes in order to hole up in the attic and read his new book. From here we move into the world of Fantasia. We are introduced to Rock Biter, the Night Hob, and Tiny Weeny. These three emissaries from their people are making their way to the Ivory Tower to seek help from the Childlike Empress.  They all three bring news of a great nothing that is erasing their homelands. All realizing that they bring news of the same terrible force they decide to break camp and race for the Ivory Tower.

At the Ivory Tower members of every race in Fantasia have come to seek help from the childlike empress. Her assistant reveals that she doesn't have the strength to save Fantasia from the Nothing as she is gravely ill. The last hope for both the Empress and all Fantasia is a brave warrior of the plains people, named Atreyu. When Atreyu arrives The Empresses assistant is distressed to find that Atreyu is only a boy. Reluctantly he offers the quest to Atreyu. When Atreyu accepts the quest The assistant gives him the only weapon Atreyu can take a pendant called The Orin, meant to guide and protect him on his quest.  Atreyu and his horse Artex explore every corner of Fantasia searching for a way to defeat the nothing and cure the Empress. Unaware that they are being hunted by Gmork, the minion of The Nothing.

After searching extensively they have come up with nothing. Their last option is to traverse the swamps of sadness and seek out the wisdom of Morlah, the ancient one. The swamps will claim anyone that lets the sadness get to them. They make good time until Artex can go no further. No matter what Atreyu says or does, Artex begins to sink into the swamp. No amount of effort can keep Artex from being taken by the swamp. Atreyu is now alone.  refusing to let it affect him Atreyu soldiers on and  reaches Morlah the ancient one. A giant insane turtle submerged in the muck to the swamp. Morlah doesn't much care for living or dying and explains that while he doesn't know how to save the Empress or Fantasia, The Southern Oracle will. Atreyu excited askes where the Southern Oracle is and Morlah gleefully explains that it is over ten thousand miles away from the swamp. With no hope left Atreyu trudges through the swamp, Gmork ever closer on his trail. All seems lost, Gmork is about to secure his kill until Atreyu is removed from the swamp by Falcor The Luck Dragon.

Upon waking, Atreyu makes acquaintances with Falcor, who introduces him to Engywook and Urgl, a couple of elves. One a medicine woman and one lost in his scientific work. Engywook shows Atryu what he will have to do to reach the southern oracle. He faces a series of tests that help him find out what kind of person he really is. The last test puts a mirror between Atreyu and Bastian. This comparison scares and confuses both boys. The Southern Oracle is beginning to fall apart. They share with Atreyu what Fantasia and The Empress needs. She needs a new name. A name that only an earthling child can provide. Bastian feels his mother's name would be a perfect name for the empress. The last thing the Southern Oracle can tell Atreyu is that an earthling child can only be found beyond the boundaries of Fantasia.

Atreyu and Falcor make a desperate run to try and reach the boundaries of fantasia. The nothing has ravaged massive amounts of Fantasia and the pair fly right into the storm. Atreyu falls off Falcor and looses the Orin. Atreyu ends up in some ruins and Falcor makes a desperate search for the Orin. Atreyu runs into the rock biter. Sadly he has lost the Night Hob and Tiny Weeny to the Nothing. He has lost faith in himself as he feels he was unable to save them. Atreyu commiserates with him and goes on about his way. Atreyu finds a part of the ruins that chronicle his entire journey, he comes upon a painting of a set of wolf eyes, which are behind him. Atreyu and Gmork face off as the last of Fantasia evaporates around them. The fight is short and lethal. With Gmorks blood on his hands Atreyu and Falcor reunite.

Fantasia is nothing more than floating rocks in space. Only shreds of the once great land remain. One of those remains happens to be the Ivory Tower. Atreyu returns to the Empress Humbled and hopeless. She reveals that he has in fact succeeded in bringing an earthling child. Neither Atreyu nor Bastian can believe her. She lays out the entire story, both Bastian's and Atreyu's. Bastian attempts to take a blind eye to this insanity but it only does more damage to the Ivory Tower. Bastian must face the truth, he is a part of The Never Ending Story, just as we are a part of his story. In the end the Empress begs Bastian for her new name, Bastian climbs to the attic window opens it and shouts his mothers name into the raging storm.

A single grain of sand. That is all that is left of Fantasia. Bastian accepts the sand and the duty of rebuilding Fantasia with his dreams and wishes from the Empress. We leave off with him riding Falcor exploring all the parts of Fantasia he has brought back to life. He then takes Falcor to the real world to mess with his bullies.

Bastian saved Fantasia with his mothers name. The name he shouts into the heart of a raging storm to quiet the destruction of everything he had learned to love as a child. Her name was Moon Child. Bastian's Mother was a Hippie, and this fact turns The Never Ending Story from Bittersweet fantasy to Intensely emotional character study.

The Sad fact of the matter is that as a victim of severe bouts of depression Moon Child killed herself. The Never Ending Story is the psychological process Bastian goes through to finally face the pain of her loss and deal with the issues he has with his father, and ultimately the anger he has toward his mother for doing what she did.

The opening conversation that Bastian has with his father establishes their emotional distance and disconnection using physical distance and disconnection. His father is behind him and interested only in explaining to Bastian what he needs to improve upon in life. Bastian's father is out of his element. He is a businessman, he has the power suit, the power tie, the energy shake. His current way of dealing with the loss of his wife is to loose himself in his work. He makes the minimum amount of effort to communicate with Bastain but only on an entirely realistic and down to earth level, the day dreaming and fantasy stories and obsession with horses, all reminds his father to much of Moon Child. Moon Child was the primary parent in Bastain's young life. She instilled in him his love of fantasy and adventure, and considering the type of bond between mother and child it is easy to wonder what Bastian's parents saw in each other and or what his father must have been like when his wife was alive. ultimately wether or not his father realizes it, by asking Bastian to "keep his feet on the ground" he is asking him to forget and let go of the last good memories he has of his mother. This could be the Catalyst of the Nothing arriving in Fantasia.

On his way to School Bastian is chased by three bullies, who chase him into a bookstore. The bookstore Owner isn't trying to trick him into taking the book because it's Bastian's gateway to maturity he is offering Bastian a way to process everything that has happened to him. The threat the bookstore owner makes of not being able to be a little boy again when he is done with the book has nothing to do with the book itself but purely the type of transformation Bastian needs to go through.

Bastian holes up in the attic at his school. We then transfer into The Never Ending Story (Bastian's subconscious). The first characters we meet are The Rock Biter, which represents Bastian's inner child complete with tricycle. Tiny Weeny and his racing snail represent the way Bastian thinks of his father. From the fancy close to the super fast if unassuming vehicle. Night Hob is Bastian's memories of his mothers down or bad days. The discussion the trio has tells us that it is early in life when Bastain names his mother's depression. "what's wrong with mommy?" "It's nothing son, she's just not feeling well today".

At the Ivory Tower we see a whole menagerie of strange and wonderful characters. These represent all the stories that Moon Child shared with Bastian. The Empresses assistant is Bastian's father's best intentions. His brave face if you will. Attempting to do everything possible to make it through this situation and revealing Atreyu to the audience. Atreyu is Bastian's brave face, the conversation that Atreyu and the assistant have is emotionally reversed from The conversation Bastian has with his father. In this conversation we see that his father while asking him to grow up was doing so because his father cannot survive alone, he cannot move on if his son sinks further into these stories, closer to the all consuming darkness that took, his wife. His father needs a partner in getting well and his last hope is his own son. The assistant gives Atreyu the Orin, which is the embodiment of hope.

Next we meet Artex, Atreyu's horse. Artex is Bastian's memories of his mothers good days and the first leg of Atreyu's journey is a metaphor for the times he spent reading and exploring with his mother. Always however the nothing is just over the horizon, and it's minion, Gmork is hot on Arteyu's trail. Gmork is the embodyment of Bastain's fathers insistence that he grow up and leave all this behind with out a second thought. To abandon dreams and adventures and be a down to earth person.

 The swamps of sadness. This is the period of time that caused Moon Child to take her own life. Signified by Artex sinking into the swamp. Morlah, The ancient one is how Bastian sees his father immediately after his mothers death. Sullen, depressed, Morlah's alergies to Atreyu represent his father's inability to be around his son as he to strongly resembled his father of his mother and those memories are to painful and fresh. Finding Morlah to be no help Atreyu leaves and tries to escape the swamp. It is here that Gmork almost succeeds in killing Atreyu. Bastian almost gave up and left his fantasy world and love of books behind him, until it became the only place where he felt ok. This reconnection with fiction and fantasy is represented by Falcor the luck dragon, rescuing him from the swamp.

When Atreyu awakes we meet the representation of his grand parents on his mothers side, who he stayed with until his father could put himself back together. It is here that Atreyu learns what lies between him and the "Southern Oracle" Two "Gates" The first designed to test you and see if you feel your true worth. As Atreyu is merely the face that Bastian shows to the world to keep people out, it is doubtful that either boy realizes the danger of this first test. From here on out Atreyu and Bastian will be drawn closer both mentally and emotionally until the end of the film.

Having barely made it through the sphinx gate Atreyu comes to the magic mirror gate. In which Atreyu sees Bastian in the mirror. Bastian cannot handle this revelation and he rather than Atreyu fails the test. While he has always taken his fantasy's and books more serious then most this is to much for him to handle, to personal. Even he must admit that he has always had concrete boundaries between himself and his fantasies. He fears he is breaking the promise he made to his father, even though he has made it this far he is no longer sure that his father is wrong. In the end he cannot give up on Atreyu and by extension Fantasia so he returns to the book, Thus proving the store owner wrong, he is an adult and can finish what he starts, he is not scared and refuses to quit.

The Southern Oracle while filled with information is a secret third test for the now bonded boy's. The revelation that a name given by a human child and that human children live outside the boundaries of fantasia is a test that both Atreyu and Bastain fail in their own way. Bastian still thinks he is only reading the book, and thus he doesn't take his desire to give the Empress his mothers name seriously. Atreyu hears "outside the boundaries of Fantasia" and assumes there is such a place rather than looking inward as the mirror showed him.

As the nothing continues to rage, the storm in Bastian's hometown is getting worse as well. This metaphorical connection becomes very important for Bastian's development.

Falcor and Atreyu make a desperate run to find the boundaries of Fantasia, meeting the nothing in all directions. The pair are separated and Atreyu looses the Orin. Atreyu wakes up on a beach and runs into The Rock Biter who has lost both the night hob and Tiny Weeny to The Nothing. This is Bastian's inner child dealing with his feelings that somehow his mothers death and father's collapse are his fault. Atreyu can do nothing to console Bastian's inner child.

Atreyu then discovers the chronicle of his entire journey. Presented with the accounting of everything he has done up to this point in his life he finally meets Gmork. They each share their failures. Atreyu who feels he has failed to save Fantasia, and Gmork who has failed to find and kill Atreyu. Gmork lets Atreyu know that he has been searching for the wrong "boundaries" and that it is Atreyu's own ignorance of his own universe that has doomed them all. The Nothing's final destruction is imminent and Atreyu at the end of the world admits that Gmork has found his prey and that now is the best time for them to settle their debt.

With Gmork's blood on his hands Atreyu once again seeks out Falcor who has found the Orin. The pair reunite as The Nothing finally erases the last of Fantasia. Only shreds of the fantasies Moon Child loved now remain. Bastian has grown much sense he opened The Never Ending Story. Only one small, intensely painful, beautifully personal step remains. Fantasia can be saved as long as Bastian can admit to missing, loving, being mad at and possibly hating his mother all at the same time. He has to accept that her decisions were her own and that she loved him more than he will ever know. Atreyu and Falcor go to see the only person that can help them achieve this goal. The Childlike Empress.

The Empress forces Bastian and Atryu to realize that they are in fact one in the same, and that all of Fantasia can be reborn if only Bastian can reconcile the memories of his mother as a person with his feelings of her as a godlike figure. This is achieved simply by "naming" the Empress or more specifically taking ownership and control of the stories and fantasies Moon child introduced him to. Responsibility is a sign of maturity, and taking responsibility for Fantasia means that he must admit it is time to move on, time to grow up into what ever person he wishes to become, time to accept his mother's death and protect and cherish his memories of her for the rest of his life. Having made the final sacrifice he combines both his promise to his father and his love for the gifts his mother gave him into his new emotional state.

Next up: Labyrinth!