The Neverending Story
Schuyler says:
Biggest spoiler of all time: Bastian screams out “Moon Child!” at the end when naming the Child-like Empress. That means Bastian’s mom’s name is also Moon Child.
Okay, that should only make sense to the uber-nerdy amongst you who have seen this movie more than a few times.
The Neverending Story is one of my favorite films from when I was young. It’s the story of a young boy, Bastian, who steals a book from a bookstore after getting his ass kicked by a bunch of bullies. He then cuts class (which is against the rules!!!) to read the book, and follows along with the story of Atreyu. Atreyu is a young boy (who hunts the Purple Buffalo), and his purpose is to save the imaginary land of Fantasia by also saving it’s magical princess (the Child-like Empress) from a terrible non-monster called the Nothing.
The Nothing is the monster from Cloverfield…pretty much. The Nothing is the symbolic murder of childlike innocence and imagination. When children stop using their imaginations (and reading!), the land of Fantasia is symbolically destroyed in real-time.
My girlfriend and I created our own drinking game for this movie, and it left us pretty wasted:
1) Creature/Race Explanation – everytime we meet a new character we have to hear what he is and what he eats
2) Neverending Theme song – download this immediately
3) “The Nothing!” is uttered or yelled
4) “Book” is mentioned (this gets you drunk by minute 10)
5) Atreyu acts Emo (gets you drunker by minute 20)
6) “The Boundaries” or “The Boundaries of Fantasia” are mentioned
7) Luck contributes to the progression of the story (aka…we have no way to explain how we want the story to progress)
Favorite quotes:
Childlike Empress: “Bastian…say my name!”
Bastian: “Alright! I will do it…I’ll save you…I will do what I dream [screams out Moon Child inaudibly]“
Bastian: “No…not too much [puts down sandwich]…I’ve still got a long way to go…”
Falkor: “With LUCK!”
Rockbiter: “These hands…they used to be such strong hands…they look like strong hands, don’t they?”
This movie is chock-full of family-genre goodness. It’s very cheesy, but 100% enjoyable.
Grade: 86
