Emma Roberts Movie:

Editorial Review:
The complete, critically acclaimed 13-episode series on four discs. Over 10-hours of programming, shot at a cost of more than $70-million. Ideal for fans of "Lord of the Rings" or "Harry Potter" features, a must own collectible. Twelve year-old Bastian Bux had lost the wonderful imagination he had as a child somewhwere between growing older, watching TV and going to school. But when his mother dies suddenly, his imagination resurfaces. Bastian comes across "The Neverending Story" in a curious little bookstore. In this magical book, Bastian discovers an enchanted world called Fantasia, inhabited by dragons, dark knights, assorted heros and villains. The great adventure begins when Bastian follows his alter ego, Atreyu, into a battle against the sinister force of The Nothing. It threatens to destroy Fantasia and its trule, the Childlike Empress. Only Atreyu, a Woodland boy, can save her. This is an amazing, fanstasy and effects filled adventure that adults and children alike will watch in amazement and delight.

Tales From the Neverending Story Reviews:
Tales From the Neverending Story ********
2009-12-03 - Not the same as the first movie at all, but goes along with the second movie and is nice for a multi episode TV show. I still have not finished watching all the episodes but still kind of like what I see. One item that is in the show is that the mother is alive then dies in the hospital after an auto accident. The mother is never ever alive in the movies and if I remember the book she was never alive in the book either. Still, it is fun to just watch a movie or tv show with out having to think about it.

I don't know where this piece of crap came from...
2008-07-12 - ...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.

The COMPLETE AND UNCUT ENTIRE Tales series!!!
2004-04-06 - At long last fans are given an uncut version of Tales From The Neverending Story! The previous two volumes were severely edited for time and pacing so that it would feel more like a feature film. Fortunately this set boast all 13 UNCUT episodes and comes in a cool box shaped like the book!

Unfortunately this particular set is somewhat tricky to find in stores. 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 printing 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 quite flashy, 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 lend themselves to the episodic format and make the show quite exciting at times.

The story is as follows: A young boy named Bastian Bux discovers a mysterious book after the untimely death of his mother. The book is actually a window to another world of fantasy and magic called Fantasia. Little does Bastian know that the story he is reading is actually happening concurrently or that his thoughts and whims have a major impact on events. The Dark Princess, Xyide is destroying Fantasia with an evil force known only as the Nothing. The Nothing is powered by peoples loss of the ability to hope, dream, and fantasize. A young woodland boy, Atreyu, sets out on a quest to discover a way to save Fantasia and to find a cure for The Child Like Empress who has become deathly ill. The nameless empress is connected to her world in a physical way, and when it begins to die, so does she. The Child-Like Empress lives in the great Ivory Tower in the very heart of Fantasia. Every Fantasian loves her because they are all held to be 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 recommend 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.