Over the Christmas / New Year holiday time the New Zealand Herald
newspaper ran this series of articles with journalists giving their
suggestions for New Zealand's favourite family film for The Great
Family Film Poll ...


*The* *Neverending* Story*
If I had to choose, I'd say The Labyrinth was more of
a childhood favourite, for its delightful range of
kooky characters, excellent soundtrack and taboo
romantic subtext. But for the sheer existential terror
I feel on an almost daily basis, The Neverending Story
is probably the film that has had the most influence
on me.

I questioned if this would fit the bill - a family
film. My instinct is that The Neverending Story was
too dark for adults; surely only kids really
understood it, right in that deep, dark nightmare
place that you lose (sometimes) as you get older.

Bullied young Bastian seeks refuge from his daily
torment in a tucked-away corner with a book he stole
from a mysterious bookshop. He begins to read about
Atreyu, a young warrior who volunteers to venture
forth and kill The Nothing - an invisible force that
is destroying Fantasia, a world literally constructed
from the fantasies of children.

You can take it as a metaphor for the slow,
unstoppable march towards death but I prefer to think
of it as an allegory for the crushing inevitability of
adulthood.

When Atreyu's loyal horse Artax is literally consumed
by sadness in the swamp (didn't we all have an
adolescent Goth phase?), Atreyu and Bastian both
finally realise The Nothing ain't mucking around and
they're no longer protected by the hubris of youth.

Atreyu rolls up his sleeves and battles through a
number of pointless and often violent trials and
tribulations. By the time he faces The Nothing, the
dude has definitely gone a bit dead behind the eyes.

In the end, the fate of Fantasia rests on Bastian's
thin shoulders. He discovers he can no longer be a
passive observer but must find the courage to... yell
out a window.

Whatever, the real message of the movie is that if you
keep your childhood dreams and fantasies alive, you will
never lose the innocence of youth - and that if you wish
hard enough you can fasi [sic] up your bullies with a
big-ass dragon.

- Leonie Hayden, Flicks.co.nz Contributing Writer
30 December, 2015

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