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- Jul 3, 1997
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- Ronald Epstein
The NeverEnding Story
Young Bastian is a child with an imagination.
Perhaps it's the fact that he recently lost his
Mother, and now spends his days reading books and
keeping his head above the clouds. So much so,
in fact, that his father pleads with him to
"stop daydreaming and start facing your problems".
Bastian's problems is that he is a kid who
has problems in school and constantly is being
chased by the neighborhood bullies. One day he
gets chased into an old bookstore where he meets
a crusty old bookkeeper. It is there that he is
told about an "unsafe" book that turns out to be
titled, The NeverEnding Story.
Chalk this DVD up to being another one of those
titles that has been on Warner's most wanted list
since coming into DVD in 1997. It's no wonder why
this movie has been on the demand list -- it's a
wildly imaginative story that was like no other
when it first appeared theatrically in 1984. Leave
it to the noted visual director, Wolfgang Peterson,
to bring the most imaginative dream-like film to
the screen. With the help of some of the most
talented technical gurus in film history, this is
a film that visually unlocks all our minds and takes
us into the world of Fantasia with charcters of the
likes of Night Hob, Rock Biter and Falkor.
The DVD is released 2-sided with both PAN & SCAN
and WIDESCREEN versions (imagine that!). I, of
course, opted to watch the film in its correct
film ratio. It was actually a thrill to see this
presented widescreen on Home Video. Up until this
DVD, I still had the original VHS release (which
incidently was one of Warner's first HI-FI STEREO
VHS titles back in the mid 80's).
I had just completed watching The Mummy Returns,
so it may be awfully unfair to say that I was
a bit saddened by the picture quality of
NeverEnding Story. Although the transfer
is generally very good, the DVD format does enhance
the film's age. Colors are not as vivid as one
would like. There is noticeable grain in the picture
detail. This was obviously not a film that was
was painfully restored, nor should it have been.
The sound, on the other hand, was more encouraging.
Though this DVD is presented Dolby Digital, it is
not a 5.1 mix. The audio is very robust, and my
rear speakers gave off some ambient music throughout
the film. What I did enjoy, was the rumblings from
my SVS subwoofer as THE NOTHING trampled its way
through the woods of Fantasia.
The supplements aren't much to brag about. There
are very basic pages that list cast members (without
giving extensive biographies). There are also
rather useless character bios that really don't
add much to the overall content. A theatrical
trailer is also included.
There is no doubt that The NeverEnding Story
is a DVD that belongs in every collection. It takes
us back to a time when we were kids and immersed
ourselves into books. It brings out our most
innermost dreams of becoming part of the story,
interacting with its characters, and ultimately
realizing how cool it would be if we, the reader,
could change the fate of the story by letting our
own imagination run wild.
Release Date: Available Now
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Ronald Epstein (pronounced like the English "Ronald Epstein")
Circa 2000
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