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The 1980s were a great decade for genre movies. Everything from action to horror to sci-fi saw some great stories hit the big screen, many of which had major impact on popular culture that has continued even today, some four decades later. In particular, fantasy films thrived in the 1980s. The decade gave us greats like Willow, The Dark Crystal, the ever iconic The Princess Bride and many, many more, and now, one of the best fantasy movies of the era and maybe even of all time is available to stream for free this month on Tubi.
Now streaming on Tubi is The NeverEnding Story. Released in 1984, the film was directed and co-written by Wolfgang Petersen. An adaptation of Michael Ende’s 1979 novel of the same name, The NeverEnding Story isn’t exactly a perfect page to screen translation, but it’s a brilliant and wonderful film that takes audiences on an impressive and memorable journey that remains as timely today as it did when it was first released.
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The NeverEnding Story is a Near Perfect Fantasy Film (Just Skip the Sequel)
The NeverEnding Story follows a young boy named Bastian Balthazar Bux who, after secretly taking a book called The NeverEnding Story from a used bookstore, hides away in his school’s attic to read it and finds himself swept into the story of the young warrior Atreyu who is on a quest to save the magical land of Fantasia from a dark force called the Nothing and, along the way, discovers that the line between fiction and reality blur. The film has an impressive cast that includes Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Tami Stronach, Patricia Hayes, Sydney Bromley, Gerald McRaney, and Moses Gunn.
It’s an incredible story and a classic fantasy tale. There’s magic and adventure, and as a family-friendly adventure that leans deeply into the power of imagination. There are also some truly awesome scenes, including pretty much anytime we see Atreyu take flight with the Luck Dragon Falkor as well as the moment Bastian believes the fantasy story he’s reading is real and changes everything. The film even ends in an optimistic place, with the narrator saying that Bastian has more adventures. However, while we do get those additional adventures in a sequel, it’s a movie that you probably should just skip.
The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter didn’t hit theaters until 1990 and only one actor from the original film’s cast (Thomas Hill) returned. The film was a miserable disappointment, both at the box office and with critics. The film still sits at a very low 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. With the first film now available to stream for free on Tubi in April, that iconic classic is definitely worth revisiting (or checking out for the first time if you haven’t seen it). While there have been talks for years about remaking the first film, including a new adaptation that would be more faithful to Ende’s novel, thus far nothing has materialized — and we’re not sure anything will ever top the original anyway.
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