The Never, Ever, Ever Ending Story Part Three Part Two!

So last night, due to a small hiccup with the blogger software I was using, I wasn't able to get the review of the final episode of The Neverending Story's animated series third episode complete.  But rather than dwell on the negative, let's just jump right back into the action with a child and a talking horse taking on the might of a flying ship!

The Never, Ever, Ever Ending Story: Part Three

I'm really sad to see this series slide back off my radar.  So far the cartoon version of The Neverending Story has really managed to recapture a wonder and sense of amazement that was lost in the second and third movie, and when someone can say "ho, hum, it's Fantasia" again then I really think that person is living their life incorrectly.

Now, it's not perfect.  It has a few characters from the later films that I've never been fond of (no fair guessing who, I made it pretty obvious), and some of the character designs have been a bit all over the place.  It also follows the unfortunately continuity error between the second and third story, where Bastian's father learned about Fantasia and that the stories were real and then completely forgetting it in the third movie.

Though, to be fair, he also didn't notice his son changed from Jonathan Brandis to Jason James Richter, so it might not be his fault, he might just be the most unobservant, absent-minded man who ever lived.

Also, we haven't seen the guy who owns the book store yet, we've only seen him leave cryptic notes to Bastian telling him to "lock up the store when he's done" and leaving messes of books lying around.  The guy must be really trusting to just leave his shop open when nobody's around and trust that nothing will get stolen.

So let's move on to the third and final episode on this DVD, "The Purple Buffalo."

The Never, Ever, Ever Ending Story: Part Two

Sometimes it's amazing what you can find in a clearance bin.  For instance, I found a copy of the Reb Brown Captain America movie sequel once on VHS in a rental store bargain bin.  I used to regret not buying it, but now I don't feel so bad since both films came out on one DVD.

But possibly the best example of something I did buy from a clearance bin that's been surprisingly good has to be the animated series based on The Neverending Story.  Well, so far at least, we're only one episode in and there's only three on the disc.

Let's dive right in to episode two titled "The Meek And The Mighty."

The Never, Ever, Ever Ending Story: Part One

When I look back on my childhood and movies that shaped me, there are a few that come up quickly that made me the person I am today.  I took in the heroic behaviors of the leads, the roguish but overall benevolent behavior of the scoundrel, and the dastardly behaviors of the villains.  Throughout everything I picked up on extremely common themes, such as that the strong should help the weak, people work better as a team, and that it's okay to be afraid, but don't let the fear control you.  However, they also opened my eyes to things that I only really appreciate as an adult.

The original Star Wars movies absolutely blew me away, because up to that point I never really imagined all the strange and wonderful things that could be in space.  It wasn't just huge weapons the size of moons and swords made of light that blew my mind, it was all the different worlds they traveled to and what they could look like.  You might have a floating city over a gas giant, an entire planet of ice, or a habitable moon.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit gave me a fresh appreciation for the hard work that goes into making an animated film.  Until I looked at other mixes of live action and animation (looking at you, Space Jam) I didn't get just how much effort needs to go into making something like that seamless, from the live actors to the voice actors to the animators to the musicians...it's mind-blowing.

From movies I learned that it's important to have hobbies, because you never know when you'll be presented with an opportunity to take what other people view as "meaningless" or "silly behavior" and turn a rich life out of it, like Matthew Broderick's character in Wargames (granted, that movie also taught me that I could accidentally cause nuclear wars), a stage magician's training could help the allied forces win World War 2 in a documentary about Jasper Maskelyne, or that BMX racing could be the foundation of an entire town like in the movie Rad.

...that last example didn't really stick with me through life.

But the movie that always stuck with me, that taught me about needing to persevere when things get hard, about the dangers of getting swallowed up in feeling bad or sorry for myself (something that actually helped when I started feeling the affects of depression later in life), and even something simple like the importance of reading was The Neverending Story.