The NeverEnding Story III
The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia (also known as: The NeverEnding Story III: Return to Fantasia) is a 1994 fantasy-adventure film. It is the third and final film in the franchise.[4] It stars Jason James Richter as Bastian Balthazar Bux, and Jack Black in an early role as school bully Slip. This film primarily used the characters from Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story (1979), with the exception of Atreyu, who is absent from the film, and introduced a new storyline. It was an international co-production between the United States and Germany.
The NeverEnding Story III
The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia (usually referred to as just The NeverEnding Story III) is a 1994 film that serves as the third and final installment in The NeverEnding Story film series. Though the first two movies take plenty of plot elements from the source material, this film is almost entirely an original story.
Most who visit the Bavaria Studios (Filmstadt) can ride Falkor while projected in front of a blue screen. He is one of the main attractions of the NeverEnding Story history as well as being a main part of the guided tour that is offered there. You can ride him and have photo opportunities whilst being on the magnificent Luck Dragon.
The back-story to the rights is indeed complicated, a never-ending story of its own. There has long been interest in the property from film and TV companies but there have been various law-suits in Germany over ownership.
Interest has crystallised in recent months and there seems a willingness from the estate to do business, emboldening film and TV companies, even if a stumbling block remains how much control the estate wants on the direction of the story.
While the original movie only covered half of the book, The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter gave it a proper ending. The NeverEnding Story adapted the Michael Ende novel of the same name. Ende's story followed a bullied young boy named Bastian who steals a book titled The NeverEnding Story. The book tells the adventures of a young warrior on a dangerous quest through the fantasy land of Fantasia to stop "The Nothing;" around halfway through the book, Bastian becomes part of the quest too. The NeverEnding Story was adapted into a film in 1984 from director Wolfgang Petersen. The movie was a fun fantasy adventure with some surprisingly dark moments, and both the movie and theme song by Limahl would become huge successes.
The NeverEnding Story recently got a boost in popularity due to Limahl's theme becoming an important plot point in Stranger Things season 3. One of Ende's issues with the first movie is it only covered half the book, meaning the theme of his story was missing. In the book, after Bastian is sucked into the story he can use his imagination to shape the world around him. This also means he loses a memory each time he makes a wish and becomes evil as the story progresses. The novel is also metatextual, with Bastian becoming aware others - AKA the readers - are reading his adventures too.
The first movie omitted the section where Bastian loses his memory, so The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter covers this section. While the plot features Bastian (Jonathan Brandis, IT ) slowly losing himself as his memories slip away, sadly the sequel waters down the darkness of Ende's story too. The book is an ode to the power of imagination, but also a warning not to become lost in fantasy, which is how Bastian takes an evil turn. In The Next Chapter, he's manipulated into making silly wishes by a sorceress instead and the message he learns is to overcome his fears. It's unknown what the author thought of the sequel, but it's unlikely he was a fan.
While The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter is lacking compared to the book and first movie, it's still an entertaining kid's adventure. While it somewhat mangled the actual message of the novel, it did provide an actual ending to the saga too. The third movie would create a brand new storyline unrelated to the book - which might be one reason it doesn't work at all.
The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia (also known as: The NeverEnding Story III: Return to Fantasia) is a 1994 English-language film, the second sequel to the fantasy film The NeverEnding Story (following the first sequel, The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter). It starred Jason James Richter as Bastian Balthazar Bux, and Jack Black in one of his early roles as the school bully, Slip. This film primarily used the characters from Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story (1979), but introduced a new storyline. It is an international coproduction between the United States and Germany.
Who knew, that Jack Black was in this? Well I reckon those who had watched it and remember of course. Now we get new actors again - in the same roles/characters. But the father seems to move and so is the audience. Well we are supposed to. This is quite the mess - and while small children may find redeemable comedy in it, overall this never achieves any heights the second movie had, never mind the first one.So if you can get behind a story that is so simple and characters doing terrible things for no apparent reason and cliches abound ... well do I need to tell more? Still the flavor of the Never Ending Story does a bit of magic (no pun intended) and the puppet work still works ...
I have watched many, many more movies than the average normal person. My tastes are varied...classic films, foreign films, silents and more. But one of my odder pursuits is my weird desire to watch all 100 of IMDB's Bottom 100 List....the 100 lowest rated major release movies. It's important to point out that I have never seen any of the "Neverending Story" films and I started with #3. And, since it made the list I thought I'd give it a watch.In this film, Bastian is a kid who appears to be about 10 or 11 year-old. Oddly, he's begun at a new school...one that allows 'kids' there who are nearing retirement age (or so it seems). This small kid is chased and assaulted by a group of 20-something punks (led by 25 year-old Jack Black) and they're going to beat the stuffing out of him. To escape, he uses his magical book to enter the land of Fantasia. The problem is that the punks find the book and keep it...somehow realizing that will keep him stuck in Fantasia forever. But apparently there is another way out....and it's long and complicated and boring. And, somehow, some creatures from Fantasia were accidentally brought to the real world with Bastian...and he needs to find and return them.The Henson creatures vary. A few look really nice. A couple seem rather dated and creepy. What's REALLY dated is the introduction, where you see some very early CGI which looks horrid today. Perhaps in 1994 folks were impressed by it.What doesn't vary much is the writing and acting. The story seemed tired and the characters were often annoying. I particularly hated the rock creature who sang Steppinwolf's "Born to Be Wild" sequence and I assume a lot of folks in theaters felt the same way. I also thoroughly hated the bullies...who were old enough that they should have known how to act...but didn't. At least Black landed on his feet and eventually learned to act.So do I recommend it? No...there are much better kid's films out there that WON'T make parents watching along bored. Plus, smaller kids probably shouldn't see it because the bullies are pretty frightening. And who should see it? Probably no one.In spite of this, I don't think the movie deserves to be on the Bottom 100 and think mostly this was the result of folks who loved the original being so angry about the poor quality of this third film.
The NeverEnding Story III could have had potential, but with the absence of a major character from the previous two and the lack of a real connection, this is one story that should have ended with the second film. Should be seen only to see Jack Black in one of his earliest performances.
The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia (also known as: The NeverEnding Story III: Return to Fantasia) is a 1994 German-American film. It is the third and final film in franchise.[3] It starred Jason James Richter as Bastian Balthazar Bux, and Jack Black in one of his early roles as the school bully, Slip. This film primarily used the characters from Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story (1979), but introduced a new storyline. It was an international coproduction between the United States and Germany.
What kind of future will the new "Azubox" have, given that both companies have a history of financial problems with their community. With all they did and still do, they push Twitch ahead as a product, which is the very same product they try to claim market share from. 041b061a72