Neverending Story

"You plagurized every word from the internet site Dickens.com"

The above is mearly one of the utterly horrific lines in the new reinvisioning of The Neverending Story titled, "Tales from the Neverending Story." I asked for the flick unfortunately on my Amazon Wishlist and my friend Cody was unfortunate enough to buy it for my birthday. Unfortunately.

While Bastian has been replaced by a bemusing red headed Canadian, the entire story has been decimated. From the odd substitute teacher Mr. Blank, to the cringe inducing Atreyu, even the childlike empress was left untouched by a haphazard remake. Sure, there's the death of Artax -- Swamps of Sadness? Try some pond that turns the horse to a block of ice. Sure, there's a luck dragon -- Neither charming nor enchanting. But everything that you know and love from not only the original movie but also the book is skewed and wrong. Additions are built with equal parts cheese and crap crappity crap crap.

I watch alot of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. It was a series that ran on both the Comedy Channel and Sci-Fi for 10 years. Bad bad movies were a staple of the show. I think they would have decided this motion picture was too bad to air. Even with their humor filled riffs shouted back to the screen.

Tales from the Neverending Story: F--

Despite the awful writing and storylines, the show is worth a look for the very attractive Victoria Sanchez, who wonderfully portrays the evil Xayide. Despite being given awful lines many times, Sanchez looks very alluring in the villianess-like outfits her character wears, and gives her best. Even young Bastian Bux admits Xayide is "hot" in an episode when explaining her character to someone else. Also, though the storylines and writing are awful, the special effects are actually quite good.

Terrible acting, production, the episode 'plots' were painfully faulty. Just plain bad.

I was asking so many friends to watch this with me for cringing fun.

Think Power Rangers meets PBS' Zoom meets high school theatre departments' reject costume designs full realized.

I hate this series. I hope you do watch it because I cannot believe it happened.

You know you're in trouble when you constantly can't help saying to yourself: "I could act better than him, I could act better than her!" After a while I realized I could act better than any character in the entire film! The acting is that unconvincing and poor - it's beyond belief. Some other words to describe the acting talent of the performers is - cardboard, camp, dopey and annoying!

If the acting was not bad enough, the story was even worse! This film was totally devoid of any entertainment value, whatsoever, for the mind of an adult! Personally, I think most children, and certainly teens, would be bored to tears!

It's obvious to me that Tales from the NeverEnding Story - The Beginning is an attempt to make a quick buck off of The NeverEnding Story. To essentially turn a wonderful story into a commodity, like toothpaste or underarm deodorant. If you must see this godforsaken film out of curiosity, at least buy it used so you won't encourage a sequel!

I have been a fan of Michael Ende since childhood and, although this interpretation of the Neverending Story strays from the plot of the book, I still found it delightful to watch. It is beautifully shot with colourful costumes and cinematography. The cast, although young, give wonderfully natural and committed performances. There are some additional characters who add humour and romantic tension where it may have been lacking in Ende's original story. There is more of an exploration of the character of Bastian and his place in the real world, which provides a contrast with the characters in Fantastica. I believe the changes in plot are in keeping with the spirit of the world Ende created. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good fairy tale, regardless of age.