THE NEVERENDING STORY II
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1991 Frank Maloney
THE NEVERENDING STORY II is a sequel to the 1985 fantasy based on part of a children's book by Michael Ende that was very popular in Europe, but largely unknown in the U.S. This new installment picks up the story pretty much where the old one left off. And although this new movie is different from the earlier, it is an open question whether it is better or worse.
For the record, I was disappointed in the first NEVERENDING STORY. I didn't like the obvious allegory of the story, neither did I think the special effects came up to contemporary standards. I did rather like the boy actor who played the central role of hero and I liked the way the story played with the ways the reader enters into and changes the story he or she is reading, an idea also exploited to some extent by THE PRINCESS BRIDE.
In NEVERENDING II, I am still bothered by the allegory, but while the special effects are pretty obvious they are more interesting and the sets, costumes, decor, and mattes are pretty wonderful. However, I find I do not much like the new boy actor, whose name I do not have in front of me. He is not a natural actor, but is very visibly "reacting" and "registering". Some of the other characters/actors seem more capable, especially the large bird character that does a lot of fun things with avian body language. I also liked the evil witch/queen/stepmother archetype and her servant Three Faces (?), he of the multiple faces and purposes. We meet some familiar characters from the earlier movie, including Atreyu, the plains-Indian warrior-boy, Rock Biter (along with a really charming infant son), and that elongated, flying Pekinese whose name also escapes me.
The movie is too much interested in making a point and not enough in telling a story. The fantasy exists simply as a frame for the moral, rather than having any moral derive from the fantasy. Its moral purpose is heavy-handed and mercilessly driven home in almost every scene. When I think of the most perfect movie of this type, THE WIZARD OF OZ, and compare it to THE NEVERENDING STORY II, I am grateful that the latter is not a musical.
Despite this, adults can take children to this movie in confidence that neither will be neither embarrassed or bored out of their gourds. And adults can go by themselves, as Lyndol and I did, and have a reasonably good time, especially at a cheap matinee on a rainy Saturday.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
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