The Neverending Story; Book vs. Movie
Jun. 6th, 2005 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sagesariaNow that I have finished the book, and I re-watched the movie....again....I'm ready to write my long overdue discussion of what I liked in both.
What I liked better in the book:
- They never mention the Empress's full name until the end credits of the movie; she is the Childlike Empress
- To put it simply; Fantasia is a Disney movie with old composers' music set to pictures. Fantastica is the world that The Neverending Story takes place in. Get it right, Mr. Petersen!
- The original description of the Nothing was that when one looks at it, it is as though they have gone blind.
- They actually explained why Atryu had to discard his weapons; because in order to wear the AURYN, he needed to be like the Empress; everything was equal in the Empress's eyes, thus he must feel the same. Therefore, he cannot fight. I mention this because somebody who was watching the movie with me once was very confused as to why he had to leave his weapons.
- Morla the Aged One (called the Ancient One in the movie) was much more pessimistic and depressed in the book. Also, Atreyu figured out for himself why she was talking to herself, instead of her telling him, like she did in the movie
- Atreyu finds Falcore snared in a spiderweb, and bargains with the spider to release him and Falcore. But in order to be freed, she had to bite them, which is how Atryu passed out and wound up in the care of the two gnomes. Also, the scene with the spider was when Bastian screamed and Atryu heard him, unlike in the movie where he screamed when Morla came out. The book actually makes much more sense, because come on, think about it; was Morla really that scary?
- There are three gates to reach the Oracle (whose name is Uyulala, which they didn't mention in the movie). The first is the Sphinx Gate, which, instead of instantly kill like in the movie, the victims they gaze upon are frozen in place until they can solve all the riddles of the world. In other words; they're dead anyway. Also, there is no way to tell what the sphinxes are going to do until you've reached the gate; it has nothing to do with how you feel about yourself. The second gate is the Magic Mirror Gate. In the movie, people fled in fear because they saw themselves, and it shocked them. This makes more sense in the book; cruel-hearted people, for example, would see a monster in the mirror, and would flee because they don't realize that it is a mirror. The third gate, omitted from the movie, is the No-Key Gate. Simply a door with no locks, knobs, hinges, nothing. There is no way to open it except one; forgetting every want and need. Wanting absolutely nothing in the world will open the gate, and then you find Uyulala.
- When Atreyu passes through the second gate, his mind is, for no apparent reason, wiped clean. He forgets who he is and what he was looking for. Because of this "desinesea," as we call it, the No-Key Gate opens to him. He blindly wanders in, and finds Uyulala. In the movie, the Oracle is a pair of blue sphinxes who speak in unison. But Uyulala is only a disembodied voice, who speaks in song. She must be spoken to in rhyme, otherwise, she will not hear what is said to her. Arteyu, still clueless on what he was doing, speaks with her, and she tells him what he needs to know. After speaking with her, the voice fades, and Atreyu falls asleep, and when he wakes up, he remembers everything, and he and Falcore set off on the quest
- In the movie, Arteyu and Falcore are separated when they accidentally fly into the Nothing and Atreyu falls off of Falcore's back. This is pretty much the same in the book, except instead of the Nothing, they land smack in the middle of a war among the four Wind Gods. Before Atreyu falls, he asks the Gods if they know where to find the boundaries of Fantastica, and they know nothing.
- When Atreyu wakes up after his fall, he finds a bunch of Fantasticans doing a weird, ritualistic dance, then throwing themselves into the Nothing. Then later he encounters the werewolf, Gmork, who explains this to him; when Fantasticans fall into the Nothing, the enter the human world. Unfortunately, by doing this, they no longer are themselves, and they become Lies, plaguing the minds of human beings. This is why humans are trying to destroy Fantastica.
- The Childlike Empress, while beautiful and very well developed physically and characteristically in the movie, was described more sick-looking in the book. In the movie, she didn't look that sick, and it threw me off a little bit. Yes, she looked sick, but not deathly so.
What I liked better in the movie:
- the bookkeeper, Mr. Coryander. In the book, he doesn't say anything about the book before he goes to answer the phone. In the movie, he brier-patches about it. Yes, brier-patches. Like in Bre're Rabbit and the Tar Baby. "This is a very special book, and it's very dangerous, and it brings you into the story. But it's not for you, because it's too dangerous! But I know you won't read it. In fact, I'm so confident that I'm not going to take it with me while I answer the phone. I'm just gonna hide it right here under this newspaper where you could easily take it, but I know you won't!" LOL :D
- The AURYN was much prettier in the movie. In the book it was described as a light and a dark snake in an oval, biting each other's tails; in the movie, they were tangled in a celtic knot in the middle, giving it a more fantastic feel
- In the book, Artax could talk to Atryu, so we knew exactly what he wanted when he died, thus Atreyu was still upset, but more calm about it. In the movie, we don't know what's going through Artax's head other than the sad thoughts that are killing him, so Atryu doesn't know what to do, and thus gets hysterical and is trying to get Artax not to give up. He even screams "Stupid horse!!!" as he sees that his attempts are in vain, which is the line that makes me cry every time I watch it.
- a subtle detail; after Artax dies, Atreyu is wandering the swamp in tears, and his foot sinks deeper into the swamp once and he has to struggle to pull it out. A subtle detail, but a powerful one.
- after meeting Morla and finding out how far he has to go, Atreyu is overcome with despair and starts to sink into the swamp. at the last minute, Falcore swoops down and saves him. while I liked Atreyu saving Falcore a lot from the book, I did love this scene; it was very powerfully done
- in the book, as Atreyu passes the sphinxes, it's pretty much "oh my god I'm not gonna make it I'm not gonna make it I'm not gonna make it I'm not gonna make it--hey look, I made it!" in the movie, the eyes actually open, showing that there was an actual chance that he *wasn't* gonna make it. Very intense scene. Great music too :D
- in the book, Falcore is described as with a lion's face. While a perfectly good face for a luck dragon to have, I liked his dog face in the movie better; it made him look friendlier, more like his personality.
- in the book, Gmork is in chains when Atreyu confronts him. In the movie, he is not. This makes the scene more intense; since Atreyu is unarmed, there's nothing he can do if Gmork decides to attack him.
What I thought was acceptable in the movie:
- it is practically impossible to mimic the sight of one having gone blind, so instead they used thick storm clouds to represent the Nothing. Not the same, but it works.
- Atreyu is a greenskin, with obvious givens from the name. But knowing how long full-body makeup jobs take, it's understandable why they decided not to take time to paint a 10-year-old boy green.
- the ending of the movie was only the first half of the book. The second half gets very confusing, a little dark, and rather tedious. The scene between the Empress and Bastian is where the second half of the book starts compared to the movie, but they cut off that scene and put in a different ending. Different as the ending is, I can perfectly accept that they had to do something because they were out of time.
It started storming about halfway through this. Rather disturbing timing :P
What I liked better in the book:
- They never mention the Empress's full name until the end credits of the movie; she is the Childlike Empress
- To put it simply; Fantasia is a Disney movie with old composers' music set to pictures. Fantastica is the world that The Neverending Story takes place in. Get it right, Mr. Petersen!
- The original description of the Nothing was that when one looks at it, it is as though they have gone blind.
- They actually explained why Atryu had to discard his weapons; because in order to wear the AURYN, he needed to be like the Empress; everything was equal in the Empress's eyes, thus he must feel the same. Therefore, he cannot fight. I mention this because somebody who was watching the movie with me once was very confused as to why he had to leave his weapons.
- Morla the Aged One (called the Ancient One in the movie) was much more pessimistic and depressed in the book. Also, Atreyu figured out for himself why she was talking to herself, instead of her telling him, like she did in the movie
- Atreyu finds Falcore snared in a spiderweb, and bargains with the spider to release him and Falcore. But in order to be freed, she had to bite them, which is how Atryu passed out and wound up in the care of the two gnomes. Also, the scene with the spider was when Bastian screamed and Atryu heard him, unlike in the movie where he screamed when Morla came out. The book actually makes much more sense, because come on, think about it; was Morla really that scary?
- There are three gates to reach the Oracle (whose name is Uyulala, which they didn't mention in the movie). The first is the Sphinx Gate, which, instead of instantly kill like in the movie, the victims they gaze upon are frozen in place until they can solve all the riddles of the world. In other words; they're dead anyway. Also, there is no way to tell what the sphinxes are going to do until you've reached the gate; it has nothing to do with how you feel about yourself. The second gate is the Magic Mirror Gate. In the movie, people fled in fear because they saw themselves, and it shocked them. This makes more sense in the book; cruel-hearted people, for example, would see a monster in the mirror, and would flee because they don't realize that it is a mirror. The third gate, omitted from the movie, is the No-Key Gate. Simply a door with no locks, knobs, hinges, nothing. There is no way to open it except one; forgetting every want and need. Wanting absolutely nothing in the world will open the gate, and then you find Uyulala.
- When Atreyu passes through the second gate, his mind is, for no apparent reason, wiped clean. He forgets who he is and what he was looking for. Because of this "desinesea," as we call it, the No-Key Gate opens to him. He blindly wanders in, and finds Uyulala. In the movie, the Oracle is a pair of blue sphinxes who speak in unison. But Uyulala is only a disembodied voice, who speaks in song. She must be spoken to in rhyme, otherwise, she will not hear what is said to her. Arteyu, still clueless on what he was doing, speaks with her, and she tells him what he needs to know. After speaking with her, the voice fades, and Atreyu falls asleep, and when he wakes up, he remembers everything, and he and Falcore set off on the quest
- In the movie, Arteyu and Falcore are separated when they accidentally fly into the Nothing and Atreyu falls off of Falcore's back. This is pretty much the same in the book, except instead of the Nothing, they land smack in the middle of a war among the four Wind Gods. Before Atreyu falls, he asks the Gods if they know where to find the boundaries of Fantastica, and they know nothing.
- When Atreyu wakes up after his fall, he finds a bunch of Fantasticans doing a weird, ritualistic dance, then throwing themselves into the Nothing. Then later he encounters the werewolf, Gmork, who explains this to him; when Fantasticans fall into the Nothing, the enter the human world. Unfortunately, by doing this, they no longer are themselves, and they become Lies, plaguing the minds of human beings. This is why humans are trying to destroy Fantastica.
- The Childlike Empress, while beautiful and very well developed physically and characteristically in the movie, was described more sick-looking in the book. In the movie, she didn't look that sick, and it threw me off a little bit. Yes, she looked sick, but not deathly so.
What I liked better in the movie:
- the bookkeeper, Mr. Coryander. In the book, he doesn't say anything about the book before he goes to answer the phone. In the movie, he brier-patches about it. Yes, brier-patches. Like in Bre're Rabbit and the Tar Baby. "This is a very special book, and it's very dangerous, and it brings you into the story. But it's not for you, because it's too dangerous! But I know you won't read it. In fact, I'm so confident that I'm not going to take it with me while I answer the phone. I'm just gonna hide it right here under this newspaper where you could easily take it, but I know you won't!" LOL :D
- The AURYN was much prettier in the movie. In the book it was described as a light and a dark snake in an oval, biting each other's tails; in the movie, they were tangled in a celtic knot in the middle, giving it a more fantastic feel
- In the book, Artax could talk to Atryu, so we knew exactly what he wanted when he died, thus Atreyu was still upset, but more calm about it. In the movie, we don't know what's going through Artax's head other than the sad thoughts that are killing him, so Atryu doesn't know what to do, and thus gets hysterical and is trying to get Artax not to give up. He even screams "Stupid horse!!!" as he sees that his attempts are in vain, which is the line that makes me cry every time I watch it.
- a subtle detail; after Artax dies, Atreyu is wandering the swamp in tears, and his foot sinks deeper into the swamp once and he has to struggle to pull it out. A subtle detail, but a powerful one.
- after meeting Morla and finding out how far he has to go, Atreyu is overcome with despair and starts to sink into the swamp. at the last minute, Falcore swoops down and saves him. while I liked Atreyu saving Falcore a lot from the book, I did love this scene; it was very powerfully done
- in the book, as Atreyu passes the sphinxes, it's pretty much "oh my god I'm not gonna make it I'm not gonna make it I'm not gonna make it I'm not gonna make it--hey look, I made it!" in the movie, the eyes actually open, showing that there was an actual chance that he *wasn't* gonna make it. Very intense scene. Great music too :D
- in the book, Falcore is described as with a lion's face. While a perfectly good face for a luck dragon to have, I liked his dog face in the movie better; it made him look friendlier, more like his personality.
- in the book, Gmork is in chains when Atreyu confronts him. In the movie, he is not. This makes the scene more intense; since Atreyu is unarmed, there's nothing he can do if Gmork decides to attack him.
What I thought was acceptable in the movie:
- it is practically impossible to mimic the sight of one having gone blind, so instead they used thick storm clouds to represent the Nothing. Not the same, but it works.
- Atreyu is a greenskin, with obvious givens from the name. But knowing how long full-body makeup jobs take, it's understandable why they decided not to take time to paint a 10-year-old boy green.
- the ending of the movie was only the first half of the book. The second half gets very confusing, a little dark, and rather tedious. The scene between the Empress and Bastian is where the second half of the book starts compared to the movie, but they cut off that scene and put in a different ending. Different as the ending is, I can perfectly accept that they had to do something because they were out of time.
It started storming about halfway through this. Rather disturbing timing :P
