Life After The NeverEnding Story Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Life After The NeverEnding Story Blu-ray Movie Review

Through the Swamps of Sadness.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III June 16, 2024

Keeping pace with her earlier films Life After Flash and Life After the Navigator, UK-based writer/director Lisa Downs soldiers on with Life After the NeverEnding Story, another hybrid of candid cast catch-up and retrospective production piece. It shares a lot of DNA with Navigator in particular, walking through the dark back alleys of oppressive childhood stardom (including an on-set accident that nearly crippled its star) without dwelling on it exclusively. Needless to say, die-hard fans of the late, great Wolfgang Petersen's 1984 fantasy film should sit up and take note.

First-hand participants are the main draw here; appearing are actors Noah Hathaway (Atreyu), Tami Stronach (The Childlike Empress), Deep Roy (Teeny Weeny), and Bobby Porter (Noah's stunt double), producer and screenwriter Herman Weigel, sculpture supervisor Colin Arthur, cinematographer Jost Vacano, voice actor Alan Oppenheimer, a few Fantasia inhabitants, SFX engineering supervisor Ron Hone, poster artist Renato Casaro, singer Limahl, composers Giorgio Moroder and Klaus Doldinger, and more. (Petersen was a planned contributor, but sadly died in 2022 before his interview was filmed.) A number of second-hand participants are here as well; the most interesting by far is movie prop collector Wesley Cannon, who shows off his massive collection of memorabilia from various franchises and cult films including the actual NeverEnding Story book, as well as puppeteer Matty Austin, who's apparently putting together an all-puppet version of the film and is happy to show off his highly detailed creations and voice acting skills.

Plot-wise, Life After the NeverEnding Story shifts gears several times from start to finish, touching upon various subjects including the development of German cinema post-WWII, the joys and frustrations of working with director Wolfgang Petersen after the success of Das Boot, casting and early development, the film's mostly practical special effects, the ups and downs of childhood acting, the Swamps of Sadness and horse training, the soundtrack and visual promotion, differences between the German and English versions of the film, advice from Steven Spielberg, creative turbulence between original book author Michael Ende and Wolfgang Petersen, the convention circuit, and much more. A small amount of screen time is also given to both sequels (including comments from Part III's star, Jason James Richter) but, due to their lackluster legacies, these films are rightfully glossed over for the most part.

Perhaps one of the most engaging detours is a string of footage shot in Germany with Tami Stronach; this includes a tour of Bavaria Filmstadt (with comments from the studio's head of sales and general manager, Michael Hilscher and Stefan Bryxi) which houses the massive soundstage where much of The NeverEnding Story was originally filmed. A handful of props, models, and other familiar items can be seen here... including a look at the original Falkor model, which apparently is carefully refurbished every three months due to constant "riding requests". Director Lisa Downs also takes us inside Berlin's Deutsche Kinemathek for a look at even more archival material, including a few iterations of the original script. behind-the-scenes photos, a production book, and more. It's all really good stuff.

Much like Life After the Navigator, NeverEnding Story also touches upon the current life of its former child star; in this case it's Noah Hathaway, who spouts off no shortage of annoyingly profane comments about his memories of the film and more current events in his life. Now a heavily tattooed and pierced man living in Las Vegas, it's obvious that much of his trauma stems from childhood stardom (including family pressure) and a near-crippling accident on the film's set, which led to years of nagging back pain and a long-standing dependency on painkillers. Luckily it seems as if he's in a much better place these days... but on-camera here, Hathaway doesn't come across half as warm and/or likeable as the last featured subject, Flight of the Navigator's Joey Cramer. In any case, you've still gotta feel for the guy... and to Downs' credit, his relatively short segments serve to lend a sympathetic ear. But yeah, this isn't one to show your kids after introducing them to the original film... although to be fair, that's pretty traumatizing in its own right.

Fans of the director's earlier physical media releases can look forward to yet another great Blu-ray package this time around; one that features supportive A/V merits and well over an hour's worth of bonus footage. Apparently she's also even offering a limited edition VHS release after the sold-out success of Navigator's analog option, a nostalgic strategy that will likely continue with future projects like Life After Goodfellas and Life After the Goonies.

Life After The NeverEnding Story Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

There's little to say about Life After the NeverEnding Story's 1080p transfer on this Blu-ray that you couldn't already guess outright or copy-paste from my review of Life After the Navigator; I mean, the only fundamental difference here is that everything's hard-matted to 2.35:1 in keeping with the original subject's extra-wide aspect ratio. Otherwise it's business as usual, with most of the recent interview footage looking very clean and crisp -- depending on location and lighting limitations, of course -- with a handful of 1980s-era clips and second-party laptop camera interviews dipping in quality briefly. Colors, fine detail, black levels, and contrast follow suit, likewise lightly running the gamut but never approaching "unwatchable" territory. As with previous Blu-rays, it's also capably encoded on a dual-layered disc and likewise shows no egregious compression artifacts aside from those baked into its vintage sources.

Life After The NeverEnding Story Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Same goes for the audio: this LPCM 2.0 track plays it straight and gets the job done, providing modest support that likewise hinges on the quality of its original source. Luckily, the wide majority is recent and thus quite good, and a few pockets of surprisingly potent LFE even liven up in the sonic situation at key moments. A portion of the interviews are presented in French, German, and Italian, but these scenes are paired with forced English subtitles. Optional English and German subtitles are also included during the film and all extras listed below, which is a very nice touch.

Life After The NeverEnding Story Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase; tucked inside is a booklet with photos and remarks from Lisa Downs and Tami Stronach. (The separately-available Collector's Edition which I received also includes a number of other printed goodies including an iron-on patch, collectable postcards, and a handwritten note and photo from Downs.) A deep collection of extras is also included on-disc, most of which should greatly appeal to fans of the original film.

• Official Trailer (1:42) - This promotional piece can also be seen here.

• Director's Interview (13:46) - Another candid sit-down piece with writer/director/editor Lisa Downs, who speaks about her personal connection with The NeverEnding Story and other films from the era, planning the documentary, challenges with scheduling interviews during the COVID pandemic, and more.

• Deleted and Extended Scenes - 19 clips, mostly 1-5 minutes apiece and presented in alphabetical order by title. These include "Alan 'The Ham' Oppenheimer", "Alan Oppenheimer's Early Years", "Bobby Porter: That's Filmmaking", "Colin Arthur's Mould Process", "Colin Arthur and His Lucky Scissors", "Fairy Queen", "Film History with Jason James Richter", "Gmork", "Herman Weigel's Deleted Character", "Je M'apelle Limahl", "Keith Coogan on the Coogan Law", "Liverpool Comic Con Extended", "Munich: Alternate Edit", "Tami's Make Up Challenge", "That 80s Dude: The NeverEnding Yoda", "The Screenplay Saga", "The Sphinx Folklore", "Timmy Gibson: Back to the 1980z", and "Wesley's Movie Props Extended". These are a little hit or miss which is to be expected, and many are just as engaging as scenes from the main feature but may not have fit in thematically.

• Once Upon a Time in... Treviso (7:50) - Technically another extended scene but presented as its own short film of sorts, this longer chat with legendary movie poster artist Renato Casaro (presented almost fully in Italian with forced English subtitles) includes several brief reflections about his life and prolific career. This was one of my favorite parts of the main documentary so I was glad to see more of it.

• Life After Flash Trailer (2:17)

• Life After the Navigator Trailer (2:50)

Life After The NeverEnding Story Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Building on her earlier films Life After Flash and Life After the Navigator, writer/director Lisa Downs' latest project Life After the NeverEnding Story treats fans to another cast/crew catch-up and retrospective documentary, each half laced with a little bit of good old-fashioned childhood trauma. It's another solid entry in this ongoing series and a great Blu-ray to boot, offering suitable A/V merits and a nice pile of extras that fans will enjoy. Firmly Recommended.