Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter Blu-ray Movie Review

"But That's Another Story"—And Here's One Version

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 13, 2014

Six years after the worldwide success of Wolfgang Petersen's The NeverEnding Story, producer Dieter Geissler was back with a sequel, having successfully fought off the efforts of the original novel's author, Michael Ende, to halt production. Ende had bitterly and publicly denounced Petersen's film as a betrayal of his vision, and he had accused Petersen of secretly rewriting the script the two men had co-authored. One wonders, then, how Ende must have felt about the sequel Geissler created with an entirely new director and writer, which borrowed elements from the second half of Ende's book but wove them into an entirely new story. Geissler subtitled it "The Next Chapter", but the sequel is such an obvious effort at recycling themes and story points from Petersen's superior original that he might as well have called it "A Second Bite at the NeverEnding Apple".

The director of "The Next Chapter" was Scottish-born George T. Miller, who had made the Australian classic, The Man from Snowy River (and should not be confused with the George Miller best known for the Mad Max films). The screenwriter, Karin Howard, was making her film debut, but she would go on to write a second NeverEnding sequel, as well as a NeverEnding TV movie and series for Canadian television. The familiar and beloved characters from the 1984 original were brought back, but, with one exception, all of them were recast.

The most important shift in the sequel, however, was thematic. The Next Chapter deliberately blurred the line that Petersen's film had so carefully drawn between the young boy reading a book and the fantastic world between its pages that only came alive through the reader's imagination. In The Next Chapter, the young reader steps into novel's fantasy world just by turning its pages, whereas crossing that boundary served as the hard-won conclusion of Petersen's film. Ende's novel served as precedent, because the latter half does indeed follow the young man's adventures once he has crossed the imaginary threshold into the world about which he has been reading, but Ende was telling a single story in which that crossing served a midpoint rather than a conclusion.

Also for the sequel, Geissler and his screenwriter had to invent a new villain, a new threat to the beloved land of Fantasia, and a whole new reason for young Bastian Balthazar Bux to go back there in the first place. The result is a pale imitation of the original that has none of its charm or mythic resonance. At best, it's a minor diversion for small children.

The Next Chapter requires us to accept that young Bastian (now played by Jonathan Brandis) remains unsettled in his life, despite his previous encounters with the warrior Atreyu (Kenny Morrison), the Childlike Empress (Alexandra Johns) and the flying luckdragon Falkor (voiced by Donald Arthur). Indeed, we are supposed to believe that, having flown on Falkor's back in The Neverending Story, Bastian is nevertheless so afraid of heights that he fails to make the high school swim team because he cannot bring himself to dive from the high board. Bastian's relationship with his widowed father, Barney (John Wesley Shipp), remains strained, as Barney has begun to date again. Dejected and bereft, Bastian returns to the bookshop of Mr. Koreander (Thomas Hill, the only returning cast member) and asks once again to borrow the magical book of The NeverEnding Story. When Mr. Koreander warns Bastian against a second reading, the boy grabs the book and runs away, leaving the old man with a smile on his face.

But Bastian's second encounter with the mystic volume turns out to be part of a grand scheme by an enchantress named Xayide (Clarissa Burt), who is this film's incarnation of The Nothing that tried to consume Fantasia in the first film. (Adult viewers have to work that out for themselves; Xayide's origin isn't explained.) Having realized that Bastian's imagination was the key to reviving Fantasia, Xayide has now devised a plan to empty the boy's mind using a machine invented by her servant, Tri-Face (Christopher Burton). Every time Bastian uses the Auryn amulet that protected Atreyu in the first film—and which Bastian finds conveniently attached to the book's front cover—he will lose a memory. To ensure that he uses the amulet as frequently as possible, Xayide dispatches another servant, a giant bird named Nimbly (Martin Umbach) to suggest wishes to Bastian as often as possible.

As soon as Bastian locks himself in his attic and reopens The NeverEnding Story, he is sucked into its pages and rejoins Atreyu in Fantasia, where the two of them try to reach the Childlike Empress in her distant palace, which is under magical siege. Thus is Xayide's plan set into motion. As the enchantress throws obstacles in the way of the young heroes, including deadly giant robots, and an ever-changing landscape, Bastian keeps wishing upon the Auryn and losing memories. Meanwhile, back in our world, Bastian's father is frantically searching for his missing son and, upon finding the volume he left behind, begins reading it, only to discover that Bastian is now part of the story. (Anyone familiar with Woody Allen's short story "The Kugelmass Episode" (1980) may be pardoned for giggling at this point.)

This being a child's fairy tale, Xayide is ultimately defeated, Fantasia is saved and Bastian overcomes the fear of heights that never existed before the sequel. I wish I could report that the solution to the battle had something to do with memory and imagination, which were the focus of Xayide's attack and the original key to Fantasia's salvation, but the solution upon which The Next Chapter relies has more to do with Dr. Seuss than with any of the themes explored by The NeverEnding Story's original author, Michael Ende.

Visually, The Next Chapter is sufficiently colorful and active to entertain the very young. The reaction of older viewers will depend on one's attitude toward effects achieved by animatronics, miniatures and other such traditional methods. After so many CGI-fests, these sights have acquired a charm they didn't have at the time of the film's initial release, simply because we no longer see them used, and they can be entertaining to watch even when they're in service of a story that relies less on its own merits than on association with an earlier tale that was far superior.

The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shot on film by Australian cinematographer David Connell (Zeus and Roxanne), The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter is presented by Warner Home Video in a 1080p, AVC-encoded version that WHV calls "remastered", although this is the first time the film has been released on Blu-ray. Perhaps WHV means nothing more than that the film once was issued on DVD. In any case this is an adequate but unspectacular presentation featuring respectable detail in most live-action shots free from special effects, but with an immediate drop-off in fine detail whenever a scene contains opticals. Perhaps in an effort to compensate for the limitations of older effects technology, both brightness and contrast are somewhat overstated, often overwhelming or washing out fine detail, especially in the non-Fantasia sequences. Colors often appear to be lightened by the excessive white levels (although it can be difficult to tell for certain without an objective reference). The source material is in excellent shape.

Warner has mastered the The Next Chapter with an average bitrate of 21.82 Mbps, which seems low for such a film, but the softness of the image no doubt helps. In any case, no compression errors were observed.

The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's original Dolby Surround mix is presented in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. When played through a good surround decoder, the matrixed stereo track has an enveloping presence and noticeable stereo separation, with audible steering of rear channel effects that help sustain the illusion of an imaginary world composed of elemental forces. The track's dynamic range is robust, especially in the lower ranges that accompany such events as the attacks by the robots controlled by the villainous Xayide. Dialogue is clear, and the fairy tale/heroic score by Robert Folk (Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls) blend nicely with the sound effects.

The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Other than a trailer (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 1:24), the disc has no extras.

The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

An indifferent sequel has been given a modest treatment on Blu-ray. Fans of The Next Chapter may be disappointed, but this is the best they are likely to see. The Next Chapter isn't a film I can recommend, but existing fans will certainly want to add the Blu-ray version to their collection. Just don't pay top dollar for it.