Trivia / The NeverEnding Story (1984)

• Acting for Two: Alan Oppenheimer is not only Falkor, but also Gmork, Rockbiter and the narrator.
• Deleted Scene: There's one where Atreyu speaks with a Canon Foreigner giant named Permentor who is shrinking as the land of Fantasia is being consumed by the Nothing.
• Disowned Adaptation: Michael Ende filed an injunction to stop the production of the film, or failing that prevent them from using the title of his novel. He was unsuccessful, and demanded that his name be removed from the credits. He particularly took issue with the film's ending, which shows Fantasia restored with little creative input from Bastian and also shows Falkor crossing into the human world (noted to be impossible in the novel, as Fantasticans who enter the human world become lies). This is why Ende's name is not referenced in the film's opening credits. Given that the first film was a much closer adaptation (of the first half of the book, at least), one can only imagine what he'd think of the other two.
  • Most of all he objected to the change of the words on AURYN from "Do what you want" ("Tu Was Du Willst") to "Do what you dream". He chose the words to be ambiguous - "Do whatever you want" or "Find your true will" - and Bastian cannot find his way out of Fantastica until he learns to follow the second interpretation rather than the first.
• Enforced Method Acting: That look of shock on Atreyu's face and how dazed he looks getting up after he kills Gmork? That was real. Apparently, they didn't realize how heavy the mechanical wolf puppet could be, and when they shot the scene, it almost knocked out Atreyu's actor. They decided not to try for a second shot after he revealed the claws almost poked out one of his eyes too.
• Executive Meddling: After the film's test screenings revealed that audiences were not enthused with Klaus Doldinger's score, the studio commissioned Giorgio Moroder to replace some of the original music with his own. Wolfgang Petersen was not pleased, though the title song became one of the most memorable aspects of the film to many viewers.
• One-Take Wonder: Noah Hathaway almost lost an eye during the fight scene versus Gmork. One of the claws on his giant paws poked him in the face. The robot was also so heavy that he lost his breath as well when he was hit to the ground by it. They only made one shot due to the risk that he would get seriously wounded.
• On-Set Injury: Noah Hathaway was training with horses when one spooked and tried to jump a fence, missed, and fell on him, cracking several vertebrae. It put off production for two months when he recovered in the hospital, and led to permanent spinal problems.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: Contrary to Internet rumor, the horse did not really die during the filming of the Swamps of Sadness scene. As confirmed by a German magazine interview with Noah Hathaway shortly after the movie, and in the years since at conventions, the horse was given to Noah when production concluded, but due to the cost of transportation, need for quarantine, and sterilization, the horse was left behind in Germany.
• Troubled Production: As the most expensive movie made in Germany up to that time (and, indeed, the most expensive movie made outside the US or USSR at that time), it's hardly surprising that things went wrong in many ways, as actors got injured, the weather was scorching hot and scenes were cut after the Swamps of Sadness spent too much money. Producer Dieter Geissler decided not to endure everything again by spending a whole year with pre-production when doing The Next Chapter.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ygramul the Many was intended to appear—the sequence was scripted and storyboarded—but cancelled due to the special effects limitations of the time. This scene would have explained why the gnomes are seen giving Atreyu and Falcor heavy doses of medicine, as Ygramul was a hive-minded swarm of deadly poisonous wasps.
  • The same goes for the Wind Giants from the book—when the crew weren't able to convincingly create giant cloud beings, the scene was re-cut into Atreyu and Falcor's close encounter with the Nothing in flight (the line "Look Atreyu, the Nothing!" from Falcor being dubbed in).
  • Atreyu was originally supposed to be green-skinned like in the book, but according to Noah Hathaway the makeup looked terrible.
• Word of God: According to the filmmakers, the rolling storm clouds were not meant to actually be the Nothing, but rather an indication of its presence, as the Nothing is an invisible force.

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