For YMMV items specifically about the films, visit the YMMV pages for The NeverEnding Story (1984), The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, and The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia.
The Book:
- Alternative Character Interpretation: The Childlike Empress: between the time loop at Wandering Mountain, everything we learn in the City of Old Emperors, and finding out that she'd drawn Bastian into a world that became more and more impossible for him to escape from even if he was frugal with his wishes and didn't lose his mind without a single warning, it's not too difficult to read the Childlike Empress as the villain of the story.
- Bizarro Episode: Chapter XXI, The Star Cloister's only relevance to the plot is that Bastian loses Al Tsahir before its intended use. Not even the fact that Bastian brought Atreyu with him is even mentioned again.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Or rather, Americans Love The Neverending Story. While Die unendliche Geschichte isn't exactly unpopular or unknown in Germany, it is not Ende's most popular work - that'd be the Jim Button series. This is likely in large part due to American audiences chiefly being familiar with it due to the movie, whereas Germans are more likely to be introduced to Ende through his books. And if they do watch something, it is more likely to be the Augsburger Puppenkiste's adaptation of the Jim Button series, rather than the (generally not that well-received) Neverending Story movie.
- Ho Yay: When Atreyu announces that he has found the Savior (Bastian) everyone throws a great party and Atreyu and Bastian are described as Holding Hands all through the night. This continues long after everyone else has fallen asleep, when they hear Falkor's song, an event described as being a beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and they are overwhelmed "with the joy of meeting a new friend." Not to mention that Bastian's admiration of Atreyu before going into the book sounds a bit like a budding crush at times.
- Once Original, Now Common: Child finds a passageway into another world and becomes written into a story leaving his mundane life behind? Sounds like a lot of children's books today. Except the book was one of the forerunners of the concept.
- One-Scene Wonder: The Childlike Empress actually appears in only three chapters. It's a plot point that no one can meet her more than once per name.
- Paranoia Fuel: The Gmork takes human form in our world. You may have met him.
- Woolseyism: The dragon's name was Fuchur in the original German book. Apparently they changed it because it sounds like future in English. Or, if pronounced a certain way, an obscenity.
