The NeverEnding Story (1984) 4K Blu-ray Review

TweakTown's Rating: 88%

The Bottom Line

With a glorious 4K transfer plus new and returning bonuses housed in a stunning box, The NeverEnding Story is a great addition to the format.

Pros

• Stunning 4K transfers of both cuts of the film
• Great new extras alongside the preservation of previous

Cons

• The 7.1 audio track reveals its age
• Very expensive

Should you buy it?

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6

If you took a poll of the most beloved childhood films with your average millennial, I'd be willing to bet that 1984's The NeverEnding Story pops up with alarming regularity. But make no mistake, whilst this might be an adaptation of German author Michael Ende's children's book of the same name, The NeverEnding Story includes no attempt to hide its philosophical subtext, with themes of death, despair, and annihilation weighing heavily on the plot.

Escaping a pack of local bullies, young Bastian (Barret Oliver) finds solace in a quaint bookshop, but when he's drawn to a magical book that transports him to the world of Fantasia, he soon discovers that he holds the key to its salvation. As he follows the quest of the young warrior Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) to save the land from annihilation by a sinister force called The Nothing, the duo discovers wondrous creatures and formidable challenges and will need to summon deep strength to save Fantasia's Childlike Empress (Tami Stronach).

40 years after the film's initial release and separated from the inferior sequels that inevitably followed, The NeverEnding Story has carved itself a well-deserved place in the annals of film history. Whilst much of its pop culture longevity is no doubt owed to Limah's poppy theme tune, the film remains equal parts entertaining and mature, with boundless examples of pre-digital artistry that shine anew in Imprint's 40th anniversary 4K edition.

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Video transfer

The NeverEnding Story is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, in the Rec. 2020 color space, finished with the dynamic Dolby Vision and static HDR-10 high dynamic range formats and encoded with AVC H.265 compression.

Since 2010, The NeverEnding Story has been subject to two major restorations, with the U.S. theatrical cut restored in HD by Warner Bros and the German extended cut in 4K by Constantin Film. For this release, Imprint Film has provided both versions of the film in 4K for the first time, with the U.S. theatrical cut now fully restored from the original camera negative and upgraded to 4K. While the inclusion of both in such stunningly high quality represents something of a holy grail, the majority of fans will likely gravitate to the more familiar theatrical cut as the preferred version (in no small part to the nostalgia-fuelled theme song by Limahl). As such, this version will be the focus of this review, but in my sampling of the extended cut, much of the same observations can be replicated in that.

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Straight up, this is a really beautiful presentation and one that feels extremely authentic to the filmmaker's intentions. There has been no attempt to contemporize the film by way of extreme color grading or de-noising film grain (a fate which befell Warner Bros. previous restoration). No, this restoration faithfully reproduces the looks and feel of a mid-80s film. Throughout the run time, the image is consistently clear and sharp as it likely can be (consistent with its age, visual effect sequences utilizing analog compositing appear softer), and the frame is kept quite stable.

I do wish that a little more care had been taken to repair some overt examples of negative damage, with a number of white vertical streaks irregularly dotting the screen. I also question a few color grading choices, with a number of scenes in the opening 'real world' sequence appearing a little too cold on our calibrated display.

Despite a few quibbles, this is a really stellar presentation that perhaps may never be improved upon. If that's the case, fans have been well served here.

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Audio transfer

The NeverEnding Story is presented in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio.

Reproducing the same surround mix created by Warner Bros. for the film's first DVD release back in 2001 and then ported to all subsequent releases doesn't prove too detrimental - but I can't help but think what improvements could be made today using state-of-the-art digital tools. As it stands, the mix is perfectly adequate, with no major issues to be heard. Some of the Foley effects appear a little lo-fi, but the dialogue is mixed evenly, even accounting for the numerous examples of dialogue overdubs and animatronic lip movements. I found low-frequency effects to often sound overcooked, but opinions may differ on this point.

Overall, it is a decent presentation that never wows, but neither does it offend.

6

Bonus materials

Well - here's where Imprint's 40th-anniversary edition really shines!

Packaged in an oversized and heavy-duty reproduction of the book as seen in the film (complete with a real metal insignia), plus copies of the original production notes, lobby cards, and theatrical poster, I was totally unprepared for the sheer scale of lavishness in the set. The care also extends to the disc case, which is housed inside a really spectacular 3D lenticular hard case. It must be noted that the set is hardly cheap, but there is strong value here, and it will certainly command a prime position in any fan's physical media collection.

6

Not just content with re-hashing vintage material (although Imprint has indeed preserved all the bonus features from previous releases, including an Audio Commentary by Director Wolfgang Petersen), Imprint has commissioned Ballyhoo Pictures to produce two new high-quality featurettes Finding Fantasia: Adapting The NeverEnding Story and Flights of Fantasy: Inside the Scores of "The NeverEnding Story, which run around 30 minutes in length. Whilst there's some crossover with other features in the set, these are really slickly produced and are very worthy of your time. Also new to this set is the Audio Commentary by "Future Noir" author Paul M. Sammon on the theatrical cut, which provides good depth of detail and observations.

Imprint has also included a pack-in copy of Australian director Lisa Down's 91-minute Life After The NeverEnding Storydocumentary, which takes a surprisingly deep dive into the recollections of surviving cast and crew and reveals the wildly disparate journeys of former child stars Noah Hathaway and Tami Stronach. The disc also comes replete with bonus features of its own, including a Director interview, which reveals the challenges of making the film during the COVID pandemic, in addition to those posed by one member of the cast in particular.

The sheer quantity and quality of features both delight and inform and provide a wonderful finish to an already superb set. The inclusion of the in-depth Life After The NeverEnding Story is a wonderful one, and props to Imprint for reaching a licensing agreement to give this film its due.