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Monday, October 14, 2013

HMM '13: The Neverending Story

It's October!  The doorway to not only the start of the greatest food season (early October to Christmas), but also to sexy nurses, zombies, and grown men dressing up like ponies.  That also means it is time once again for Halloween Movie Madness!  This year, I'll be taking a look back at the movies of my youth.  Every movie this year was released before I turned eighteen.  These are the Halloween movies that shaped me into the man I am today.  Some of them are scary.  Some are funny.  Some are fantastical.  Some are just weird.  And not all of them are good.  But to me, they are all Halloween movies.  Now, stand back, for your own safety!  

The Neverending Story
1984


The Nothing.  Rock Biters.  Luck Dragons.  Anyone in their mid thirties should know exactly what those are.  Maybe younger (especially if it is a kid with awesome parents).  The subject of this movie resonated with kids, because it dealt directly with imagination. 


For those of you who might not be familiar with this movie, it is about a little boy named Bastion.  He is bullied at school, and one day while running from the little jerks, he ducks into a bookstore.  There, he swipes The Neverending Story from the shopkeeper, who warned him against reading the story.  He ends up cutting classes and hiding up in the attic/storage area in his school to read the story.  While reading, he finds himself engrossed in the tale about saving Fantasia and the Childlike Empress.

Don't take that the wrong way though, because it isn't all sunshine and rainbows Spongebob style imagination.  The movie has some very dark moments.  It deals with fear, loss, sadness, and growing up.  The scene with Artax (the horse) sinking away in the Swamp of Sadness was one of the saddest scenes I remember from my childhood, ranking right up there with E.T. going home and Optimus Prime dying.


The best scene in the movie is when Bastion gets to ride Falkor in the real world.  It is something that I, along with almost every kid who saw this movie, wished for.  I know this because Falkor makes appearances in Family Guy, Robot Chicken, South Park, Code Monkeys, and The Aquabats! wrote a song about him going on a date.  And The Lonely Island did a disturbing skit on one of their albums.

This is a fantastical movie that should absolutely be watched with your kids, but be prepared for some tears.  You can always watch it without kids too.  That is perfectly okay.

It's also okay to check out these Gifs Without Context.