And the wheel turns...

[selenak]

Friday cause of inappropriate amusement: I've stumbled across three posts now which complain that Hollywood plans to film The Never-Ending Story again and call this a desecration of "the original film/movie". Why does this amuse me? Well, because Michael Ende, the author of the original novel, which happens to be one of my favourite novels full stop, hated that movie. And when I use the term "hate" I do not speak in lj hyperbole. He was absolutely horrified by it, raged in every interview he gave after seeing that film about how it managed to get the characters wrong, the themes, and how it completely cheapened and hollywoodized (his term) everything. He cursed the director and the producer (Peterson & Eichinger, respectively), he hated the set design and the way the creatures looked (especially the dragon, because he had been rather specific in his descriptions of Fuchur; second in his authorial ire came the palace of the Child-Like Empress and the Child-like Empress herself - "they made that poor girl look like as if she was in an American beauty pageant"), and his editor at the time, Roman Hocke, told me how rage about the movie contributed to Ende's failing health. He didn't quite blame it for Ende's death, but you get the general tendency.

Now, given this, I can't quite decide whether our late author upon hearing this news would react with "not again" or "revenge at last!"

Personally? As a reader of the novel who was a teenager by the time it was filmed, I found the movie mildly disappointing, both because Bastian Balthasar Bux wasn't the fat bespectacled boy described but your avarage thin good looking movie kid, and Atreyu didn't have green skin, but most of all because it only covered half of the novel. But there were sequences that worked for me, and on the whole, I didn't come out raging, I just never felt a need to watch it again. The radio production, btw, was superbly done, by contrast. Now I rather doubt a new film version will be closer to the book, though I might be wrong here, but I certainly don't feel it would be sacrilege. The book already made it through the first film and two sequels who looked horrid even in the trailers, which is why I didn't watch them. So another film version really doesn't make a difference. They do it to Jane Austen all the time.

Comments

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

I'm completely with Ende on how awful that movie is. It always makes me sad that so many people only know the movie and not the book. I don't think the movie is bad, it's just that compared to this novel, it's pretty much sacrilege (I'm not exaggerating. A childhood book I love this much is almost a sacred thing to me. It shaped my views on fiction and the human psyche before I even knew those terms).

The sad thing is that you could make a good movie series out of it - if you treated it with respect and had special effects and a budget like Lord of the Rings. It would also make a great animated movie, even a great anime in the style of Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke and so on).

Which reminds me, I still haven't seen Krabat...

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Yes. I remember I had a massive childish "wtf" on seeing the film and then buying the Ende novel: I don't think I ever quite recovered from the revelation that the film was only the (generic fantasy cliche) first third or so of the book and that then things got seriously weird.

[penknife.livejournal.com]

I suspect I would probably feel differently if the movie was a cherished part of my childhood, but I too watched it only after I'd read the book, and I was disappointed that it didn't cover more of the book (or deal with its main themes -- I can't help feeling that an adaptation that never deals with the issue of what "do what you wish" really means has missed the point.)

I'll be interested to see them give it another shot. *ducks to avoid evil eye from various people on my friends list*

[12-12-12.livejournal.com]

He didn't quite blame it for Ende's death, but you get the general tendency.

I probably shouldn't find that funny, but oh dear, I do. :D

A Hollywood producer wouldn't be caught dead actually casting a fat, bespectacled kid in their movies. Look at Emma Watson playing Hermione. They didn't even dare to frizz her hair after the first one. Heh.

[misachan.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of visceral "No! My Childhood!" flailing about this.:) I've know for myself I've seen it literally hundreds of times and it's a very sentimental movie for me. My worry isn't so much about a new adaptation; in the right hands, that could be great (I would love to see Miyazaki get his hands on it, for instance.)

The horror comes from the idea of Hollywood "reimagining" it, where they stuff it with soulless CGI and turn Artax into a wise-cracking animal sidekick and Atreyu is played by a Jonas brother.

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Poor Ende. He would have needed an opportunity to hang out with Stephen King and Alan Moore, to rant about horrible film versions. Possibly Umberto Eco, too.

Is it weird that the only thing I really remember about the Neverending Story movie is the title song by Limahl?

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Although the really sad thing is that Emma Watson is not exactly a beauty by Hollywood standards.

[lizvogel.livejournal.com]

I liked the movie well enough, or so I vaguely remember, but then, I hadn't read the book. Come to think of it, I still haven't; it's somewhere in the depths of the to-read pile. Hmm, think I'll go move it to the top.

[calliopes_pen]

I don't feel horrified by the news, since the only movie I ever saw was the second one. And I didn't learn there was a novel (never read it) until many, many years later.

As I didn't know about the book, I never knew how much the author apparently hated the adaptation.

[miladygrey.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the movie as a child. Then I read the book as a teenager, and my basic reaction was "They had all this--and they turned it into that?." Such a textbook example of adaptation decay.

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

After seeing the movie I had no inclination to ever see it again. Not sure if I want to see the re-make either cause Hollywood usually screws up things the second time around.

So all they'll do is screw-up a screw-up...

[wolkendunst.livejournal.com]

I HATED the film version of Fuchur. Actually, I loathed the complete movie.

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I consider the movie a desecration of the book, so I don't see how a new one could top that. I found the film entertaining because I went into it not expecting anything; it was an okay movie if you saw it completely independent of the book. As a book adaptation I though it was a clear failure. It did not at all capture the magic of the story.

(I watched the sequel; it was so horrendous that in retrospect I regretted not leaving the theatre.)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

It always makes me sad that so many people only know the movie and not the book.

Me too. You should hear my "no, he doesn't chase the bullies with the dragon and that's totally against everything the book aims for" rant.

Have you heard the three part radio adaption, though? It was out on tape - well, used to be, two and a half decades ago (I grow old, I grow old). That was really well done, and I agree, someone like Hayao Miyazaki could do it, preferably as a series. Which won't happen...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity: is the English translation printed in two colours, too? (This and the red silk cover made the Never-Ending Story one of the more expensive books to print, which why the publisher stopped doing that about four or three years ago and switched to one single colour for the letters. I was crushed to learn it. (But am in possession of the original edition.)

Content-wise: what did you make of Bastian basically Stu-ing himself and this causing him simultanously to lose his humanity as a child?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I can't help feeling that an adaptation that never deals with the issue of what "do what you wish" really means has missed the point.

No kidding. And yes, I'm curious as to whether the new adaption will grasp this quintessential theme...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*considers herself lucky to have decided not to watch the sequel*

it was an okay movie if you saw it completely independent of the book. As a book adaptation I though it was a clear failure. It did not at all capture the magic of the story.

And none of the important themes, yes, exactly. So this flailing I've seen elsewhere and protectiveness towards the movie is so very odd to read...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You and Michael Ende both. Who would have appreciated your icon. :)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, I imagine if I'd seen it young enough and without having read the book, I might have liked it, but as you say - so much was lost and ignored. It's not that they took liberties - every adaption does that - but that they lost most of the important aspects on the way...

[penknife.livejournal.com]

Do you know if it's intended to be a direct reference to Crowley's "do as thou wilt?" It's certainly very much the same concept of True Will vs. immediate desires.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Yes, the flailing has been... well, I enjoyed the movie (that Atreyu was one of my first crushes as a kid) but after I read the book, it was clear how much the movie didn't cover and how they weren't at all the same, really. So, I'm looking forward to seeing if a new version is closer to the book.

[honorh.livejournal.com]

That's 'cause Hollywood is freaks.

[haloumi.livejournal.com]

The good news is that a bad adaptation can only kill the author once. It takes a truly awful adaptation to bring the author back from the dead, in order to kill them again.

[blpurdom.livejournal.com]

That was exactly my reaction to seeing the film and then reading the book--there was such a golden opportunity to do something special utterly thrown out the window. If you'd only seen the film, you might think it was all right, but once you've read the book (or if you've read the book first), it pales in comparison. None of the primary themes really gets time in the film, and as you said, the film stops half-way through. Bastion never really completes his personal journey OR his quest. It was definitely Hollywoodized. I just hope that someone at least wants to use the book as a departure point (although "departure" will probably be the operative word) instead of the earlier film, which could only produce another mess, like the sequels I always ignored because I knew they had nothing to do with the book.

Momo is probably over the heads of film executives. I really hope they don't try to film that one. :shudder:

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Momo was already filmed back in the day, starring Mario Adorf and John Huston (as Master Hora). It flopped anyway...

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the edition I got being printed in two colours but it was a cheap paperback one. And I think I was too young at the time to really get the more philosophical parts of the story, I really should reread it.

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Ain't that true.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I loved the movie when I was little, so my mother bought me the book and I was astounded at how much wasn't in the movie, and how shallow the movie suddenly seemed. (I never did like the movie ending where Bastian suddenly becomes a bully!) I suspect, though, that the new movie will be just like the old one, only with more CGI and maybe an entire album of pop songs.

[wolkendunst.livejournal.com]

So, does Goethe/Schiller slash exist? God knows I've read more unrealistic pairings. :-)

„Ich betrachte ihn wie eine stolze Prüde, der man ein Kind machen muß." Riiiiight.

[rheanna27.livejournal.com]

I read and adored the novel when I was young, and although I haven't read it in probably 20 years, there's still quite a lot of it that remains pretty vivid in my head. I found the movie, by contrast, very disappointing, and I remember virtually nothing about it; after the richness and inventiveness of the book, the movie just seemed like a very flat, fantasy-by-numbers Hollywood production. Which, given the source material, really should have been impossible.

The thing that really sticks out for me, even now, was Atreyu's promise to Bastian to go back and finish all the stories that Bastian had started. It's a wonderful moment of true friendship.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

I agree that the movie was very disappointing when it came out. I bought the DVD second hand and the kids watched it. Once. In the end, I sold the DVD again.

I am pleased to say, that my girls have good taste when it comes to movies. They watch the good stuff again and again, but not the crap. :-)

Speaking of Jane Austen, the little one, aged 9, LOVES pride and predjudice with Kiera Knightly. :-D

[owl]

Whut. The girl is gorgeous!

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Of course she is, it's just that Hollywood's "beauty" standards are illogical.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I haven't found any, but I've written the shipping manifesto, sort of, here (http://selenak.livejournal.com/128340.html).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I was very disappointed in the film too, for the very reasons you cite. Perhaps this will be an improvement; we can only hope.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your girls. Oh, and a tip: I just watched the pour part miniseries Lost in Austen, which is available on dvd in your local SATURN, and very adorable. The most fannish thing you can imagine, in the best way.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip! I have a friend who owns the DVDs, and he promised to lend them to me.

BTW, I got my copy of Lion in Winter yesterday, but we haven't watched it yet. Tonight we watched (and enjoyed) Tatort.

Tomorrow, Heyne announces the winners of the magischer Bestseller competition. Keep your fingers crossed for me! ;-)

[bitterbyrden.livejournal.com]

The best thing about the movie is that it made me want to read the book. And then I didn't really have to go back to the movie. You and I discussed this a little, I think, on our car trip: I really did love that book. I'm curious to see a remake. They can't really take anything away from me that I want to hold onto, you know? I already have the story in my head.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's how I feel as well, and I remember that discussion!

[wolkendunst.livejournal.com]

Vielen Dank für den Link!