Never-Ending Story III: Return to Fantasia (1994)

Director: Peter MacDonald

Writer: Jeff Lieberman (Screenplay) Michael Ende (Characters)

Starring: Jason James Richter, Melody Kay, Jack Black, Carole Finn, Ryan Bollman, Freddie Jones

 

Plot: A young boy must restore order when a group of bullies steal the magical book that acts as a portal between Earth and the imaginary world of Fantasia.

Tagline –  It’s a brand new beginning in the adventure that never end
Runtime: 1 Hour 40 Minutes

 

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

 

Verdict: What the Hell Happened?

 

Story: Never-Ending Story III: Return to Fantasia starts as Bastian (Richter) is moving in with his new step mum and sister Nicole (Kay), with a new school which also has new bullies known as the Nasties lead by Slip (Black). While escaping from the bullies Bastian jumps to Fantasia only to leave the book in the hands of Slip who starts causing havoc in the world.

Bastian must return to the human world to get the book back and save Fantasia once again and tackle the bullies in the real world.

 

Thoughts on Never-Ending Story III: Return to Fantasia

 

Characters – Bastian is older, but seemingly less wise, he must learn to adapt to a new school where he must once again save Fantasia from the human world this time. Nicole is the new step-sister of Bastian who doesn’t want him in her life ruining her social circles at school, she doesn’t believe him along the way of helping the residents of Fantasia. Slip is the leader of the Nasties, the school bullies that target Bastian and use the book to try and bring down Fantasia.

Performances – The performances from the kids are acceptable for the film, Jack Black is wildly over the top for a bully character, but this is largely terrible for performances when it comes to the voice over characters.

Story – The story shows Bastian in a new home, new school facing a new problem with Fantasia when the creatures come into the real-world. This does make for an interesting twist, but is completely doesn’t work, first of all the attempted humour thrown into the movie misses so often. When Nicole gets the necklace she just uses it to go shopping, come on really is this the best writing we could come up with. The real world references don’t work either.

Adventure/Family/Fantasy – The adventure throws us to the real world which doesn’t seem to work for where the film has gone before, the family might get more of the jokes, but won’t enjoy the adventure side because the fantasy world just doesn’t work for the film.

Settings – Having the film set in the real world takes away the beauty in the landscapes that were created.

Special Effects – The effects take a huge step back here because they all look terrible now.

Scene of the Movie – There really isn’t one.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The awful attempt to make this a comedy.

Final Thoughts – This was awful, what happened is the only question I have left for this movie because it takes so many steps back to become beyond awful viewing.

 

Overall: Terrible throughout.

Rating