Movies - The NeverEnding Story III

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	Movies - The NeverEnding Story III

The NeverEnding Story III (1994) is the second sequel to the fantasy film The NeverEnding Story. It was directed by Peter MacDonald and starred Jason James Richter as Bastian Bux, Julie Cox as The Childlike Empress, and Jack Black as Slip. The movie arrived late and had a very limited release in U.S. theaters in 1996 and arrived on VHS there the same year. The soundtrack, also, was not released in the U.S. but only in Japan on CD, and in limited quantities. It is generally regarded by fans of the original movie (The NeverEnding Story) as the weakest installment of the series. In the U.S. the film was called The NeverEnding Story III: Escape From Fantasia.

Storyline

(Spoiler Warning)

As the film begins, Bastian Bux is once again having problems in the real world. His widowed father has remarried a women named "Jan", who is also a single-parent with a daughter named "Nicole". The new family has moved, and thus leaving Bastian with a new school, and a cruel step-sister. He also faces a new group of bullies, who he flees from by ducking into an old book store and venturing into the land of Fantasia. However, the group of young punk bullies grab the book and begin changing what occurs in Fantasia to suit their own twisted fantasies and dreams.

The bullies cause Pyrotechnics to rock the enchanted forest, along with a wide range of other antics. This forces Bastian, wearing the Auryn neckless, to ride Falkor to the Mystic Mountains to talk with the Childlike Empress. The Empress informs Bastian that the book, and thus Fantasia, has fallen under the control of the bullies and that Bastian must return, with Falkor, to his reality to save the day. However, Rock Eater Jr., a group of gnomes, and a troll accidentially tag along for the ride. The result is that Bastian must try and regroup all the Fantasia visitors to his parent's house. However, Nicole steals the Auryn neckless in order to go shopping, only to have the magical neckless stolen by the bullies who use it to cause chaos in both Fantasia and in the real world.

Bastian and Nicole reconcile as siblings, and she helps Bastian defeat the bullies by getting a hold of the NeverEnding Story book and transforming Bastian into a martial arts expert, with explict reference to people such as Jean Claude Van Damme.

Trivia

As poorly received as this film was, it is not the end of the Never Ending Story franchise. In 2001 a short lived live-action television series aired called Tales from the Neverending Story.

HBO Family has also produced an animated series based on the novel and films .

Film chronology

The NeverEnding Story
(1984)
The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter
(1990)
The NeverEnding Story III (1994) (1996 in the US.)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The NeverEnding Story III ]

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