The effects look cardboardy by today’s standards but the puppets and animatronics are great, especially Falkor, the dog-like “luck dragon”.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 2, 2024

There’s no doubt of the rousing urgency and terrific design of this likable movie.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 1, 2024

Though not as wonderfully bizarre as Jim Henson's Labyrinth, it does have an existential monster called the Nothing—it's something like a black hole that sucks the life out of a fantastic world.

| May 10, 2024

If you are looking for a family film that will not be offensive to any member of the family then Wolfgang Petersen’s (Troy, The Perfect Storm) “The Neverending Story” is a safe pick.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 25, 2022

This movie is dark!

| Aug 4, 2022

This scarred me for life, and I loved it

| Aug 4, 2022

It's got a sharp edge that fantasy movies rarely have.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 17, 2022

What’s not in question is how this fantastic oddity stays with all those who have seen it, long, long after the credits roll...

| Feb 15, 2022

The film has an almost overwhelming number of messages. From colonization and dispossession of land to the apathy of adulthood as well as the power of new beginnings

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 24, 2020

Though its foibles and failings haven't improved with age, The NeverEnding Story emerges in retrospect as a more ambitious children's movie than given credit.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 11, 2019

...takes viewers back to a pre-CGI era when fantastic beasts and amazing worlds were created on screen using puppets and models.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 9, 2018

Carries with it a healthy amount of menace, and intensity, but it's also a remarkable adventure.

| Aug 31, 2016

This utterly enchanting, family treat of a film should leave you and yours wide-eyed with wonder.

| Nov 16, 2014

Something dark, entrancing and even a little special.

| Original Score: A- | Jul 21, 2014

Fantasies as hearty and original as this are rare at the movies.

| Nov 15, 2013

The story is a touch simplistic, but Petersen's direction is assured and children will be dazzled by the imaginative effects and stunning sets.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 15, 2013

It pokes along at times and lapses occasionally into dark moments of preachy philosophy, but this is still a charming, amusing and harmless film for kids.

Full Review | Nov 15, 2013

Here is a little adventure that fed on our uncultivated need to think, and wonder. It gave many of us our first taste of cinematic possibility.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 16, 2013

The NeverEnding Story remains a testament to the power of imagination and the type of inventive cinema that was possible in a pre-digital era.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 2, 2013

All in all, The Neverending Story is a silly fantasy movie that often shows its age, but as a kids' movie it still has enough exciting action and you-can-do-it attitude to earn itself a place in a family's DVD collection.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 26, 2012