Retro Spectacles continues “Good, Good for Its Time, or Good for My Time?” with Mitcz’s pick: The NeverEnding Story. Wolfgang Petersen’s 1984 fantasy is remembered as a whimsical childhood staple, but a rewatch reveals something much heavier. This is a movie that opens on a grieving, bullied boy and spends 90 minutes putting its heroes through loss after loss.

The practical effects hold up better than most modern CGI. Built for roughly $27 million, reputedly the most expensive film made by a European studio at the time, every creature on screen is a physical puppet operated by teams of specialists. The grief allegory, the Giorgio Moroder synth score and Limahl theme, and the handmade monsters all combine into something that dates beautifully rather than badly.

Mitcz & Teddy dig into the surprisingly dark themes, the truth behind the Artax drowning myth, author Michael Ende’s lawsuit and war with the production, the 1980s dark fantasy landscape from The Dark Crystal to Labyrinth, and land on their verdict.

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