Who else thinks that the Neverending Story was by far one of the best movies of your childhood? As we look back now without all of the CGI that we use today we think of how cheesy a lot of the special effects are but this was one of the best of its time. So check out these awesome facts from behind the scenes.
1. Originally Atreyu was going to have green skin like in the novel.
His character in the book had his in a tribe that literally meant “Greenskins” and they hunted purple buffalo!
2. The main actor Noah Hathaway who plays Atreyu had a horrible horse-riding accident right before the filming began.
He was in a hospital for two months recovering from the accident after the horse fell on top of him crushing some vertebra.
3. There were actually two Folkor the Luck Dragons built for the movie; one has a head weighing 200 pounds.
4. It took about 25 people to make Falkor come alive.
The director commented, “One person was responsible for operating Falkor’s nose, one for eyebrows, one for the upper lip, and one for the lower lip.”
5. The girl who played the Childlike Empress lost two of her teeth right before shooting and had to wear fake ones for the rest of the shoot.
In the beginning, she was speaking with a small lisp.
6. It took two months to film the Swamps of Sadness.
7. …and cost them $130,000 per day!
The entire swamp was built inside a soundstage.
8. One guy, Alan Oppenheimer, voiced all three characters: Falkor, Rockbiter, G’mork, and even did the narrating.
9. The original release was in German and the credits were much more serious.
10. We can’t really tell what Bastain yells out in the movie but in the book, it is “Moonchild.”
11. For its time, it was the most expensive production coming out of Germany.
12. Steven Spielberg was given Auryn (Atreyu’s necklace) by director Wolfgang Peterson as a “thank you” gift for his help with the film.
Peterson thanks Spielberg for helping with the editing portion of the film.
13. As it turns out, Bastain lives in Vancouver, Canada.
That’s where most of the real world shots were taken.
14. The author of the book hated the movie.
He even asked that his name be removed from the credits and called it “that revolting movie.”
15. If you still want more Neverending Story in your life you can actually ride on Falkor at Bavaria Filmstadt in Munich, Germany:
