House of Peterson - 135 - The NeverEnding Story

Released in 1984, The NeverEnding Story directed by Wolfgang Petersen is a magical tale that takes viewers on an extraordinary adventure into the world of Fantasia. Filled with unforgettable characters, breathtaking visuals, and a powerful message about the power of imagination, this film continues to inspire and captivate audiences of all ages.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome to the nerd Polity. Welcomeback to Houselights, our directors discussion show

(00:24):
here on the Nerd Party Network.We're continuing in the house of Peterson of
the nineteen eighties as we discuss hisnineteen eighty four fantasy epic The Never Ending
Story. Although I do promise thispodcast will end at the appropriate time.
I'm Darren Moser and I am joinedagain by my friends the Hunter of the
Purple Buffalo Warrior Tristan Riddell and theone with the big strong hands, Rockbiter

(00:49):
John Mills. Gentlemen, then nothingis approaching. Are you ready to have
your childhood scarred? As we discussthis film The Never Ending Story, which
that's want to be. My firstquestion as did you watch this as a
kid and did it scar you?Because many a child in the nineteen eighties
would would say yes, what aboutyou, John Well, I was a

(01:12):
child in the nineteen eighties, That'strue, and I did watch this on
VHS also true. However, unlikemost gen xers, I have a different
perspective on it because by the timeI encountered The Never Ending Story, you
know, eighty four, I'd alreadyseen like DC Cab and you know,

(01:36):
easy money with Rodney Dangerfield. Somy film growth was a little bit weird.
So was I enough of a childto enjoy the never ending story by
the time I encountered it on videotape? That's the question, that's the question.
Or had I been grown up alittle too fast? With my filmfare,
We'll find out you hadn't heard aboutthese things called books. You had

(01:57):
to do some imagination on your side. Although I did have an uncle who
loved to read and he smoked apipe and that guy looked kind of like
him. We all had that uncle. Well, you know, I feel
like that's an eternal uncle. Itis, it is. I mean,
maybe none of our uncles owned abookstore, but it was, you know,
close enough, close up. Yeah. What about you, Tristan?

(02:20):
Was this something you caught again onVHS when or maybe a sleepover at a
friend's house and then you never wantedto sleep ever again? This one,
this one was weird because I rememberwatching it as a child. I remember
flashes and key moments, but Idon't remember why we watched. I have

(02:42):
more solid memories of watching the secondone, okay than I do the first
one, but I don't remember where. I don't remember when. I just
remember being really little and watching it. Either we rented it from the from
the rental store or something like that, but I hadn't. I haven't watched
this since I was a wee lad, like super small, maybe in diapers,

(03:07):
I'm not quite sure, so itcould be a couple of weeks,
but yeah, like I have didn'tdidn't watch this until just this weekend in
preparation for this podcast. So alot of it was like I would watch
this with my wife, as Ido with with most of the stuff that
we podcast about UM, and shewas the same way. And as I
was watching, I was like,yeah, I have no memory of this.

(03:28):
I have no memory of this.And I was like, oh,
it's starting to come back. It'sit's it's one of those things that just
burned buried, I should say,really deep in your brain. Maybe the
Ivory Tower shows up with that keytheme and you're like, okay, I
kind of remember this and the reallyweird giant head rock people and just the
you know, the poor Man's Motleycrew up there, but well, like

(03:52):
that was actually a pleasant surprise.But the um, of course I remember
the horse drowning. Yes, aseverybody does. Everybody remembers that I remember
Foulk or I remember the Impress andthat's about it. Like that, those
are pretty much those three things,is what I remembered. What about you,

(04:14):
John, what parts tickled your memorywatching this? Or was it because
I was all there never left?I didn't really care for it as a
kid. I've revisited it every sooften. This is one of those movies
from the eighties, like the Goonies, where it was like if you didn't
love it, like you just questionedreality, where you were like, Okay,
I gotta give this another try becauseeverybody around me thinks it's amazing,

(04:36):
so I just got to keep givingit a shot. So I've given it
a number of shots through time.There's one weird memory I have from seeing
it for the first time, whichwas when He Ate the Apple. As
a kid, I was watching itwith my dad and he like consumed the
whole thing and I didn't see acore and I was like, Dad,

(04:57):
that's weird, man, Like whydid he eat the core? And my
dad was like, well, somepeople eat apples, and like I really
held onto that as a kid,I was like, that's disgusting. Did
he actually eat the core of thatapple? Are you kidding me? Like
that? Yeah, that was mything. I was like, what kind
of monster is this bastion? He'she's not really a human being, and

(05:17):
uh yeah, I remember the evenback then, like the attic. I
was like, that's the attic tothat school. That doesn't seem to make
sense. But okay, that's amidtown, midwestern town attic, not a
New York City street attic. Yes, okay, I'm so glad that you
mentioned that because my wife Um wentto a very nice high school, like

(05:41):
like one of the top schools inthe state, everything like that. I
went to one of the bottom schools. It's it's a it's lucky I know
how to read. But she shesaid the same thing. She's like,
what what kind of what school hasan attict like that? I was like,
my school had an attict like that. It was disgusting, it was
horrible, Like it was a safetyhazard, Like we very much had an

(06:03):
attic like that. Yeah, butI doubt that it looked like like it's
just it's maybe it's part of thewhole thing that they're weaving that, like
he runs up into an attic likethat, and it's supposed to signify that
he's already entered into this realm that'ssort of like a magical different thing than
the actual school's attic. I couldbuy that if the film language said that

(06:28):
instead of almost communicating that that attickey it seemed like he had used it
many times. Yeah, it seemslike this was his hideaway spot that he
this is where he ran when hedidn't want to interact with people. So
so if if if film wise theyshowed him break that for the first time
to grab the key and get upto the attic, maybe it's like,
oh, okay, he's entered thethat that attic is like some magical bridge

(06:53):
between the two of them. Butyeah, it's just it doesn't feel it
felt like he knew exactly where thatkey was. Yeah, you know,
he knew that that's where the janitorleft it because the janitor was lazy and
didn't want to put it on theirring. And they're just like, oh,
I'll just leave in here. Nokid's gonna go up to this attic
except for Bashan m. Yeah,speaking speaking of which, Bashton the entire

(07:13):
movie, Oh my gosh, arethey just not Are they just not pronouncing
it. I did not know thiskid's name to the age of subtitles.
I seriously did not. I waslike, what, because it is the
weirdest thing. I've never heard thatname before. Maybe it's common in Germany.
I don't know, but I thatwas a really weird name. And
its whole name, Bastion Balthazar Bucks. That sounds like someone out of Fantasia.

(07:38):
It really does you know? Letme because you mentioned it, Darren,
Like, is it possible? Becausethis book was originally a German book,
It's done by a German director,and it's put together for an international
slash American audience, right, it'ssupposed to play equally. Well, well,

(07:58):
there's a German version. Sorry tocut you off, but there is
a German version, and Spielberg actuallyhelped cut the international slash American version,
which is what we watched fair.I'm endlessly curious because I believe that that
that there is some sort of culturalbridge, the attic being a representation of

(08:18):
it, the names, those sortsof things. I think that there is
a I think that there is.You're taking something that is probably a uniquely
German point of view and putting itonto a bigger stage. And I think
that there are some translational problems,not literal translation like language like, there

(08:39):
are some cultural translation problems that occur. Yeah, I could see that.
Yeah, no, so the Iprobably watched this first, you know,
not in theaters obviously, I wasa little too young for that, but
definitely like either a rental or watchingat a friend's house. And man,
oh man, the nightmare fuel uh, the the wolf, the Grimac.

(09:05):
That was what haunted my nightmares,that lived in every dark shadow. As
I turned off the lights to headto my room, I could not rewatch
that part. It. I don'tknow if it's the green eyes. I
don't know if it's just the greenit's all. It's just green eyes and
a mouth, that's all it is, coming out of the darkness. But
man, that is still one ofmy number one. If I had to,

(09:28):
man, I had to make ashort list of things that terrified me
as a child, I'd say thatone. The Boogeyman from the Real Ghostbusters.
That episode with the there was acharacter called the Boogeyman that looked creepy
as all get out. That alsothe cartoon from the cartoon Wow, see
what was that thing was? It. What was that thing? Was it

(09:52):
like an Elison one on one thingwhere like the muppets were dancing around and
then like they pop their eyes out. Oh yes, you're thinking of Labyrinth.
Uh yeah, the Labyrinth where there'sthey're they're they're furry and fuzzy and
then they take their eyes and putthem on the edge of their fingers and
then they put them in their mouth. Yeah. Yeah, didn't didn't sleep
for weeks. Yeah, Labyrinth forweeks. See again, this is this

(10:16):
is where maybe somebody did me dirtywhen I was growing up, or maybe
it was just television in general.But by the time I saw The Never
Ending Story or Labyrinth on VHS,I had already seen Halloween and Halloween two
one fateful Halloween Night coming back fromtrick or treating. So Darren, I
wish I could say, like,oh boy, that will scared the hell

(10:37):
out of me, But like Icouldn't turn my back on a flight of
stairs because Michael Myers was behind meone hundred percent of the time. Yeah
no, but it's just so funny. How especially in the eighties, I
don't know what it was about children'sprogramming where you're like, this is okay,
I mean to get not that wecouldn't handle it, but we also

(10:58):
are often scarred or remember for it. No this this. I'm glad you
brought that up, because like,as my wife and I were watching this,
we're like, man, the eightieswere a different time like kids of
today. And I'm not saying thisas an old man, Like I'm not
saying that could just today don't havethe attention span or anything like that,
like kids today watching this would bescarred and bored at the same time.

(11:20):
And John go ahead, queada,No, well, okay, maybe this
is not to myke. Maybe somebody'sgonna call child Protective Services when I say
my kids wouldn't be scarred by this, Oh gosh no, because because I
just asked me all the time,like like every single time we watch something
like, we're like, did Johnshow his kids this? And I was

(11:41):
like, probably, listen, eventuallyyou have to encounter the existential crisis that
is the Shawshank redemption. And Isay seven is the right age for that.
And I'm just kidding people in theaudience, I'm just kidding. My
kids haven't seen Shawshank yet. Comeon, they will sit lord and you
definitely got a double take from me, like I wish people could have seen

(12:03):
my face just now. Yeah,no, I um sky high tris I'm
I'm relatively I mean, the thingis, I'm your your sort of stereotypical
gene. I made it through it. Yeah, I know, but like
I made it through it, theycan make it through it sort of thing.
I've made one that is such agen X trait. I'm so glad
that you've listened. But at thesame time, like a misjudgment occurs every

(12:28):
so often. Because my youngest sheencountered the Penguin and Batman returns, and
she did fine for like the firstthirty forty five minutes of the movie,
and I would stop. I waslike, are you sure you're okay?
Like penguin's a little freaky, right, You're all fine. She had no
problem with the penguin at all untilhe was menacing toward Batman and that the
things change dialogue between between the twoof them when the when like stuff's dripping

(12:48):
out of his mouth. No,she didn't, she didn't get it.
Like the nose bite scene. No, that didn't even phase her, didn't
even phase her. It wasn't untilhe was menacing to or Batman that and
it was like things change like thatfreaked her out. And I'm like,
okay, well I gotta be alittle more judicious here. Um. But
you know, mostly my kids cancan roll with it. Um, but

(13:11):
I'm not. But to your point, Darry, that's just I know my
kids so like they they love thismovie. Like that has helped me a
lot is actually watching it with sortof the intended audience. Is that's different?
That is true. I mean asa as a kid's movie. I
mean it is a kids movie.It's this is an evergreen. You know,

(13:33):
adults would love this, not thatyou couldn't love it as adult,
but is it is a fantasy,it's made for for kids. It is
it is a story book. Um, but yeah, you you also have
It's yeah, it's so interesting though, um because I feel like, so
we'll talk a lot about well nota lot, we'll talk a little bit

(13:54):
about how this Obviously, as Tristanhad mentioned, uh, it got the
Spielberg treatment, and Wolfgang was like, hey, I made this movie.
I want to bring in two Americanaudiences. Spielberg helped me out Joggers like
boom boom, Let's make these changes. I did find a video that kind
of talked about the two changes betweenthe German and the American version. Very
minimal as far as like clips andrun time, more differences in like the

(14:18):
music the whole. A lot ofthe music is very different. For one
thing, there's no pop song.It is not in the German version.
It is. Yeah, I meanI want um, well, you know,
as the synth was coming up,I'm like, oh, Tristan doesn't
like Sinse. I don't know ifhe's gonna like but um, I feel

(14:43):
like that at its core, though, it's more like explaining a little more
like there's lines that Bastian says aboutthe swamp of sadness that aren't in the
German version. You're just like thehorse just starts sinking and and yeah,
you know a Trey who talks aboutit a little bit. But I think
American euties do kind of need alittle bit of hand holding of like what

(15:03):
am I watching here? You knowwhat's going on? I want to talk
Okay, I want to talk aboutthat a little bit because I've referenced this
a little bit at the beginning,talking about like kids watching it, like
John, you actually watched it withyour kids, and you said that they
loved it. Yeah, so theydidn't think it was slow at all.

(15:24):
They didn't think like it was theyoungest, the youngest does the two oldest,
they're into it. The youngest.She is definitely a product of modern
times. And then you tell theaudience, can you tell the audience your
your three daughters ages? Well,I don't want them to know too much
about me, Tristan, Fine,No, I'm kidding. Sixteen, fourteen

(15:48):
and seven. Okay, so there, yeah, as we all know.
Oh, I mean, I guessas the three of us know. There's
a big difference between in age wise, between your youngest in your middle.
So sixteen, fourteen and seven,that's that's a big difference. And so
I have a six year old,and I was trying to think about how
my six year old would view thismovie. She would frigg and hate this

(16:11):
movie. And I think that's whenI watched it, was when I was
that age. I was born ineighty six, and I think I watched
it around that age, if nota little younger. And I have very
few memories of it. And asI'm watching that, it's just like,
good Lord, this is for children, like not only is it scary and

(16:33):
weird and odd and a little messedup. It's slow as balls. That's
a technical term. It's so I'mjust like Mike, like like, and
I'm trying to think like okay,so you feel like the whole group,
whole movie is at the pace ofMoya, the ancient one, talking like

(16:55):
this, yeah yeah, and she'salso allergic to yeah. No, I'm
sorry, I just want sidebar forhalf a second. Again. Honestly,
I understood this movie a lot morewhen the age of subtitles came because I
did not know what Bastian's name was. I thought they were skewering Sebastian the
whole time. I didn't know thatMaria said that she's allergic to youth,

(17:19):
not you. I thought she saidI'm allergic to you like human. Wait,
okay, because I didn't watch itwith subtitles. Yeah, she's saying
youth, not you. I thoughtshe was specifically saying she was allergic to
betray you. No, she's allergicto youth because she's old. That makes
more sense. And I also didn'tknow the mom's name that he yells at

(17:42):
the end, because of course it'sat the it's it's Moonchild, which again
I'm not making that up. Thatis the mom's name, the beautiful name
that he that would be perfect withthe child. A sempress is Moonchild because
they have the giant crap. Theyhave the clash of the lightning right as

(18:03):
he yells it, you can't heara dang thing. But there's so many
things in this movie where I'm like, that would have been really important to
make sure that was a really clearpart of this movie. All of this
is dubbed, Like, every singleword of this is dubbed. There's not
an inch of nats sound in thismovie. And um, A tray You,

(18:26):
that's not even his voice. Thatthat's that's a different actor. Like
no, no, that's that's soweird because it feels like his voice,
like it's I'm so ingrained with that. I'm gonna be on this one.
I'm gonna be teen tristed on thisone. That the first time A Trey
You speaks every single time that I'veseen it, I'm like, what,
wait, what, Like it doesn'tit doesn't seem to flow. It's just

(18:49):
like when I watched it this timeand I saw deep Roy pop up,
I was like, oh, mygod, deep Roy and then he opens
his mouth and I'm like, oh, like that's somebody else that's totally not
Deeper. Yeah, that's not whathe sounds like. That is true.
That is true. So he basicallytook everything from his uh DA's boot days.

(19:10):
Was like, you know, let'sjust ADR everything. We don't even
have to record sound. They probablydidn't on the entire set. You know
why. It makes you wonder likedid they even roll sound? Because I
mean the I mean maybe you cansinking bad audio. Yeah, for sinking
you have you have to do somethingso but you don't have to worry about

(19:30):
it. You have to worry aboutbeing good. Yeah, it's just insane.
Like more movies. How do Iphrase this? Movies do ADR more
often than the average watch? Ohyes, yes and absolutely. And when
it started, there's good ADR andthere's bad ADR, just like there's good
CGI and bad CGI good cgily noticebecause it's like tweaking things. This is

(19:55):
an example of bad ADR um.I would I would tend to follow on
on Team Tristan with that one aswell. I think that the it's one
of those things where it's hard todescribe, but when you're in tune with
the knowledge that a DR is there, and ADR is a tool that well,

(20:15):
you don't even have to know thata DR was used on the film.
There's something about how breathy the soundis where you can really tell it's
a DR. Because AD always soundlike somebody's in a booth. You will
never sound like some natural sound oflike yeah, word, you're looking for
his room tone. There's no tonelike a trainer. Doesn't sound like he's

(20:37):
at a swamp. He sounds likehe's in a conference room, exactly.
That's exactly right now. Conference roomwill give it credit for is the the
for ninety percent of the film,the green screen work and blue screen back
then. Yeah, I want toI almost swar so harding it. I

(20:59):
live for these moments. This iswhy I'm here, That's right? Why
is this? Why is this?At? What is what's wrong with this?
You? You like I swear theF word in my mouth forming the
words? This has made me sohappy. Wait, Fantasia, I want
everybody to know in the hundred somethingepisodes, in a hundred something episodes that

(21:22):
we've done, this is the happiestI've been the entire time that I frustrated
him this badly. It was.It was such, you should be I
should get I should be shot me. I should get a medal for restraint
on that one. I'm so happyright now you have no idea like go

(21:47):
on the matting, the um,the blue screen, the the film cutting,
the overlay. All like ninety percentof the time that was really good,
Like it's specifically for this era offilmmaking. It was really solid.
Like when there were times when youknow, like Atreus would be on Falcourt

(22:10):
and I'm like, holy crap,like this is this is literally well they
do their angles that they do theirangles. But then there was other times
when I'm like, like in thewide shot, like when Fulcore is doing
like the dip up and down,You're like, oh, yeah, there
there are I do feel they alsoknew when not to try to make it
work, Like when he grabs atray you it's like literally half a claw

(22:32):
out of the top of the frame. Like they know they can't show any
more than that and it's not gonnafly, so they just don't. And
it's like and then you're off andyou're on the next beautiful shot and boom
boom. But and and like whenAtreus is walking like. They have a
ultra wide shot of atreus walking umlike through the gates um with the big

(22:52):
um space statues. Yeah, umsphinx like their potato potato Like that was
cut. That was overlaid and superimposedreally really well. Like I was looking
really closely on how that was puttogether, and it was a lot of
it was seamless. So much ofit was seamless. And there was a
shot that I noticed because I sowhen the uh what's his name, the

(23:18):
crazy old man um, the scientistis in the is in the little bucket
and he's and his wife is crankingit. I noticed, I'm like,
why are we cranking like this?Why are we doing like that? I'm
like, a, oh, it'sbecause of the wide shot. Because the
white shot is is a model andshe's just glued her. She's just glued

(23:40):
to that crank and that the turningmotion is what is animating the puppet.
And it's because that wide shot whereyou have big tray you and they're you
know, little. But again,it clicked so seamlessly. I mean yeah,
if I was looking closely, Icould tell that it was miniature work,
but it was it was the propertechnique for that shot. I don't

(24:00):
know how else they would have doneit, So glad you brought that up.
That was very much on the forefrontof my brain when I was thinking
about what worked like that special effect, specifically that shot night. Granted,
they were smart, they did itat night. They showed it at nighttime
in the night sky where you like, you know, the darkness can hide
a lot of sins um. Butbut a tray, you and the scientist

(24:22):
up on the hill right before hegoes to the sphinx with the with the
tell with the telescope, like itworked really well. It was. It
made me think a Lord of theRings, like with you know, with
the way that they do right,he's supposed to be a little guy that's
like maybe half a tray whose heightand but he's obviously a full grown man.
But he it works it really Falcorelike I mean, you know,

(24:47):
like they built one Falcore and thenthey rebuilt the set around him, just
like the Millennium Falcon. But itworked when they pull back on that wide
shot of the of all of him. Okay, it works for eighty four
I'll say that. Okay, okay, thank you for qualifying it. Sorry,
than the lip sync is a littlerough, but they get it in

(25:08):
the eyes. They Falcoor's eyes.I mean he's a dog. He's basically
a dog with a giant, longbody tail like he. Everybody loves Falcoor
because I think they capture you inhis face. I don't know that.
I love Falcor. I think Falkooris okay this, you know, I
think Valcor is charming. Like there, I'll say, kids think Falcor is

(25:33):
charming. I thank you for thereference. I cannot watch this movie without
thinking of Family Guy. Oh,Peter, you little big guy. Oh
oh you think we could lay Yeah? Um, I think that if anybody
has seen The Family Guy where Peteris writing Falcore, it's pretty great.

(25:55):
Um, Falcore is good enough.Falcore is Sie Snoodles in nineteen eighty three.
It's good enough. This is thebest we can do, so we're
gonna go for it sort of thing. John Obviously that reference. Yeah,
we all know that reference of slyNoodles. Just for the sake of argument,
pretend I don't know that reference.Oh my apologies. Si Snoodles was

(26:18):
the lead singer of the Max ReboBand, and in nineteen eighty three it
was good enough for her just tobe a marionette and have her lips just
go blah blah blah blah blah.And of course if you made it today,
you would not do that same sortof thing. And Foulcore falls short
in a couple of places, likehis teeth. His teeth looked like molded
plastic. They don't look like nowyou know, he picks up the paw,

(26:42):
the toes aren't jointed like it's it'syou can tell it's one piece of
plaster or whatever. It is.Like, there's little things like that that
don't now again, live a kiddoesn't necessarily care about that, and so
it's like, it's okay, it'sone of those series. Here's my child,
my kid analog. I'm supposed toimprint on flying on a luc dragon.

(27:03):
That's all I care about. It'sawesome. And he goes and he
comes into our world and fights mybullies. Like what kid wouldn't love that?
Yes, And I well, Iyou know, it's it's interesting because
Falcore showing up the end speaks alittle bit, I think to some of
the messiness of the movie. That'sa whole nother Yeah, yeah, well

(27:25):
we should. Let's talk about theending. Let's check up ahead, let's
talk about the ending. Well,I was mentioning to you, Tristan before
that the ending, because I meanit does kind of feel like tacked on.
He's like, well, what doyou wish for? Uh, the
end of the movie? And thenit ends, but the and then then
it's not the end of the story. Yeah, but then a voiceover artist

(27:45):
that we've never heard a narrator thatwe'd never hear before. Yes, yeah,
never here before. And it's likethere could be a sequel tune in
next time. Bye. You cannotintroduce a narrator at the at the eleventh
it's not even the eleventh hour,it's the eleven fifty nine. Well,
and especially since Bastian has been thenarrator up to now. And I'm sorry,

(28:06):
are you saying Sebastian or Bastion Ithink he said since Bastion since okay,
But something else that it robs you, and something else that it robs
you of is and maybe this istoo too much of a trope. I
don't know. Something else it robsyou of is him having the moment with

(28:26):
his dad at the end. Iwould say that a staple of a story
like this is you have to havesome of that resolution with the father figure
to say, Dad, I'm choosingmy own way, and the father begrudgingly
acknowledges, Okay, you're right.You have to find your own way in
the world. I found my way. You found your way. And I

(28:47):
know that this movie doesn't lend itselfto that, but that's sort of an
an expectation of the story, asis one of the characters in Fantasias should
have been had the dad's voice.Oh, the wolf, Yeah, the
wolf should have had the dad's voice. I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily go that

(29:10):
far. I would make it.I would maybe make it like the rock
Biter or some companion. I wouldsay the wolf, because the wolf's whole
point is that nothing is coming.Who cares, I'm gonna help it come.
It's just the way his dad.But it is his dad, because
his dad is the one sitting thereafter making some monstrosity that involves a raw
egg and orange juice and he's drinkingit there and he's sitting there and he's

(29:33):
like, oh, you know,mom's dead, but you know, you
gotta focus and keep on moving,kid. But that's the wolf. The
wolf is like, you can't fightthe nothing. It's gonna come. Okay,
what are you gonna do about it? And the dad and the wolf
really do sort of mesh in thatthat sense, and it would have made
sense for the dad's voice to bethe wolf, because that's what a tray

(29:56):
you. And therefore Bastion is fightingis the resignation to the idea that the
nothing is inevitable and so you mightas well just give in. I mean,
I thought, I agree, andI think you probably would have gotten
that maybe one or two more passesthrough the script, you know, but
it that's not what we got.But what do you think What I can't

(30:17):
get over is the genius writing ofhaving this, having Gerald mcrainey, who's
a fantastic actor. Yes he is. Don't let your mom's death get in
the way of getting possibility, youknow. Whatever whatever it was he said,
it was just like it's terrible fatherlater, Okay, I understand,

(30:37):
like there's bad father's out there,There are people there, there are father's
out there who don't know how toparent without the mother. I get guilty,
But to have such a so obviousline, you might as well have
had him like it's it's right upon par with somebody saying the wrong kid
dad. You know, it's justyes, it was such a weird.

(31:03):
It was such a weird statement tonot it was to not have any follow
through. And I think, John, that's what you're talking like, do
not have any symmetry at the end? Nope, Nope, bookend is super
weird, super weird and easily fixed. Easily. Like, this was a
very expensive movie. This was fiftymillion Deutsche marks US. Yeah, this

(31:27):
was the most expensive non American moviemade, um, I should say movie
made outside of the States at thetime. You could have gotten a reshoot
to have you know, Bastion walkback home after he rides Falcore and talk

(31:48):
with Gerald McCraney and and have aclosing arm and have a closing conversation.
Yes, And it's just to correctthe record. It's sixty million deutsch Mark,
which was around twenty five million theUS back then. Million. I
didn't think it was quite two toone, but yeah, for twenty five
million budget, one hundred million boxoffice in US, so it did well,

(32:12):
really well, one hundred one hundredand again this is one of those
things where it's like, oh,in my day, but like a hundred
million was your blockbuster benchmark. Yeah, back then it was one hundred million
dollars with the you know, adjustingfor inflation, blah blah blah blah blah.
Like nowadays, we're so used tothat Disney marketing juggernaut of we made

(32:32):
we made the GDP of a smallnation with one release, and it's like,
back then, we thought one hundredmillion dollars was a lot of money,
and it's like, but now youdon't make a billion, you're not
really a hit. And it's butlike that was massive. That was a
massive hit nineteen eighty four. Yeah, No, absolutely massive, No,
it was. And I think Ithink we've hit on some of the points

(32:55):
on just the story. Um,but I do think, you know,
I wanted to let's circle back aroundto the music. So we have the
you know, the super pop introand outro, but beyond that, I
think there's some some really good musiccues in this. You know, there's

(33:16):
kind of the the main Fantasia theme, you know with the strings which you
kind of have when they're flying.There's a lot of flight music. Ivory
Tower que is one of my favorites, Like, I don't know, I
mean something really special about the everyTower. But it's it's a really impactful
cue when it hits you and you'rejust like, oh, this is a
special place, like this is wherethe Empress is, is where we're going.

(33:38):
It feels like magic and it's avery I mean, it's a very
unique building, like I've never seenanything like it in fantasy or fiction.
And then you know you have aTreys theme. So John, what do
you think of just the overall justthe music, just how it it's I

(33:58):
was getting tiny princess vibe, PrincessBride vibes as far as like you have
a little bit of synth and stufflike that. That's as deep as I'm
going. But what did you thinkof how that told part of the story.
Well, I'm glad you mentioned PrincessBride because this time on this watch
through, because we watched Princess Brideso recently. I definitely picked up that

(34:20):
Princess Bride, there's a vibe verysimilar to the the scientist and his wife.
I was like, oh, thisis a Billy Crystal Carol kind of
is the music I thought was fine. I didn't think it was special.
Everybody loves the song that's become apop hit. You know, the never
Ending Story. Okay, I getit, and it's a Stranger Things reference

(34:44):
now and all of that. ButI remember because we just watched dos Bolt.
I never thought of it in termsof Oh, the same composer did
this score, and I saw hisname in the credits. I was like,
huh, I wonder how well thisis on a play. And then
I also saw Giorgio Moroder, whoalso did um. He did some some

(35:07):
odd ball ones here and there.It kind of feels like a tale of
two composers, like trying to youhad like this first pass it didn't quite
work or jedl but see it canit can work really really well. See
Last of the Mohicans, that whichis one of the greatest scores of all
time. And then this. Thisis fine. I don't have any specific

(35:31):
problem with it, but I alsodon't think that it is something where I'm
like, yeah, I'm gonna puton the never Ending Story sounds like Last
again, going back to the LastMohicans or something contemporary with it. I'll
listen to to Last, I'll listento Indiana Jones and the Template Doom.
I'll listen to et. I'll listento a Return of the Jedi. I
listen to Ghostbusters. Am I likeNever Ending Story? I'm like, maybe

(35:54):
I'll listen to but yes, yeah, more than But like you know,
if I do Never Ending Story,it's going to be like, oh,
listen to this theme song ironically andthen move on to the next thing.
It's fine, there's nothing terrible aboutit. But there's nothing that I think
is particularly special. That's my takeon it. I'm sure that makes me

(36:15):
a terrible person. I don't know. Then let's go on to some of
the characters. So this of anyof the early eighties fantasy, Like,
we have a variety of movies withinteresting characters. You have like Sloth from
Goonies, you have this one feelslike it's so interesting. It's like nowadays,

(36:40):
you know that every single person atthe top of the Ivory Tower would
be from modern IP. They'd berecognizable. Because this is supposed to represent
all of the fiction of fantasy,of every story, every told, every
magical place ever written. And Iswear there is some like, uh,

(37:00):
what was the Federation Council of StarTrek two level vibes of some of these
creatures with like dual eyes and heads, and it is really interesting character design
as far as these eye characters.Loved that character. I loved all those
characters. I loved the huge headguy. What vibe did it give you,

(37:23):
Tristan? What is man? Idon't know how to describe the vibe.
But I loved the creature work inthis Yeah. And I don't want
the tone of my voice to conveytoo much positivity because I I did not
like this movie, and I'm I'mtrying. I want to get okay to
like the character design and I'm notingit yet the pacing, but I love,

(37:45):
Yeah, I love the character design. That was one of the things
that really stuck out to me wasjust the big heads, the multiple eyes,
the multiple faces, where like theyhad like the the the Yanis thing
or however you want to say janisJanus? Like really, I think it's
well, that's the way they pronouncedit a judge dread, which features um

(38:07):
the same actor that was in DossBoat. So I'm gonna say Janas Okay,
alright, but back then, backin back in ancient room, they
probably would have said uh, probablywould have said Janus. But right,
I don't know. I think exactly, but like even the Star Wars,
like the Star Wars references in thebackground, you know, like with Yoda
and whatnot, you know, likelike all that stuff. Like I really

(38:28):
liked it, I think, Andand even with them um with a Moses
Gun, like just having a littlebit of a peak. He's not human,
No, there's no humans here.It's and even a tray a trey
you was supposed to be like inthe book, he's he's green, like
his skin is green, and thatwould have been interesting to green hunting the

(38:50):
purple Buffalo. Yeah, yeah,yeah, I think I loved it.
I love that. That was probablymy favorite scene, was all of those
those creatures put together. I justwant to make a special shout out to
Moses Gun in that scene because hehas always been one of my favorite actors
who showed anything. He's so good. But but that's the thing is,

(39:10):
you want to talk about a guywho nobody I could walk down the street
and be like, do you knowwho Moses Gun is? And nobody everybody
be like, who the hell areyou talking about? That is a guy
who had screen presence when he walkedout. He was old school. He
would walk out and the camera knewwho it was supposed to be paying attention

(39:31):
Al Ginnis of the Fantasia. Hereally is something like something like that.
But like when he was out there, I was engaged, Like it was
like, oh, okay, I'mpaying attention to him. He was a
terrific I'm sorry. I don't meanto say was he is. No,
he did pass away in ninety three, so okay, fine, I can

(39:52):
say was. But he was abeautifully gifted actor. And I think that
the casting of him in this filmwas a master stroke because he played the
exact right role. That is therole he needed to play in this film.
But but it's a you know,in terms of character design, I

(40:17):
love the character I agree with you, Tristan that I love the character design,
but it's it's one of those thingswhere I look at these characters and
I my brain immediately says the sketcheswere better than the execution. With the
exception of a few things. Ilook at it and I say, oh,

(40:43):
that's really clever. That probably lookedgreat on paper, and instead it's
stunning to me that it did costso much money it budget wise, because
I don't necessarily see that budget onscreen in those character designs. You take
me back to Return of the Jedi, or you take me back to I

(41:05):
think Darren you mentioned Sloth from Goonies. I see budget in those things because
they're convincing there. I know themagic trick behind them, but I buy
in. But there are certain thingsin this film, and I think that
this Council of Fantastical Creatures thing isa great example of it, where it's

(41:28):
like, oh, the concept wasthere, they just didn't quite get the
execution. And frequently it's like,but you had the money, so you
can't use budget as an excuse forwhy you didn't get there. So why
didn't you get there? And maybesome people think I'm being too hard on
it, but you know that's justwhere I am with it. Yeah,

(41:49):
I mean I think I liked allof the cleverness, you know where you're
looking at it, and especially withlike the dual faces or the eyes where
you think for half a second andyou're like, Okay, how where is
the human inside this? Like youyou have to kind of think for a
moment, which is good. Imean, I want to be kind of
challenged in that way. But Ilove that, you know, Matt paint

(42:10):
or not a Matt painting. Butthe the Matt shot of that terrace you
know, which you know is likethe largest sound stage they had, and
they built this massive court and putthe camera really far in the corner and
you know, and then matted aroundit, and then you know, all
the skies are are replaced. Butagain because it's it's eighty four, so

(42:35):
everything is is real, everything isor some sort of optical trick to put
it into the camera. Um,you know, I love the little the
three messengers we meet the rock Bier, you know, the racing snail and
the and the bat. You knowagain, I they're just memorable enough for
the moment we see them, becausewe never see them really much again or

(42:59):
they're not a part of the story, but uh never, the Rockbrider gets
a lot of lines. He talks, he talks quite a bit. But
that's good. But now in youso you go through this adventure, you
know, you have the testing ofa tray, you you know, and
then at the end he's you know, trying to get back as as the

(43:21):
world is being destroyed. What doyou guys think of the villain being nothingness
and being like again, how doyou think it worked? How they represented
that visually, because you can't justsay, like, here's the black literally
black nothing. I mean, Iguess you could, but it may not.
It may not work as well.I think it's effective for the kid

(43:45):
audience of the time. I thinkthat the film falls down a little bit
because I think a great read ofthe film is if you look at it
and you say, well, thennothing is representative of Bastion's fear of death
because his mother has died, sohe sees the nothing as death. But

(44:08):
then they layer on a thing wherethe nothing is the death of imagination,
which speaks to what the pipe smokingbookstore owner is in the death of imagination
because you're darned kids play video games. Oh oh, if only he lived
to see this age. But it'sone of those things where it's like,

(44:29):
what does the nothing really represent?Does it represent the loss of imagination?
Does it represent death itself? AndI think that that's where it's sort of
falls apart a little bit. Theopening sequence obviously is supposed to represent the
nothing invading Fantasia, but even that, it's really just a bunch of cool

(44:52):
cloud tank effects. Yeah, it'sa lot of cloud tank and that's one
of the big differences again in themusic. In the German version, the
beginning is kind of an eerie synthtrack that you know, doo doo doo
doo doo doo doo doo doo doolike theme that's playing in the German version,
and I watched a comparison video onit, and it is haunting,

(45:15):
like it gives you a very differentvibe of like because it's supposed to be
I think Bastion dreaming because he wakesup like I dreamt of Mom again,
and which again is a very differenttone than what we get in the American
version, which is, you know, the pop song playing, and you
know it's like, oh hey,guys, here comes the Fantasy Tour,

(45:36):
the magical Mystery Tour. It's it'svery different. I think you could almost
I mean, they don't do it, but you could almost have the nothingness
represent growing up and losing that senseof fantasy and wonder. But that's not
where they go at all with thisstory. You know, It's honestly,
it took me a couple of viewsto even realize that his mom had died,

(45:59):
because it's I mean, I getthat they say it, but if
you kind of miss it in thevery beginning of that early scene, like
they only kind of mention it once, and if you like, I just
I don't think I caught it enoughthat that is what had happened, because
there's not really mentioned throughout it.I mean, he says, my mom

(46:19):
had a beautiful name, but besidesthat, they don't mention it at all
throughout the whole rest of the movie. So little Darren missed that for a
while. I think that I thinkthat the toughest thing is, let's go
back to another movie we watched recentlyin the Hallway of Ephron, where we
watched Sleepless in Seattle, and thathad the it was it was thoughtful enough

(46:47):
to have the scene of them standingat the funeral to clearly communicate visually what
had happened. Now you can stillcommunicate through dialogue. But to your point,
Darren, if there's if there's aportion of the audience that doesn't get
why Bastion is having a hard time, then a lot of the thrust of

(47:08):
the movie is a bit lost,where you know, it's It's one of
those things where I agree, Iwish it had been communicated a little more
cleanly. I don't know if thatis a product of the you know,
adapting the film and then read ringit and all of those sorts of things

(47:30):
to bring it across. But fromyou know, from what I've read again,
with some of the changes from theGerman version, besides adding more music
and more tone, it's short.I mean, this version is shorter.
The German version I think is aroundone hundred and one minutes and this one's
ninety four. So they cut outlittle bits here and there, a shot

(47:52):
here, a shot there. AndI think from what I've read is that
the German version has a lot moremelancholy in it, a lot more of
hanging on Bastion as he's thinking abouthow he's feeling or the moment or the
emotion. And not that that's notin this movie, but I think it's
sounds like they double down on itin the German versions. It's definitely a

(48:15):
cornerstone. I mean, it's possiblethat my German ancestry is coming to bear
here saying I want to see thatlonger version. Maybe it would speak to
me in a different way. Butagain, it spoke to my kids.
Okay, So maybe I'm just notthe right audience. Maybe I was never

(48:37):
the right audience to have seen thisfilm because of the way I came up
and the things I had seen bythe time I encountered it. Maybe this
is something where it's it's hard todescribe if you were coming up in the
eighties trying to explain to somebody inthe nineties why the Muppets were so magical?

(48:57):
Is you know, I always goingback to Homer Simpson. Well,
it's not quite a mop and it'snot quite a puppet, but boy,
it's really funny. You know.It's one of those sorts of things where
I think that if this film hitsyou at just the right time and just
the right combination of factors, itturns into that absolutely magical reference of your

(49:20):
life sort of thing, Whereas ifthose tumblers don't align quite right, it
doesn't strike that same chord. Now, I think that's true, Tristan,
Do you feel the same way whereif if you don't have a hefty dose
of nostalgia for this because of beingin that right place and right time growing

(49:43):
up, does this movie really notclick or hold hold hold up? Yeah,
not at all. I think withoutnostalgia, this movie has nothing.
This is this is poorly constructed.This poorly executed. The pacing is horrible,
the writing is horrible, and it'sjust the the acting is subpar because

(50:05):
everything is adyr poorly except for youknow, with the childlike Empress and um
with and Moses gun and and youknow, there's obvious exceptions and everything like
that. But I couldn't stand atray you. You know you you basically
you have Bashton and a tray you, and I couldn't stand either of them.
And they're they're the leads, andespecially a tray you, and just

(50:30):
there's so much wrong with this movie. And I wanted to like it.
I wanted to have that childlike wonderand I kept trying to put myself in
a childlike state and I couldn't geton board. And a tray you was
not charming, a tray you wasnot magnetic, and Bashtion was just kind
of there that the structure didn't payoff until the very end. It's it's

(50:54):
kind of like, I get hatefor this, but it's kind of like,
um, oh my gosh, Ican oh geez, the Christmas movie
Jimmy Stewart. Um, it's awonderful life. It's a wonderful life.
It's a wonderful life. Um there'slike I don't think that movie needed of

(51:15):
the alternate reality, and so manypeople are like, but that's the crux
of this film. I know,that's the thing I get called monster.
You know, children point at mein the street. But with this movie,
like you could, I could,I could absolutely get it. I
can understand a cut of this filmwithout Bastion, without the modern day,

(51:38):
where it just takes place in Fantasia. But then you'd have to rework the
conversation between a tray you and theEmpress. But that's only where it gets
interesting when you get like super metayeah, where you know the Empress is
talking into a tray you where theystart talking about Bastion, who's reading the
book. But then it gets ontoanother layer of inception where they start talking

(52:00):
about the people who are watching Bashton. They're like, oh my god.
It's like when you go to anavant garde theater performance, you're like,
we're a part of the show.Um, I hate like stuff. Nobody
likes it. But like in thatmoment, like that's the only cool moment
to me where it's just like,oh that's interesting. Too bad we don't

(52:20):
have a whole movie of that,because otherwise you're wasting your premise. They
have a few moments like where heyells out and he's like, oh,
how they couldn't have possibly heard me? But there's too little, too late
exactly. It's like, that's cool. They should expand on that. They
should expound on that. There shouldbe moments, there should be more interaction
between our trae, you and Bashton, whether whether whether obvious or not,

(52:45):
that should have been more. Andalso also just the freaking horse. The
white horse died way too early,narratively speaking, way too quickly, too
early and too quickly. It isdefinitely the too quickly thing, because it
is it always blows. The moviesort of has me up until that where

(53:07):
I'm like, wait, what wasthe swamp of sadness took? What happened?
Like it really moves too fast,and this is the this is the
thing where you know, sometimes youfeel like you're you're a crazy person because
you don't love the same thing thatyour generation loves. I always talk about
jen X in this movie. Blahblah blah. But even the author of

(53:30):
the book did not care for thisadaptation and said, this is a quote
from an article at the time,he said the makers of the film simply
did not understand the book at all. They just wanted to make money.
So if the writer of the booksays that there was an issue translating it

(53:51):
to film because the blue screen,yes, that's purely the only it's the
foul core puppet. Actually, Nowthere are times where that's not true.
For instance, you know, StephenKing hated the adaptation of The Shining But
it's because they're in different media andthey excel in their own media, right,

(54:15):
that's just the way that it is. They respect what the audience,
how you communicate to the audience inthis different media. I think that never
ending story probably, even though I'venever read the book but I want to
now, it probably exists in thathellish space between wanting to be too faithful
to the book and therefore hamstringing itselfin the film expression of it. Now,

(54:40):
I don't hate the film. Spoilersfor the ratings later, I don't
hate it. But it's definitely somethingthat has a number of problems trying to
achieve what it wants to and thereare a lot of things where it feels
if you know, you know,if Peterson is sitting down with Spielberg to

(55:06):
say, hey, Stevie boy,give me some edits here to help me
bring it down. I don't thinkthat Spielberg necessarily helped him, or you
should have sat down with Spielberg oflike when he's writing the draft and it's
like, hey day on preproduction,not on post post post production. It's
like, what is he gonna do. He's gonna snip a little here,

(55:27):
change a little music, maybe ata little dr and narration. That's all
you can do at that point,right Or I like what you were saying
though, John about that. It'sjust it's an adaptation, and how do
you Where do you draw that line? I think of Jurassic Park or Lord
of the Rings, where as acore they are that story in the book,

(55:50):
but they do take liberties in goodways, either changing characters slightly or
making adjustments on when the story chapterends and whatnot, and so it works.
So there are definitely ways to doit well. Fantasia. Again,
we haven't read the book, butwe can kind of infer that it was
not done as well in this filmwell, even independent of the book.

(56:13):
And I'd throw another Spielberg adaptation outtheir jaws the people are all despicable.
In the novel from Peter Benchley andSpielberg, Spielberg wife like having an affair
with Quint or something like that.Not no, not Quint, not Quint.
It was with I always forget hisname, the Richard Dreyfus character Hooper.

(56:34):
Yeah, yeah, anyway. I'venever read the book, but I
can still look at the film andjudge it on its own merits, and
I think that there are certain aspectsthat just fall short. The ending is
just one of them. I hatethe fact that instead of teaching a good

(56:59):
man message to the children in theaudience to say there are always going to
be bullies, you sort of haveto figure out how to work in the
world and get around that. Instead, in the last minute, it turns
into a revenge fantasy of a kidwriting a giant, scary dragon that terrifies

(57:20):
the entire population of this nondescript city. You know, as he's writing through
scaring everybody, and it's is itthat that's happening in his imagination? Is
that it's really happening? Is likethere are too many question marks around that
it just doesn't work as a result, And I can almost guarantee you that
is probably not in the book becausethis was the halfway point of the book,

(57:45):
Like the story keeps going, soyou don't even have the whole story,
so of course I can't end properly. Yeah, this ending was borderline
malfeasance. It's I honestly feel likesomeone could have sued for like not including
the author, but I feel likethe studio could have sued the Wolfgang Peterson

(58:05):
for the ending that he gave.It was absurd, it was, but
it's positively absurd. But let's couchall of this in this sense. It's
still made blockbuster money. It's stillmade so much one hundred million dollars,
right, we talked about this.It made blockbuster money for the day,
and it's a it is such alower back then, well, it's it's

(58:31):
such an absolutely insane cultural reference thatit comes back in stranger things that this
is a beloved reference of a moviefrom the nineteen eighties. People go back
to this, people adore it,people think it's great. The Family Guy
episode made fun of it, allof these sorts of things, and it's

(58:52):
just one of those things where it'sbizarre because again, it just feels weird
to have these strong negative reactions toaspects of it, and it makes you
question how am I watching movies?Have I lost the ability to find joy

(59:14):
in the simplest pleasure when I lookat a movie like The Never Ending Story
that is endored by so many people. Oh, I know I have,
and everybody else is wrong. I'mright. I think I think you just
have a different sense of tolerance ofbad movies. Like we see so much
and we know when things are goodand when they're bad, and we but
we also know that just because abad portion, like justin you're saying,

(59:36):
you know and you can shift intoyour final thoughts. But like, I
liked what you said about you overalldon't like this movie, but you really
liked the character design on that terraceand like, and that's okay to like
a part of a movie or anaspect of Like again, I love the
Ivory Tower theme, like that openingshot and like is it is magical.

(59:57):
It's probably the most magical shot ofthis movie to me. But that doesn't
necessarily mean you know that Falcore breakingthe fourth wall into the real world makes
any sort of sense in the endingof the movie. Zero, Yeah,
zero, I've already gone on andon, like I ranted about what is
wrong with this? With this movie, so much is wrong with this movie,

(01:00:21):
and there's very little right. Whatis right is nice. But I'm
just going to go right into it, and I'm giving this a generous two
this is I'm getting the same ratingthat I gave to us both this is.
This is not a good film,two point five if you give it
a little bit of a bump afterOh did I okay? Well this is
less two stars, two solid twostars. I this this is not a

(01:00:43):
good movie. It's I don't knowwhat, people. It has to be
rose colored glasses. It has tobe nostalgia glasses. That's all that I
can think. I think it is. It is. It absolutely is.
Now, before I go into myrating, the one thing we didn't talk
about is that there was a discussionabout doing a remake, or probably they'd

(01:01:04):
call it a reboot. Now andthe infamous Kathleen Kennedy in twenty eleven said
that problems securing the rights to thestory may mean that a second adaptation is
not meant to be. Well,it's been a few years since twenty eleven,
so it has, but not asbut as recently as twenty twenty two,

(01:01:24):
there's like a bidding war for therights for streaming and studios like is
it going to be a series?Is it going to be a film?
Mini series? Would work? Imean, there's a lot of dense material,
it seems, but I don't know. I don't know if the story's
there to I justify that much time. With the way the streaming ecosystem is

(01:01:45):
collapsing, I think that the biddinghorse probably on hold for a little bit
as we record this. But Ithink that a series, it probably lends
itself to a series like I think, or eight episode series. I think
it could really I think a fourthepisode with a promise of a second season
or something like that. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta tease the
audience along, get at least threeseasons out of it, get the Netflix

(01:02:08):
viewers, and stuff like that.The problem I think with this is this
is something so much of its time, and it's it's got a good heart.
I think that when you watch this, even when you have problems with
it, you know the intent isso pure that you want to give it

(01:02:30):
as many breaks as possible. Thatsaid, I will also give it a
very generous two simply because the thingsthat like it keeps me in it.
My kids were in it, butit kept me in it up until a
certain point, and then it dropsoff sharply, and I think it's the

(01:02:52):
swamp of sadness is where suddenly Isit there and I say, where was
the editor in this? What happenedhere? What? How did this happen
this way? And I really hingeon that, because after that everything feels
rushed. Everything feels like they're justtaking shortcuts to get to the next point
in the story, and it turnsinto a bullet point movie. And I

(01:03:16):
have every intention of seeking out andwatching the German version of this, because
I have a serious The most recentBlu ray Is is the German version with
English dub well. I have avery sincere belief that this is going to
be something where the longer cut helpsit a great deal. But for the

(01:03:39):
American version, the version of everybodyknows the version they reference in Stranger Things,
I'm going to go ahead and givethis two stars because I'm in a
good mood and to give it lowerprobably get me death threats. Now,
I think I think we've said alot of it all. I think,
yeah, I think the nostalgia isprobably what would hurt it most in some

(01:04:03):
sort of remake reboot, because youcould tell a beautiful story, and you
could actually do justice to the effectsand the characters and no adr and all
of that. But everybody is comparingevery frame to this rose colored, beloved
movie that they haven't actually watched inabout twenty years that they remember from their

(01:04:24):
youth. But if they did goback and rewatch it because they were listening
to a great podcast called house Lights, they would realize this is not actually
that great of a movie. Andagain, you're talking about a very specific
slice of America that was at thatright age, right time saw this in
theaters. You know, had aValcore plushy at home or something, you

(01:04:46):
know, loved luck Dragons. Soyeah, I would not if I would
not want to be hired onto theproduction of a of a remake of this.
I don't how could you win.I don't know. I mean,
great, you could if you putout something really, really interesting, but
it would just feel like such anuphill battle. So I too, am
going to give this a two overall. Again, there's great moments. I

(01:05:12):
also don't watch it very often justbecause it scares the but Jesus out of
me, Like, I'll kind ofwatch it from the side, like,
Okay, there's the well, Iknow he's going to be there. There
he is, And I think that'sjust for me personally, having that particular
character linked with, you know,just scariness in my childhood. But as
I promised the ever, this isnot the never ending podcast. We are

(01:05:35):
coming to an end. So Tristan, what are we going to be talking
about next week? As we roundout the three films of Peterson of the
eighties, we are talking next weeknineteen eighty five Enemy Mine, starring Lewis
Gossip Junior, and Dennis Quaid.In order to hear what we say,

(01:05:56):
please tune in next week on houseLights. Join the Evolution, Joined the
Nerd Party.