THE NEVERENDING STORY (1984) *1/2 It's not that I have anything against movies glorifying books, or books glorifying movies for that matter. Nor am I a literary snob who believes that imagination is limited to the written page. There's more room to run on the best written pages, I believe, or at least a more emphatic launch, but so much subjectivity is in the eye of the beholder. It's all, the best of it-film and novel-aiming at something else anyway. There's also a place for those that don't. The creature creations here (racing snail, dog dragon) are endearing in their own way, to some extent, without necessitating imagination. Low level comprehension is sufficient, and let's face it, sometimes that's enough to have a good time. No, no, I'm not even irritated that it's all thrown together on such grandiose premises. The worst of the problem is probably Giordio Moroder's space imbecile dance music littered along the way, there's certainly nothing more irritating than that. But there's not much else. A kid, a book, a skeleton plot designed to manipulate sympathy, pretensions greater than the eyes or aspiration of the (adult) pretenders (at the controls). Little kids seem to like it ok. My favorite part is probably the Zippy the Pinhead t-shirt that one of the bullies is wearing, but that probably says more about me than about the film. They didn't develop the racing snail character enough.
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