The Movies are Back! ~ Trixie Mattel Saturday is gonna be movie day folks! We're back at it again and kicking off with The Never Ending Story. You know why ;)

People like to talk about how the horse scene traumatized them as a kid but I will personally NEVER forget the 'big strong hands' monologue.

I’m 44 years old, I still cry every time artex drowns in his own sadness

The dad is mixing raw egg with orange juice, a common hangover cure in the 80s. The movie doesn't come out and say it, but he's likely an alcoholic struggling with depression of his own at the loss of his wife.

24:50 lol yup. That "they look like good strong hands, don't they?" line has stuck with me over the past 40 years. The notion of these giant, strong, rock hands and the realization that they wind up being powerless to the forces of the world around him hit me like a ton of bricks too. And has stuck with me ever since my childhood.

The Never Ending Story is an allegory of Bastian’s journey through his grief over the loss of his mother. He is warned by the bookstore owner that book is dangerous; it is beyond his ability. Which is how grief feels, doesn’t it? Then we have Artreyu loosing Artax in the Swamps of Sadness as he sinks in his own despair. Then Artreyu is rescued by the luck dragon, and sometimes it feels like the only way out of your own despair is luck. All of it, everything, the whole Never Ending Story is Bastian’s journey through his grief, sadness and despair.

Rockbiter's last words live rent free in my head

This movie is one of the reasons why we call Stranger Things a feel good experience.

My favorite part of this movie is towards the end when the Empress starts talking to Atreyu that he hadn't failed and that he had brought Sebastián with him. That was not the big twist though. The big twist was when she said that Sebastián "had brought others with him" and you realize the Empress is talking about you.

Hard to overstate how this movie lightly traumatized a generation of kids, back in the day. We had never seen anything as sad as the death of Artax

Some sadistic part of me enjoys new audiences getting exposed to the same Artax trauma I had to experience as a child.

Noah Hathaway, who played Atreyu, was 12 years old when they started filming. now, he's in his early 50's, and to this day, when he goes to Comic-con and he's asked about making this movie, he still talks about how Wolfgang Peterson, the director, tried to kill him every week in different ways while filming! Starting with how he broke his back while learning how to ride a horse for the movie before they even started filming and was in the hospital for a few months.

Congratulations -- you are now part of The NeverEnding Story. You were with Bastian as he experienced Atreyu's adventures. And we, as channel watchers, were with YOU when you experienced the story. Others will join when they watch too.

It took decades for me to find out the name was Moonchild. Thanks so much.

My parents used an old tow truck for their work and it was called "the winch truck". My dad's favorite thing to say to my mom was, "to the winch,wench!"

This is a German story. This is Michael Ende's 1979 metaphoric description about the journey amd reality of depression. Artex's "drowning" is a methpor for sinking into depression - Atreu could not get through to Artex to fight for his life because Artex was too far gone. This becomes obvious after you have found yourself in such a situation with someone you care about. The end scene is the boy's imagination. His father (as adults do) was taking away the boy's imagination (something most of us can admit we left it or at least a lot of its vividness somewhere in our past). The father represents society at large to Ende. The missing mother represents our youth to Ende. And the boy is of course each of us, but the boy found that his world improved and his trauma began to heal when he embraced his imagination. There is quite a bit more to this story, but the movie does do a good job of capturing most of Ende's original.

29:42 An entire generation (that never read the book) had to wait decades until DVD and subtitles became a thing to know what her name is.

"It has to hurt if it's to heal." What's funny is my generation talks about being traumatized. But what we really mean is this is one of the first films to make us feel real emotion, even if we didn't consciously understand the subtext. I think this movie actually taught us to deal with trauma better, if even only a little bit and only on a subconscious level. Right around this era when the book was written, the hippies of the 60s were having kids and starting to have grandkids. So many of them were now driving family vehicles and working corporate jobs, it was an interesting contrast. So Moonchild, at least as I always saw it, was just an interesting reference to that. As well as a contrast to his stuffy, suit wearing father.

I remember reading the book. When it was Bastian's side, the print was in red(?) and Atreyu's story was in green. It was such a clever way to separate his reality from the reality he was peeking into.

The Artex scene still gets me. Just be glad they didn't use the book version of Artex. in the book he talks and has a personality like an older brother to Atreyu, when it comes to this scene, Artex actually describes the sadness as it's taking hold of him.

I watched this EVERY SINGLE DAY when I was a child and have since apologized to my mother for putting her through it. She said it was great because she at least knew where I was for two hours.

Atreyu killing Gmork is one of the most badass moments in a kids film.

I was a child of the 80s who had depression from a pretty early age. This movie meant a lot to me on ways of processing that. Well into my teens when I was spiraling my dad would ask me 'How do we fight the nothing?' as a way of helping me find some ways to ground myself again.

Oooooohhhhh shit, y'all. They're about to react to the "Artax! You're sinking!" Scene. Fuck.

I'm upset we never got to see the purple buffalo. :)

Its an allegory about grief. The attic, the Fantasia characters, the shopkeeper and the dad... Bastion is in a dark mental place.

as a kid, this movie came with trauma of artax and the fear of the wolf monster coming out of my closet at night, but it also had such a profound effect on a kid like me who loved to read, a story where you WERE part of the story, where it could become real if you believed enough, it was everything to me, it stoked my imagination and wonder in so many ways

11:44 Welcome to 80's children's films, Maple. Where you will witness dark, scary, and sad stuff, and you'll like it, because you will cry your eyes out and be terrified, but everything is made right in the end. Another film Maple and Arianna should see, is the 80's film, *"Enemy Mine" from 1985.*

They talked through my favorite part and missed it! Not only was Bastian with Atreyu throughout his entire journey, but we were there with Bastian the whole time too. The movie talks directly to the viewer without actually breaking the fourth wall. It is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen a movie do.

I always felt that "Moonchild" may have just been a nickname that Bastian called his mom when they played make believe. His spirit of adventure and imagination obviously came from her and not the father.

There’s a fun bit of lore in my family: Ghostbusters came out when I was one year old and my parents worried it’d be too scary for my older siblings so my mom took me to that while my dad took bro & sis to the nice, kid-friendly Neverending Story. They were traumatized forever while I got to party with Slimer, Lewis Tully, and Pete Venkman.

"MOOCHIAIAHHAHHH". 😅That was his mothers name for me, watching the VHS for years as a child😂

Actor Noah Hathaway who played Atreyu was badly injured making this movie. A horse he was riding got spooked and took off. It tried to jump a fence, but failed and the horse fell backwards, landing on top of him. Hathaway suffered several broken vertebrae in his back requiring several surgeries over the years with spinal fusions and screws inserted into his spine. He still suffers significant back issues to this day.

I originally didn't understand the name Bastian yells into the storm either, until decades later reading about the movie online. Until then, I'd assumed the makers of the film had intentionally made it unintelligible so that each person could imagine their own perfect name in that place.

To be fair, it must have been Moonchild's PARENTS who were the crystal hippies. Maybe Moonchild hated that name and grew up to become someone like Miranda Priestley or anyone in Succession 😆

You two made this a really fun watch. Thank you

Sees video title... immediately waits for the swamp tears.

I always took this story as a warning to not bow to tyranny and to keep hope alive. Especially in these uncertain days

Yeah this was the 80’s back when it didn’t occur to parents that that kids are human beings and may be having through some mental health issues. Better just to make the kid feel bad abt it.

Barrett Oliver (Bastian) is also a published author. Did an entire book on an old photography technique. Something like, the woodburytype, I think?

Not to be lost among all this, is Gmork's speech toward the end. The part about how people who have no hopes, are easier to control, hits harder in 2024, than it ever possibly could have 40 years ago.

I bet Maple would like Pan's Labyrinth.

I honestly credit the Artex scene with awakening my sense of empathy. Can't remember when I first watched this, but I was born in 85, and that scene had a great impact on me as a young man

Watching Arianna go from shock to tears over Artax was very entertaining 😅 The schadenfreude is strong with The Neverending Story

Favorite kind of the movie has always been "To the winch, wench". I've used that line so many times in my life.

We used to watch this in school back in the 5th or 6rh grade. One of those movies that defined my childhood in the 80's.

Every one of your viewers from Colorado (me included) just burst out laughing at Maple's random "Have you ever been Casa Bonita?"

Young kids think everything's brand new. My junior high had three floors. My high school the pool is in the basement.

The name Bastion calls out when giving the empress her new name is apparently, “Moon Child”, which I did know for the longest time.

am sure somebody mentioned already...from what I've read its "MoonChild" that he yelled for the Empresses name, am guessing his Mom was a hippie from the 70's....but just a guess..lol

I think the reason this movie scarred us all so much is that it deals so much with subjects that kids need to be prepared for but don't always have the experience yet to handle which is a terrible spot to be in. But being introduced to depression, apathy, grief, regret...... Those are all really important things that are going to hit us at various times in our life and learning about them early on I think is a good thing.

I'm 45 years old and watched this movie 100 times as a kid. The Artax scene still gets me.

This movie was my childhood!!! It gives alllll the feelings and gave me a love of reading I probably otherwise wouldn't have had.

Imagine watching this as a child in the 80s. It's like many 80s movies for kids all competed for which scene would kill a part of their childhood innocence - and the horse in the swamp and "Strong Hands' dialogue from the big rock man still crush me 40+ years later.

Yup. Everyone's faces were streaked with tears in the movie theater when Artex died.

The whole moon child rant had us in tears 😂. I saw this by myself when I was younger than the Artreyu actor and I wanted to be just like Artreyu

11:45 When 90s babies watch 80s movies. We are Trauma Maple, there is no heartache 80s movies didn't show us first =P

What makes th scene of Artax in the Swamp of Sadness even sadder is if you've read the book. In the book Artax actually talked. So when Artax was sinking he was a basically telling Atreyu whats the point in going on an literally telling Atreyu to just let him die.

This movie is so experimental for children's content. How some of the shots executed remind me of how the filmmakers came about their scenes for Everything, Everywhere, all at once with a tight budget and an incredulous vision.

My generation's Wizard of Oz. The allegory for grief and mental health was completely lost on me as a kid.

the setdesign from the swamp of sadness is absolutely stunning.feels like real fantasy

The author of the book had them remove his name from the movie and all promotional material because he dislikes it so much. I personally loved it as a kid, but the book is, of course, much better. Really hope they’ll eventually make a faithful adaptation. 😊

That kid coulda been conceived at Woodstock based on when the movie came out in early 1980s and hes like 12. Of course his mom was named MoonChild.

My neice spent the night when she was around 5 or 6 & I put this on for us. When artex died in the swamp she got really emotional but said she wanted to finish the movie when I asked her. After the movie I was asleep on the floor next to her sleeping on my couch. She woke up crying (but not fully awake, she still does this) and when I asked what was wrong she said artex, he died in the swamp of sadness. I said yeah, but remember bastian brought him back with his first wish! Still a fond memory to this day, about 4 years later.

I was around 8 when I first watched this movie. Swamp of Sadness made an impression.

The look of wonder on Maple’s face is priceless.

I'll watch this after work. 🙌🏻 This movie scarred me for life.

Yeah this is why at 45 I have always been screwed up. This was a children’s movie. I saw this at 6-7 years old and have been scared by that horse for 39 years. Oh and we had Old Yeller too lol. Emotional Damage for life before the age of 10

I can't wait 'Till the remake. They're makin a whole series of these.

Since you brought up The Land Before Time, I'll just give you the explanation Don Bluth gave: "[If] you don't show the darkness, you can't appreciate the light. If it weren't for December, no one would appreciate May. It's just important that you see both sides of that." Family and Kids' movies of the 80s didn't hold back because they respected their audience. The absolute best way to see this is as a child, and again as an adult. Just as Bastian shared Atreyu's journey, we shared his. This movie is riddled with allegory, and seeing it as a kid, then as an adult are two very different experiences. As a kid you take things at face value, and you might understand the themes in a rudimentary way, but as an adult...It's a story that grows with its audience. "You have to try. You have to care." "It has to hurt if it's to heal." "Confronted by their true selves, most men run away screaming!" "I couldn't hold onto them. The Nothing pulled them right out of my hands. I failed." "People who have no hopes are easy to control." It's scary how relevant these lines and others become when you grow up. And just a bit of fun trivia: The novel this is based on (Die unendliche Geschichte) is written by Michael Ende. The author of The Neverending Story's last name literally means End in German.

I was 6 when this came out…we would watch it in class on a rainy day when there was no recess

Tami Stronach is half-Scottish (father) and half-Israeli (mother). Her father, Professor David Stronach, was a notable expert on Persian antiquities. The family had to flee Persia/Iran during the Revolution. They went to Israel, then to America where Tami is still based. She was studying acting in California...

I have been watching this movie in my whole life. I have never known his mother's name was moonchild. Never even thought to look it up. The internet is amazing.

fun fact .......THEY trained the horse to be calm while sinking . Which is really hard

I still member renting the VHS tapes of this and the cartoon series from HollwoodVideo and BlockBuster as a kid. Shit went so stupidly hard

I remember this opening in the cinema! x) The 80's, that mythical time when you wept because you lost your horse and giggled at a luck dragon. A time of deep story telling that stirred emotion... x) The horse; It's part of the 'hero journey', loss, sadness, the abyss (death & rebirth), return (gift of the goddess).

there's a theory about the man in the bookstore: he's one of the first fantasian heroes the empress sent to find her new name. she knew the name needed to be given by a human child, so she used her power [was was keeping the nothing at bay] to send him to earth- this happens WAY before the movie's events. knowing this was a one way trip, the hero set up the book shop and waited. over the decades, he would test children by hiding the book and seeing if they would find it. this is why he immediately knew [the quick surprised look on his face] that bastian was the "right" child. this is because, out of ALL the books in the store, bastian almost instantly found it- as if the book wanted to be found. so when bastian took the book anyway [after being warned not to], the hero knew his mission was finally complete- hence the smile.

This was an awesome surprise!!! So glad you two got to experience it. Gmork was nightmare fuel for me as a kid and of course Artex and "These strong hands" just 😭😭😭 everytime.

First time I noticed the dad was same actor who played Hearst in TV Series Deadwood.

It’s interesting that Maple used the word “fantastical” - in the book, the imaginary realm is called Fantastica.

As a kid of the eighties and saw this in the theater, Artax dying was awful, but we did survive. Good point about the mom’s name and the dad.

Artax, another example of gen x early trauma. Watership Down, Transformers the Movie, The Plague Dogs, Secret of Nimh.

I used to say that to my friends when they started saying dumb things. "Artax, you're sinking!"

This movie is 40 this year and I'll tell you what the practical effects still hold up 😮

This is definitely a childhood classic

When you understand that the story is about the navigating severe depression, Morla becomes pretty wonderful. There was a whole generation of kids traumatized by that Artex scene.

The original story reminds me a lot of Grimm fairytales, where every character and every occurrence has meaning beyond the literal. Swamps of sadness, the nothing, etc.

I just love how ALL American reactors wonder about the attic in the school. The first school I visited in Germany that DIDN'T have an attic was when I was 17. And since this is based on a German book, that tracks. 😅

“ they look like good strong hands, don’t they?” I’m 43 and I still cry at that scene.

The Name Bastian yells out to name the Empress is "Moon Child"....so i take it Bastian's late Mom's parents were about the Flower Child lifestyle.

The dad wasn't the way he is now until he lost his beloved Moonchild

I had the pleasure of meeting Tami Stronach at a comic con. I could not adequately express enough to her how much this movie meant to me. I was 10 years old when it came out while my parents were divorcing. This death of Artex was the most traumatic thing I had ever seen, but I survived it, like I made it through my parents divorce.

Yall notice how much the kid in this looks like Will Byers, right? Right down to the haircut.

I was 9 when this came out and saw it in the theater. Here in Vancouver where they shot the movie. And ALL the ACTUAL TRAUMA aside(horse death) kids in the theater were jumping and cheering in the theater when he was making his wishes........

Yes, as someone who was about 6 years old when they watched this for the first time, Artax dying was highly traumatic.

Being a kid in the 80’s was fantastic for movies and TV shows. We also had a great balance of outside life and indoor TV time. Remember, the whole family (unless you were rich) had one or maybe two TVs 📺 Your Dad would watch the news etc. and your Mum would watch the soaps so you were excited when your film or TV show was on. Good times

His mom’s name he called out was “Moonchild”. Also as of today there’s a trailer for the childlike Empress actress’ new movie, her first movie in 40 years since basically this movie, it’s called “Man and witch the dance of 1000 steps”

Our school had the 1st, 3rd & 5th grade go on a field trip to see this movie. Lots of stuff went over our heads.

This movie scarred me as a kid in the 80s. The Artax scene for sure. (what was up with quicksands in the 80s?) But also the concept of The Nothing scared me deeply. Not even the Rock Biter with "big, strong hands" wasn't strong enough to fight The Nothing. I don't know if it was this movie, or any of the other 80s movies, but I had to see a social worker in elementary school because I was so scared about Death. So watching the ladies be so stunned by the Artax scene was hilarious. I don't mean to laugh at the trauma, but it did have a sort of "welcome to our world" kind of feel. Oh, and if you want to get the Barret Oliver triplet, watch him also in D.A.R.Y.L. and Cocoon.

As a kid, this movie was packed with formative experiences for me: Artax's death, Gmork being scary af, and the Sphinx Gate boobs, of course.