This is very nice, not sure how current it is, as I doubt the uploads are bit more frantic than this, but it is very hypnotic to see what people are uploading. Flickr will be the history book of the future.
So I got off the bus and was about to cross the road when a shiny convertible…. car (sorry no idea what type of car, but it was black and a convertible) pulled up. I am exposed more often than I like to loud music out of cars as we live quite near to a main crossroad. But this wasn’t the usual hyper bass hip hop, accompanied with rattling. This guy was pumping out I Wanna Sex You Up by Colour Me Badd!! You could see people walking by and then recognising a familiar tune and smiling. Not sure if that was due to the guilty pleasures of knowing the song, or the guy trying to look cool in his pussy wagon.
I have just finished reading The Neverending Story, and so concludes my ickle adventure in Fantasia (or Fantastica as it is called in the book)
It was the end of term and I was seven or eight years old. We were told that we would spend the afternoon watching a film with some other classes, that vhs tape my friend was indeed The Neverending Story. I knew little of the film but got caught up in the fellow excitement of my school buddies and off we trotted to the room next door to sit on tables to watch. One memory that really sticks out is when Artex drowns in the Swamp of Sadness and all the girls were bawling their eyes out hugging the teachers (and some boys (but not me, honest))
I can’t tell you the amount of times I have seen the film since, at least three at the saturday morning juniors club at the local cinema. Uncountable viewings of rented and finally purchased versions, and now glorious dvd. If i was ever to pick a top whatever of my favorite movies, it would rank pretty high. It is a kids film, but does have really cool characters and creatures and is pure fantasy. I did read a lot when I was young, so the idea of reading a book where the pictures in your head were real and there was a chance you could go into them was pretty desirable. Kids do have stronger imaginations, not one to digress but as a child I remember playing with friends pretending we were having magical adventures and it all feeling so real. I can still remember running round the big painted circle on the playground with my friend James, pretending we were spinning down in a big black cauldron to save our little furry friends. Ho hum, all part of growing up I guess. Though it is also good to use your imagination as an adult 
The basic premise of the story is a nerdy skinny boy acquires the book and starts to read. You then follow Atrayu on his quest to find a cure for the Childlike Empress. It is revealed that Atrayu’s whole adventure of battles, loses and meetings with mysterious creatures was the only way to gain make a connection with a boy from the human world, and soon Bastian reads that he is in the story and must believe that its true and give the Empress a new name to save Fantasia. I won’t go into it too much cos I already feel a bit foolish writing this.
I read the book because I wanted more detail on the story, especially the bits in the film. My illusions were shattered because the book is vastly diffferent from the book. The scenes in the film, are only a few of the very short chapters (with each of the 26 starting with their respective alphabetically ordered illustrated, page sized letter)
The book ends up having less about the scenes in the film, than the film. A lot happens in the book, the film climax (Bastian believes what he reads and shouts out a new name for the Empress) happens in the first third of the book but it does it in very few pages, a lots more happens before that moment. It is very annoying as the author (Michael Ende) closes many characters with “and blahblah blahblah went off and never came back to blahblah but that is another story and should be told another time)
This skirting over things, and some of the language definitely places this in the children’s section. The chapters are each little stories and you meet people and learn about them knowing that in the next page you will be off in another direction, but on a whole it’s not a bad read. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who loved the first film. Bastian goes to Fantasia in the rest of the book and has loads more adventures, and soon his mission is to find his way home (I’m sorry I just could not read it and call it Fantastica, so the film name wins (which is a better name, Fantastica is a rubbish name))
I have to mention the atrocities that are the two sequels.
The second film (which I was oh so excited about) does continue a little of the books original story (though I only recently discovered this by remembering some elements of the film as I read the book). Thankfully the film was not to similar to the book, because the film was a great disappointment and I didn’t fancy having to read that. The third is a pile of shit. Falcor who in the first film and the book is a majestic bellowing white flying fury luck dragon becomes a clumsy wacky slapstick character, and the falling over “uh oh” moments don’t stop there thanks to the rock baby and a talking tree who acts and sounds like Rodney Dangerfield. The rock biter has a full scene of him singing, with baby bouncing along!!! And it has Jack Black in it, and I don’t like Jack Black. It is really bad.
But I do recommend the book, and of course the first film. I do believe there is a tv show, so I guess there is more if I want it. Though I not sure I can be bothered, nothing matches up the first movie (even the book)
/*
whilst looking for a title image, I found this:
, it’s Atreyu, my hasn’t he grown
*/
Some interesting, and some quite disturbing and horrific.
Mr Goatse makes an appearance as well.
