Three times. That’s how many times I saw The NeverEnding Story in its first month or release back in early 1985 when it arrived in the UK shores. In a 3 screen cinema building in the town of Kirkcaldy, Scotland, I sat down and was whisked away to the world of Fantasia to witness the adventures of Bastian, Atreyu and The Empress. and all the other wonderful inhabitants of this fantastical film. To this day, whenever I sit down and watch The NeverEnding Story, I am engulfed in nostalgia for the film and its world building and since the first day I saw it, to now (and beyond) The NeverEnding Story is one of my favourite films.  I adore it! and so when I heard that Lisa Downs, the director of  Life After Flash and Life After The Navigator was working on Life After The NeverEnding Story, to say I was excited would be a huge underestimate.  There never has been a special edition of The NeverEnding story which would venture into the making of, and tell me the stories of how this film came to be, or if there has, I am not aware of it, and so there is so much about the film, and its cast that I just don’t know. 

I did have the chance to speak with actor Brian Wheeler a few years ago. Brian played a Giant Mushroom Creature in the film in an uncredited role, but the time I had with Brian was to talk about Star Wars so I didn’t manage to quiz him on The NeverEnding Story, but I really wanted to. Over the recent years I have also seen many social media updates by Tami Stronach (who played The Empress) and Noah Hathaway (who played Atreyu) and whilst I haven’t yet had the courage to say ‘hey fancy doing a podcast with me where I can chat about the amazing work you’ve done)  I will….just not sure when. Its part of my 2024 plans for more nostalgia based podcast episodes I want to do. Fingers crossed that the luck of Falkor is on my side!

However my giddiness for The NeverEnding Story is taking me away from the point of this article. Lisa Downs, and what looks to be ( and I’m sure will be) her fantastic documentary Life After The NeverEnding Story which is currently raising some final funds via Kickstarter. The documentary has been completed but these additional funds are for the following  Legal fees including clearance lawyer and insurance, Archive licensing, AACS BluRay Licence, BluRay authoring, master & production, VHS production, BBFC Rating, Accounting, Film Festivals and finally to have the German subtitles on the BluRay release.  That’s a list and a half isn’t it, and all those things are needed to give this release the cherry on the top of the cake, or the light on the top of a rock in fantasia. 

So if you believe! (and of course you do. its The NeverEnding Story, one of the best fantasy films ever!) then perhaps take a peek at their Kickstarter page HERE, check out some of their amazing perks, which include blurays, autographs, combo packs, zoom calls with Lisa. So many perks! I dont think there is a date with a luckdragon though but perhaps that’s a perk that will be added later on. Lisa and her team are once again doing wonderful work (do check out Life After Flash and Life After The Navigator, both great docs) and I cant wait to see Life After The Never Ending Story. 

The Kickstarter Campaign Ends on Sat, December 16 2023