Follow TV Tropes

Following

Film / The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia
aka: The Never Ending Story III

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/neverending_3.png

"Well, if Balthazar could make up anything he wanted to happen in Fantasia while he read this book, maybe we could make a few things happen to him..."
Slip

The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia (usually referred to as just The NeverEnding Story III) is a 1994 film that serves as the third and final installment in The Neverending Story film series. Though the first two movies take plenty of plot elements from the source material, this film is almost entirely an original story, with the only element taken from the book that hadn't already been used in the previous films being the introduction of the Old Man of Wandering Mountain.

Bastian (Jason James Richter) has reluctantly settled into a new life after his dad married a new mom, dealing with a new town, a new sister, and an annoying set of bullies. When he unexpectedly stumbles upon Carl Coreander and his NeverEnding Story book again, he uses it to escape back into Fantasia as a means to outrun the bullies. Eventually, the bullies, known in the book's world as The Nasty, have figured out that the book has a world all of its own. With a new threat facing Fantasia, The Nasties, led by Slip (Jack Black), plan to exploit the book's ability to grant wishes. Now Bastian, with the help of many familiar faces in Fantasia, must stop the Nasty before they cause chaos on Earth and doom Fantasia as they know it.


The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia contains examples of:

  • Adaptation Expansion: Unlike the first two films, the third movie was an original plot that is Denser and Wackier than its predecessors.
  • Adaptation Personality Change: While the previous film attempted to retain Falkor and the Rock-Biter's original personalities, they are completely altered here. Falkor has turned from a wise sage to The Ditz of the team, while the Rock-Biter changed from a Gentle Giant to a Bumbling Dad.
  • All There in the Script: Aside from Slip and Dog, none of the Nasties are named onscreen. The credits reveal the other three are nicknamed Rage, Mookie, and Coil.
  • Arbitrary Equipment Restriction: A rare non-video game example: What's the Childlike Empress' answer as to why Bastian can't wish the Fantasians back into Fantasia before just wishing the book away from the Nasties and restoring their world? A simple scolding "No Bastian!" ...and that's all the excuse we and he need to hear apparently. It becomes totally pointless in the end as Barky, the bark troll, uses the AURYN like a Reset Button to reverse the damage that's been done to Fantasia.
  • As You Know: Bastian does this to himself when recounting what he experienced in the previous films.
  • Award-Bait Song:
  • Batman in My Basement: Bastian has to keep Rock Biter Jr. in his house.
  • Big Bad: Slip, the leader of the Nasties. One of Jack Black's few villain roles also.
  • Broken Bird: Attempted with Bastian's stepsister — she doesn't want one of his crystals.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Atreyu is nowhere to be seen, though he was originally meant to star in it.
  • Denser and Wackier: Helped by being an original plot as the previous two adapted the book. The characters were used more for comedy than drama, pop cultural references abound, and there was intense Villain Decay (from an Eldritch Abomination and a dangerous sorceress to... a school bully!).
  • Faux Affably Evil: Slip when he first meets Bastian acts rather nice before tormenting him.
  • Flanderization: This film takes any minor aspects of the returning characters and exaggerated them to a psychotic degree.
  • Halloween Episode: The climax is set on Halloween.
  • Hypocrite: Bastian's stepsister doesn't like any New Age Garbage but is seen playing a Wangst song on guitar.
  • Informed Flaw: While the school is Totally Radical, the movie treats Bastian's gel-spiked hair as an affront against humanity, when that 'do in the mid-90's was commonplace. And, in fact, other characters have it.
  • It's the Journey That Counts: Possibly why the Empress won't let Bastian take shortcuts.
  • Jerk Jock: Slip acts like this toward Bastian while bullying him, becoming the fact of The Nasties.
  • Just Eat Gilligan: Bastian asks a perfectly reasonable question, "Why can't I just wish the problem was solved?" the empress says no, because the characters lost would not be returned. Bastian then asks "Why can't I just wish them back?" the empress simply responds with "No." Bastian has to go through the entire movie premise just because the empress just didn't feel like it.
    • In the original draft, the Empress actually explained why Bastian couldn't wish them back to Fantasia: the AURYN was incapable of teleporting multiple beings somewhere while in separate locations. It still doesn't explain why he couldn't wish them separately, but it's still better than "No, Bastian".
  • Large Ham: Jack Black plays a generic school bully as if he's a diabolical mastermind, hell-bent on getting Bastian with a determination Captain Ahab would be proud of.
  • Never My Fault: After the Nasties are expelled for locking Bastian in the boiler room, they blame him entirely for ratting them out and not the fact that they were breaking school rules after repeated warnings.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: The Nasties are a group of typical High School Bullies who aren't exceptionally bright or clever, so you probably wouldn't expect them to be much of threat compared the Nothing or the Emptiness. Here's the thing though: unlike the former two, they are from the human world, and therefore have the ability to completely control or alter what occurs in the NeverEnding Story Book, thus ironically making them possibly the most dangerous villains in the whole series!
  • Series Continuity Error: Bastian's father does not seem to know about the book or the reality inside of it, even though he learned in the second film.
  • Took a Level in Dumbass: Falkor, who is supposed to be a very smart character. He is a smart character in the first film and still somewhat smart in the second. In this film, however, he becomes a downright moron.
  • Totally Radical: Nicole saying that Bastian's hairstyle is so "Un".
  • Two Girls to a Team: Mookie and Coil of the Nastie's.
  • What the Hell Is That Accent?: The Rockbiter's wife speaks in a weird mix of Jamaican and Irish, while the Rockbiter baby literally sounds like Pikachu, saying, "Pika-pee! Pika-pee!"
  • You Don't Look Like You: Most of the non-human characters look radically different than in the first two movies. The Rock Biter is probably the most extreme example: he's a lot skinnier, seemingly now has hair made out of rock, and, even weirder, wears a "shirt" that's also somehow made of out of stone.

Alternative Title(s): The Never Ending Story III

Top