Falkor

The NeverEnding Story ( ) is a 1984 fantasy film, co-written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen (in his first English-language film), based on the first half of the 1979 novel The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. It was produced by Bernd Eichinger and Dieter Geissler, and stars Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Tami Stronach, Patricia Hayes, Sydney Bromley, Gerald McRaney and Moses Gunn, with Alan Oppenheimer providing the voices of Falkor, Gmork, and others. It follows Bastian Balthazar Bux, a boy who finds a magical book that tells of a young warrior who is given the task of stopping the Nothing, a dark force, from engulfing the wonderland world of Fantasia.

It is the first in The NeverEnding Story film series. The second half of the book was adapted as a rough basis for the second film, The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990). The third film, The NeverEnding Story III (1994), has an original plot not based on the book.

The book describes the world of Fantasia, a fantasy realm that is slowly being destroyed by a malevolent force called "The Nothing". Messengers are heading to the Ivory Tower to seek help from the Childlike Empress. To their dismay, they learn that she has fallen ill. The young warrior Atreyu is tasked with discovering a cure for her illness in order to save Fantasia. Atreyu is given an amulet called Auryn that can guide and protect him in the quest. As Atreyu sets out, a wolf-like being named Gmork is sent to kill him.

Atreyu's quest leads him to seek the advice of Morla, the Ancient One, in the Swamps of Sadness. While making their way through the swamp, Atreyu's horse Artax is overcome by the sadness and sinks into the swamp, leaving Atreyu to continue alone. Morla, weary and indifferent, being a prisoner in the swamp, directs Atreyu to the Southern Oracle, ten thousand miles distant instead of helping him directly. Gmork closes in as an exhausted Atreyu begins to sink into the swamp before being saved by the Luck Dragon Falkor, who takes him to the home of Urgl and Engywook, two gnome who live near the gates to the Southern Oracle. Atreyu just manages to make it through the first deadly gate but at the second gate, a mirror reveals an image of Bastian reading the book. Atreyu eventually meets the Southern Oracle, who tells him that the only way to save the Empress is to find a human child who lives beyond the boundaries of Fantasia to give her a new name.