From what I heard, this movie was actually an adaptation of the second half of the book the original film was based on. Wow, imagine who meta it would be if I read the original book? Anyway, this sequel features Bastian going back to Fantasia and defeating an enemy known as the Emptiness. I found this movie mostly boring and the original is so much better. I think it's because Bastian was kind of a jerk in this one. It's said that he literally killed Atreyu! I mean, I get it that he was losing his memories, but wow was that mean! The best thing is probably how good the effects are.The sets are quite nice looking and the character designs are quite creative. It was weird how there were scenes where he was losing his memories which were represented by balls coming out of a machine. That was later used in "Inside Out"! Forget "Osmosis Jones". THIS is the movie that it stole from! Most of the actors from the original film are gone and they can't represent the story nearly as well. Still, I do like the idea of sequels for something called "The Neverending Story". *1/2

I'll be brief: you are in for a real stinker when you've noticed the sequel has recycled stock footage from the first film because the original imagination and production value was so high (think Atreyu riding on his white horse, which has magically came back to life in part II). Yes, cutaways and transitions from the first movie were dropped into the second film and that's about ALL the second movie had to do with the first. Even Falcor's eyeballs in the second movie were the wrong color - a weird blood red color. None of the original voice over actors or cast returned and barely any of the same crew returned for part II. As a child, I was really excited for the sequel and remember that I went to see it opening weekend at the theater with friends. As an adult, I went back to re-watch part II and now recall why I forgot so much - it sucked so bad that I purposefully removed it from my brain bank. The script to part II, a film's blueprint, was an epic fail from the first page to the last. No special effects or superb acting could save this thing. I gave it two stars instead of one because, for a brief moment in the closing credits, the production included a short clip of the original Neverending Story theme song.

Well, to tell the truth, I did like this sequel when I first saw it. I must have been five or six years old (din't remember it in the movies).When I see it today, there are an assortment of flaws and awkward moments that make it inferior by far with both Ende's novel and it's film predecessor, and overall, inferior to several fantasy movies before it.Some aspects of the novel, including characters like Xayide and events like Bastian's loss of memories are included, but completely altered for the newly conceived story.Bastian's father, only mentioned in the novel, has a bigger part in this movie, giving it a "Spielberg-esque" moralist tone. It's not entirely bad, but it's just not what the original story was about.Half of the movie is Ende's stuff. The rest is made up plots and cheap kiddy fantasy. Don't feel obligated to rent it, but if you do, don't read the novel nor watch Part I first. You may feel disappointed. You also may need to think like a kid to find it amusing.

I, like many others, watched The Never Ending Story as a child and of course loved it, I remembered the characters, the basis of the plot and the lesson. I'm fairly certain I watched the sequels but of them I remembered nothing.Recently, I was using time before an appointment and I came across both The Never Ending Story and The Never Ending Story two for just ten dollars, obviously I could not pass up a chance to upgrade my beloved story to DVD, just in case my VHS died.I digress, so I recently watched them back to back. Aside from replacing all but one of the original actors there didn't seem to be any development from the last story. I expected Bastion to be older physically, but I had also expected him to grow up. He was still the same shy kid but he was dumber. His father some how found a potion to make himself ten years younger then he had been and despite seeming to open up, Bastion still had no friends and couldn't even think about his mother without getting teary. I know, I know, losing someone is always hard, especially a parent, but he was suppose to have moved on in the first movie after he gave the empress a new name. On that topic, may I ask why she seemed to be nameless again in this story?The new actors were... Painfully bad, every action and line seemed over acted to the amount of just being a farce. I never read the book so I have to judge the piece for theatrical value and this has very little. The effects are passable but very little of the story seemed to flow.So to boil it down, Bastion never really grew up, he was just replaced with an older actor, Atreyu, as far as I'm concerned, became a less lovable character. He seemed to lose the smooth, truly native American beauty he had and just became a rough looking sort without the same natural fire and independence.Over all the movie was an eyesore, leave it be and just watch the first.