The Neverending Story? Really?  I Seriously Need More Adult Contact!


My three year old has been sick with croup and I am running out of movies to keep her calm and relaxed in order for her to get better as quickly as possible.   This is not such an easy task with a toddler believe me!   If you are a mother, or father for that matter, you are aware croup (a bronchial condition in which the larynx and bronchial tubes swell to almost closing making breathing very difficult and coughing very painful as such little air is able to released...), as I was saying, croup comes on either with no warning at all, in cold like symptoms a few days prior, or in my daughter's case, a high fever and sever vomiting occurs quickly...vanishes just as swiftly, and after a few days of feeling back to normal...there it is.   That Seal-like sound when she breathes or cries, and her voice sounds like, well, a very sick little elf!

Now, this isn't about the Croup or my daughter, (give me a break I haven't slept in two days and am waiting for the plumber to arrive, who, as of 2:30pm, has not arrived with no word.   Why would there be?).   Where was I?   Oh yes, finding things for my sick baby to watch and lie down to get the rest she needs....right.   I grabbed the remote and started searching through On Demand and there it was...The Neverending Story.   Somewhat frightening for a child maybe, but the world is a dangerous place and since we've been trying to teach her about "stranger danger" and slowly break her of this lolly pop and rain drop world she thinks we live in, which is both a sad and necessary process, I figured why not?  Besides, as the second youngest child of six I saw much worse when I was her age!   So we go ahead and order it.   She is particularly taken by the boy, Bastian, and how he locked himself in the closet (No.   Not a closet.   What was that giant abandoned room with a loft?) at school to become enthralled in his story book.   She gets it.  She's into it. Maybe she'll start to want to read more... At least she is interested and seemingly calming down.   Winner!   Then it hits me...How old is Oliver Barret aka "Bastian" now?   Knowing the movie came out in 1984, lets just say I was not too much older than my daughter is...give or take a year or two or three.   OK three!!!   Presuming he is older than me it seemed safe enough to go ahead and google him!   Well...

 

"Bastian"

The broken hearted little boy who recently lost his mother,

draws Unicorns in Math Class, and gets bullied by others, meets a strange

old man in a book store. Said strange old man uses reverse psychology in order to get him to be the  boy who would ultimately save "Fantasia" from the "Nothing" (which I believe to be an obvious metaphor for the apparent lack of kids' interest in stories hence "Reading is Fundamental") bordering on epidemic status in the early 80's, by becoming enthralled in the story and giving the "Childlike Empress" a name.  (Or something like that).

 

 

Before I get to the big reveal, let me state Oliver Barret, aka Bastian, went on to win three awards for child actors in three years including his most famous role in The Neverending Story, his being cast as D.A.R.R.Y.L, a robot, and his work with Michael Landon in the highly accredited television Series "Highway to Heaven". Sigh...   Barret was also in Ron Howard's Cocoon and Cocoon II.  (However, mysteriously not re-cast in the Neverending Story II.   Not a bad break for him.   That movie was rotten tomatoes!) Anyway, it may surprise you this child star walked away from acting and focused on photography (specifically 19th century processes of) and even wrote and published a book on Woodburytype photo processing.   If it interests you, here is a link to explain more about this type of work...Its too complicated for me as well as too "off topic"!)   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodburytype

 

Barret Oliver is now 40 years old...His work in photography has been displayed in museums and used on films.   He has made quite a name for himself as a distinguished artist...

 

 

 Yup.  That's him!  I don't know about you...but he seems so much cooler now...more distinguished.

Thumbs up you Renaissance Man you!

 

 

 

While we are on the subject, I decided to look up Atreyu. You remember him don't you?   The super cute boy warrior who rode Artex until he sank into the quicksand and made us all cry.   Also, he may have made both boys and girls alike question their sexuality because he could be a really handsome 13 year boy...or a semi-pretty girl.   (Idk...maybe it was just me).  But I dug him!  And it was very confusing. Even though I was six years old!   Maybe older...I've seen it a hundred times throughout my childhood...so who really knows?!)   

 

 

 



 

 

Noah Hathaway (I wonder if he's related to Anne?) aka Atreyu with his beloved Artex.   Thank goodness we see them reunited and riding again at the end of the movie!

 

 

 







 Let's take a look at the Greenskin Boy Warrior today shall we?





 

Whoa!  Ok, he is definitely a dude! 



 

  Born in 1971, Hathaway attended school at Lycee Francais de Los Angeles. He moved into dance instruction, teaching advanced jazz and street dance until an injury forced him to quit in 1989 at age eighteen. Trained in martial arts, Hathaway would later earn black belts in Tang Soo Do and Shotokan Karate, and also competed as a Muay Thai boxer, and learned American Kenpo from Dr. Jerry Erickson. Hathaway spent some of his time at the Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, California competing in supersport motorcycle racing, and designing and driving "chopper" motorcycles.

He was on tour with WizardWorld Conventions and appeared at the Chicago and Philadelphia shows in 2011. He appeared at the Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Sydney, Australia in June 2012.  

(I totally Wikipedia'd that because there was just too much to write.   Anyhow, he returned to acting in 2011.)

 

 

 

Moving on to the Childlike Empress...who needs a name by a human  outside the boundaries of Fantasia, namely Bastian.  (Even though there supposedly are no boundaries but we'll go with it...).  This child beauty was born Tamara (Tami) Stronach in Tehran, Iran to a Scottish Archeologist (her father) and an Isreali Archeologist (her mother).   The two met on an expedition and married soon thereafter.   Tami was their second born.   During the Iranian Revolution her family fled to Isreal and later moved to the United States as her father took a job as a Professor at Berkeley.   As interesting as all that is, here's a picture of her to refresh your memory.   Oh, and if you look her up, she's a dancer.   Or was....

 

 



 

Just 11 years old during filming of TNES...If there was one girl I could have picked to look like as a kid...it would've been her!


Tami Stronach

 

 

This wasn't the only picture I found, however, this seems like a professional shot and the other seemed like an candid, so, benefit of the doubt...here she is.  

 

Ok...Here she really is...2013

 

 

 

Somehow, Falcor hasn't aged a day! ;)

 

I love this adorable Luck Dragon xo

 

 

 

 Well, the plumber is here and my daughter is asleep so this crazy blog is a wrap!