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 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.

Morla doesn't have the answers he seeks; but directs Atreyu to the Southern Oracle, ten thousand miles distant.

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 gnomes who live near the gates to the Southern Oracle.

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.

He wakes on the shore of some abandoned ancient ruins, where he finds several murals depicting his adventure, including one of Gmork, who explains that Fantasia represents humanity's imagination and is thus without boundaries, while the Nothing is a manifestation of the loss of hopes and dreams.

Bastian re-creates Fantasia and flies on Falkor's back to see the land and its inhabitants restored, including Atreyu and Artax.

Ende claimed that Petersen later rewrote the script without consulting him, and that this adaptation deviated so far from his book that he requested that production either be halted or the film's title be changed.

[5] The film only covers the first half of the book, cutting off in the middle of chapter XIII and tacking on an ending that betrays the pre-established logic of having crossed the boundaries with Falkor and having chased the bullies into a trash bin.

The bulk of the film was shot at Bavaria Studios in Munich, with the street scenes and the school interior in the real world shot in Vancouver, Canada (the Gastown Vancouver Steam Clock is in the scene where the three bullies are chased down Cambie Street past the steam clock at the intersection of Water Street and then on down Blood Alley),[7][8] and the beach where Atreyu falls, which was filmed at Playa de Mónsul in San José, Almería, Spain.

The theme song of the English version of the film was composed by Giorgio Moroder, with lyrics by Keith Forsey, and performed by Christopher "Limahl" Hamill, once the lead singer of Kajagoogoo, and Beth Anderson.

The song has been covered by Armonite, The Birthday Massacre, Creamy, Dragonland, Kenji Haga, New Found Glory, Echo Image, and Scooter.

This Limahl song, along with other "techno-pop" treatments to the soundtrack, is not present in the German version of the film, which features Doldinger's orchestral score exclusively.

[14] It grossed a similar amount in the United States—only a modest sum in the American market, which director Wolfgang Petersen ascribed to the film's European sensibilities.

The site's critical consensus reads: "A magical journey about the power of a young boy's imagination to save a dying fantasy land, The NeverEnding Story remains a much-loved kids [sic] adventure.

[16] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3 out of 4 stars and praised its visual effects, saying that "an entirely new world has been created" because of them,[17] a comment echoed by Variety.

[4] Ebert's co-host Gene Siskel said that the special effects and art direction were cheap-looking and that Falkor the luckdragon resembled a cheap toy.

[15][better source needed] Vincent Canby panned the film as a "graceless, humorless fantasy for children" in a 1984 review in The New York Times.

[citation needed] An 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray was released in October 2014, which duplicates the DTS surround track of its predecessor.

[23] The 30th Anniversary Edition contains the original theatrical trailer, a commentary track by director Wolfgang Petersen, documentaries and interviews from both 1984 and 2014, and a German-language/English-subtitled feature detailing the digital restoration process of the film.

[31] In September 2022, a bidding war for the film and TV rights of The NeverEnding Story between studios and streamers had emerged.