It was directed by George T. Miller and stars Jonathan Brandis as Bastian Bux, Kenny Morrison as Atreyu, and Alexandra Johnes as the Childlike Empress.

Bastian Balthazar Bux seeks to join his school's swimming team, but his ability to jump off a diving board is marred by his fear of heights.

He revisits Carl Conrad Coreander's antiquarian bookstore to seek advice on courage, where he rediscovers the Neverending Story and hears the Childlike Empress call out to him for aid.

After the group encounters and escapes from armored giants, Bastian comes to understand that a force called the "Emptiness" is spreading across Fantasia.

Barney rushes to confront Mr. Coreander, who simply tells him that he will find the answers to his son's whereabouts inside the book.

Encouraged by Barney and Atreyu, Bastian jumps off and returns home safely and reuniting with his father, while the Auryn amulet magically goes back onto the book cover.

Geissler also hired screenwriter Karin Howard, who contributed 14 drafts until the final screenplay, which draws inspiration from most chapters in the second half of Ende's novel.

This created a problem as Miller's fear of falling late wound up making the film so ahead of schedule the effects team had not completed the necessary work for later scenes.

[7] Richard Harrington of The Washington Post was critical to its plot and special effects, and commented that several new creatures came from the late-night comedy sketches.

[9] Common Sense Media gave a rating of 3 out of 5 stars; although calling the special effects "dated", they thought that the cleverness of a story that keeps changing as its characters and circumstances require will draw kids to the film.

[12] It eventually had 3,231,527 admissions in Germany, giving it the seventh-highest attendance of the year and making it one of the two German films to achieve domestic success in 1990, along with Werner – Beinhart!