Review Detail

I have been privileged enough to take in the spectacle that is the Atreyu Edit. I want to say for all but the intro music/'cloudtank' scene, which I prefer the longer cut of (unless I am mistaken the American cut is longer here) the entire movie's editing meets strongly with my approval and my excitement to have witnessed!

These are tasty additions, add much to the Story feel of the movie, rather than the needlessly cut-too-short action-oriented feel of the American cut I originally saw. The movie opens slower with Bastian in bed. Then having a longer, more nuanced conversation with his father, and finally shows us more of his struggle to get through the first half of the book. For the rest of the film, the sections with narration are seamless and better match up.

The closing dialogue with Rockbiter always seemed to come up relatively abruptly to me, as does the launch directly into Morla's scene from the simple narration/montage after Atreyu's quest is seen beginning at the Ivory Tower. As we know however from interviews and leaks from those involved, it was a troubled production and much must have been lost, considered and scrapped from inclusion, or fell by the wayside in editing originally. ParanoidAndroid details some of this in a post, and those pieces may have added something to the flow of the story in the movie, but we may never know. One of the cut scenes leading up to Morla I can see might have been left out for pacing issues. That makes sense to me, but I would have paid some sum just to sit in the editing room and see what they had of that scene before it was left out.

This edit takes the best of all releases, combines them, extends the movie in the most careful story-telling sort of way, and even includes some truly amusing prop-work of the Luck Dragon later in the movie you will have to see for yourself (it is too funny not to be included, you'll see!)

I really do like the Endless Cloudtank intro which plays through, if I recall correctly, the entire song of Limahl's Neverending Story up-front. I don't mind repeated, slowed, or otherwise extended visuals to create this outcome. Because this is mind-canon, and I rock out to this song every time it is put on, I'm going to be critical and end up with 9/9 ratings awarded to the editor on Visual/Audio editing.

This is the best cut of this movie I've ever seen. This is the cut I will one day share with my children, albeit I selfishly hope the editor sees fit to make the intro match my head-canon. Also, some work on Gmork's AI/matched insert voice work could be done to improve its quality to meet the rest. Perhaps adding some reverb and depth of field to it? Do those two things and it will be 10's across the board! Epic work! So much more story-feel retained here-a true tribute to the original book & author! Bravo!