Tales from the Neverending Story

Tales from the Neverending Story is a one season-only TV series that is loosely based on Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story, produced (in Montreal, Quebec, Canada during December 2000-August 2002) and distributed by Muse Entertainment, and aired on HBO in 2002. It was aired as 4 two-hour television movies in the US and as a TV series of 13 one-hour episodes in the UK. The first two television movies were released on DVD and VHS in 2002, followed by a complete series box set in 2004. Departing from the canon of the 1979 novel The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, the overall story in the series explored the origin story of how Bastian discovers Fantasia from an even greater point of divergence from Michael Ende's novel than the 1984 and 1990 Warner Brothers films had previously depicted. Events from the novel occur out of order, and specific plot points are reversed between characters. For example; In the novel and films, it is Bastian who enters the world of Fantasia, but here it is Atreyu who enters our world. The concept of Yin and yang is introduced by altering the nature of the Childlike Empress's relationship with Xayide. In the series they are sisters with opposing ideologies. The Old Man of Wandering Mountain also takes on a larger role in the series becoming a mentor of sorts to Atreyu in much the same way as Karl Konrad Koreander is for Bastian. The series also introduces new supporting characters. Lucas and Marely are Bastian's friends who try to defend him from school bullies, and Fly Girl is a heroine whom Atreyu meets who is on her own Quest. "Tales from The Neverending Story" is the first live action adaption not to feature the characters of Nighthob, TeenyWeeny, or Rockbiter.