2. What is this project about?
(Option A) A detailed research project and presentation about an important book, film, story, poem, etc.; or about a specific author, director, or artist whose work inspires and changes people’s perspectives on vital issues. This would best be presented as an audio-visual spoken seminar with images or video accompanying your discussion.

3. I chose… The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
The book was originally published in German in The English translation by Ralph Manheim was released in 1983.
The following year, a Hollywood movie version was released.
I saw the movie in 1985 and it TERRIFIED ME… leading to a life-long obsession with the movie and the book. A lot of 80s kids are similarly fixated on it.

4. A ‘fantastic’ story Genre: FANTASY.
The setting of the book is literally a place called Fantastica.
In the movie, it’s called Fantasia.
Either way, it’s super cool. 

5. A book within a book
In the story, the main character – Bastian Balthazar Bux – finds an old book in an antique store while hiding from school bullies.
The book is called The Neverending Story, and Bastian steals it. The rest of the story is Bastian hiding out and reading the book… and eventually he becomes a part of it.

6. Formative Memories: Sheldon Valley
At Sheldon family camp, they showed all the kids The Neverending Story movie one night, traumatizing us all.

7. Artax 
The scene that scarred a generation

9. What makes a fantasy story?
According to Writer’s Edit, these 5 elements are needed:
The presence of magic The AURYN medallion, the Oracle
A developed setting Fantastica – a timeless, magical place
Complex characters Atreyu, Bastian, Falkor, G’mork
A central conflict The Nothing is consuming everything
A power structure The Childlike Empress vs. The Nothing

10. Bastian is a big reader & a lonely loser… it was familiar

11. Why is this book important to me?
Both the book and the movie emphasize the important of IMAGINATION.
In the world of Fantastica, believing in magic, making wishes and being imaginative literally saves the world.
Without these things, there is no deeper creation and meaning to life. Without them, there is only THE NOTHING.

12. The Nothing
“It’s the emptiness that's left. It's like a despair, destroying this world, and I have been trying to help it.” – G’Mork
The Nothing is described as representing "human apathy, cynicism, and the denial of childish imagination".
It is the complete opposite of humanity's hopes and wishes: it is the destroyer of dreams.

13. Here’s why the movie scared 5-year-old me…
G’Mork: the wolf scene

14. What is the message or lesson?
The Nothing is adulthood: how we can lose sight of our dreams, become bitter and cynical, and depressed about our lives.
The Auryn is childhood: it represents the magic that childhood has for all of us. It’s imagination and creativity; dreams and hope.
Many 80s kids have Auryn tattoos because of the childhood memories.

15. Imagination keeps the child in us alive.
“When we lose curiosity, we lose inventiveness… and we start becoming old."  - Guillermo Del Toro
"It is for this child in me, and in all of us, that I tell my stories. My books are for any child between 8 and 80 years." 
- author Michael Ende

16. Another creative and memorable scene…
The Sphinx Gate scene

17. The book itself literally showcases Auryn…
I’ve always been fascinated with the “story within a story within a story” that this novel explores.
As a child reading the book The Neverending Story, I read about another child (Bastian) reading the book The Neverending Story, and then Bastian finds the real Neverending Story book within Fantastica itself. *mind blown*

18. An excerpt from the book…

20. When I saw the movie in 1985, it set off…
A lifelong interest in fantasy books/movies:

21. An interest in creative films and innovative directors:

22. And a fascination with horror movies and scary scenes.

23. In Conclusion…
Books and films (and music and poems and stories…) from childhood STICK WITH US. We often never forget our formative childhood experiences and important pop culture memories. These stories actually help to shape who we are, and sometimes, our views on the world.

24. The Neverending Story reminds me never to let my own ‘story’ end.

25. Keep reading, watching, learning, and making memories 