Will "The Never Ending Story" get a 25th Anniversary DVD?

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Lumberjack Jake

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Anyone know if a region 2 DVD will be released in 2009 to coincide with the 25th Anniversary of The Never Ending Story?

I've just watched the entire film for the first time on television and though the special effects are a bit ropey by today's standarRAB I thought it was brilliant. For some bizarre reason all these years I'd never actually seen it, though I do remember bits of it in the 80's (I was only 8 in 1984) but I'd never seen the film in it's entirety.

There's a region 1 DVD but the extras are rubbish so I was hoping a remastered 5.1 25th anniversary edition is on the carRAB for release in 2009 with loaRAB of extras.
 
Well judging by Five's terrible quality print, I would expect the effects to look a bit ropey, It wasn't even in any form of Widescreen. The NeverEnding Story was shot 2.35:1. That's "true" scope with the black bars at the top and bottom of the picture. Showing the film in full screen (which they did) absolutely destroys the film's visuals and takes away it's epic scope. Not to mention more then 40% of the actual picture!

Five's print was disastrous. I switched off after a mere five minutes. It looked a million times worse then "The Adventures of Robin Hood" which they aired before it, and that was made in 1938!

Why? Because that print was new and remastered.

I own the US and German DVD editions, and whilst both have very little in the way of extras, the picture quality on both is very good indeed. Plus, with the German edition you get both versions of the film. The German version is the original version and it's quite a bit longer, also the score is vastly different in parts. It doesn't feature any of Giorgio Moroder's now dated synth score or the Limahl theme song. It only features the original score by Klaus Doldinger which is also used in the US version, but certain cues being replaced by Moroder's.

I love this film. The first sequel was mediocre, the third was abysmal.

I cross my fingers that this wonderful film gets a 25th Anniversary Edition. The fact that it still hasn't seen a UK release is a crime in itself.

A Screenshot of how the film actually looks, when it isn't being butchered by Five.
 
I flicked over to channel 5 and thought, "Blimy did it really look that bad" then checked our DVD which looks 100% better.
I got the Trilogy Boxset from an Australian site, which seems to be a rare boxset to have.
I know the 2nd and 3rd films are not that great, but its still nice to have them as a boxset and my kiRAB like them.
 
Why are films like this not already out here on DVD?

I saw Home Alone again on Friday (Christmas Cinema for last night of union until next semester) and being drunk, decided I really needed to see Richie Rich again, checked online yesterday and its not out here either.

Why are such classic films not available?

Who can we campaign to?
 
I wouldn't waste your time. Campaigns/Petitions never do any good.

The main reason is to do with negotiations between both variants of the companies breaking down.

That's why titles like "The Goonies" and "Poltergeist" took so long to come out here.

Both owned by.... Warner! As is "Richie Rich".

That doesn't surprise me, Warner UK do nothing but mess everybody around.
 
I was buying the boxset for a Birthday present for my niece, but when it arrived it was the TV series, but I gave her them instead she didn't know the difference anyway
 
Been a while since I posted this.

Thought I ought to mention there's a region 2 DVD release of The Never Ending Story coming out August this year
(2008) unfortunately it is a straight copy of the American release with 2.0 sound and very little extras.

Why couldn't Warner Bros wait until next year to bring out a 25th anniversary edition instead? This film deserves a little more respect.
 
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