The Never Ending Influence.

2:18 PM

There is one moment in everyone’s life when everything changes, it´s like if your whole world suddenly goes inside out using your senses for the first time. Some people have this moment early in their lives, and this was the case for me. I was maybe eight or nine years old, my memory sometimes tricks me and I tend to merge some decades into years. It is like when someone reminds me something from the 90’s and I think it was like 10 years ago but no, not even close.

I’m proud to say that I’ve had more of those moments; one of them was when I met for the first time the work of the amazing writer Michael Ende with some of his material, I watched in a Betamax (not even VHS) the movie called “The Never Ending Story” and after the very first 15 minutes my world and my mind just flew light years away from Earth, it was an overwhelming amount of imagination fuel that got into my mind at that moment in my life.  

Until this day I can still remember the feeling when I saw this kid like me, maybe a couple of years older, but still an outcast, the bullied weirdo from school that found an enigmatic book in a hidden library, a fantastic world appeared before his eyes becoming suddenly part of the story, suffering when Artax dwelled into the swamps of Sadness, laughing when the rock giant camped with his buddies and Atreyu fought Gmork.

It was so amazing how this little boy became a real time observer of Atreyu’s adventures trough Fantasia, searching for a cure to the princess and fighting against The Nothing. What really got me, and I think it was the main reason why this movie started a metamorphosis on my soul, was the fact that the character of  Bastian at some point, also as a reader, became part of the story, the magic in Fantasia was so powerful that broke the walls of reality and he was also in the quest to save the princess, that thing just finished to blew my mind.

I remember profusely the first time I saw this movie with my uncle, he rented it from a small video club store near his apartment, I enjoyed one of my firsts cups of black coffee in my life (with the sole reason to stay awake during movie nights, you can imagine the result with a 9-year-old kid), that time I didn´t quite understood the movie as a whole, it was mostly the fantasy, special effects and the initial experience of this fantastic adventure.  After that home screening, every time I could watch the movie on TV it was like a special event for  me just as exciting as some others enjoy the Super Bowl, every time I watched it I understood more and more until I found something, there was a book about it and the movie was based on it.

What a great discovery in a time when there were no internet and no other means of searching for information about a nerdy movie or a book. You needed to rely on the small bits of information that you might found on some magazines or some newspapers and maybe TV shows, but information on the Nerdy and Geeky stuff was very limited in the 80’s.

As to expected I got my hands into a 70’s version of the book, a friend of mine had it in his place because his mother had bought it for some reason I don´t quite remember, but the interesting thing is that one day I was at his house and I saw the book just lying there in a book shelve, just like Bastian found his.

I just couldn´t believe it, it was like too much for me, the excitement of seeing an edition of the book with the Auryn on the cover, it was a softcover thou but I was standing in front of it, I think my friend saw my face of utter happiness and he asked me if I knew the book, I told him that I knew about the book and I had only watched the movie not having the chance to read it, and then something happened, he told me: -well, you can have it if you want to, we don´t read it and I don´t like it, so if you want it, it´s yours.

I really don´t remember exactly what happened later but the next thing I recall was me sitting in my room with a sandwich, an apple, and reading the book. It was so amazing to finally live the experience that amazed me when I was younger.

I devoured the book.

Page after page after page the story unfolded before my eyes, it was like floating on words. The movie was only a tiny percent of the awesomeness from the book. The characters that I loved finally where part of me just as Bastian was part of Fantasia, and the music sounding in my mind while reading it was one of the best experiences ever.

The impact in my life from this book and movie after reading it and watching it was that I needed more stuff to learn, more fantasy books to discover and read, more authors, more movies, more stories, and certainly more of Michael Ende’s work, that´s how Momo became part of my favourite books ever.

The story of Atreyu, Bastian, Artax, Falcor and so many more made an impression in my life so strong that configured my way of thinking crafting my personality, molding most of what I am now. It opened me to a world of magic and fantasy like nothing else I can relate, it showed me that I could dream and, if I dream enough and believe in the power of imagination and creativity, anything was possible and nothing could stop me. For that and only reason, every single day I work on fulfilling my dreams so one day the power of my Imagination takes me to the place where I belong.

Fantasia and all his inhabitants will always be a part of my life and every time I re-watch the movie or dwell into the pages protected by the Auryn, they'll always remind me that I’ll never stop imagining and dreaming, that fantasia need from us and we need to keep dreaming so they can live on.


By the way, when I was writing this post obviously I was hearing the soundtrack from the movie and the main theme by Limahl it's just epic, that Fade-In entrance it's just fantastic, I highly recommend for you to look the Heavy Metal Covers, there a few that are pretty good.

You Might Also Like

0 comentarios