Bastions Mothers Name?

Puhlease, to all the people on this board misspelling the hero's name ... it's Bastian, first of all, short for Sebastian. 'Bastion' is a word meaning 'fortification', which is not a name.

And yes, Bastian does shout 'Moonchild', the literal English translation of 'Mondenkind' in the original German book.

The movie messed things up a lot by stating he wanted to give her his dead mother's name. Fair enough, but this was not in the book, and hardly makes any sense, unless you think they were part of a hippie commune. 'Moonchild' as just a fantasy name does make sense, because the Childlike Empress has a pale, round face.

Further confusion arises because, apparently, Barret Oliver was instructed to move his mouth in such a drawn-out way, that it would fit the three syllables of 'Mondenkind' in the German dubbing.

To obscure these weird compromises, they added thunder to the final mix.

Dicky

Yes, it's confusing but fascinating, isn't it?

Of course, because Bastian ultimately stands for us as viewers/readers, and the Childlike Empress' plea to him to be brave enough to use his imagination is really a plea to us all, you could argue that his call is obscured so we could all fill in a name of our own choice.

That's a sound and quite clever argument, but it doesn't explain why in the German dubbing, which was obviously closely supervised by the German director and producers, he clearly shouts out 'Mondenkind'!

Moreover, in the German version, which is a bit closer to the book, Bastian isn't inspired by the memory of his mother at all. He just says: "It's a shame they can't ask me. I would give her a wonderful name" (Schade dass sie mich nicht fragen können. Ich würde ihr einen wunderbaren Namen geben), instead of the English "What a shame they don't ask me. Mom, she had such a wonderful name".

Perhaps to pander to the more conventional, that is sentimental, international taste?

Dicky