This movie is like a fever dream

Like most truly great art, this has an open target audience, everyone of all ages.

Yes, i was watching it recently and finally got it. Nobody who saw this film as a kid forgets it.

The movie is studded with esoteric symbolism (Auryn/Oroborus, Moonchild, the dark mirror)an outline of the hero's journey (of individuation), the neverending story. The framing device of the story is carefully layered- Atreyu is Bastion is the audience. All those references to the 'human child' felt off & i knew for certain when the Empress cries INTO THE SCREEN at the climax for us to save her. Like an echo on an echo, going up layers, from dreamt to dreamer (Bastion starting awake at the beginning). So the movie is obviously fully conscious of its own movieness and uses it. Its carefully framed to speak straight to the dreaming mind. All movies are subconscious programmers to a point but you don't often catch one that's cognizant of what its doing to you (or else its advertising and just plain evil). Kubrick's flicks are the only others i can think of atm that are slyly self aware like this.

If movies are dreams than THE NEVERENDING STORY is a lucid one- by the conclusion Bastion has breached the divide and brought his dream (Falcor) into waking life, just as the audience is urged to bring forth the lessons of the film to their own. It seems more like a ritual than just a movie. I used to think fundy Christians were crazy when they complained about 'satanism & witchcraft' in pop culture lol

I first saw this as a little kid and still love it to this day. I truly feel that people of any age can enjoy it.