Most of you over the age of 15 would have seen The Neverending Story at least once, and if you’re between 15 and 20, this would have scared the living daylights out of you, especially the bit with the wolf…that was scary! But anyway, The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter brings Bastain back to Fantasia in order to save a child-like empress and save Fantasia from the Emptiness.

Bastian is played by a very young Jonathan Brandis and is one of the funniest child actors to watch – but the thing is, he is being serious. The direction that Brandis has is clearly evident in his line delivery, facial expressions and blocking as they all appear very mechanical, planned and unnatural. From the original story also is Falkor the luckdragon (he was my favourite in the original) and Rock Biter was well as Atreyu who looks much more like a boy than in the first film. The child-like empress is clearly seen to have a lisp, but this cannot be heard at all, so some good dubbing has taken place. But the child-like empress does look so much like Drew Barrymore from E.T., the resemblance is uncanny.

A note to parents though, just like the first film, this may be scary for young children, even though it is rated G. I went with a friend and his two nieces to see Shrek, a PG movie, and that scared them. But personally, I think that this film would be scarier than Shrek for the young kids. Don’t be fooled by the G rating!

The video is presented in the original theatrical aspect of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. Visually this transfer is a delight to watch, with the bright, vibrant colours of Fantasia being captured beautifully on this Warner release.

But due to the age of the feature, the special effects sequences were made using a blue screen. The footage that has been laid over this blue screen contains a lot of film artefacts. But apart from these sequences, the transfer is incredibly clean.

There is no apparent grain and no MPEG artefacts. The blacks are incredibly black and solid, with excellent shadow details.

This disc is a single sided, dual layered disc. The layer change was superb, wherever it is, as I was unable to detect it. There is barely anything to complain about with this transfer – the original print must be of the highest quality and the polished DVD looks beautiful.

There are four audio tracks, English, French, Spanish and German all recorded in Dolby Digital 2.0 but are also Pro-Logic tracks.

The surround usage was incredible and it was used appropriately and adds so much atmosphere to the film.

Dialogue was audible throughout and did not peak or distort once. There is no discreet subwoofer channel so no real subwoofer action.

There are two extra features that cannot be classified as a “special feature� as the packaging suggests. There is a full screen Theatrical Trailer and a single page on the Cast and Crew. The Trailer is interesting to watch as it tells a good synopsis and introduces the characters. The Cast and Crew page is plain and uninteresting. By no means these can be classified as special…

Overall, an average movie with a nice video transfer and a superb Pro-Logic audio transfer but it lacks severely in extra features. This is good for hire with old friends or for family entertainment, but not necessarily a must-have.