The Neverending Story Movie Vs Play

People have converted novels into plays countless amounts of time. Sometimes they work and sometimes they do not. Turning a novel into a play means challenges will be dealt with. Questions are asked and things will have to be changed to make everything fit. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende and David S. Craig adapted it. Regardless, of how well the adaptation is the characters, and the portrayal end up differently, but the resolution remains the same. One instance of the The Neverending Story creating differences between the novel and the play is the characters. The main characters in the story like Bastian, Atreyu, and Falkor remain the same in both the play and the story. On the other hand the Bookseller plays a bigger role in the novel than within the play. In the play, he only shows up at the beginning to tempt Bastian into taking the book. In the novel he shows up again at the end of it. Also, the novel gives more indication that the bookseller knows about Fantastica, while the play just has a narrator saying “The bookseller grins as he watches Bastain flee.” (play, pg. 9) While in the novel he and Bastian sit down and have a conversation …show more content…
The resolution of both the story and the novel is the same. Bastian saves Fantastica, then returns home. In both play and novel Bastian wants to see his father. The play states “With tears in his eyes, he closes the book, puts it in his backpack, and runs home to see his father.” (play, pg. 17) Once Bastian talks to the bookseller, he tells him “I have to go now. My father’s waiting.” (page 176) Then, after Bastian leaves the attic he runs home. In fact “he ran so hard that the books and pens in his satchel jiggled and rattled to the rhythm of his steps. He had a stitch in his side, but in his hurry to see his father, he kept on running.” (page 173) So once Bastian exits Fantastica he wants to see his father, and that is why he is able to leave