Synopsis:

The shorter International Cut that most viewers know and love is now presented with decent quality video, almost entirely re-sourced from the longer German Cut Blu-ray.

Intentions:

The shorter cut of 1984's The NeverEnding Story is the more popular one, but as of this point in time it's only available on Blu-ray with an old transfer that is soft, dark and orange-tinted. This has always bothered me, though mainly since this meant that it was harder to create my very first edit, a Hybrid Cut of the two official versions, without clashes between the differently-sourced footage. With that being my preferred version for personal watching, it didn't occur to me to try and conform the video from the better-looking Blu-ray of the German Cut (GC) to the International Cut (IC) audio, but a recent forum thread here (https://forums.fanedit.org/threads/neverending-story-international-cut-color-correction-fix.28726/) made me think that it would be nice to have for completeness' sake, besides the fact that the edit may be easier for me than others since I already had the materials ready to go. It turned out to be a pretty simple task, though it did teach me a couple of technical tricks, quite surprised that nobody has done so (at least successfully) before. I hope this will be enjoyed by fans of the film, but hope just as much that Warner Bros. will render it superfluous by getting around to restoring this cut properly!

Change List:

Editing Details: Exported 1920×818 with 5.1 audio, either 4 GB H265/HEVC or 20 GB 10-bit H264. Sourced 92% of the visuals from the 2018 German Cut Blu-ray (Die Unendliche Geschicte), material exclusive to the International Cut was graded to match the rest as best as possible, Davinci Resolve's shot-match tool proving very useful! This came from the 2014 Blu-ray, which also supplied the entire audio track. The process of editing was loading the IC into the NLE and put the GC video (slowed down from 24 FPS to 23.976 FPS) on top then inspecting shot-by-shot for changes, most of the time all that was needed were trims to or removals of GC footage. Any remaining IC footage (1920×800) slightly cropped at the sides to fill the taller frame, was decided to be less distracting than the intermittent letterboxing of 9-pixel-tall black bars. Times listed below are for where non-German Cut Blu-ray footage appears, totals about 7 minutes. Editing overall is identical to that of the IC barring a single frame, but don't think that will be noticed! Cuts and Additions: • 0:00:00 Fanedit disclaimer and personal plate • 0:00:10 Replaced modern Warner Bros. vanity plate with period-accurate one (from "Time after Time" Blu-ray) • 0:00:20 IC cloud tank credits sequence with English spelling • 0:10:08 Book with English spelling • 0:10:22 Bastian takes the book • 0:10:23 Coreander finds the note with English spelling • 0:19:06 Rockbiter rolls through the forest some more • 0:21:51 Fantasia citizens 1 • 0:21:52 Fantasia citizens 2 • 0:22:01 Fantasia citizens 3 • 0:22:26 Fantasia citizens 4 • 0:26:58 Atreyu riding out from Ivory Tower (two frames longer than GC equivalent) • 0:37:13 Side view of Morla 1 • 0:38:09 Side view of Morla 2 • 0:59:54 Book with English spelling 1 • 1:00:08 Book with English spelling 2 • 1:00:14 Book with English spelling 3 • 1:00:27 Book with English spelling 4 • 1:04:10 Flying on Falkor (cut differently to GC, dissolves necessitate use of whole IC section) • 1:16:01 Approaching the water surface • 1:20:16 Tweaked the starfield matte painting so it blends better with the foreground • 1:25:46 Another shot of the Empress • 1:31:08 IC credits (English spelling)

Additional Notes:

Probably wouldn't have thought about making a listing here without seeing those of TM2YC's reconstructions of various official cuts that aren't/weren't available in good quality, though I can't imagine this particular project required anything like the amount of work they involved!

Other Sources:

Time After Time Blu-ray from 2018, used to provide the period-accurate Warner Bros. vanity plate.

Special Thanks:

Thanks to The Wanderer for suggesting the project and previewing. Thanks also to Dwight Fry for helping me with my earlier Hybrid Cut last year, without whom I don't think I would have progressed very far with editing!