The Neverending Story was a beautiful 1984 film inspired by the 1979 book by German author, Michael Ende.  There were a great many differences between the book and film.  There has been interest in a remake rumored to be closer to the book and picking up several of the subplots missing from the original film.  A book within a book within a book?  Fans of the film or book will know what I mean.  If true then the remake will probably be a smarter, darker version like the book.

Gmork, was one of the main villains of the film and a servant to the Nothing.  He is a traveller between worlds, and in Fantasia his presence was that of a large werewolf with black fur.  He is a servant of the darkness, and the manipulators.  Gmork’s mission was to hunt and kill the hero, Atreyu.  He is mostly cunning in a dark philosophical manner.  An example of the dark philosophy he follows: “They will become delusions in the minds of human beings, fears where there is nothing to fear, desires for vain, hurtful things, despairing thoughts, where there is no reason to despair.” and “… When it comes to controlling human beings, there is no better instrument than lies. Because you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts. That’s why I sided with the powerful and served them–because I wanted to share their power.”  In the human world, Gmork takes the form of a lie.  He works for the Manipulators, who we can only really speculate about but I believe they were of the same type as the old man wandering in the mountain, and the child empress.  The Nothing is what destroys Fantasia and things just don’t exist anymore.  As if we stopped believing in them, and it is our belief that makes them real.  The Manipulators or powers that be could represent growing up, losing faith, propaganda, other skeptics or non-believers, etc…

Ashamed of his failure, Atreyu meets Gmork in Spook City where he is using the name ‘Nobody.’  Gmork tells him of the quest he also failed, that being to kill Atreyu.  Gaya, the Princess of Darkness heard of this and chained Gmork with a magic unbreakable chain and jumped into the Nothing, becoming a lie in human world as all Fantasians do when becoming part of the Nothing.  Gmork is left to starve and dies.  His evil lives on, and his corpse grabs Atreyu ironically allowing him to resist the irresistable urge to become part of the Nothing.  Perhaps “with luck” as he is rescued by Falkor, the luck dragon.

Tagged: Fantasia, Gmork, Michael Ende, The Neverending Story, werewolf