1. Atreyu was originally supposed to have green skin, like in the book.
2. Noah Hathaway, the actor who played Atreyu, actually had a really bad horse-riding accident just before shooting began.
He had to spend two months in the hospital recovering from a crushed vertebra after a horse fell on top of him.
3. There were two Falkor, the Luck Dragon, models built; one had a head weighing over 200 pounds.
5. Tami Stronach, who played the Childlike Empress, lost two teeth before filming and had to wear fake teeth, aka flippers for the shoot.
6. The scenes in the Swamps of Sadness took two months to film...
And that was only a fraction of the entire film shoot, which lasted a whole year.
7. ...and at a cost of $130,000 a day!
The swamp was made entirely inside a soundstage at Bavaria Film Studios.
8. One person, actor Alan Oppenheimer, actually provided the voice of Falkor, Rockbiter, G'mork (the wolf), and the narrator.
He's also known for providing the voice of He-Man's nemesis, Skeletor.
9. The original, German theatrical release of the film has a much more serious-looking intro, with credits over black.
10. Although it's pretty questionable in the film, the name Bastian yells out, according to the book, is "Moonchild".
11. At the time, it was the most expensive film production made in German history.
12. Steven Spielberg was given Auryn (Atreyu's necklace) by director Wolfgang Peterson as a "thank you" gift for his help with the film.
13. Turns out, Bastian totally lives in Vancouver, Canada.
14. The author of the book that the film was based on pretty much hated the movie.
15. And finally, if you can't get enough Neverending Story in your life today, you can actually ride on Falkor at Bavaria Filmstadt in Munich, Germany:
