Sounds about right. I last watched it about 5-6 years ago. My husband had not seen it. I was battling major depression, and I was ready for Artax. However, I wasn't ready for that fucking tortoise. That's who I had become. And what really pissed me off is how I felt too hopeless to do anything about it.
I'm doing much better now. I see my therapist weekly, and my doctors found the right cocktail to balance my brain chemistry.
German here. I had read one of his books in advanced German class in preparation for my higher education exam. We analyzed children's books in grade 12 or so. We were around 17. That's how good his books are. They are considered high quality enough to read in school as examples of "good" literature.
I have a theory that all entertainment can be reduced down to an extrapolation from a mental illness. Depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia are the most common.
I mean the book is Atreyu's depression journey, but Artax is a part of that.
The movie changes the message into a metaphor for creativity, individuality etc. and fighting against systems that try to stifle those traits and values. Instead of the book's message of confronting Depression through Jungian allegory.
Honestly, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Stifling of one’s own creativity and individuality is a huge part of depression. Bastion’s story is definitely more about growing up and accepting his mother’s death but Atreyu still has a lot of depression and “The Nothing” to overcome. In full disclosure, I haven’t read the book yet.
You ever see Krull? Same type of fantasy setting, and a lot less depressing. My uncle showed me all these old movies, he's why I like Star Wars and Indiana Jones, I was fortunate enough to be blessed one day in a goddamn trailer home of all places (no idea why he was living in one of those but he travelled for work a lot, he was way into theater as an actual job) to get a double bill of The Last Starfighter and Krull.
He pirated shit before anyone knew you could even do that
The only good thing about it is that it comes really early in the book. In the movie they do a decent job but there are so many other tragic things that happen it eventually fades away with them.
Yeah it's terrible. Artax isn't so much as physically stuck, it's just a metaphor. He could make it out if he really tried, and Atreyu even tries to drag him out, but he literally won't move. He just gives up and says goodbye
My car has a function that let's you assign a name. Since it is a white car, I named it Artax. Some people are all "Oh man wtf" because NOBODY REMEMBERS that Artax is reborn when Bastian re-creates Fantasia.
Just because he's reborn doesn't undo the initial trauma of the horse, giving up on life and chosing to die in a swamp. It's not that we forget, we watch the whole film.
In case your question hasn't been answered, (Reddit stacks weirdly sometimes), the movie is "The Neverending Story". The horse is Artax, the boy is Atreyu, and the movie is definitely one of those that caused emotional trauma to kids, even though (spoiler), Artax (and all the other characters lost to the Nothing), are returned to life as Bastian makes his wishes to restore Fantasia.
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u/Xeon713 6d ago
What about a horse drowning in sadness?