4.03.2012

"John Carter" vs. "The Neverending Story"


      There are many similarities and differences with Mise – en – Scene relating to the two movies.  “John Carter” and “The Neverending Story”.  “John Carter,” directed by Andrew Stanton in 2012, is about a man who goes in search of gold but on his journey stumbles upon this cave where he gets transported to another world. When he finally gets sent back to his own world, he realizes that his place in life is in this other life on Mars. “The Neverending Story” directed by Wolfgang Petersen in 1984 is a beloved childhood classic, designed to capture the attention of children and encourage them to dream. A boy named Bastian is reading the story, but he’s not just reading it.  He’s living it through the main character Atreyu. Atreyu is a warrior who hunts the purple buffalo, and when the nothing strikes Fantasia, the Empress sends for Atreyu to save Fantasia.  He is forced through many challenging obstacles.  When he returns, he thinks he’s failed, but he hasn’t. He’s come back with a child who can save them all, the same child who is living the story with him. Just as John Carter understands his place in life is in another world on Mars, Bastian finally realizes that his destiny is to dream as hard as he can and wish for as many things as he wants in order to save Fantasia and the dreams of others.    
            There are Mise-en-scene similarities in both movies; In “John Carter” John Carter wakes in another world with this necklace in his possession. The Medallion was silver oval shape and an inner circle that looks welled and crushed. Once he understands how to use it, it becomes a teleportation device between Mars and the world he is from: planet earth. In the end he is sent back to earth against his will and spends years of his life searching for the necklace, so he can return to Mars and his wife. In “The Neverending Story” the main character Atreyu is sent on a quest to save Fantasia from The Nothing. The Empress tells her friend and leader of the Ivory tower to give Atreyu the Orin medallion, which has two snakes intertwining each other, one gold, and one silver. It was said to guide and protect Atreyu on his quest to save Fantasia. Many things went wrong, he lost his horse, gained the support of a luck dragon, killed Demark a black cat who was helping the Nothing.  When hope seemed lost, the luck dragon came back with The Orin. In the end Atreyu said “If the Ivory Tower still stands, take us there.” The Orin glowed and the Ivory Tower appeared.  Both necklaces help the heroes on their journeys. One is used as a teleportation devise while the other one is protection and guidance.
            Another Mise –en-Scene similarity is how books and main characters are used in both movies.  In “John Carter” someone sends for a relative of John Carter’s to collect his belongings, but the only thing John Carter left in his will was his journal. The boy looked annoyed and then was left alone to read the old, worn, beaten up journal, and so the story began. When the boy began reading he didn’t appear again until the end when he was chosen to protect the tomb and John Carter’s body. The book was just a book and the viewer was just living John Carter’s experience.  In “The Neverending Story” Bastian, a little boy who hides in a library to get away from three bullies and is tempted by a book with the gold Orin symbol on the cover, of two snakes intertwining each other.  The Librarian tells him not to read it, and as the phone rings Bastian takes the dark bound leather book with colorful strings hanging out at the end and runs.  As he’s reading alone in the attic of his school, the book is tied between him and Atreyu. The viewer witnesses not only the hero’s emotions and adventures in the book, but also how Bastian is feeling.  The story isn’t just about saving Fantasia, but how Bastian is being pulled into the story and what his emotions and thoughts are as he’s reading and becoming apart of “The Neverending Story”.   Both have books. Both have readers. The reader in “John Carter is a lot more distant than Bastian in The Neverending Story.”
            Both movies are about journeys and finding where each character belongs. Bastian and Atreyu in “The Neverending Story” seem to share their journey together through a book, and in the end Bastian through the book gets to save Fantasia and help it to live on, as he brings Atreyu and his horse Artex back together.  In “John Carter” his relative is given his life job, but only after he’s read the journal and gone to the tomb to help. Only at the very end does the reader of the book receive his life long important job to protect the tomb and John Carter’s body. Both are fun filled adventurous movies with terrifying journeys, but also friendly for the whole family.

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