The NeverEnding Story

Here's another 1980s kids' film that has retained its popularity well beyond the VHS years. The NeverEnding Story is based on a novel by German writer Michael Ende. Its hero is a bullied kid (Barret Oliver) who escapes from his woes into a storybook he obtains from a creepy bookseller that tells the quest of Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) to save his world from the entropic forces of the Nothing.

Puppetry and visuals surpass Labyrinth for surreal inventiveness and the director is Wolfgang Petersen, the visionary director of World War II classic Das Boot.

Fun fact: Limahl, the crazy-haired 1980s pop star who sang the theme song to this 1984 family favourite, is performing in Sydney later this year.