Last week I was in a lot of pain, and a couple of my fingers were taped together, which made it extremely difficult to type. I saw an orthopedic hand doctor on Wednesday, and he took one look at my X-rays and said that not only was the painful finger really messed up, but it looks like all of my fingers have severe arthritis. There’s almost no space between the joints, which means that my hands appear to belong to someone twice my age. The doctor advised me to pull the tape off my fingers and simply take Aleve for the pain until I can see another doctor specializing in rheumatology next month. So that’s what I am doing.
The show must go on, so rather than take a leave of absence, I’ll simply take Aleve and get down to business. And, appropriately enough, I’m going to talk about a character who has what appear to be “big, good, strong hands.” I swear this was the article I had scheduled to write last week when it became too painful to finish it. What a funny coincidence, huh?
The Neverending Story is full of great characters who left a lasting impression on me as a kid. Bastian, Atreyu, Falkor, the Childlike Empress, and even the little gnome professor and his abrasive wife (who remind me of Miracle Max and his not-a-witch wife from The Princess Bride) are all fun and interesting characters. But the one who stands head and shoulders above them in terms of being memorable is Rock Biter. He’s only on-screen for a small fraction of the film’s run time, and he doesn’t have much of an impact on the story, but he somehow manages to leave a big impression in that short time. So much so that he is one of the few characters to appear in both of the sequels. Let’s see if we can figure out why. Continue reading →
Deja Reviewer 