In the NES we see a huge amount of creatures of Fantasia. In spite of that, not every creature form the original novel by M. Ende could be realized. The aim was that all should seem realisticly. I think a discussion which creature correspond to the personell imagination or not make no sense. It is a question of the taste. In the movie we see the interpretation of the producer team espaecially of Mr. Peterson and of the painter Ul de Rico. From the many great creatures I like to write about:
In the first NES movie there are at least two different models of the Luck Dragon. The first and may be most imposing model of the whole film is 15 m long over all. Its tail measure round 4 m. This Falcor is only movable in special part because of this size. The 3m long neck is cantilever and it holds the head with a weight of 100 kg. The construction was made by Guiseppe Tortura. Its frame is made of airplane steel. It has 16 moving facilities which can controlled by 36 tackles. So this Falcor is able to speak, to laugh, to roll its eyes, to twinkle or to frowning.
Falcor skin contains round 10000 handsized scales and 100 kg pink Angora-wool (what
a work). The maskbuilder Arthur Collin created the cute face of the "luckdachshound".
He need some tries till the final version with which the director was content. But
also later, the luck dragon often let the producers to jeer at loveful.
When the luck dragon shall be used in all of his movements, many technicians
must control the tackle coordinated. A natural movement only appears at a perfect
coordination. 
Of course, this requires a lot
of practice. The actual scenes were displayed at several TV screens because
every technician can observe the effects of his work. For the movie, the technicians
had to be well hidden. The problem of the spacial separation was easy solve in the
scene at the cave of Engywok and Urgl. There Falcor covers the mechanics with his
entire body.
The big model of Falcor is used in the scenes, in which one of the boys ride on his back. Furthermore at the cave of Engywok and Urgl and in the end it lays in the Magnolia-blossom of the Ivory Tower. I don't know if the model in the Munich Bavaria Studios is the original one. The specialty there is, that visitors can ride him (but only on a saddle). Another big model of Falcor can be found in Babelberg. This is a model of the second movie.
The other modell is much smaller. It measures only 40 cm. In spite of the difference in the size, it might not have any visible differences to its big brother. So the designer had to glue 2000 pinhead-sized scales. A real Sysiphus-work for Ute Trinks. The fur came from a rabbit. The little model was full movable in 24 directions and was controlled by invisible control bars fom beyond. This Muppet-like technics worked electronic and needed a half year development. This Falcor we see always in the flying scenes of the entire dragon.
Behind the scenery the Gmok is actually only a speaking head. But what a. 59 different
movements the model needed for the speech imitating movements of the lips, nose, tongue
and so on. As at the Luck dragon, the mechanics was constructed by the specialists
Juan und Guiseppe Tortora and their team. The Outfit was again designed by the mask
builder Arthur Collin. Fo the controlling 17 technicians were necessary coordinated
by Bob Easton. The film shooting was not realizable without a video preview. How long
the technicians needed for the training, I don't know. However, der scenes were
shoot in only 2 hours.
It would have been to expensive to build a full movable model of the entire Gmork
for the few positions where he is to see moving. So easier possibilities were looked
for. One idea was to use a great dane fo the chase through the Swamps of Sadness.
In spite of all trick this Gmork aöways seemed like a dog. So the chase was shoot
from the view of the Gmork. Only for parts of a second the view changed to the
total. And then only the fet or the head of the werewold are to see. In my mind, the
dead Gmork we see after the fight again Atreyu seems very poor.
Die giant tortoise is 15m high in the script. This to build up would be a much to big effort especially in a studio. That's why even three different models were constructed.
The smallest model is only 50 cm high and carrys a toysized Atreyu-figur. We see
this model only from aside in the distant view. For this views it was sufficient
that the model could move just up and down.
The medium sized model is 3 m high. This cunstruct from calcium sulphate, chicken
wire, wood and the right muddy surface was taken for the near shots, especially for
the dialog with Atreyu. That's why the head had to be able to speak. The movements
were realized by tackles and a controller crew like at the Luck dragon and the Gmork.
At the dialog with Atreju the speaking of both was shot separately. Atreyu played
his part in front of a blue screen.
The third model of the Morla actually wasn't a turtoise. It was more a 10 m high mud-chute which ended 2m above the ground. We see only a small part of Morlas armour: the breaking tree above and the chute itself where Atreju glides downwards. The material of this model was the biggest problem. The shooting of the chuting scene took a whole day because of differrent reasons. So many bucket of mud were emptied. And this dissolved slowly the decoration. But I think nothing of it is to remark in the film.
Messengers of all creatures of Fantasia should meet in the Ivory Tower. That was a
difficult and obvious expensive task for the SFX specialists. Finally 78 creatures
stood in the set, among them birdhumans, iceheads, gnomics and more. Actually this
is quite few for the great prepared palace. That's why the camera team had to choose
smart views to concentrate the creatures.
The creatures with the two faces are remarkable for the SFX technics at this time.
When I am right, they got a mask which had the second face beside the normal one of
the actor and which looks similar to the actors face. The common eye in the middle
was moved electronically. Responsible for this trick was Nigel D. Trevessey.
Finally just a word about the chief doctor Cairon. In the original novel by
M. Ende he is a Centaur. The first realisation should be a water creature that
would be carried in a bathtub. 
That was simply to "heavy" to realize because of the weight of the water. So the
actor Moses Gunn was dressed that he appear with a huge impression. He got a
comblike bone on his head and wear arised shoes. This and his long cape was a
grat danger to stumble. Reportly, exacly this should be happend when the actor
stepped back the steps. But nothing bad happened.
First a lot of money and time was invested into a special effect creature of the night hob. But the result looked like giant sausage. So the SFX craeture was elimimated and an actor got the task. It was Tilo Prückner and he was very proud of his new role. He didn't know the expenditure for the make up and the masquerade. The mask specialist Colin Arthur did a graet work. 4 Stunden masking and at least 40 Minutes demasking mean a lot of patience for the actor.
The transformation of Tilo Prückner into the night hob started with 12 rubber
pieces in the face. All the hair of Mr. Prückners face, arms and legs had to be
shaven for the realistic fur of the night hob. The reason is simply the demasking.
You know the problems at pulling of an adhesive plaster. Then he got gloves with
claws. It followed the periwig, the teeth, the monstrous forehead and the feet.
The bat has a height of 2.30m and hangs at a branch or flies through Fantasia. Under
this conditions the bat got a lifesized model. The control was quite simple.
Two persons used a bellows for pumping the chest up and down. Another person
moved the nostrils and a fourth the eye-lids.
The specialist Colin Arthur created the cute look of the 3.5m long snail with the
foam rubber horns. The half Million model was use at all only three days for the
film shooting. The movements of the head was controlled by 7 persons. Two man
suffice the breath-taking race through the Howling Forest. A strong electromotor
was used to move the 200 kg vehicle. 
In the end this was a little bit overdimensioned. And so happened several times
what had to happen. The snail broke out of its track. This was not good neither
for the decoration nor the rider nor the snail itself. However, you see nothing
from this prroblems in the movie. One reason is that a lot of dust was blown
through nozzles at the bottom of the snail to creat a rrealistic impression of
the ride.
The Rock Bite belongs to the most impressiv creatures of the Neverending Story. He
existed even in three models.
The first model is the sitting Rock Biter. You can see it at the campfire, in the
spooky town and beckoning to Atreyu and Bastian. The model has the size of 1,60
meters and it consists at most of painted foam rubber. Eight puppet-player under
the stage were engaged with his movements. They controlled the movements of the
eyes, cheeks, ears, upper lip, nose, finger and forehead with levers and slides.
Impossible without the video screens, like all at all "remote controls".
The Rock Biter on his vehicle is the second model. You see it only less in the movie, only when it drives through the Howling Forest. Only the eyes and feet of the Rock Biter are movable by a remote control. The heavy stone bike is drived by a electromotor at the front axle. The batteries are stored in the saddle. Again the drrive was too strong for the 100 kg model, especially because the vehicle had no external brakes (but the motor itself).
The third model was produced only for the one scene in which the Rock Biter dismount from his bike. No mechanical model could realize this movement. That's why, this Rock Biter is actually only a rubber cover. A human had to slip into it. First, tall persons were look for this task but nobody was found. In the end the actor Colin Guilder took this role. But it was not easy. The "costume" had a weight of 20 kg, a eye slid in the stomach and it was very hot and quite immovable. After a fall, his carrier couldn't stand up again alone.
Who knows more about this topic, please send me a
mail
.
