Book to movie conversion guide (MASSIVE SPOILERS)

[Jusenkyo no Pikachu]

In light of my post on the thread about movies/TV series/episodes that should forever be gone from memory I figure I should post exactly what is different from the books in the NEVERENDING STORY movies. This is pretty easy to do as the three movies derive themselves from one book.

THE NEVERENDING STORY

-Coreander's response to Bastian's entry is different. However, his attitude towards kids is largely the same.
-Bastian doesn't write a message saying "I will return your book"
-The meeting at the beginning of the story has one more character (a will-o-the-wisp) in the book. The characters are also named.
-The Ivory Tower is actually a group of buildings.
-Atreyu doesn't actually appear at the Ivory Tower. Cairon has to journey to the land of the Greenskins to find him. And yes, his skin is in fact green.
-Artax (Atreyu's horse) talks in the book.
-Artax also leaves the scene at the Swamps of Sadness.
-Falkor doesn't save Atreyu from the Swamps of Sadness. Atreyu saves him from a thing called Ygramul the Many (imagine a group of spiders forming what looks like a single being and you'll have it) as Falkor was trapped in Ygramul's web. This is how Atreyu gets to the Southern Oracle.
-The Gnomics (Urgl and Engywook) do appear. The only difference is that this time they have to give Atreyu medicine for Ygramul's poison
-The Southern Oracle speaks in rhyme (and can only hear questions phrased as such)
-Gmork appears at a different spot in the book
-The Childlike Empress has no jewel on her forehead, but her eyes are golden (This earns her the nickname of Golden-Eyed Commander of Wishes)
-Bastian cannot make himself call out the Empress' new name (Moon Child), forcing the Empress to go and destroy Fantastica by visiting the Old Man of Wandering mountain and making him stop writing The Neverending Story.
-After Bastian is given the seed by the Empress, it doesn't instantaneously re-create the whole country, as it does in the movie (that was only a way to cleanly wrap things up). That's left up to Bastian. And Falkor never leaves the book. In the book, Bastian recreates the whole of Fantasia through his stories.
-In the book, there's a scene where some Bark Trolls show Atreyu the consequences of The Nothing. This scene was conspicuously absent from the movies.

THE NEVERENDING STORY II
-The significance of the Silver City of Amarganth has been completely lost. In the book, Bastian gives the city a history and is rewarded with a glowing stone that proves useful in the final chapter. This is completely gone.
-Bastian is at one point knocked backwards by a force from the Seeing Hand. However, he's wearing AURYN at the time, so this shouldn't have happened as AURYN protects its wearer.
-While Bastian does in fact lose his memories in the book, this is actually the fault of AURYN, not some invention (thus we don't have the "Memory balls").
-Xayide, in the book, has one green eye and one red eye.
-In the movie, Bastian does an awful lot MORE wishing than the book. In the book, the stones up to the Seeing Hand are already there.
-Bastian obviously never at any stage wishes for a spray can in the book. He also never jokes to Atreyu.
-In the book, the knights have swords, not built-in cutters.
-Bastian never meets Moon Child again after their first encounter in the book. Why they deemed it necessary to screw up such a plot point is beyond me.
-in the book, the belt is named Ghemmal, and Bastian doesn't wish for the belt to make him visible again (Xayide actually removes the belt). And the belt doesn't need the usage of any lame special effects.
-The father never reads the book. Mainly because Bastian never finds it again.

Also, all allegory (ie the whole point of the book) is completely lost in translation.

The Neverending Story III and subsequent TV series have no connection to the book whatsoever and deserve to be destroyed. They also serve as proof that Jason James Richter was a one-hit wonder.