In NES1 did that horse really die during the filming?-

[mr_taco]

Is it true?? Or is it a myth?? I really have to know this because i can't bare to watch that scene - i always have to skip it. That horse would have had to have had a lot of trust in people to be so calm during the shooting of that scene- how could they have let the horse die like that? I've searched and searched and have only found little information.
One website said that the harness or platform or something failed to come back up and the horse drowned and the actor that played atrayu (sic) could not work for 2 weeks out of greif.
Another website said that after the shooting of NES1 the horse was given to the actor as a gift.
... I don't think someone would have given him a stuffed horse.
Can anyone help me?

[suntailhawk]

Don't worry, the horse didn't die. There were some sort of machines that support the horse so it won't drown.

[mr_taco]

http://www.fast-rewind.com/ (quote):
"when the scene of the swamp of sadness was being shot and the horse was supposed to "sink", he really did. The platform lifts failed and the horse died. "atreyu" was so upset he couldn't do anything for two weeks ."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088323/board/nest/13926487 (quote):

"Re: How did they film the sad scene with Artax?
by - freefall79 2 days ago (Sun Dec 12 2004 10:59:16 )

well by accident the horse drowned when his safty harnedd broke from the stress. you just think it's good acting...no it's real tears that kids shedding"

There is two seperate sources saying that the horse really drowned. What do you make of this?
Mike

[Atreyu179]

Noah Hathaway is actually a member of the Something Awful forums (my friend posts there all the time) and actually came across a thread where this same topic was mentioned. In a response, he said that the horse did NOT die. Though, during filming, his foot got caught under the platform and he was pulled under and passed out. Obviously he was revived and shot the rest of the film. Once I get the link to that forum post, I will put it up here for you guys to read.

[Morla381]

http://141.24.37.187/paulchen/prod/e_prdframe.htm

You can find the making and movie notes here still.

[The_Gmork]

No, Artax did not die. That's a rumor. What they did was they put the horse who played Artax on an elevation machine in the middle of a swamp, and they pressed down. The horse's head was above the water, so it could breath. That's why the screen was black when Atreyu yelled "No". They took the horse out of the water. The horse may have died from old age a while ago, but not in the water. I think maybe the water was only about four feet deep or so. The horse did not die, and there was no harness on it. It was only on a platform that purposely made it look like he was sinking, but he wasn't in danger. My mother works at a veterinary clinic, and she knows about this stuff: she watches the making of the movie things. Case closed.

[aquapunk]

whew, thank you so much for asking this question and for the accurate answers. i was just browsing for info about NES.

when i came across these blurbs saying that the first horse had died during filming, i just about freaked out! took me some time to find this forum! okay, now i can sleep well knowing that beloved artax didn't die during filming!

[Auryn991]

Thank God the horse didn't die. I loved the character of Artax, and I love horses. I probably would be emotionally dead if that horse had died.

[Mvek]

Here you can find some other information, but some of them seem very misinterpreted. http://www.fast-rewind.com/neverending.htm

There is even that hopefully false information about the horse.

There is also an information about Noah's accident, but not the one with Artax, as written here: http://141.24.37.187/paulchen/prod/e_prdframe.htm in section Swamps

So i think, we seem here the classic case of changing the meaning of the first message (I know how in the world, but children in Czech Rep. play a game called Silent Post, where everybody one by one whispers a message to the ear of the other,. And he whispers the message, which the previous player whispered him. So if he understands badly, he will change the meaning and tell anything else... Strange messages come out at the and of the string:-)).

The more interesting information was by some girl, I think, here, that Noah did not voiced himself in NES. But as it was noted by other people, it is strange also. No credit in credits? And the behind the scenes from the polish site show him. Sometimes on the set, I think the voic is the same (but yes, somewhere sounds a bit different).[/url]

[omikron]

It is the rumor.
The horse survive it and they even wanted to give it to Noah at the end.
Because Noah developed the friendship with that horse. If you have seen the German document about making of NES, you may hear that Noah is very upset when they are repeating that scene again and again.

In one of these scenes, Noah was pushed out of the platform by panicking horse and stepped wrong way on something. He was taken to the hospital, but it was not serious, doctors said him to take day or two of silence. After two days, Noah was back in the swamps.

But there was another incident, which caused that "Atreyu" couldn't do anything for several weeks.