Fantasy Movies

Here are some of the best fantasy movies. Since movies were first being made they have been exploring the realm of fantasy.

King Arthur, Conan, and many other fantasy books have successfully crossed over into the film genre. Fantasy is something that lends itself very well to the craft of movie making and it spans the gamut ranging from the Middle Earth of Tolkien to the futuristic worlds of Lucas.

Fantasy movies take the craft of film making to new horizons because they often explore ideas and themes in new directions. The characters in these movies can experience remarkable new lands and worlds like Shangri-La and meet strange and creative characters like Dwarves, wizards, trolls and more.

See My list of Top Ten Epic Fantasy Movies of All Time

A Brief History of fantasy movies

- Fantasy films have stayed with us since the beginning of film making. And to this day it remains a vibrant genre of film making.

Early Fantasy Films

Fantasy lends itself very well to exploration of a variety of themes and Fantasy films have been doing this since the very beginning. In 1902 George Melies created a silent fantasy film called Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip to the Moon). In 1927 Fritz Lang explored the dangers of modern urban life with the impressionistic film Metropolis. The genre of incredible beasts was begun with the release of King Kong in 1933 and strange fantastic worlds was explored in the form of Shangri-La in the film Lost Horizon (1937). The theme of a fantastic world culminated in the classic Wizard of Oz (1939). All of these movies started sub genres of the fantasy film. And these sub-genres remain vibrant today.

The Golden Age of Hollywood - the 50's and 60's

Hollywood took the fantasy film to new heights with the development of special effects and stop motion photography. This allowed the visual medium to better express the wonder of fantasy. Movies like Jason and the Argonauts and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad explored the classical mythology. Movies like It Came from Beneath the Sea and 20 Million Miles to Earth explored the science fiction/fantasy blend with creatures run amuck. Ray Harryhausen is the special effects mastermind that created many of the memorable movies from this time.

The 70's and 80's The children who watched the films of the 50's and 60's grow up and make their own films

Frank Oz, Jim Henson, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and many others re-created the genre of fantasy with their own batch of movies that explored many different themes in the fantasy genre. ET, although often categorized science fiction, is more of a fantasy movie where a boy befriends a strange creature from another planet. Four movies of note that take a fairy tale like slant on the genre are The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Legend and The Princess Bride. All Four are classics of the modern era. The EPic fantasy in the vein of King Arthur also experienced a rebirth in this period with movies like Dragonslayer, Krull, Excalibur and LadyHawke exploring various aspects. The Movie Excalibur is of particular note and is considered to be one of the best movies ever made.

The Present

The genre of fantasy has grown to epic proportions in the modern world and just as the books in the genre are often multi volume epics so the films have also turned into multi episode releases that can span years. Fan bases for these films are tremendous and many await the next release of the film. Some of the more successful films series are The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia,(The second in this series is scheduled for release in 2007) The Star Wars series and The Harry Potter Series.

The genre has also blossomed to take on many different aspects of fantasy with comic-book fantasy figures making strong box office sales with series such as the Spiderman series and the Batman series.

The Internet Movie Database list of the best and worst Fantasy films.

'Based on the Book' is a compilation of over 1,200 books, novels, short stories, and plays that have been made into motion pictures

Fiction Into Film Database -

Fantasy Films - Great explanation of the genre

The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King - Mount Doom
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