The Top Ten Fantasy Movies

Fantasy Movies show us marvelous creatures, incredible beings, sorcerers, heroes, princess and magic worlds where in little time oneself is immersed in a fantasy background.

They are films that you never get tired of seeing, little jewels of cinema.

Here you are a list of the best fantasy films:

1- The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy: The Fellowship Of The Ring/The Two Towers/The Return Of The King

2- The Chronicles Of Narnia

3- Willow

4- Ladyhawke

5- The Princess Bride

6- Harry Potter

7- Dragonheart

8- Legend

9- The Dark Crystal

10- The Neverending Story

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, shows the fantastic world of Tolkien. The director made some changes. It's logical, but I miss the dialog of Eowyn where she explains why she must go to war. I'd never had removed the full original dialog of the novel. But the films are very long and despite some changes, Peter Jackson followed the book quite well.

The Chronicles of Narnia, four children are sent by their mother far away from war. They arrive to the house of a mysterious teacher. The most little child comes into an wardrobe and discovers Narnia, a damned world. And she and her brothers will have to save Narnia from a terrible witch. A charming film, full of fantasy, magic and mythological beings.

Willow is fun, full of adventures and really entertaining. Willow is an dwarf who finds a baby princess, who according to the legend will finish with the terrible witch Bavmorda. Willow finds also a very funny character: Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), an antihero. But finally he keeps with his obligation.



Ladyhawke, a cruel curse condemns two lovers to live separate forever. She is a lady in the night and a hawk at day, and he is a knight at day and wolf in the night. But a little thief will try to help the couple.

The Princess Bride, a sick boy is visited by his grandfather who wants to read him a special book. The boy, in the beginning, don't wants to hear the story, but his grandfather is Peter Falk (Columbo) so finally he gets to read it to him. A story with a big sense of humor, with dialogs so unforgettable like: "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!". Another great scene is starring by Peter Cook: the wedding ("mawwage").


Harry Potter, Joanne K. Rowling created Harry Potter while she was suffering a depression. Today children (and not so children) enjoy with her books all around the world. Harry lives with his horrible uncles and his cousin. He seems not to belong to that detestable family. His destiny will be to become the biggest wizard of all times, but he will have to discover it.

Dragonheart, what happens when only a dragon lasts in the world? What happens when you discover that this only dragon is a marvelous being? What happens when that who you must kill becomes your best friend? The result: in "Dragonheart".


Legend, Lord of Darkness orders to kill the most pure and guileless beings: unicorns. Because when he exterminates all the unicorns, the Earth will be his. Jack and the princess Lily will have to protect the last of the unicorns.


The Dark Crystal, when the Dark Crystal breaks, the harmony of universe is lost. There's only one hope: to repair the dark crystal and restore the order. This must be done by the last one of the Gelflings, Jen. In his travel he will meet other Gelfling, and with it he meets love too.



The Neverending Story. The worst of this movie was its horrible soundtrack. Despite of this, it's a very entertaining story and full of fantasy. Bastian finds a book with all its pages in blank. This is a magical book that opens the door to a world that grows with the imagination of the humans. As people are loosing imagination, the Childlike Empress is ill, and the Nothing threatens their existence.

Each one of us have his/her favorite list. I am sure I forgot some important movies. Tell me which.

-Emma Alvarez-

© 2008 by Emma Alvarez. Link to this post without copying the text.



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12 comments:

Ghostpipe said...

There's Eragon, one of the new ones. It's not very good I think, but with legends of dragons and sorcery it can be in the list maybe. Nothing can beat the Tolkien trilogy yet. And you added Ladyhawke. Modern classic fantasy that one.

Loz said...

Great list Emma - I've been a Lord of the Rings fan for a long time now and loved the true homage paid to the book in the screen adaptation. And I was a sucker for the ending of Dragonheart.

jOolian said...

Emma :: kewwwwl list... i totally digg'd Willow, Legend, and Princess Bride... sheer difference of them. I still laff st Princess Bride. The City of Lost Children 'could' almost fit here...
~stay sweet, julian

Emma Alvarez said...

The end part of Dragonheart was for seeing with tissues near.
I have seen the Princess Bride and Willow so many times that I have memorized some parts of the dialogs.

MacKozer said...

I agree with most of the positions on the list. I can not accept Harry Potter, Cronicles of Narnia. I haven't seen Ladyhawke and Princess Bride.

As far as fantasy films are concerned my list would be something like that:

1. Lord Of The Rings - though I can not accept some of the changes of the original book. I regard film mostly as a moving pictures - illustrations to the book.
I like very much the play of Sean Bean acting Boromir (one of my favourite characters of the LOTR).

2. Robin Of Sherwood (BBC TV serial) starring Michel Pread, and with Clannad soundtrack (Legend)

3. Dragonheart - great story

4. Willow - yet again great story

5. The Old Fairytale (Stara Basn) based on novel of J. Kraszewski describing pre-Christian pagan slavonic (Polish) tales.

I am a great fan of J.R.R. Tolkien's works. Once, when I was in a high school I even learnt Sindarin (Grey elves language) and a bit of Quenya. I was trying to write poems in both languages.
Despite of that, I am not a great fan of fantasy books.

Greetings from Ireland.

Emma Alvarez said...

Mackocer, my favorite character of Lord of the rings,the book, is Sam Gamgee. Sam isn't a heroe, he wasn't born to be a heroe. He has fears and is weak, but his heart and passion for his country makes him strong. His passion for friendship makes of him a true heroe that is able to kill Shelob.He shows his courage and the great person that he is.

Samih said...

hey thanks for the list. I'm gonna get a hold of some of these movies and watch them.

Emma Alvarez said...

Samih, sure you won't repent.

Orbital Dreams said...

I am sad to see the labyrinth left out.

Emma Alvarez said...

Only are 10 movies, Orbital Dreams, so
Labyrinth will be the 11 ;)

Fatima said...

great list, I suggest the movie "Stardust"..I loved the movie, everything about it is perfect.! Robert deNiro was a special appearance!

A Anderson said...

I have always loved DragonHeart since I was a kid, and from learning about the film's development, it's a shame that Universal messed it up by trying to make it family-friendly. After I found out about the novelization, I just had to get my hands on it and it was more than worth it. It's the true version of DragonHeart and one of the best novelizations I've ever read!

The way that Charles Edward Pogue wrote the book reads like poetry, fleshing out the characters, the world, and the story while the film only scratched the surface. The movie ought to be remade like this. - http://www.thepetitionsite.com/919/037/836/remake-dragonheart/.

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