Movies - Fantasy film

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	Movies - Fantasy film

In theory fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic or exotic fantasy worlds, as distinct from science fiction films or horror films. The category has as much to do with approach as with context and there is often a good deal of overlap between the genres. For example, much about the Star Wars saga suggests fantasy, yet it feels like science fiction, while much about Time Bandits
suggests science fiction, yet it feels like fantasy.

Superhero films also seem to fufil the requirements of the fantasy or science fiction genres, but they are usually considered to be a genre all their own.

Animated films are not always classified as fantasy, nor are talking non-human animals. Bambi
, for example, is not fantasy, nor is Toy Story, though the latter is closer to fantasy than the former. The Secret of NIMH
, however, is a fantasy film, not because it features talking non-human animals, but because there is actual magic involved.

Films that are technically fantasy, but that involve some gimmick such as mother and daughter switching bodies or a man turning into a dog, are usually considered to be in a genre of their own.

Surrealist film also describes the fantastic, but it dispenses with genre narrative conventions, and commercial and financial aims, and is usually considered a separate category.

Most fantasy movies are released during the winter season, particularly in November and December, in stark contrast with the summer, which releases mostly action and sci-fi movies.

As a cinematic genre, fantasy isn't as highly regarded as it's close neighbour science-fiction, the reason for this is until very recently, fantasy films were made of low or inferior production values, over-the-top acting and decidedly poor special effects. While Raiders of the Lost Ark did much to improve the genre's reputation in public as well critical circles, it's decidely comic-book like approach still prevented it from being taken too seriously.

The genre in recent times however has had a renaissance. This is largely indebted to the highly successful adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is particularly notable due to it's markedly serious approach to the material as well as it's phenomenal commercial and critical success. The third installment of the trilogy became the first fantasy film to ever win Best Picture.

Following the success of the trilogy, Hollywood studios are greenlighting newer ventures into the genre, including a successful adaptation of the first book of the The Chronicles of Narnia and an upcoming adaptation of cult novel Eragon.

Sub-Genres

There are many sub-categories of fantasy films that can be identified. The most prevalent of these are High Fantasy and Sword and sorcery. These are films with quasi-medieval settings, wizards, magical creatures and the like. High Fantasy tends to have a complex fantasy world and hero of humble origins, while Sword and sorcery tends to pit a barbarian against a wizard. High Fantasy is indebted to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings books, while sword and sorcery is equally indebted to the work of Robert E. Howard and his Conan the Barbarian.

Another important sub-genre of fantasy films, more popular in recent years, is Contemporary fantasy. Such films feature magic (often figured as the supernatural) in the real world. The most prominent example in the early Twenty-first Century is the Harry Potter series while most superhero films are a form of science fantasy typically set in contemporary times.

Finally, we have the fairy tale genre, which many people consider separate from the rest of fantasy. We leave consideration of such major films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
to the fairy tale genre.

History

Fantasy as a genre in film has existed since the beginning of films, although the offerings were sporadic until the 1980's, which saw a flourishing of the genre. In the era of silent film the outstanding fantasy films were Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungin (1925). In 1939, audiences embraced what is surely the best loved fantasy film of all time, The Wizard of Oz
. The 1940s saw the full color fantasy films produced by Alexander Korda, The Thief of Bagdad
and Jungle Book
(1942), and Jean Cocteau's classic Beauty and the Beast, too good to be relegated to the fairy tale genre. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in Sinbad the Sailor feels like a fantasy film, though it does not actually have any fantastic elements. In the 1950's there were only two major fantasy films, The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T and Darby O'Gill and the Little People
. There were also several low budget fantasies, based on Greek or Arabian legend, by Ray Harryhausen. The 1960s were almost devoid of fantasy. The film Camelot removed most of the fantasy elements from T. H. White's classic The Once and Future King, on which it was based. The only true fantasy film in the 1970s was The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao. With Raiders of the Lost Ark
, in 1981, a fantasy explosion began which continues into the Twenty-first Century.
1980s
:Raiders of the Lost Ark :Dragonslayer :Poltergeist :The Dark Crystal :Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom :Legend :Ladyhawke :Highlander :Labyrinth :Conan the Barbarian :Conan the Destroyer :The Princess Bride :Willow :The Neverending Story :Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
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