The Ten Greatest Fantasy Films of All Time

Nailing down the top Fantasy movies is much trickier than nailing down the top 10 Science Fiction movies, in part because there are much fewer Fantasy movies that are made than Science Fiction movies and because the definitions are much trickier.

As far as I'm concerned, fantasy movies deal with legends and myths, they deal with the idea of crossing over from reality into a fantastic world where magic is real and where there are strange creatures, whether in the movie or as a viewer. I know it's a pretty fast and loose definition but what I mean to do is exclude horror movies, where the purpose is mainly to scare not to awe and enchant... even though Pan's Labyrinth, one of the movies on the list, can be considered a horror movie. Fantasy can be scary but its purpose is to do more than scare you. If all a movie does is throw ghouls and vampires at you, it isn't a fantasy movie.

Science Fiction tells us that the impossible can be made real if we work hard enough for it. Fantasy tells us that the impossible can be made real if we truly believe and wish for it. And perhaps that is the string which connects these ten movies as well.

1. Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga remains the very definitive fantasy trilogy. Peter Jackson's films succeeded in partially capturing some of that magic, none more so than Fellowship of the Ring. Where Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers often felt like a tangled mess that departed significantly from the Tolkien novel and threw away its best parts right down to the hope draining ending and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King traded in storytelling for massive battles, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring carried with it the idea of the quest.

In the quest, men and women, creatures of all sorts from dwarves to elves, set out on a journey from the lives they have led to discover wondrous things, face dangers and discover their destiny. Only The Fellowship of the Ring properly captured both that feel and that magic as Frodo is forced to leave his home behind in the safe comforts of the Shire and fleeing danger discover himself in a world of elves and orcs, travel through kingdoms and ancient ruins, while struggling with fear and a gnawing temptation rooted in the ring he wears around his neck.

That is why The Fellowship of the Ring emerges as fantasy in the truest sense of the word, the story of the quest, the journey, the road that leads ever onward.

2. The 10th Kingdom - Technically a television miniseries rather than a movie, the 10th Kingdom ran for seven hours and closed the age of the lavish miniseries on American network television. The 10th Kingdom followed on the heels of such projects as Ted Danson in Gulliver's Travels and the Merlin miniseries and viewers might have been forgiven for expecting something equally mediocre especially with the cast of TV actors but instead 10th Kingdom emerged as a stunning project that fulfilled fantasy in the truest sense, a journey of the imagination into myth.

Working off the premise of another dimension where fairy tales are true, the 10th Kingdom moved from the wilds of Central Park across fairy tale kingdoms where there really was a wicked stepmother, a cinderella and a wicked wolf, a goose who laid the golden eggs and little bo beep but at the same time made them real by giving them dimension and weight. At its best Science Fiction and Fantasy both are about potential, about imagining a world and bringing you there. Unfortunately very few movies and TV shows actually do this. The 10th Kingdom did. With sharp witty writing and a story that went from goofy to chilling in an instant, The 10th Kingdom felt very much like the marriage of Joss Whedon and Walt Disney (neither of whom were obviously involved in the project.) While Virginia, a girl whose father Tony is the super for a Park Avenue building and Wolf, the Wolf-Man sent to capture her wander the 9 fantasy Kingdoms, Dianne Wiest effectively and chillingly plays the wicked queen in scenes that sometimes freeze the blood while Rutger Hauer plays her huntsman.

The 10th Kingdom meanders sometimes over its seven hour run and around the Dwarves Mine gets entirely lost but it was a brilliant and refreshing production that very much deserves to be seen by anyone who has wanted to escape to another world.

3. The Princess Bride - It's hard to talk about fantasy movies without talking about The Princess Bride and there's no reason not to talk about it. The Princess Bride spawned dozens of quotes from "Inconceivable!" to "This is my favorite book in the world though I never read it" to "My name is Iingo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die." But The Princess Bride is more than a comic sendup of fantasy tropes or it would merit a place in the parody section right next to Spaceballs. Instead like The 10th Kingdom, it affectionately plays around with the same old fantasy myths and legends even as it breathes new life into them.

As much a story about faith as anything else, The Princess Bride is to classic fantasy what Buffy the Vampire Slayer is to horror, a breath of fresh air and a reminder that what you cherished about a story can be given new life with the right amount of imagination. Robin Penn Wright may have been badly miscast but the rest of the cast from Cary Elwes to Billy Crystal to the unforgettable Wallace Shawn are perfect in this story of magic, mystery and courage that took place sometime and someplace in legend.

4. Legend - Often forgotten today even though it's barely two decades old but after making Blade Runner, legendary director Ridley Scott made a movie called Legend with an up and coming actor named Tom Cruise, whose own breakout hit Top Gun was still a year away.

Legend never became a hit, instead it became an odd footnote in both their careers, which is a shame because Legend remains an interesting and compelling movie. Rooted more in symbolism than plot, Legend showcases a haunting struggle between good and evil, light and darkness and corruption and innocence. It could have been better but even as it is, it is one of the best Fantasy films ever made.

5. Pan's Labyrinth - It may be only a recent arrival on the list and a movie that is in many ways as much horror as it is fantasy but Pan's Labyrinth showcases the kind of Alice in Wonderland world that too many children are unfortunate enough to live in, a world in which both the real and the fantastic is dark and in its terribleness somehow wonderful as well and in which the horrors we survive become wonders and the surviving itself becomes an act as fantastic as that of Frodo and the One Ring.

6. The Wizard of Oz - It's pretty hard to leave out The Wizard of Oz and while I always prefered the original Frank L. Baum books to the movie adaptation, there's no denying that it cast its spell on generations of viewers. I for one could never get past the idea of Judy Garland as the world's oldest Dorothy or a version of Oz that is more comical than fantastic but it has successfully connected with too many moviegoers for me to argue with that kind of success.

7. Excalibur - The story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table has gone through many incarnations throughout time but in many ways, Excalibur is the finest film version of it. Forget the soap opera of First Knight or failed revisionist efforts like King Arthur and The Last Legion, Excalibur not only boasted a top notch cast but it was based in the same myths and very often felt like a myth itself. Possessed by the same dreamlike qualities of Legend, Excalibur drifted imperiously to a shattering final conclusion.

8. The Neverending Story - A movie almost untethered from plot at times, The Neverending Story completely embraced the idea of the childlike enthusiasm of losing yourself in a book and discovering the magic of it in a journey to another world. Heavy on image and symbolism, more so than on plot and story, The Neverending Story was a beautifully told journey of the imagination and the kind of movie that brings light to any bookish child's childhood.

9. Big Fish - Not the most obvious title that comes to mind, yet more so than any other movie Big Fish harnesses director Tim Burton's own love of stories into a movie that is about the difference between reality and stories and whether there really is one and whether it matters at all. A wonderful journey into a father and son relationship and into how a man lives his life and how he makes that life worthwhile.

10. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - A perfect merger of balletics and acrobatics with myth and storytelling, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is as much a ballet or an opera as it is a movie. With beautiful scenery and fights that are as unreal as they are convincing, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon took America by storm before the parodies began and too many people forgot it had even existed. But the movie stands on its own beyond the wirework.