Greatest High Fantasy Movies

Mike Ventrella

Mike Ventrella

Paragon
If we were to do a poll of our favorite high fantasy movies, which films should be included?

I only want to consider "sword and sorcery" type of movies -- similar to the game. "Labyrinth" is a great fantasy film but not really our kind of fantasy.

Here are some suggestions. Let me know if you think we should add any and then I'll put together a poll.

Lord of the Rings trilogy
Hobbit trilogy
Princess Bride
Willow
Eragon
Legend
Dark Crystal
Conan the Barbarian
Last Unicorn
Dragonheart

Which others should we include? (We don't want more than 20 or so)
 
If you are including animated films (since you listed the Last Unicorn):
  • Sword and the Stone
  • Black Cauldron
  • Sleeping Beauty
  • Snow White
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • How to Train Your Dragon
  • Fantasia?
  • Kubo?
If you are including TV movies:
  • Merlin
  • The Legend of Earthsea
Additional Live-Action Movies (Not sure if there is a quality requirement since you listed Eragon)(Also not sure how developed of a world is limited i.e. later like Brother's Grim or Stardust, or earlier like Clash of the Titans)
  • The Secret of Moonacre
  • The Seventh Son
  • Dungeons and Dragons
  • Knights of Badassdom?
  • Warcraft
  • Excaliber
  • Stardust?
  • Snow White and the Huntsman
  • Brother's Grim?
  • Clash of the Titans
  • Jason and the Argonauts (the old 1963 version, not the new one)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean?
  • Maleficent
Off the top of my head ...
 
Also, I recommend specifying which version of movie, which in the series, or if it is the whole series. Such as Dragonheart (1, 2, and 3), or Conan the Barbarian (1982). These are important distinctions. :)
 
I thought things like Stardust and Pirates were a bit too "modern" since they have guns and some technology, so I wasn't including them.

And I'm trying not to list everything! Don't want a 100 film list.
 
I know there is no sorcery but there are lots of swords in Kingdom of Heaven.
 
Krull
Kull the Conquerer
Hawk the Slayer
Dragon heart
 
Conan the Barbarian, and I'm surprised nobody said it. :(
 
Some of my favorites were already listed. I don't think these were, yet:

Dragonslayer (1981)
The Beastmaster (1982)
The Flight of Dragons (animated, 1982)
Fire and Ice (animated, 1983) - admittedly didn't see this until I was older, on Netflix.
Ladyhawke (1985)

I'm also a huge fan of both the Rankin Bass and Bakshi adaptations of Tolkien's work, despite all of the technical issues in them.

Obviously the 80's were a fun decade to be a kid with an overactive imagination. And just look where it got me!
 
Maybe I'm just being picky, but...

I wouldn't generally consider Pirates of the Caribbean to be high fantasy... but I can see where arguments that it is are coming from. To my mind it's a historical action/ adventure movie, with supernatural elements distinctly different from "magic" as normally portrayed in high fantasy films.

Likewise, Fantasia wouldn't count for me, either. Most of the movie is just pretty visuals set to music... it's fantastical, without necessarily being fantasy.

Knights of Badassdom is a LARP horror comedy. Magic plays second fiddle in that film.

It kind of begs the question, what are the rules for categorical inclusion? The more I think about what you need to qualify as high or epic fantasy, the more exceptions to those rules I start to think up, as well. It's really one of those, "I know it when I see it" lines of interpretation.

For that matter, the "sword and sorcery" label is normally more associated with low fantasy... grittier kinds of pulp stories, usually where magic is depicted as the tools of villains. That's actually the sort of thing I think of when someone mentions Conan to me, honestly.
 
Seventh Son was absolute fun. But Labyrinth is totally a high fantasy movie.
 
Two I can think of the haven't been named yet

Red Sona
Snow White ( the version with Sigourney Weaver as the witch)



Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top