Fantasy movies take you to another world, making you believe life could be magical. The genre speaks of dulcet visuals, a romantic world we only wish existed. The fantasy genre adds a feather to the cap for a mind that loves imagining everything excellent.
Disney and Marvel have ruled the fantasy and fairytale genres for almost a century. We dream of fairytale weddings, romance, and the magical power of the universe watching these movies. Our vacation to the other worlds fills our minds with fantastic landscapes, costumes, and stories we wish were a part of our lives.
Stardust
Dustan Thorn lives in a fantasy city called Wall in England. Beyond the wall lies a magical kingdom called the Stormhold. At the faerie market, which happens once every nine years, Dustan crosses the wall and lands in Stormhold. Dustan spends time with an enchanted enslaved person. They give birth to a son, Tristan, who is a teen misfit.
Everyone in the Wall, the king, the witches, and the king of Stormhold, is looking for a fallen star. Tristan crosses the wall and lands in Stornhold at the age of seventeen. Though he has a crush on a local Victoria, he crashes into the fallen star dropped from the sky.
The movie lacks visuals that make a fantasy movie convincing. The Witches hunt for the fallen star to retrieve their youth, cutting her heart out. The sons of the king of Stormhold are sent looking for the fallen star because their father’s ruby, the magical necklace, is dropped in the sky.
Tristan is the heir of Stormhold but meets his fate much later after juggling chaos between real and fantasy worlds. After a series of exciting incidents with Tristan, he later died, making the fallen star, Yvaine, the queen of Stormhold.
The Wizard Of Oz
A young girl Dorothy is living on farmland with her aunt and uncle and a pet dog, Toto. The adventure of Dorothy with the help of the Wizard of Oz, who gives her magical ruby slippers for her protection from the witches.
The movie has a similar theme to Alice In Wonderland; only this plot involves wicked witches who want to take away the slippers that guard her. It depicts the adventure of Dorothy with the tin man, a scarecrow who becomes her friend along with her pet dog Toto.
She finally reaches Kansas from the magical world, knowing how to protect herself in weird situations. An excellent fantasy movie from the 1930s without CGI and visual effects.
How The Grinch Stole The Christmas
The movie is based on the children’s book by Dr.Seuss of the same name. Whoville is a fantasy town whChristmas is celebrated with furor. Grinch is a green-colored creature who haChristmas and lives in the Whos.
The movie deals with themes of isolation, hatred, and negative emotions of the character. It shows how Grinch transforms from a hate-mongering, lonely creature to a joyful character who starts to enChristmas.
Grinch’s hatred of Christmas starts as a kid when he once liked a girl named Martha and made a gift for her. A part of the angel he created as a gift was cut off, and he gets derided by his classmates for that.
Numerous incidents happen durChristmas which make Grinch grumpy, sullen, and Christmas. Grinch, out of vindication, vows to dampen the spirit of Christmas in Whoville only to realize his bitterness towards these incidents stops him from enjoying the festivities.
Bitterness, loneliness, and bad experiences make a person accept negative emotions instead of looking at the brighter side. But, with a touch of love and compassion, a lonely heart can melt too.
Percy Jackson’s Sea Of Monsters
The movie is based on the book of the name Sea Of Monsters and is a sequel to the Percy Jackson series. The movie has themes of prophecy, magical symbolism, and healing. Thalis, the daughter of Zeus, is turned into a tree that protects Percy and his friends.
They are set on an adventurous quest in the Sea Of Monsters(Bermuda Triangle) to find the golden fleece that would turn Thalis back into the human form. The plot involves a lot of adventure and characters and comes with stunning visuals.
The Spiderwick Chronicles
An absorbing children’s fantasy movie with goblins and other fantasy creatures who fight for a book of magic written by Arthur Spiderwick. It is based on the book of the same name written by Holly Black and Toni Diterlizzi.
A divorced Helen moves with her children Jared, Simon, and daughter Mallory into the Spiderwick Estate 8 years after Arthur is taken away by Sylphs and held captive. Arthur has written a magical book of spells and potions that the villainous, shapeshifting creature Mulgarath wants.
Jared reaches Arthurs’s room and discovers the dumbwaiter. It introduces him to the fantasy creatures, fairies, fighting for the book. Jared finally saves the book. After that, Helen and her children live an everyday life inside the Spiderwick estate.
Ghosttown
An American fantasy comedy film starring Ricky Gervais. He plays the dentist, who can see ghosts and converse with them. Bertram Pincus(Ricky Gervais) is dead for seven minutes and wakes up with the gift of seeing and hearing ghosts.
In his waking life, he falls in love with the ex-wife of a ghost he has been talking to. Bertram is a misanthrope who usually does not get along with most people and loves to be left alone. Ghosts, too, realize he can see and hear them and treat him like their agony aunt.
As a barter to be left alone, he agrees to help a ghost called Frank, who agrees to keep other ghosts from bothering him. Ghosts are bothering him everywhere he goes, even at his home, trying to talk to him.
Bertram falls in love with his ex-wife and eventually learns to be happy with himself and opens up his heart to start helping other ghosts.
Claire St. Cloud
It takes a long time to heal and move on when a loved one dies. The movie is about the beautiful bond between brothers and making tough choices in life. Charlie(Zac Efron) loses his brother Sam in a car accident and is burdened with the pain and guilt of his death. Charlie is about to get a scholarship when this mishap happens.
He forgoes his scholarship and can talk to Sam’s ghost. He promises Sam to play a game of catch every day and does so for a decade. Years go by, and Charlie is still not healed from the pain of his brother’s death. However, Charlie loves sailing and meets Tess, who wants to sail around the globe. Charlie finally makes peace with Sam’s spirit and starts a sailing journey with Tess.
The Waterhorse
The movie is based on a children’s book of the same name. Agnus MacMarrow is a Scottish boy who lives by the lakeside. He lives with his family and discovers a large egg. His father went to fight in the navy during World War II. The egg hatches and a strange creature comes out of the egg.
This animal is his secret friend he decides to leave in the nearby lake. Agnus has a good time with the creature as it grows. He overcomes his phobia of water by taking a dive with the sea creature Crusoe.
His family witnesses the large sea creature being upset with their son’s friendship with the creature. Agnus is reprimanded for protecting the sea creature from injury. Soldiers come to know of Crusoe and try to profit from it.
The movie shows the beautiful, emotional bond between Agnus and Crusoe and how they protect and be there for each other through all of the opposition and challenges. Water Horse is a wonderful children’s movie that depicts the bond of friendship.
Dr.Dolittle 3
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if animals could talk just like human beings? Dr. Dolittle’s daughter, Maya, has inherited the gift of talking to animals. The movie could be better than its prequels, but it has an enjoyable plot.
Unlike her father, her gift of talking to animals brings more trouble than joy. Maya is a struggling teen who does not fit in. She wants to save her camp by talking animals into saving it from being taken by a neighboring ranch.
Elf
Buddy(Will Ferrall) crawls into Santa’s bag on Christmas eve and is raised as an Elf at the North Pole. His size grows as he grows, and he lands in New York City in search of his birth father, who is busy making money, unaware of his son’s existence.
Will Ferrall brings his brand of humor and versatility by playing Buddy, who makes us laugh with his naivety and innocence. A sweet movie with hilarious moments makes for one of the best movies abChristmas.
Buddy’s father finally realizes his love for his son, and all ends well. It is sentimental and has a few silly and corny moments. A sweet and charming holiday movie that makes you laugh and gives you tears of joy.
Ella Enchanted
Ella(Anne Hathway) is given a gift of obedience which works against her in most situations. As a result, she lands in numerous precarious and confusing situations which exploit her will. A fairy godmother gives her the gift of obedience in her childhood. As she grows old, this gift works against her, and she has to find Lucinda to undo her gift.
Born into a noble family, Ella wants to do away with this gift and finds numerous characters in her adventures. She finally meets the man of her dreams Char whom she is instructed to kill but finally falls in love with him, saving him and unhinging herself from the gift of obedience.
Char falls in love with Ella knowing she is chained to her alter ego. They propose to marry her. This is one of the happily ever after stories with a lot of characters and twists. It melts your heart to see Char and Ella’s beautiful love story.
Prancer
A 9-year-old Jessica lives by her own convictions and believes in the truth of her beliefs. Her mother is dead, and she lives with her father and brother. Prancer seems like a kid movie where a 9-year-old wants to return one of Santa’s reindeer, Prancer, back to him Christma.
A feel-good movie that lets the childhood dream and believe in doing good. She finds an injured reindeer and does odd jobs to buy oats for her pet to heal him. Her father plans to sell off the reindeer for meat to the horrors of Jessica.
But in the end, all ends well, and she is able to heal the reindeer and send it back to Santa. Jessica believes Santa is real and that Prancer could be one of the reindeer of Santa. The movie is something people of all age groups can relate to, and it has a few touching moments that could moisten your heart.
Where The Wild Things Are
Max is a 9-year-old boy with an active imagination. After a fight with his sister, he imagines riding a boat to the island of monsters. He convinces them that he is their king. The movie depicts Max’s adventure on this island where he lives like a king making monsters build him a fort and listen to his orders.
The movie is based on a children’s book of the same name. The muppetry and graphics are quite convincing, which brings the story alive. Away from wreaking havoc, Max finds a world where he can be the king to feel good about himself.
Alex, a character from the Wild Things on the island, knows Max is not a king and keeps the secret. Max can make friends and bring them good while on the island. He is back home eating breakfast with his mother. It shows how children use imagination to seek answers to what is troubling them in their waking life.
Zathura
The home of two brothers lands in space while playing a board game. They are part of a real adventure where all the characters come alive and have to find their way back home. Walter’s parents are divorced, and he does not get along with his siblings.
As they are playing, the cards and instructions on the cards start happening for real, and they realize they have to finish the game to get back to normal. As they continue to play the game, a lot of things go wrong such as their home floating in space, being attacked by aliens, etc.
An astronaut is sent to assist them in their game. The adventure game helps the siblings help each other and get closer to each other. As they finish the game and return home, their father is glad to see them getting along.