# Fantasy Film - Genre: Screen & live genre - Date: Late 1890s, the trick films of Georges Méliès - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/fantasy-film/ > From Méliès's stage-trick fairy tales to Peter Jackson's Middle-earth, fantasy film has always been a race between imagination and effects technology, and for most of a century the effects lost. **Why it matters:** Fantasy cinema carried Tolkien, Howard, Henson and Dungeons & Dragons to audiences far beyond readers and gamers. The Lord of the Rings trilogy's Best Picture win in 2004 ended the genre's long exile as a B-movie form. ## Quick answers **What is Fantasy Film?** From Méliès's stage-trick fairy tales to Peter Jackson's Middle-earth, fantasy film has always been a race between imagination and effects technology, and for most of a century the effects lost. **What are the hallmarks of Fantasy Film?** Magic, myth and the impossible made visible, which ties the genre's fortunes to special-effects technology; Secondary worlds or enchanted corners of our own, rather than technological futures; Quests, dark lords, chosen heroes and fellowships borrowed from myth and fantasy literature; Creatures as stars: stop-motion skeletons, animatronic goblins, digital dragons; Heavy reliance on adaptation, from fairy tales to Tolkien, Rowling and Dungeons & Dragons; A long reputation as a B-genre, overturned by the blockbusters of the 2000s. **When did Fantasy Film emerge?** Late 1890s, the trick films of Georges Méliès. **What are the key works of Fantasy Film?** The Lord of the Rings, Excalibur, Conan the Barbarian, Labyrinth, Willow, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. ## What it is Fantasy film is cinema of the impossible made literal: wizards, dragons, talking beasts, cursed swords and whole invented worlds put in front of a camera. Its stories come from myth, fairy tale and, increasingly, from fantasy novels and games. What binds it together is less a plot than a promise: that the screen will show you something that cannot exist and make you believe it for two hours. That promise has always depended on technology. Written fantasy needs only words; filmed fantasy needs a way to put a [Dragon](https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/dragon/) on screen that does not look like a puppet. The genre's history is therefore a history of effects breakthroughs, stage tricks, stop-motion, animatronics, rotoscoping and computer graphics, each of which briefly made new kinds of fantasy possible. ## Origins Fantasy is almost as old as film. In the late 1890s the French stage magician Georges Méliès began filming fairy tales such as *Cendrillon* (1899), using stop-trick cuts and double exposures to make people vanish and transform. The silent era produced grand spectacles: Fritz Lang's two-part *Die Nibelungen* (1924), drawn from the Nibelung legend that also runs through the [Eddas](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-eddas/), and Douglas Fairbanks's *The Thief of Bagdad* (1924), out of the [*Arabian Nights*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/one-thousand-and-one-nights/). Sound and color brought Disney's *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs* (1937) and MGM's *The Wizard of Oz* (1939), fairy-tale fantasy aimed at families. After the war, effects artist Ray Harryhausen turned mythic adventure into a stop-motion showcase, from *The 7th Voyage of Sinbad* (1958) to *Jason and the Argonauts* (1963), whose sword-fighting skeletons inspired a generation of effects artists and filmmakers. ## Evolution For decades, fantasy was a minor genre. The 1970s offered the Arthurian satire *Monty Python and the Holy Grail* (1975) and, on television, Rankin/Bass's animated [*The Hobbit*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-hobbit-1977-film/) (1977). The following year [Ralph Bakshi](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/ralph-bakshi/)'s [*The Lord of the Rings*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-lord-of-the-rings-1978-film/) used rotoscoping to put half of [Tolkien](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/j-r-r-tolkien/)'s epic into theaters. Then, in the early 1980s, as [*Dungeons & Dragons*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/) became a craze, came a boom. John Boorman's [*Excalibur*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/excalibur-film/) (1981) brought [Malory](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/le-morte-darthur/) to the screen with operatic intensity; John Milius's [*Conan the Barbarian*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/conan-the-barbarian-film/) (1982) turned [Robert E. Howard](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/robert-e-howard/)'s pulp hero and [Frank Frazetta](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/frank-frazetta/)'s paperback covers into a hit, and a wave of cheaper [Sword & Sorcery](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/sword-and-sorcery/) imitators followed. Fairy-tale fantasy flourished beside it: *The Dark Crystal* (1982), [*The Last Unicorn*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-last-unicorn/) (1982), [*The NeverEnding Story*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-neverending-story/) (1984), Jim Henson's [*Labyrinth*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/labyrinth-film/) (1986), [*The Princess Bride*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-princess-bride/) (1987) and George Lucas and Ron Howard's [*Willow*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/willow-film/) (1988). Several underperformed at the box office and found devoted audiences on home video. Computer graphics finally closed the gap between page and screen. Peter Jackson's [*The Lord of the Rings*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/lord-of-the-rings-film-trilogy/) (2001–03), designed by Tolkien illustrators [Alan Lee](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/alan-lee/) and [John Howe](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/john-howe/), combined New Zealand landscapes, miniatures and digital armies. *The Return of the King* won all 11 Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Picture, and became only the second film, after *Titanic*, to gross more than $1 billion worldwide. The *Harry Potter* films (2001–11), adapting [J. K. Rowling's novels](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/harry-potter/), ran alongside it, and studios rushed to adapt [Narnia](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-chronicles-of-narnia/), [*His Dark Materials*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/his-dark-materials/) and more. Jackson returned to Middle-earth with a three-film [*Hobbit*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-hobbit/) (2012–14). After a notorious flop in 2000, the game that had fed on fantasy film finally got a well-received movie of its own in [*Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/honor-among-thieves/) (2023). ## How to tell it apart **Fantasy vs science-fiction film.** Both show the impossible, but science fiction explains it with technology and extrapolation, while fantasy accepts magic on its own terms. The boundary blurs in [science fantasy](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/science-fantasy/): *Star Wars* has spaceships, but also knights, a mystical Force and a farm-boy hero straight out of fairy tale. **Fantasy vs sword-and-sandal.** The Italian peplum boom that followed *Hercules* (1958) filled the screen with musclemen, gods and monsters, but set them in a version of the ancient Mediterranean. Critics sometimes lump 1980s barbarian films into "sword and sandal," often as an insult; the useful distinction is that sword-and-sandal is mythologized history, while [Sword & Sorcery](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/sword-and-sorcery/) and [high fantasy](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/high-fantasy/) build invented worlds. **Fantasy vs horror.** Both deal in the supernatural. Horror uses it to frighten, and the monster is the point; fantasy uses it to create wonder, and the monster is an obstacle on a quest. *Labyrinth*'s goblins are mischievous; a vampire film's vampire is the threat. **Fantasy film vs [fantasy television](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/fantasy-television/).** A film has two or three hours, so adaptations compress; *The Lord of the Rings* cut Tom Bombadil. Television's long serial form let *Game of Thrones* keep sprawling casts and slow-burning politics that cinema could not. ## Where to start - *The Thief of Bagdad* (1924): silent-era spectacle and the ancestor of the swashbuckling fantasy adventure. - *Jason and the Argonauts* (1963): Harryhausen's stop-motion masterpiece. - [*Excalibur*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/excalibur-film/) (1981) and [*Conan the Barbarian*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/conan-the-barbarian-film/) (1982): the two poles of the 1980s boom, myth and muscle. - [*Labyrinth*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/labyrinth-film/) (1986) and [*The Princess Bride*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-princess-bride/) (1987): fairy-tale fantasy at its most beloved. - [*The Lord of the Rings*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/lord-of-the-rings-film-trilogy/) (2001–03): the genre's summit, and the reason studios take it seriously. - [*Honor Among Thieves*](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/honor-among-thieves/) (2023): a tabletop game's worldview, from [owlbears](https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/owlbear/) to failed plans, translated to film. ## Hallmarks - Magic, myth and the impossible made visible, which ties the genre's fortunes to special-effects technology - Secondary worlds or enchanted corners of our own, rather than technological futures - Quests, dark lords, chosen heroes and fellowships borrowed from myth and fantasy literature - Creatures as stars: stop-motion skeletons, animatronic goblins, digital dragons - Heavy reliance on adaptation, from fairy tales to Tolkien, Rowling and Dungeons & Dragons - A long reputation as a B-genre, overturned by the blockbusters of the 2000s ## Facts - *The Return of the King* won all 11 Academy Awards it was nominated for, and was the first fantasy film to win Best Picture. - [Peter Jackson](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/peter-jackson/) first read Tolkien after seeing [Ralph Bakshi](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/ralph-bakshi/)'s rotoscoped 1978 *Lord of the Rings*. - Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion skeletons in *Jason and the Argonauts* (1963) remain a touchstone of screen creature effects. - [Conan the Barbarian](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/conan-the-barbarian-film/) (1982) opened at number one at the US box office and set off a wave of low-budget sword-and-sorcery films. - In [Willow](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/willow-film/) (1988), Industrial Light & Magic pioneered the digital morphing later used in Terminator 2. - The villain's two-headed dragon in Willow is called an Eborsisk, a jab at critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_film) - [List of fantasy films (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fantasy_films) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.