5. “The Fall” (2006)
One of the most significant outgrowths of the high fantasy boom of the 1960s and ’70s wasn’t on film or in prose, but in gaming. Dungeons and Dragons, which ritualizes the storytelling traditions represented in works from “Alice in Wonderland” to “The Princess Bride,” connects audiences to the storytelling roots of fantasy too often buried in an age of mass-produced entertainment. There still isn’t a good D&D movie (there are multiple terrible ones), but Tarsem’s second feature film ‘The Fall,’ captures precisely the sort of participatory storytelling that D&D movies have never bothered with. A hard-living stuntman (Lee Pace), hospitalized after breaking his back, spins a web of stories to distract a young fellow patient, played by the extraordinary Catinca Untaru (one of the all-time great child performances). Tarsem’s film melds familiar ideas in surprising new combinations and delves into the relationship between storyteller and audience, and the responsibility one has to the other. Visually stunning and formally unusual, “The Fall” takes all the chances open to fantasy to resounding and surprisingly moving success.
4. “Where the Wild Things Are” (2009)
Fantasy is often conceived as an escape, but the pain of reality frequently creeps into even the most rigorously crafted distraction. Spike Jonze’s film adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s 1963 children’s book only looks like escapism from afar; in truth, this film is like a dive into a deep wound, where the childish desire to frolic carefree is constantly shadowed by an awareness of pain. Which is to say that “Where the Wild Things Are,” in which a young boy unable to come to terms with his broken home runs away to an alternate life populated by great beasts, is not an easy or comforting film. But it is utterly earnest and patient, and very often true. Jonze’s insistence upon a hybrid of physical performance, voice work, and digital effects to create the “wild things” led to exceptional creatures who are as vital as the human actors in the movie. The voices of James Gandolfini, Chris Cooper, Lauren Ambrose and Forest Whitaker are as crucial to the film’s reality-warping effect as Catherine Keener and the dervish Max Records. “Where the Wild Things Are” succeeds not because it conjures easy diversion, but because it is a dream that helps process pain.
3. “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006)
Few can match Guillermo del Toro’s sensitive originality within the realms of the fantasy genre. This Spanish language film (one of the Playlist’s 50 Best Foreign Language Films Of The Century) and Del Toro’s masterpiece naturally blends all of the director’s favorite elements: mid-20th-century evil, dark fairytales, secret worlds populated by insect-like creatures and semi-mythological beings, and a powerfully bittersweet affection for the loveliness and the folly of childhood innocence. Beautifully composed by Javier Navarrete, gloriously imaginative in the way its central quest is structured around Ofelia (a startling Ivana Banquero) and boasting del Toro’s most strikingly twisted designs and concepts, “Pan’s Labyrinth” is “The Devil’s Backbone‘s” spiritual sequel filtered through fantasy folklore, and a film for the ages. Were it not for the sheer magnitude and adaptive prowess of the next high fantasy film on this list, del Toro’s lullaby would wear the live-action fantasy feature crown proudly on its head. It’s a mystical, miraculous, and profoundly moving fairytale that all children (above, let’s say, the age of 10) and every adult absolutely needs in their life.
2. “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001)
The granddaddy of high fantasy literature long thought to be impossible to bring to the screen, the mighty ‘Lord of the Rings’ found in a then-relatively-unknown pudgy director from New Zealand the ideal man for the job. With a mountainous financial investment behind it, a stellar cast led by Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood and Viggo Mortensen (turning Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn into modern film icons), stupendously photogenic and largely untapped Kiwi landscapes and the now-famous WETA workshop creating world-class effects such as Andy Serkis‘ mo-cap Gollum, Peter Jackson accomplished the impossible and brought J.R.R. Tolkien’s world to glorious and endlessly gratifying cinematic life. All three films were filmed as one, so it’s fair to say “The Fellowship of the Ring” is the appropriate standard-bearer as the series’ point of origin (it also happens to be most charming and least cluttered part of the trilogy). By setting a new bar for high fantasy adaptations (the likes of which no “Golden Compass,” ‘Narnia’ or even “Hobbit” has managed to reach since) Jackson’s LOTR trilogy is a timeless classic of the genre, that —as far live-action goes, anyway— will remain the superlative specimen in the genre.
1. “Spirited Away” (2001)
Tolkien’s books are the pinnacle of fantasy for many, but every culture has its own rich library of folklore and myth teeming with characters and ideas that would be unrecognizable to the average Hobbit or Orc. “Spirited Away,” Hayao Miyazaki’s richly-imagined tale of a young girl who comes of age in the bubble of a fairy realm inhabited by eccentric Japanese spirits, is one of the director’s greatest achievements, a singular work of synthesis that opens up Japan’s folkloric heritage and makes it accessible to all. Studio Ghibli’s rightly-celebrated animation is at peak power here, communicating character and personality through even the smallest movements as Miyazaki’s imagination is spun into an alluringly odd story that takes place in a realm in which anyone can be lost, but from which those of strong character may emerge even stronger. Chihiro is such a character, facing down opposition so outlandish as to be inconceivable, and through persistence and strength of will prevailing where the faint of heart would falter. And that is the greatest lesson that fantasy can teach us: sometimes, equipped with nothing more than purity of spirit, the small and the ordinary can win out over the massive, the supernatural and the terrifying.
As ever, there were some near-misses that could have made the list on another day. Tim Burton’s “Big Fish” isn’t worthy of his earlier work, but it’s better than anything else he made in this century. We weren’t quite sure if “Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events” quite qualified as fantasy, but it’s underrated nevertheless. And Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus” is a mess, sometimes deliberately sometimes not, but it’s worth a watch for sure.
Miyazaki had two entries until the 11th hour, with “Ponyo” riding high until a very late cull, but it could really have been a hat trick with a lot of votes for “Howl’s Moving Castle.” And if you’re a fan of “The Secret of Kells,” then you probably already know how great Cartoon Saloon’s follow-up “Song of the Sea” is. And we’ve had people batting for high fantasies of the thriller variety in “Reign of Fire” and “Night Watch,” while someone on staff who shall remain anonymous confessed to quite liking the Nicolas Cage “Sorceror’s Apprentice” movie, and another briefly flew the flag for “The Spiderwick Chronicles.”
Did we miss your favorite? A guilty pleasure? Let us know in the comments.