Is every movie a fantasy? Like, even the documentaries? Are they the real life? Or are they just fantasy? They do construct something that can be watched, after all, that’s not technically real life, but a depiction of it in some way, or an argument/point-of-view about something real. Then, movies that aren’t documentaries obviously go further toward fantasy, or something not real, and then movies that are genuinely in the fantasy genre… well, you know.
Fantasy films count as fantasy regardless of how many fantastical elements there are. Some take place in what seems to be the real world, but maybe there are a couple of ghosts or angels hanging around, while others take place in entirely different worlds altogether, not even a long time ago or in a galaxy far, far away, necessarily. Anyway, here’s an attempt to rank some of the very best of all time, with the oldest one here being from 1926, and the newest from 2023. We’ve been everywhere, man.
20
‘A Matter of Life and Death’ (1946)
Starting out like a war movie before moving into the realm of fantastical dramedy, and with some romance thrown in for good measure, A Matter of Life and Death is ambitious, to say the least. You kind of have to make your movie aim for something grand and broad when you give it a title like that, a little like with The Human Condition (also war-related! But otherwise completely different).
Oh, maybe it’s kind of a courtroom drama, too, though the court is one that’s celestial in nature, and the main character is an aviator who has to argue for his life there because he’s cheated death. A Matter of Life and Death is a lot, and maybe ahead of its time, as well, but it does undeniably hold up 80-ish years later as something that’s visually bold, creative, and quite emotional in parts, too.
19
‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ (1975)
If you want a less silly movie that concerns a search for the Holy Grail, there is always Excalibur. And, further, the third Indiana Jones movie, albeit that’s kind of goofy at times without being an all-out fantasy movie… but those movies do get supernatural. Hmm. But more fantastical is Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which is also one of the most wonderfully silly movies of all time, and a quintessential comedy.
It’s more of a comedy and a parody film than it is a true fantasy one, yet it still feels worth including here, even if only to showcase some comedic fantasy movies alongside all the slightly more serious ones to come. Monty Python and the Holy Grail really is non-stop with the iconic scenes, lines, and out-there ideas, and it’ll be a sad day for humanity if it ever stops being funny, somehow (very unlikely, one would hope).
18
‘Wings of Desire’ (1987)
A grounded romantic drama with some fantasy stuff thrown in on account of the two central characters being angels, Wings of Desire is about said angels observing humanity without really getting to interact with those they watch over. One slowly starts to develop feelings for a human woman, though, and that leads to him grappling with whether he could – or should – become mortal to spend time with her.
It was continued with the strange yet absolutely underrated sequel, Faraway, So Close!, though maybe that one’s a bit more of an acquired taste, and a real go-for-broke sort of thing on the part of filmmaker Wim Wenders. Wings of Desire is still a little out-there and certainly arthouse in its approach… just more palatable, and thereby perhaps more deserving of classic status. Both are great in their own ways, though.
17
‘The Fall’ (2006)
With The Fall, the narrative doesn’t matter as much as you might expect, because the biggest standout aspect of this movie is how it looks. You do have to see it for yourself, and still images (like the one above) also don’t really sell it, as the use of color here and the choice of locations end up doing so much of the heavy-lifting.
When it comes to the story, though, it’s still not bad, being one that’s about storytelling; a story within a story sort of thing, and the lines between reality and fantasy gradually start to blend in interesting ways. It’s also pretty easy to highlight The Fall as one of those generally overlooked and underrated movies, but it’s attracted more attention in the years since it first came out, and those who have seen it are likely to remember (at least parts of it) incredibly well.
16
‘The Seventh Seal’ (1957)
A classic in pretty much every way, The Seventh Seal isn’t the only somewhat fantastical movie Ingmar Bergman ever directed, but it’s probably his best (unless you’re counting Fanny and Alexander, though it’s a stretch to say that one’s a fantasy movie). It’s about a disillusioned man encountering death and then setting out to do something redemptive at a time when everyone seems to be dying (the Black Death do kind of be that way).
It’s also a movie that looks at faith and the struggles to maintain it during difficult times, with the whole search for meaning thing still very much resonating if you watch it today while feeling a bit lost about anything, really. The Seventh Seal might not be entertaining or an easy watch in the traditional sense, but it is an essential film and a very rewarding one, should you be willing to give it sufficient time and attention.
15
‘Edward Scissorhands’ (1990)
If you want to single out one of Tim Burton’s fantasy movies as his best, you’ve got quite a few to choose from, but also, maybe not, because you should probably just pick Edward Scissorhands. It’s about people in a heightened and strange (albeit not necessarily fantastical) suburbia having their lives changed after the discovery of the titular character, who is a man named Edward, and he really does have scissors for hands.
That might sound like a joke, but while there is some humor in Edward Scissorhands, it ends up being a surprisingly easy movie to take seriously and feel genuinely moved by. It’s heartfelt and bittersweet to a rather remarkable extent, and it presents a good argument (alongside Ed Wood) that Burton should include “Ed” in the titles of all his movies, somehow, because Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood really are his two best films.
14
‘Faust’ (1926)
The oldest movie here, Faust might also be the scariest, or the most horror-focused, which is saying quite a bit if a movie that’s 100 years old (at the time of writing) is still kind of creepy. It’s all in the atmosphere here, and just the overall feeling it has as a retelling of a ubiquitous and frequently referenced/remixed legend: that of the wager regarding the titular character’s soul.
Sure, it unpacks morality and human nature in a fashion that’s broad and maybe even over-the-top, if you want to get critical, yet that’s sort of what silent movies had to do (see also all the social commentary in Metropolis). Faust would’ve likely been intense and frightening for those watching it all those years ago, and it continues to have that sort of impact today, making it something genuinely special as far as silent era classics are concerned.
13
‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ (2004)
There’s going to be a mention of a certain trilogy about a Lord and some Rings later on, and maybe that trilogy is going to be counted as one movie because it was made as a single massive production, but with Harry Potter, the movies are more their own independent things. Part of an ongoing series for sure, and made one after the other, but not entirely all at once in the same way as that other definitive 2000s fantasy movie series.
That all means that it feels right to single out one Harry Potter movie as the best, and you may as well make it the third one: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It looks and feels a little different from some of the other movies, in a good way, and it’s also a nice balance between the slightly gentler earlier movies and the more emotionally intense and high-stakes later films (#4 is where people really start dying, at least).
12
‘Princess Mononoke’ (1997)
There is one other Hayao Miyazaki fantasy film perhaps even better than Princess Mononoke, and it came out four years later, but still, you do have to give both a mention in a ranking like this. Even then, some might consider two Miyazaki movies here to not be enough, so if that’s you, here are some honorable mentions: The Boy and the Heron, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, and My Neighbor Totoro.
To give honorable mentions to the movies that didn’t make it into the honorable mentions would mean mentioning every single movie Miyazaki directed that is either partly or wholly a fantasy movie, so, sorry. Can’t do that. But Princess Mononoke really is great, even by the director’s great standards, standing as perhaps his most narratively complex and ambitious film, not to mention one of his best-looking (which is also saying a lot).
11
‘Shrek’ (2001)
SomeBODY once told me Shrek was the funniest movie of 2001, and yep, maybe? It functions as a parody of the sorts of fantasy movies Disney’s known for making, and yet it also does interesting things with fairy tale conventions, in turn being its own kind of fairy tale. It’s not just cynical, in other words, even if that subversive sense of humor (subversive by family movie standards) is what initially stands out most of all.
If you want to break down the plot here, Shrek is… it’s a fantasy and fairy tale kind of story, you know, whatever. It’s the style and the way it tells an ultimately simple story that makes it special (also special is Shrek 2; consider that an honorable mention to the film’s best sequel, and further, spin-off Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is probably also worthy of an honorable mention).