To write good Fantasy Movies, we have to engage our imagination. Fantasy belongs to the genre family of Speculative Fiction, along with Horror and Science-Fiction. The classical Fantasy Story works like this: A character with a major weakness is transferred from their ordinary world to a fantasy world. There they have to confront and overcome their weakness. In the end, they return to their ordinary world and are able to live a better life. This story form is also called Portal Fantasy.
The Secondary World
Many fantasy stories take place in their secondary world exclusively, like J.R.R. Tolkien’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Of course, this is a very different structure. Either way, most Fantasy Movies combine Fantasy with Adventure (i.e. the Hero’s Journey), which often makes it difficult to separate the two genres. While Adventure sends its heroes on a journey, the Fantasy heroes are abruptly transported to another place. In Fantasy Adventure Movies the journey takes place within the secondary world. Here are some well known Fantasy Movies in general:
- THE NEVERENDING STORY
- ALICE IN WONDERLAND
- WIZARD OF OZ
- HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE
Fantasy Movie Criticism
Critics often dismiss Fantasy as childish and immature. Some of them claim that fantasy lovers use it to flee from reality, but nothing could be further from the truth. On the one hand, every story is fictional, no matter how realistic it may seem. On the other hand, good fantasy screenplays use precisely this contrast between fantasy and reality to draw our attention on what we’re missing in our everyday lives. The fantasy genre takes fiction to its extreme and places its focus very strongly on its speculative world. The want of the main character in these stories is to simply explore and through this exploration of the unreal, our own reality reflects back on us.
Top Fantasy Movies 2022
Maybe you’ve already seen one or the other:
THREETHOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING
DAS VERMÄCHTNIS DER ZAUBERFLÖTE
LUCK
SUZUME LOCKING UP THE DOORS
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
A few words about me: As a Writer-Director, I write my own stories. I wrote the eBook The Ultimate Reading Guide for students as a learning aid. I also give Writing Seminars and Film Workshops.