We seek out fantasy movies because they give us an escape from reality. Whether we journey to a place over the rainbow or head on a daring adventure to save Middle-earth, these fantasy films have provided us with a place to go beyond our wildest imaginations. But for every Mary Poppins, there is a Bedknobs and Broomsticks, a praiseworthy film that doesn’t get as much attention and adoration.
We are going to celebrate ten fantasy movies that you’ve been sleeping on. They’ve been around, and some might even have a cult following, but they are sadly not in the same conversation as the legends of the genre. From a ‘90s animated classic that millennials adore to a duo of Hugh Jackman films that were forgotten during his Wolverine reign, it’s time to wake up and turn on these iconic films.
'Excalibur' (1981)
Image via Warner Bros.The legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table remains one of the most beloved stories. Having been retold countless ways throughout entertainment, there remains one sweeping epic medieval fantasy retelling that may be its grandest: Excalibur. Brought to life by John Boorman, Excalibur is loosely based on Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and follows King Arthur (Nigel Terry) from his birth through his unification of England, the rise of Camelot, and the eventual downfall caused by love, betrayal, and magic.
Excalibur is a sweeping visual experience of epic proportions that relies heavily on the theme of destiny. Through the examination of the price of power and the inescapable presence of both good and evil in human nature, Excalibur reverberates through the mantra that "the king and the land are one.” What sets this iteration of the story apart is its operatic scope and lush Irish filming that made it a definitive sword-and-sorcery classic. Excalibur is a hypnotic, operatic cinematic achievement that revitalized the medieval genre in the ‘80s.
'FernGully: The Last Rainforest' (1992)
Image via 20th Century StudiosThe fact that there is a generation that doesn’t revere FernGully: The Last Rainforest in the way that millennials do is a travesty. Directed by Bill Kroyer from a screenplay by Jim Cox, based on the FernGully stories by Diana Young, the musical fantasy flick follows a brave fairy named Crysta (Samantha Mathis) and her forest friends, including a manic, lovable fruit bat named Batty Koda (Robin Williams), as they battle to save their magical Australian rainforest home from a destructive logging crew and an ancient, pollution-fueled entity named Hexxus (Tim Curry).
FernGully bravely weaves a heartfelt, pro-environment message into a vibrant fantasy world that doesn’t diminish its message for younger audiences. Coming out just as the Disney Renaissance was surging, it became a niche film that fell by the wayside. Coincidentally, arriving a year before Aladdin, Williams’ eccentric character was almost instantly overshadowed by his iconic role as the Genie. Nevertheless, looking back, FernGully is a visually remarkable work, as the bioluminescent, fairy-filled world gave young viewers hope that perhaps magic might live in their own backyards.
'Krull' (1983)
Image via Columbia PicturesYou have most likely been sleeping on Peter Yates’ science fantasy adventure movie, Krull. The movie tells the story of Prince Colwyn (Ken Marshall), who embarks on a quest to rescue his bride, Princess Lyssa (Lysette Anthony), from a fearsome alien warlord known as The Beast. But first, Colwyn, alongside a merry band of misfit warriors, magicians, and outlaws, must locate and retrieve a mythical, five-bladed throwing star known as the Glaive, the only weapon capable of destroying the monster.
Krull mixed two distinct genres: high fantasy, including swords, castles, prophecies, and magic, and science fiction, featuring alien spaceships, lasers, and telepaths. Regardless, the unique premise gave Krull a unique identity as a wildly entertaining medieval fantasy quest set in space. With a bold imagination and a classic Dungeons-and-Dragons-style party, Krull may have simply been ahead of its time, but it deserves immense praise for its world-building. From the weaponry to the Black Fortress, this 1980s gem is unforgettable.
Collider Exclusive · Middle-earth Quiz
Which Lord of the Rings
Character Are You?
One Quiz · Ten Questions · Your Fate Revealed
The road goes ever on. From the green hills of the Shire to the fires of Mount Doom, every soul in Middle-earth carries a destiny. Ten questions stand between you and the truth of who you are. Answer honestly — the One Ring has a way of revealing what we most want to hide.
💍Frodo
🌿Samwise
👑Aragorn
🔥Gandalf
🏹Legolas
⚒️Gimli
👁️Sauron
🪨Gollum
BEGIN YOUR QUEST →
01
You are handed a responsibility that could destroy you. What do you do? The weight of the world falls on unlikely shoulders.
AAccept it. Someone has to, and running changes nothing. BStay by the side of whoever carries it. They shouldn't go alone. CStep forward and lead. This is exactly what I was made for. DIt's mine now. I won't let anyone else have it.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Your closest companion is heading into terrible danger. You: True loyalty is revealed not in comfort, but in crisis.
AFollow them without hesitation. I'd rather die beside them than live without them. BRally others and forge a plan to help — strength in numbers. COffer wisdom and guidance. My counsel may save them where swords cannot. DLet them go. Only the strong survive, and sentiment is a weakness.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Enormous power is within your reach. Your instinct is: Power corrupts — but only those who reach for it.
ADestroy it. Nothing good comes from power this absolute. BUse it to protect those I love — just this once. CWield it wisely. I have the will and the knowledge to do good with it. DSeize it. I have waited long enough. It belongs to me.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
What does "home" mean to you? Where we long to return reveals who we truly are.
AA simple, peaceful place — green hills, good food, no adventure required. BWherever the people I love are. Home is a feeling, not a place. CA kingdom I must earn before I can truly claim it as mine. DI lost it long ago. That loss is what drives everything I do.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
When a battle is upon you, your approach is: War reveals what we are made of — whether we like it or not.
ASurvive by any means. I'm not a fighter — but I'll do what I must. BFight for the person beside me, not for glory or honour. CLead the charge. Nothing inspires an army like a king at the front. DStrike from range, fast and precise — never let them get close.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Someone comes to you for advice in their darkest hour. You: Wisdom is not knowing all the answers — it's knowing which questions to ask.
AListen, then offer honest encouragement. Sometimes people just need belief. BGive them practical help — words are fine, but action is better. CSpeak carefully. I have seen much, and I know what counsel can cost. DTell them what they want to hear. Trust is a tool like any other.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
How do you see yourself, honestly? Self-knowledge is the most dangerous kind.
ASmall and ordinary — but perhaps that's exactly why I was chosen. BDefined entirely by who I serve and love. I am nothing without them. CForged by hardship into something the world has not yet fully seen. DDiminished from what I once was — and consumed by the need to reclaim it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
Which of these best describes your relationship with the natural world? Middle-earth speaks to those who know how to listen.
AI find peace in it — forests, rivers, open skies. Nature restores me. BI prefer the earth underfoot — stone, mines, solid and real things. CI have watched the world change for longer than most can comprehend. DNature offers hiding places, cold water, raw fish. That's enough for me.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
You encounter a wretched, pitiable creature who has done terrible things. You: How we treat the fallen reveals the height of our character.
AShow mercy. Even the most broken souls deserve a chance at redemption. BPity them — but never trust them. They made their choices. CSee them as a tool. Their knowledge or skills may still serve a purpose. DDestroy them before they can cause more harm. Mercy is a luxury we cannot afford.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
When the quest is over and the songs are sung, what do you hope they say about you? In the end, we are all just stories.
AThat an ordinary person did an extraordinary thing — and came home. BThat I never abandoned the person who needed me most. CThat I was worthy of the crown — and everything it demanded. DNothing. I don't need songs. I needed it, and now it's gone.
REVEAL MY FATE →
The Fellowship Has Spoken Your Place in Middle-earth
The scores below reveal your true character. Your highest number is your match. Even a tie tells a story — the Fellowship was never made of simple people.
💍 Frodo
🌿 Samwise
👑 Aragorn
🔥 Gandalf
🏹 Legolas
⚒️ Gimli
👁️ Sauron
🪨 Gollum
You carry something heavy — and you carry it alone, even when you don't have to. You were not born for greatness, and that is precisely why greatness chose you. Your courage is not the roaring, sword-swinging kind; it is quiet, stubborn, and terrifying in its refusal to quit. The Ring weighs on you more than anyone can see, and still you walk toward the fire. That is not weakness. That is the rarest kind of strength there is.
You are, without question, the best of them. Not the most powerful, not the most celebrated — but the most essential. Your loyalty is not a trait; it is a force of nature. You would carry the person you love up the slopes of Mount Doom if it came to that, and we both know you'd do it without being asked. The world needs more people like you, and the world is lucky it has even one.
You were born to lead, and you have spent years running from it. The crown is yours by right, but you know better than anyone that right means nothing without the will and the worthiness to back it up. You are tempered by loss, shaped by long roads, and defined by a code of honour you hold to even when no one is watching. When you finally step forward, the world shifts. Because it was always waiting for you.
You have seen more than you let on, and you say less than you know — which is exactly as it should be. You are a catalyst: you do not fight the battles yourself, you ignite the people who can. Your wisdom comes not from books but from an age of watching what happens when it is ignored. You arrive precisely when you mean to, and your presence alone changes what is possible. A wizard is never late.
Graceful, perceptive, and almost preternaturally calm under pressure — you see things others miss and act before others react. You do not need to make a scene to be remarkable; your presence speaks for itself. You are loyal to those you choose to stand beside, and that choice is not made lightly. You have lived long enough to know that the most beautiful things in this world are also the most fragile, and that is why you fight to protect them.
You are loud, proud, and absolutely formidable — and beneath all of that is one of the most fiercely loyal hearts in Middle-earth. You don't do anything by half measures. Your friendships are forged like iron, your grudges run as deep as mines, and your courage in battle is the kind that makes legends. You came into this fellowship suspicious of everyone and ended it willing to die for an elf. That is not a small thing. That is everything.
You think in centuries and act in absolutes. Order, dominion, control — not because you are cruel by nature, but because you have decided that the world left to itself always falls apart, and you are the only one with the vision and the will to hold it together. You were not always this. Something was lost, or taken, or betrayed, and the version of you that stands now is the answer to that wound. The tragedy is that you're not entirely wrong — just entirely too far gone to course-correct.
You are a study in contradiction — pitiable and dangerous, cunning and broken, capable of both cruelty and something that once resembled love. You are defined by loss: of innocence, of self, of the one thing that gave your existence meaning. Two voices war inside you constantly, and the tragedy is that the better one sometimes wins, just not often enough, and never at the right moment. You are a warning, yes — but also a mirror. We are all a little Gollum, given the right ring and enough time.
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'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' (1971)
Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion PicturesBedknobs and Broomsticks will forever be overshadowed by Mary Poppins. That said, leave it on its own, and the adaptation of the Mary Norton books is quite divine. Directed by Robert Stevenson, the fantasy film tells the story of Carrie, Charlie, and Paul Rawlins (Cindy O'Callaghan, Ian Weighill, and Roy Snart), three orphaned siblings, who are evacuated to a small village and placed in the care of Miss Eglantine Price (Angela Lansbury), an apprentice witch. Together with a cynical magic correspondence professor, they embark on a magical, flying-bed adventure to find an ancient spell to help defend England from Nazi invaders.
With a delightful songbook from the Sherman Brothers and magical set pieces that give the film flight, Bedknobs and Broomsticks blends a dark period of history with the whimsy of Disney for an enchanting tale. Though it may seem like a heavy moment to use as a means for a story, it only helps to serve as a fun, empowering fantasy where everyday heroes rise to the occasion. Like Mary Poppins before it, the whimsical numbers and locales bring the story to sensational places. Lansbury established herself as a fledgling Disney legend through this performance. What child didn’t want to hop on an enchanted bed to the Isle of Naboombu, only for her to sing us to sleep decades later as Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast?
'Legend' (1985)
Image via Universal PicturesIn 1985, Ridley Scott gave Tom Cruise a new genre big break in the epic dark fantasy adventure Legend. An ‘80s team-up you likely never knew you needed in a film you might not have known existed, Legend tells the tale of a pure-hearted forest dweller named Jack (Cruise) who must stop the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) from destroying the last unicorns. After a goblin strikes a unicorn, plunging the world into a freezing winter, Jack and his elven allies set out to defeat Darkness and rescue Princess Lili (Mia Sara).
Scott’s reign as a top-rated director usually doesn’t include Legend, but his work on the film is quite profound. His meticulous storytelling shines through the lush, sun-dappled forests, glowing unicorns, and eerie, firelit dungeons. In a time before CGI, the makeup design was unfathomable, and legendary makeup artist Rob Bottin’s work on characters, including Meg Mucklebones (Robert Picardo) and the Goblin minions, is truly sublime. However, Legend's crowning achievement comes in the creation of the Lord of Darkness. Covered in massive prosthetics and enormous horns, his jaw-dropping look, Curry’s evocative portrayal ranks as one of his very best crafted characters.
'Pleasantville' (1998)
Image via New Line CinemaDirected by Gary Ross, Pleasantville follows two teenage siblings, David and Jennifer (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon), who find themselves trapped in Pleasantville, a beloved black-and-white series set in the '50s. As they introduce modern, emotional, and sexual experiences to the repressed, idyllic town, the residents and their world begin to change, turning from black and white to color.
Using the changing worlds as an allegory for social change, Pleasantville tackles racism, censorship, repression, and the danger of forced conformity through a fantastical premise. Beneath the lighthearted exterior, the story captures the illusions of perfection, the fear of change, and the power of civil rights on the evolution of society. As the characters begin to experience real feelings, thoughts, and passions, their monochrome world transforms into the vibrant colors of freedom. Not only does the film provide brilliant performances from a young Witherspoon and Maguire, but it also boasts dynamic turns from Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, and William H. Macy.
'The Beastmaster' (1982)
Image via MGMIf you see it as a cheesy, low-rent version of Conan the Barbarian, no wonder The Beastmaster has been slept on. But if you take the Don Coscarelli-directed film at face value as its own thing, then it is quite fantastic. Based on the 1959 science fiction novel The Beast Master by Alice "Andre" Norton, the sword-and-sorcery film follows Dar (Marc Singer), a warrior born with the telepathic ability to communicate with animals. After a cult of fanatic barbarians destroys his village, Dar sets out on a quest for revenge against the evil high priest, Maax (Rip Torn).
A story of revenge led by a charismatic hero and scene-stealing trained animals, The Beastmaster is an earnest B-movie that captures the pure joy of the high-fantasy era. Dar is a fun protagonist, but his ability to telepathically communicate with animals is the complete and utter draw. His loyal squad—which includes a majestic tiger, an eagle, and a pair of mischievous thieving ferrets—gives the movie a unique twist and delightful charm. Then, in the terrifying department, Torn’s over-the-top performance as the evil wizard Maax and the nightmarish winged Death Guards lead to a memorable tonal blend of fantasy and body horror. The Beastmaster serves as an important blueprint for this action-adventure style.
'The Fountain' (2006)
Image via Warner Bros. PicturesSome audiences like movies that are simple and straightforward, but if you’re seeking out a Darren Aronofsky project, you’ll be hard-pressed to find it. One of his lesser-remembered films of the early aughts is the Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz-led epic sci-fi fantasy romance The Fountain. A visually philosophical drama, The Fountain weaves together three distinct timelines spanning a thousand years, centering around a man (Jackman) trying to save the woman he loves (Weisz).
Through the intertwining tales, The Fountain undergoes masterful twists and turns, leading to the realization that death is not a curse but a road to rebirth and the continuation of life. In this tri-level transcendent epic, Aronofsky seamlessly combines an awe-inspiring visual stunner with genuine emotional depth and philosophy. Though the past is pretty, the magic in which Aronofsky crafts his space and cosmic sequence is mesmerizing. Add in a sweeping score by Clint Mansell and Jackman and Weisz delivering remarkable, weighty performances, and The Fountain retains its epic status as a near-perfect, ambitious blend of fantasy and sci-fi with emotional depth.
'Van Helsing' (2004)
The truth is, in the first decade of the 21st century, we simply could not imagine Hugh Jackman as anyone but Wolverine. In turn, it was a harder sell to see him in any other type of project. And yet, he not only held his own, but he also dominated in Stephen Sommers’ action-packed Van Helsing. A product of its time and an homage to the Universal Monsters of the past, Van Helsing casts Jackman as Gabriel Van Helsing, an amnesic Vatican-commissioned monster hunter who travels to Transylvania, teaming up with Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), the last of an ancient family sworn to kill Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) and Frankenstein’s (Shuler Hensley) monster.
If it sounds like an apocalyptic and convoluted plot, well, it is, and that’s why it’s a delicious dumb popcorn flick. Fulfilling the horror fantasy quota, Van Helsing acts as a pulp action classic that mixes monster lore with pure unadulterated camp. It’s a “greatest hits” type of story that is visually mesmerizing. Coming off the success of The Mummy and its successors, Van Helsing had a high bar to achieve. It may not have reached it, but it earned a cult classic moniker in the process. Audiences are certainly never going to be bored as it’s wall-to-wall physics-defying stunts and high-energy action.
'Willow' (1988)
Image via MGMWillow is absolutely the film you’ve heard about that you’ve probably never taken the time to sit down and watch, and that's a shame. The classic high fantasy tale tells the story of an aspiring sorcerer and farmer named Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis), who discovers an infant prophesied to destroy the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh). Willow then teams up with rogue warrior Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) to protect the baby from dark magical forces. Filled with high fantasy tropes galore, Willow is just as charming now as it was then.
Beloved by all who watch, the film is the brainchild of director Ron Howard, writer Bob Dolman, and was executive-produced by George Lucas. If that’s not a dream team, I don’t know what is. Willow showcases an underdog story and an unlikely hero's journey. It was quite progressive for its time, allowing actors with dwarfism to step into fully fleshed-out roles as central heroes, rather than strictly fantastical creature parts. As a work of cinema, Willow uses amazing practical creature designs and pioneering digital morphing technology that revolutionized cinematic technology. Years later, it received a Disney+ show, but things didn't exactly end well for it.
Willow
Release Date May 20, 1988
Runtime 126 minutes
English (US) ·