Films Ranked | 200 Greatest Fantasy Films of All Time
by spartacus_007 | created - 23 Aug 2019 | updated - 23 Mar 2020 | PublicThe 200 greatest fantasy films of all time, according to Films Ranked https://www.filmsranked.com/fantasy-films/
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1. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
PG | 102 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Dorothy Gale is swept away from a farm in Kansas to a magical land of Oz in a tornado and embarks on a quest with her new friends to see the Wizard who can help her return home to Kansas and help her friends as well.
Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy, Norman Taurog, Richard Thorpe, King Vidor | Stars: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr
Votes: 375,112 | Gross: $2.08M
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
PG-13 | 179 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
While Frodo and Sam edge closer to Mordor with the help of the shifty Gollum, the divided fellowship makes a stand against Sauron's new ally, Saruman, and his hordes of Isengard.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom
Votes: 1,516,634 | Gross: $342.55M
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
PG-13 | 201 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom
Votes: 1,677,323 | Gross: $377.85M
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
PG-13 | 178 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean
Votes: 1,698,175 | Gross: $315.54M
5. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 413,532
6. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Approved | 83 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy
Exiled into the dangerous forest by her wicked stepmother, a princess is rescued by seven dwarf miners who make her part of their household.
Directors: William Cottrell, David Hand, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen | Stars: Adriana Caselotti, Harry Stockwell, Lucille La Verne, Lem Wright
Votes: 184,911 | Gross: $184.93M
7. The Princess Bride (1987)
PG | 98 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
While home sick in bed, a young boy's grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright, Chris Sarandon
Votes: 399,800 | Gross: $30.86M
8. Groundhog Day (1993)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A weatherman finds himself inexplicably living the same day over and over again.
Director: Harold Ramis | Stars: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky
Votes: 587,513 | Gross: $70.91M
9. The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
Not Rated | 106 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
After being tricked and cast out of Bagdad by the evil Jaffar, King Ahmad joins forces with a thief named Abu to reclaim his throne, the city, and the Princess he loves.
Directors: Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, Alexander Korda, Zoltan Korda, William Cameron Menzies | Stars: Conrad Veidt, Sabu, June Duprez, John Justin
Votes: 12,179 | Gross: $0.27M
10. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
Not Rated | 14 min | Short, Fantasy, Mystery
A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
Directors: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | Stars: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
Votes: 11,884
11. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Not Rated | 67 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
Director: Robert Wiene | Stars: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover
Votes: 58,615
12. The Seventh Seal (1957)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy, History
A man seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe
Votes: 169,593
13. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
PG | 142 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their third year of study, where they delve into the mystery surrounding an escaped prisoner who poses a dangerous threat to the young wizard.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Richard Griffiths
Votes: 566,335 | Gross: $249.36M
14. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
Not Rated | 80 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
A handsome prince rides a flying horse to faraway lands and embarks on magical adventures, which include befriending a witch, meeting Aladdin, battling demons and falling in love with a princess.
Directors: Lotte Reiniger, Carl Koch
Votes: 5,589
15. Toy Story (1995)
G | 81 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman figure supplants him as top toy in a boy's room.
Director: John Lasseter | Stars: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney
Votes: 907,530 | Gross: $191.80M
16. Orlando (1992)
PG-13 | 94 min | Biography, Drama, Fantasy
After Queen Elizabeth I commands him not to grow old, a young nobleman struggles with love and his place in the world.
Director: Sally Potter | Stars: Tilda Swinton, Billy Zane, Quentin Crisp, Jimmy Somerville
Votes: 15,076 | Gross: $5.29M
17. Pinocchio (1940)
G | 88 min | Animation, Comedy, Family
A living puppet, with the help of a cricket as his conscience, must prove himself worthy to become a real boy.
Directors: Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Ben Sharpsteen | Stars: Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Mel Blanc, Billy Bletcher
Votes: 134,166 | Gross: $84.25M
18. Fantasia (1940)
G | 125 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy
A collection of animated interpretations of great works of Western classical music.
Directors: James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Ford Beebe Jr., Norman Ferguson, David Hand, Jim Handley, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Ben Sharpsteen | Stars: Leopold Stokowski, Deems Taylor, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Corey Burton
Votes: 90,219 | Gross: $76.41M
19. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
G | 86 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy
When two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wondrous forest spirits who live nearby.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Hitoshi Takagi, Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Shigesato Itoi
Votes: 301,761 | Gross: $1.11M
20. Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Passed | 45 min | Action, Comedy, Romance
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.
Director: Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, Erwin Connelly
Votes: 43,828 | Gross: $0.98M
21. Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
G | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Family
The legendary Greek hero leads a team of intrepid adventurers in a perilous quest for the legendary Golden Fleece.
Director: Don Chaffey | Stars: Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, Gary Raymond, Laurence Naismith
Votes: 25,416 | Gross: $4.58M
22. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
G | 100 min | Family, Fantasy, Musical
A poor but hopeful boy seeks one of the five coveted golden tickets that will send him on a tour of Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory.
Director: Mel Stuart | Stars: Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum, Roy Kinnear
Votes: 182,378 | Gross: $4.00M
23. The Dark Crystal (1982)
PG | 93 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal, and so restore order to his world.
Directors: Jim Henson, Frank Oz | Stars: Jim Henson, Kathryn Mullen, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz
Votes: 63,099 | Gross: $40.58M
24. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
PG | 91 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table embark on a surreal, low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles.
Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones | Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam
Votes: 508,613 | Gross: $1.23M
25. The NeverEnding Story (1984)
PG | 102 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
A troubled boy dives into a wondrous fantasy world through the pages of a mysterious book.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Tami Stronach, Gerald McRaney
Votes: 134,762 | Gross: $20.16M
26. Ghostbusters (1984)
PG | 105 min | Action, Comedy, Fantasy
Three former parapsychology professors set up shop as a unique ghost removal service.
Director: Ivan Reitman | Stars: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis
Votes: 362,953 | Gross: $238.63M
27. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
G | 84 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy
A prince cursed to spend his days as a hideous monster sets out to regain his humanity by earning a young woman's love.
Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise | Stars: Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Jesse Corti, Rex Everhart
Votes: 422,559 | Gross: $218.97M
28. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
PG | 76 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy
Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.
Director: Henry Selick | Stars: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey
Votes: 304,599 | Gross: $75.08M
29. Mary Poppins (1964)
G | 139 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
In turn of the century London, a magical nanny employs music and adventure to help two neglected children become closer to their father.
Director: Robert Stevenson | Stars: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns
Votes: 160,790 | Gross: $102.27M
30. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
R | 118 min | Drama, Fantasy, War
In the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.
Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú
Votes: 628,995 | Gross: $37.63M
31. Big (1988)
PG | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
After wishing to be made big, a teenage boy wakes the next morning to find himself mysteriously in the body of an adult.
Director: Penny Marshall | Stars: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard
Votes: 203,688 | Gross: $114.97M
32. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
An artificial man, who was incompletely constructed and has scissors for hands, leads a solitary life. Then one day, a suburban lady meets him and introduces him to her world.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall
Votes: 454,108 | Gross: $56.36M
33. King Kong (1933)
Passed | 100 min | Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi
A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal ape who takes a shine to their female blonde star. He is then captured and brought back to New York City for public exhibition.
Directors: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack | Stars: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher
Votes: 80,722 | Gross: $10.00M
34. The Fall (2006)
R | 117 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story of five mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality blurs as the tale advances.
Director: Tarsem Singh | Stars: Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell, Kim Uylenbroek
Votes: 108,400 | Gross: $2.28M
35. 300 (2006)
R | 117 min | Action, Drama
King Leonidas of Sparta and a force of 300 men fight the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 B.C.
Director: Zack Snyder | Stars: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Dominic West
Votes: 746,454 | Gross: $210.61M
36. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
PG-13 | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
A young Chinese warrior steals a sword from a famed swordsman and then escapes into a world of romantic adventure with a mysterious man in the frontier of the nation.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Chen Chang
Votes: 256,936 | Gross: $128.08M
37. La fée aux choux (1896)
1 min | Short, Family, Fantasy
The first film directed by a female director, "The Cabbage Fairy" presents a brief fantasy tale involving a strange fairy who can produce and deliver babies coming out of cabbages. Gently ... See full summary »
Director: Alice Guy | Stars: Alice Guy, Germaine Serand, Yvonne Serand
Votes: 1,048
38. Dracula (1931)
Passed | 75 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
After a naive real estate agent succumbs to the will of Count Dracula, the two head to London where the vampire sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night.
Directors: Tod Browning, Karl Freund | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye
Votes: 47,791
39. Un Chien Andalou (1929)
Not Rated | 16 min | Short, Fantasy, Horror
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, Luis Buñuel, Pancho Cossío
Votes: 47,018
40. Shrek (2001)
PG | 90 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A mean lord exiles fairytale creatures to the swamp of a grumpy ogre, who must go on a quest and rescue a princess for the lord in order to get his land back.
Directors: Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson | Stars: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow
Votes: 626,770 | Gross: $267.67M
41. Wings of Desire (1987)
PG-13 | 128 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
An angel tires of overseeing human activity and wishes to become human when he falls in love with a mortal.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois
Votes: 66,281 | Gross: $3.33M
42. The Red Balloon (1956)
Not Rated | 34 min | Short, Comedy, Drama
A red balloon with a mind of its own follows a little boy around the streets of Paris.
Director: Albert Lamorisse | Stars: Pascal Lamorisse, Sabine Lamorisse, Georges Sellier, Vladimir Popov
Votes: 17,102
43. The Exterminating Angel (1962)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama, Fantasy
The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, Enrique Rambal, José Baviera
Votes: 30,417
44. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)
Not Rated | 114 min | Drama, Fantasy
Dying of kidney disease, a man spends his last, somber days with family, including the ghost of his wife and a forest spirit who used to be his son, on a rural northern Thailand farm.
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul | Stars: Thanapat Saisaymar, Jenjira Pongpas, Sakda Kaewbuadee, Natthakarn Aphaiwonk
Votes: 14,369 | Gross: $0.18M
45. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 26 min | Animation, Comedy, Family