Fantasy film

Fantasy film

In theory fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic or exotic fantasy worlds, as distinct from science fiction films or horror films. The category has as much to do with approach as with context and there is often a good deal of overlap between the genres. For example, much about Star Wars suggests fantasy, yet it feels like science fiction, while much about Time Bandits suggests science fiction, yet it feels like fantasy.

Superhero films also seem to fulfill the requirements of the fantasy or science fiction genres, but they are usually considered to be a genre all their own.

Animated films are not always classified as fantasy, nor are talking non-human animals. Bambi, for example, is not fantasy, nor is Toy Story, though the latter is closer to fantasy than the former. The Secret of NIMH, however, is a fantasy film, not because it features talking non-human animals, but because there is actual magic involved.

Surrealist film also describes the fantastic, but it dispenses with genre narrative conventions, and commercial and financial aims, and is usually considered a separate category.

Most fantasy movies are released during the winter season, particularly in November and December, in stark contrast with the summer, which releases mostly action and sci-fi movies.

Sub-Genres
There are many sub-categories of fantasy films that can be identified. The most prevalent of these are High Fantasy and Sword and sorcery. These are films with quasi-medieval settings, wizards, magical creatures and the like. High Fantasy tends to have a complex fantasy world and hero of humble origins, while Sword and sorcery tends to pit a barbarian against a wizard. High Fantasy is indebted to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings books, while sword and sorcery is equally indebted to the work of Robert E. Howard and his Conan the Barbarian.

Another important sub-genre of fantasy films, more popular in recent years, is Contemporary fantasy. Such films feature magic (often figured as the supernatural) in the real world. The most prominent example in the early Twenty-first Century is the Harry Potter series while most superhero films are a form of science fantasy typically set in contemporary times.

Finally, we have the fairy tale genre, which many people consider separate from the rest of fantasy. We leave consideration of such major films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to the fairy tale genre.

History
Fantasy as a genre in film has existed since the beginning of films, although the offerings were sporadic until the 1980's, which saw a flourishing of the genre. In the era of silent film the outstanding fantasy films were Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungin (1925). In 1939, audiences embraced what is surely the best loved fantasy film of all time, The Wizard of Oz. The 1940s saw the full color fantasy films produced by Alexander Korda, The Thief of Bagdad and Jungle Book (1942). Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in Sinbad the Sailor feels like a fantasy film, though it does not actually have any fantastic elements. In the 1950's there were only two major fantasy films, The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T and Darby O'Gill and the Little People. There were also several low budget fantasies, based on Greek or Arabian legend, by Ray Harryhausen. The only true fantasy film in the 1970s was The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao. With Raiders of the Lost Ark, a fantasy explosion began which continues into the Twenty-first Century.
• 1980s: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dragonslayer, Poltergeist, The Dark Crystal, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Legend, Highlander, Labyrinth, Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, The Princess Bride, Willow, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
• 1990s: Ghost, Groundhog Day, The Indian in the Cupbord, Jumanji, The X-Files, Meet Joe Black, The Green Mile, and The Sixth Sense.
• 2000s: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Unbreakable, Holes, Pirates of the Caribbean and, in a class by themselves, The Lord of the Rings films and the Harry Potter films. The final Lord of the Rings film, The Return of the King, was the first sci-fi, fantasy, or horror film to win an Oscar for Best Picture.

There is also at least one fantasy film that would be spoiled if you knew it was fantasy before you saw it.

Fantastique
Fantastique is a French term for a literary and cinematic genre that overlaps with parts of science fiction, horror and fantasy. It is not a specifically French genre. The conventional usage in French encompasses many non-French authors who may be categorised differently in their own countries.

What is distinctive about fantastique is the intrusion of supernatural phenomena into an otherwise realist narrative. It evokes phenomena which are not only left unexplained but which are inexplicable from the reader's point of view. In this respect, fantastique is somewhere between fantasy, where the supernatural is accepted and entirely reasonable in the imaginary world of a non-realist narrative; and magic realism, where apparently supernatural phenomena are explained and accepted as normal. Instead, characters in a work of fantastique are, just like the readers, unwilling to accept the supernatural events that occur. This refusal may be mixed with doubt, disbelief, fear, or some combination of those reactions.

Fantastique is often linked to a particular ambiance, a sort of tension in the face of the impossible. There is often a good deal of fear involved, either because the characters are afraid or because the author wants to provoke fright in the reader. However, fear is not an essential component of fantastique.

Some theorists of literature contend that fantastique is defined by its hesitation between accepting the supernatural as such and trying to rationally explain the phenomena it describes. In that case, fantastique is nothing more than a transitional area on a spectrum from magic realism to fantasy and does not qualify as a separate genre.

Fantastique literature is often considered close to science fiction. However, there is an important difference between the two: science fiction is situated in a different time and place than the reader, and irrational seeming events are actually held to be rational in the framework of future or perhaps alien science and technology.

A great deal of literature, from every part of the world and dating back to time immemorial, falls within the category of fantastique. Fairy tales like The Book of One Thousand and One Nights and epic literature like the Romance of the Holy Grail are within the scope of this genre. Among the precursors of modern fantastique are such luminaries as Voltaire and Jonathan Swift, who hid satire behind non-realist stories, as well as the noir fiction of William Beckford (Vathek) and Matthew Gregory Lewis (The Monk). Elements of fantastique can be found in the works of many 19th century authors like Honoré de Balzac (La peau de chagrin), Guy de Maupassant who exorcises his own demons in Le Horla, Jules Verne explaining the supernatural with science in Le château des Carpathes, Oscar Wilde working along more philosophical lines in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Mary Shelley who takes up the myth of the Golem in Frankenstein, and Bram Stoker's famous Dracula.

This is a term that has also been used to describe many television series and various films, most notably The X-Files.