The fantasy movie genre has been around since the beginning of cinema. However, for the first 100 years, there were very few quality fantasy movies, as they often ended up being made for little money and received almost no respect from critics. While there were exceptions, even the best fantasy movies failed, and others were recategorized.

There were some big fantasy movies in the golden age, but they often ended up being called horror, science fiction, or musicals to lure in audiences. When movies played themselves as straight fantasy, it became hard to get people into theaters. Despite this, filmmakers fought, and excellent fantasy movies came out that changed the genre.

The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

Before The Wizard of Oz, most fantasy movies were sold as science fiction films (A Trip to the Moon), horror movies (The Mummy), or adventure films (Tarzan of the Apes). When The Wizard of Oz came out, it was pure fantasy, but Hollywood still sold it as a musical movie instead. Despite that, this movie is pure fantasy.

There are good witches and evil witches, a man who uses tricks to lure people into following him, and fantastical creatures, like scarecrows, talking lions, living tin men, and even a group of people known as Munchkins. With the bright Technicolor design, The Wizard of Oz created a fantastical world unlike anything seen in movies before.

In a review of the film at the time, Harrison Reports wrote that “even though some persons are not interested in pictures of this type, it is possible that they will be eager to see this picture for its technical treatment.” After The Wizard of Oz, things changed, and these snobbish critical comments lessened.

The Thief Of Bagdad (1940)

By the 1940s, studios were taking chances on fantasy movies thanks to the success of The Wizard of Oz and fantasy horror movies like The Mummy. In 1940, the studio tried to capture the hearts of fantasy fans with its Alexander Korda-produced The Thief of Bagdad. This was a remake of a 1924 silent film of the same name.

The entire story is set up similarly to the Arabian Nights stories, and it offers up some magic, adventure, history, and love. It also ensured some accuracy by casting an Indian-born teen actor as Abu. However, it did race swap a few characters, including European actor Conrad Veidt as Jaffar and English actress June Dupree as the Princess.

The influence of this movie was significant on later Arabian fantasy films, including later adaptations of the Arabian Nights, the Disney animated film Aladdin, and later movies like The Thief and the Cobbler and Prince of Persia. This film also used chroma key processing for the first time in cinema, making it an influence on everything that came later.

Beauty And The Beast (1946)

In 1946, French auteur Jean Cocteau directed his adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. This was the first ever adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s 1757 novel, which has been adapted several times since then. However, this version remains possibly second only to the ’90s Disney animated movie as the most influential.

This sees Belle moving in with the Beast against her will and the monster trying to convince her to marry him. In this case, her father was sentenced to death for stealing a flower from Beast’s home, and in the end, Beast lets her go and says that if she does not return to him, he will die of grief.

On top of the later adaptations of the same story, Beauty and the Beast proved that the classic fantasy fairy tales and novels could make for successful movies, and Cocteau’s movie remains one of the best fantasy films in history, regardless of source material, with a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Jason And The Argonauts (1963)

The 1950s saw almost no critically acclaimed or successful fantasy movies, but in 1958, Ray Harryhausen broke out with his work on The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. However, the film that made Harryhausen a legend came out in 1963 and changed everything about high fantasy movies.

Jason and the Argonauts remains Ray Harryhausen’s masterpiece. The story is based on The Argonautica, a 3rd-century BC story about the infant son of a slain king who goes into hiding and then returns as an adult in a prophecy to avenge his father. The story is solid, but the stop-motion practical effects were masterful.

No less than Tom Hanks named this 1963 fantasy movie the “greatest movie of all time.” This was the film that introduced the idea that stop-motion practical effects could present fantasy in a way no other movie had done before, and changed everything about epic fantasy from that point on.

Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975)

In 1975, the Monty Python comedy troupe released one of the greatest fantasy comedies of all time, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This took the classic King Arthur legend and spoofed it to great effect, with one of the most absurd comedy films in a decade where spoofs were becoming more commonplace.

However, this movie was highly influential to the fantasy genre. At the time when Mel Brooks was spoofing sci-fi and horror, and the Zucker brothers were spoofing disaster movies, the Monty Python group proved that sketch-based comedy could help make fantasy movies even more popular.

This was also instrumental because it elevated the Monty Python troupe above their TV show. This is especially true for Terry Gilliam, who went on to make three fantasy masterpieces in the 80s, with Time Bandits, Brazil, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

Star Wars (1977)

Early in the history of fantasy movies, studios often labeled them as horror, sci-fi, musicals, or adventure releases to attract audiences. By the 1970s, fantasy was still not considered anything more than B-grade releases, and few got budgets big enough to make the special effects worthwhile. George Lucas used sci-fi to get his budget.

Lucas was brilliant, making a deal to keep merchandise rights, which led to him becoming a billionaire and launching Star Wars into a multimedia franchise. However, while Star Wars is a sci-fi movie, it is a fantasy film at heart. Based loosely on Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress, the movie is a tale of dueling magicians.

The Jedi are based on fantasy ideals, with them having the power of the Force, which is simply magic in this world. If anything, Star Wars proved that filmmakers could tell a great fantasy story under the guise of sci-fi and turn it into a blockbuster franchise.

Conan The Barbarian (1982)

For most of the first 80 years of cinema, sword-and-sandal fantasy movies were often considered lowbrow, and almost none received budgets that allowed good effects or big-name actors. That changed in the 1980s, thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger and his starring role in Conan the Barbarian.

Directed by John Milius, this movie adapted the classic stories by Robert E. Howard, offering an interesting take on the genre as a revenge tale of a barbarian warrior named Conan who seeks to avenge his parents’ death. A box office success, this movie made Schwarzenegger a star and helped usher in a new era for fantasy.

While this was one of the few sword-and-sandal fantasy films that made a profit, it showed how to do it right. Hollywood continued to explore this genre with movies like The Beastmaster, Red Sonja, and Krull. It wasn’t until The Lord of the Rings that success hit again, but Conan the Barbarian is what set the table for later success.

Princess Mononoke (1997)

In the 1990s, the most successful fantasy movies coming out of Hollywood were animated features like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Still, Hollywood was making horror and sci-fi movies and calling them fantasy. However, in 1997, Hayao Miyazaki directed Princess Mononoke and proved Japan was home to genuine fantasy.

This wasn’t a fairy tale story like Disney put out, nor was it anything pretending to be something it wasn’t. Instead, this movie was about a young prince who ends up in the middle of a conflict between Irontown and the forest of the gods. This was pure historical fantasy, and it is a masterpiece of cinema, anime or not.

This not only changed Japanese anime, but it also helped American animation start to lean into more fantastical settings and stories in its movies. Plus, Princess Mononoke was the backbone of Studio Ghibli’s later releases, where the anime studio showed it was in no way embarrᴀssed to make genuine fantasy movies.

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

Harry Potter did the unthinkable in 2001. It took a young adult fantasy novel series and turned it into a movie franchise that made over $9.5 billion at the worldwide box office. There were young adult fantasy adaptations before this, but even the successful ones were often box office flops.

However, thanks to the fantastic young cast and an award-winning cast in the roles of the teachers, adults, and villains involved in the film. The books were turned into seven great movies and a lackluster spinoff franchise after that, and it all started with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which took fans into the world of magic.

Thanks to the success of this franchise, Hollywood began to greenlight several other fantasy novel franchises, including Percy Jackson, The Golden Compᴀss, The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Chronicles of Narnia, and even some for adults, like Twilight and The Hunger Games. They exist thanks to Harry Potter.

The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy did for mainstream audiences what the Harry Potter franchise did for young adult fantasy movies. With its grand scale, serious tone, and very thematic take on a classic fantasy novel, Peter Jackson proved that fantasy was no longer a fringe genre with low-quality movies and was now blockbuster-worthy.

The first Lord of the Rings movie brought the Hobbits, Elves, Dwarfs, wizards, and more to the big screen with a fantastic cast of award-winning actors taking on the roles. What resulted was mainstream box office success and awards recognition, proving that audiences would watch fantasy movies if they were done right.

The third movie in the series, Return of the King, achieved something that no other fantasy movie in history ever did by winning the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards. Every big-budget fantasy movie of the last 25 years owes its existence to The Lord of the Rings.

Sources: Harrison Reports, Rotten Tomatoes, The-Numbers