Non-Tolkien Fantasy Films

I'm looking for good films that are fantasy... with no elves and shit. There are a lot of them out there but they don't tend to get the popularity the other variety does.

Does Luis Buñuel count? His films are 'fantastical' at times... I'm thinking of stuff like The Criminal Life of Archibald de la Cruz.. or even his first film Un Chien Undalou.

Lots of Terry Gilliam obviously. Brazil, Time Bandits, Adverntures of Baron Von Munchausen (and the original version of that film too), Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. He may be the best fantasy director of my life time. His camera angles are used all over fantasy. You can clearly see his influence on the LOTR series specifically.

Wizard of Oz is my favorite and it fits in here but I mentioned it in another thread. Pan's Labyrinth too.

What about Jodorowsky or Lynch.. can that be fantasy in a way? I'm not sure.

Anyway you get the idea. Maybe someone will talk about something cool that I'm unaware of.

If you haven't seen Jeunet's "City of Lost Children" (dubbed or subbed), then that may be one you might enjoy given your love of Gilliam. Many people think it is he who directed it since it has his flair for the odd.

Jim Henson

EDIT: Also adding in Harryhausen...I can add specific movies for both later but I'm about to jet from work and to my wife's work's holiday party.

Oh...And Thief of Baghdad.

Tarkan vs. The Vikings. I'm telling you, man.

Jim Henson, yes. The Dark Crystal is still _magical_. Labyrinth is great fun too, if you can see past Bowie's...mound.

But another good pick, much lesser seen, is Jim Henson's The Storyteller. This was a GREAT series of fantasy stories, "told" by a not-drunk-at-the-time John Hurt and a muppet dog. There are some really, really cool fairy tale-like stories. See the one with the guy playing cards with the devils. BEAUTIFUL puppet work. There is a second series that is all Greek myth stories, I have the DVDs but I've somehow never watched them.

Jodorowsky isn't what you're looking for. His films are not fantasy at all despite some magic realism. That said, do watch. Holy Mountain is a masterpiece.

Same thing with Lynch. But Wild at Heart has a bunch of direct and indirect references to Wizard of Oz, so there's that.

Thief of Baghdad is a great choice, that's a wonderful film that I think you would enjoy based on my limited internet knowledge of you.

All the 80s junk stuff (Krull, Sword & Sorceror, etc.) blah blah blah, talked about enough.

Excalibur is one of my all-time favorites...I saw it when I was six in the theater...probably not the best parenting moment for my folks.

Chinese fantasy, there's tons of that...look at any of the Wuxia-style movies. I'd go with Chinese Ghost Story and The Bride with White Hair on that tip.

The Harryhausen films are a good pick too. The Sinbad films rule, especially Golden Voyage. Jason and the Argonauts, of course.

I've never herad of the Storyteller... I do remember Dreamchild though with Ian Holm and I remember loving roughly half of that film. I'd like to see it again actually.

There's already a few things here I've never seen so this is working out great for me!

does 'The Fall' count, Pans Labyrinth also, surely also theres crap loads of the japanese style films that are fantastical without the fucking hobbits and that

Brotherhood of the Wolf

The 13th Warrior

Army of Darkness

The Pirates of the Caribbean movies

Michael Barnes wrote: Thief of Baghdad is a great choice, that's a wonderful film that I think you would enjoy based on my limited internet knowledge of you.

Have you seen any of the other Sabu flicks? Recommendations?

Outlander - Vikings versus an alien monster. Surprisingly good.


Stardust - No elves and shit. Closest comparison is Princess Bride.


Brotherhood of the Wolf - Already mentioned, but a personal favorite so mentioning it again.


Tin Man - Weird semi-sequel miniseries to Wizard of Oz with steampunk added.

Man, I really, REALLY wanted to like brotherhood of the Wolf, but Vincent Cassel and his stupid segmented sword killed it for me.

Bride with the white hair is a masterpiece. There are so many amazing Chinese fantasy flicks, but that's probably the best.

Echoing Barnes, I'd say that Excalibur is probably my favorite.

Miyazaki has made several amazing fantasy flicks: princess mononoke, howls moving castle, laputa, etc.

The first Hellboy movie kind of left me cold, but I thought the second one was fantastic.

Few more off the top of my head:


Princess bride, Ladyhawke, legend, heavy metal, the highlander, stardust, big trouble in little china...

jay718 wrote: Man, I really, REALLY wanted to like brotherhood of the Wolf, but Vincent Cassel and his stupid segmented sword killed it for me.

Really? I thought the bone-sword added to the Asian cinema flavor of the movie quite well. No more ridiculous than long-sleeves attacks and so forth.

VonTush wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: Thief of Baghdad is a great choice, that's a wonderful film that I think you would enjoy based on my limited internet knowledge of you.

Have you seen any of the other Sabu flicks? Recommendations?

Definitely The Jungle Book and Arabian Nights. I've seen White Savage (awesome title) but I don't think it was very remarkable because I don't remember much about it. Some of his later appearances were really in programmers/B-pictures.

He's also in Black Narcissus, which is a beautiful picture...it's a Powell/Pressburger film shot by Jack Cardiff. Well worth seeing.

"Beowulf meets Predator"...ha!

Bride with White Hair is the best wuxia IMHO, but Chinese Ghost Story is probably the more influential/important one. It's the film that inspired Carpenter to do Big Trouble. It's also one of the more important films of the Hong Kong new wave.

Ladyhawke is sort of corny, but I love it...sort of underrated, really. Doesn't usually get mentioned among the other 80s fantasy films.

I _love_ Brotherhood of the Wolf. It's something like a cross between Dangerous Liasons, a Shaw Brothers film, a Hammer Werewolf film, and James Fenimore Cooper.

We need to talk more about Dragonslayer.

Mad Dog wrote:

jay718 wrote: Man, I really, REALLY wanted to like brotherhood of the Wolf, but Vincent Cassel and his stupid segmented sword killed it for me.

Really? I thought the bone-sword added to the Asian cinema flavor of the movie quite well. No more ridiculous than long-sleeves attacks and so forth.

I'd agree with you if it was a traditional Kung Fu/ wuxia flick with similar elements, but it's not. It just seemed wildly out of place to me. Also, Cassel really gets under my skin for some reason...

quozl wrote: We need to talk more about Dragonslayer.

2nd best fantasy movie of the 80's. Dark, mature story made long before gritty became the norm. I mean its a Disney movie where they actually show a virgin sacrifice (and she dies too). Has its flaws certainly, but also did a lot of things right.