I've been watching some good fantasy movies lately.

1 - The Last Unicorn (Rankin Bass, 1982)
Rankin Bass was on a Fantasy roll in the late 70s and 80s. I'm a big fan of their Hobbit / RotK work (which is wonky, but still has heart). The Last Unicorn is beautiful. It's an existential tale of a creature coming to terms with her mortality. Stars Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow and Alan Arkin (who is the best character in the movie).



2 - Fire and Ice (Ralph Bakshi, 1983)
A dark fantasy that is very much in the style of Conan the Barbarian. A wizard with ice powers and his mother are trying to take over a kingdom with fire powers. They kidnap the fire country's princess, but she is rescued by a buff dude. There is a also a dude with a wolfmask who is fucking awesome. It's gritty. It's very sexual and adult. And it's cool, other than some weird slowmo shots.

Any other recomendations.
 
Ridley's Scott Legend.

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Check Record of Lodoss War OVA, not a film but its close. Very classical fantasy.

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The 1980ies had tons of 'em.

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But my favorite is perhaps this much later movie from 2007 ...

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This might be a bit out there, but I have to recommend Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Little underrated gem. Pirates of the Caribbean too.

I fucking love Willow. Plenty of '70s and '80s fantasy classics. Also a big fan of Labyrinth and Legend. Make sure to see The Dark Crystal and its prequel series, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.

Baahubali is a fantastic recent fantasy duology.
Tale of Tales is recent dark fantasy movie interweaving three tales.
The Head Hunter is about a bounty hunter in search of a deadly creature.
The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey is about 14th century English peasants, in the midst of the Black Death, finding their way to 20th century New Zealand.
The Snow Queen (1986) is pretty cool.
The Scythian is a fucking badass Russian fantasy film with kickass action.
Wolfhound (2006) was also pretty good.
Strings (2004) is a marionette fantasy movie in which the strings controlling the marionettes represent their life force.
The Great Yokai War is a Takashi Miike joint that feels a bit like live-action Ghibli. It has a recent sequel, but not with English subtitles yet.
Where the Wild Things Are doesn't exactly fall into the same sort of high fantasy genre, but I love that movie, so I'm gonna list it here.
Alice (1988) is the very best adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985) has plenty of weird fantasy in it.
Cinderella III: A Twist in Time is unexpectedly fantastic.

The 2002 Wiedźmin/The Hexer series has a bad reputation because of the shitty film edit that preceded it, but the series is actually fantastic.

Also if you'd like a non-fantasy Ralph Bakshi recommendation, I believe American Pop is his best work.
 
Rock & Rule is another from the early 80's. The movie itself is kinda middlin, but the animation is great.
Bakshi's Wizards is also amazing.
 
1 - The Last Unicorn (Rankin Bass, 1982)
Rankin Bass was on a Fantasy roll in the late 70s and 80s. I'm a big fan of their Hobbit / RotK work (which is wonky, but still has heart). The Last Unicorn is beautiful. It's an existential tale of a creature coming to terms with her mortality. Stars Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow and Alan Arkin (who is the best character in the movie).



2 - Fire and Ice (Ralph Bakshi, 1983)
A dark fantasy that is very much in the style of Conan the Barbarian. A wizard with ice powers and his mother are trying to take over a kingdom with fire powers. They kidnap the fire country's princess, but she is rescued by a buff dude. There is a also a dude with a wolfmask who is fucking awesome. It's gritty. It's very sexual and adult. And it's cool, other than some weird slowmo shots.

Any other recomendations.

Fire and Ice is fantastic. Every Frazzeta fan owes it to themselves to see it.
 
Ridley Scott's Legend is the best fantasy film of all time IMO. I like it even more than FOTR.

Make sure to go with the Tangerine Dream score from the audio menu.
 
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At the time, I loved it. Good memories, but I guess it's aged horribly and actually sucked (or not?)

Memory when you're younger makes you believe in wonders...
 
Return to Oz is nightmare fuel, I loved it as a kid.

Beastmaster 2 was one of the funniest movies I´ve ever watched.

Showed my daughter Neverending Story a few weeks ago. Aged a lot, especially the mouth movements of Falcor where something else ..

OP, now watch Masters of the Universe.
 
Now we gotta have a fight about which SCORE is best, the og one or the tangerine dream one.
The tangerine dream one for me. I grew up on the theatrical edition. That directors cut is almost like a different movie. Not bad just very different. I do like the score though.
 
Just finished Starchaser. What a rad movie. It seems that it got bad reviews when it came out. Why!? It's well animated with great art direction. And the story is pretty cool. What a pity.
 
Can you tell me about your terrible takes on Star Trek characters? My favorite character's McCoy, followed by Spock.
Of the original series, McCoy was my favorite too. Spock is "aight" in my opinion. Perhaps a bit overrated, but certainly iconic.
 
And the legendary 3D cartoon Starchaser
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Wow, I'm an 80s kid and I've somehow never seen this one!
Definitely going to check it out ASAP.

It reminds me of another obscure, animated sci-fi/fantasy film I loved as a kid, Felix the Cat: The Movie:



It's long out of print on VHS/DVD and isn't available on any streaming platforms (to my knowledge) but I found an upscaled version of the film on IA:

 
Check Record of Lodoss War OVA, not a film but its close. Very classical fantasy.

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Better if in its original language.
With no subtitles, so you can enjoy the fantastic art direction and you won't understand the stupid shit they're saying.
 
Watched the first Conan the Barbarian movie.

Its a bit corny in acting, but man what a mood. Arnold is great in it. It was perfect for him. 2 hours of him fucking and killing.

And James Earl Jones. Incredible.
 
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