Fantasy Genre

Fantasy films are those films which capture the essence of fantasy, in which the audience are subjected all sorts of imaginative content. To either exotic new worlds, fairy tale style lands, magic, supernatural events and imaginary creatures – or possibly the all of these fantasy elements crammed together in order to create a film which dazzles and amazes its audience. The ability of the fantasy film to provide its audience with a sense of escapism, magic, wonder and the extraordinary allows fantasy films to be extremely appealing to both children and adults for instance the films, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939) and ‘Avatar’ (2009).

The themes of the fantasy film genre help define the genre itself, as fantasy films differs from the science fiction and horror film genres although, all three genres contain similar elements and do overlap each other such as the double categorizing of horror/fantasy. The predominant theme of the fantasy film is good verse evil and the struggles in which the main character or characters (the hero) are forced to overcome. The importance of the ‘hero’ in fantasy films is just as significant as the fantasy and imaginative content, as ordinarily the hero is set out to rescue or protect the fantasy world itself. This basic structure of story line is present within many typical Hollywood fantasy films. The theme of the quest in which the hero sets out upon, encourages the growth and mental strength of characters as well as the theme of coming of age, where the hero after his physical and mental journey is seen as independent and heroic.

With the advances in technology in the 2000s, the respectability of the fantasy film has increased massively as with new high-tech film making technology audiences were beginning to become more interested in the fantasy genre. This success is evident in the Harry Potter film series as well as the adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy and in 2003 the ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,’ was the first and only ever fantasy film to win the Academy Award for best picture.

Jazgol xx