# Top 50 Fantasy Films of All Time

> Fantasy cinema here stretches across nearly a century, so hand-painted backdrops and stop-motion monsters share the field with blockbuster trilogies and quiet arthouse fables.

*By YPB Team · Published October 26, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/top-50-fantasy-films-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **The Return of the King** — score 1000/1000
   The 2003 conclusion of The Lord of the Rings that swept all eleven Oscars it was nominated for.
2. **The Fellowship of the Ring** — score 785/1000
   Peter Jackson's 2001 opening chapter of The Lord of the Rings, as a hobbit sets out to destroy the One Ring.
3. **Conan the Barbarian** — score 714/1000
   John Milius's 1982 sword-and-sorcery epic that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star as the vengeful Cimmerian.
4. **The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey** — score 662/1000
   Peter Jackson's 2012 return to Middle-earth, sending Bilbo Baggins off with thirteen dwarves.
5. **Orpheus** — score 632/1000
   Jean Cocteau's 1950 modern retelling of the Orpheus myth, with mirrors as gateways to the underworld.
6. **Ladyhawke** — score 564/1000
   Richard Donner's 1985 medieval romance about lovers cursed to be a hawk by day and a wolf by night.
7. **Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory** — score 564/1000
   The 1971 musical with Gene Wilder as the mercurial candy maker touring five lucky children through his factory.
8. **The Thief of Bagdad** — score 563/1000
   The 1940 Technicolor Arabian Nights spectacle with a flying horse, a giant genie and Oscar-winning effects.
9. **Coraline** — score 523/1000
   Laika's 2009 stop-motion adaptation of Neil Gaiman's tale about a girl who finds a sinister Other Mother.
10. **Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban** — score 523/1000
   Alfonso Cuaron's moodier 2004 entry, introducing Sirius Black, Dementors and time travel.
11. **La Belle et la Bete (1946)** — score 523/1000
   Jean Cocteau's dreamlike 1946 version of Beauty and the Beast, famed for its living candelabra and surreal castle.
12. **Labyrinth** — score 523/1000
   Jim Henson's 1986 musical fantasy with David Bowie as the Goblin King who steals a teenager's baby brother.
13. **Wicked** — score 523/1000
   Jon M. Chu's 2024 film of the Broadway musical about the young witches of Oz before Dorothy arrived.
14. **Pirates of the Caribbean** — score 523/1000
   Gore Verbinski's 2003 swashbuckler The Curse of the Black Pearl, which that introduced Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow and a cursed undead crew.
15. **The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe** — score 479/1000
   The 2005 Chronicles of Narnia film in which four siblings step through a wardrobe into a land ruled by a White Witch.
16. **Excalibur** — score 479/1000
   John Boorman's 1981 operatic retelling of Arthurian legend, from the sword in the stone to Camelot's fall.
17. **Spirited Away** — score 479/1000
   Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 Oscar winner about a girl working in a bathhouse for spirits to rescue her parents.
18. **A Matter of Life and Death** — score 479/1000
   Powell and Pressburger's 1946 romance about an RAF pilot arguing for his life before a celestial court.
19. **Ugetsu** — score 479/1000
   Kenji Mizoguchi's 1953 ghost story about two peasants led astray by ambition and a spectral noblewoman.
20. **Willow** — score 479/1000
   Ron Howard's 1988 George Lucas-produced quest about a farmer-sorcerer protecting a prophesied baby.
21. **Pan's Labyrinth** — score 428/1000
   Guillermo del Toro's 2006 dark fairy tale set in Francoist Spain, where a girl meets a faun in a hidden labyrinth.
22. **Shrek** — score 428/1000
   DreamWorks' 2001 fairy-tale satire about a grumpy ogre and a talking donkey, the first Oscar winner for animated feature.
23. **Jason and the Argonauts** — score 428/1000
   The 1963 Greek-myth adventure whose Ray Harryhausen skeleton army remains a landmark of stop-motion effects.
24. **Mary Poppins** — score 428/1000
   Disney's 1964 musical with Julie Andrews as the magical nanny who flies into a London household by umbrella.
25. **Princess Mononoke** — score 371/1000
   Miyazaki's 1997 epic about a cursed prince caught between forest gods and an iron-making town.
26. **The Shape of Water** — score 371/1000
   Guillermo del Toro's 2017 Best Picture winner about a mute cleaner who falls for an amphibian man.
27. **Kubo and the Two Strings** — score 371/1000
   Laika's 2016 stop-motion samurai fable about a boy whose magical shamisen brings origami to life.
28. **Time Bandits** — score 371/1000
   Terry Gilliam's 1981 romp about a boy who joins time-travelling dwarves robbing their way through history.
29. **Big Fish** — score 371/1000
   Tim Burton's 2003 tall-tale drama about a son untangling the myths his dying father told about his life.
30. **Highlander** — score 371/1000
   The 1986 cult favourite about immortal swordsmen battling across centuries, set to a Queen soundtrack.
31. **The Green Knight** — score 306/1000
   David Lowery's 2021 Arthurian chiller starring Dev Patel as Gawain on his journey toward a fatal bargain.
32. **The Two Towers** — score 306/1000
   The 2002 middle chapter of The Lord of the Rings, climaxing in the epic siege of Helm's Deep.
33. **The Company of Wolves** — score 306/1000
   Neil Jordan's 1984 gothic reworking of Little Red Riding Hood, drawn from Angela Carter's werewolf stories.
34. **The Wizard of Oz** — score 306/1000
   The 1939 Technicolor musical in which Judy Garland's Dorothy follows the yellow brick road to Oz.
35. **The Last Unicorn** — score 231/1000
   The 1982 animated film about a unicorn searching for the rest of her kind, scored by the band America.
36. **Edward Scissorhands** — score 231/1000
   Tim Burton's 1990 suburban fairy tale with Johnny Depp as an unfinished artificial man with blades for hands.
37. **Dragonslayer** — score 231/1000
   The 1981 Disney-Paramount medieval adventure whose dragon Vermithrax is still hailed as a creature-effects high point.
38. **Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves** — score 231/1000
   The 2023 heist comedy that finally brought the tabletop game to the screen with wit and real affection.
39. **The NeverEnding Story** — score 231/1000
   Wolfgang Petersen's 1984 adventure about a boy whose storybook draws him into the dying land of Fantasia.
40. **Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2** — score 231/1000
   The 2011 finale of the Harry Potter saga, staging the Battle of Hogwarts and the last duel with Voldemort.
41. **Legend** — score 231/1000
   Ridley Scott's 1985 fairy tale with Tom Cruise and Tim Curry's towering, horned Lord of Darkness.
42. **Groundhog Day** — score 143/1000
   Harold Ramis's 1993 comedy in which Bill Murray's weatherman relives the same February day over and over.
43. **Stardust** — score 143/1000
   Matthew Vaughn's 2007 Neil Gaiman adaptation about a young man who crosses a wall to retrieve a fallen star.
44. **Wings of Desire** — score 143/1000
   Wim Wenders' 1987 meditation on angels watching over divided Berlin, one of whom longs to become human.
45. **Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone** — score 143/1000
   The 2001 film that brought J.K. Rowling's boy wizard and Hogwarts to the screen.
46. **The Princess Bride** — score 143/1000
   Rob Reiner's 1987 swashbuckling storybook romance full of giants, pirates, rodents of unusual size and quotable lines.
47. **My Neighbor Totoro** — score 0/1000
   The gentle 1988 Studio Ghibli film about two sisters who befriend a giant forest spirit in rural Japan.
48. **Howl's Moving Castle** — score 0/1000
   Studio Ghibli's 2004 tale of a young woman cursed into old age who joins a vain wizard's walking castle.
49. **The Dark Crystal** — score 0/1000
   Jim Henson and Frank Oz's 1982 all-puppet fantasy about a Gelfling's quest to heal a cracked crystal.
50. **Beauty and the Beast (1991)** — score 0/1000
   Disney's 1991 animated musical, the first animated film nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.

Tags: fantasy, movies, adventure, all time