This is a list of my 100 favorite fantasy films of all time. This is an ever changing list, but this is the list as of August 2025.
I made some subjective judgement calls in regards to what I consider fantasy since the Letterbox genre tags are always really messed up. For example, according to the tags the first two How to Train Your Dragon films are fantasy but the third one is not.
So, I will be considering a film fantasy if magic in some way plays a significant role to the world and story of the film. This can include themes of mythology, religion, or folklore. However, I will not be including horror films that rely on the…
This is a list of my 100 favorite fantasy films of all time. This is an ever changing list, but this is the list as of August 2025.
I made some subjective judgement calls in regards to what I consider fantasy since the Letterbox genre tags are always really messed up. For example, according to the tags the first two How to Train Your Dragon films are fantasy but the third one is not.
So, I will be considering a film fantasy if magic in some way plays a significant role to the world and story of the film. This can include themes of mythology, religion, or folklore. However, I will not be including horror films that rely on the supernatural unless that aspect is treated as folkloric in a significant way such as with La Llorona. Nor will I include cosmic horror films such as The Ritual or Call of Cthullu.
This list was first made in August of 2023. For this revision of the list, a total of 15 films dropped out from the original. The highest ranking film to drop was The Little Mermaid from 47. Of the films that joined in, the highest ranking one is Mythica: the Godslayer (10). All 15 films to join the list were first time watches since August 2024.
The newest film on this list is KPop Demon Hunters (100). The oldest film on this list is The Doll (18).
12 films have kept their placement with the highest being After Life (1) and the lowest being All Dogs Go To heaven (87). The film that moved down the most spots was Hercules (94) which moved down 40 spots. The film that moved up the most spots was The Adventures of Prince Achmed (37) which moved up 21 spots.
Every decade starting from the 1910's is represented on this list:
1910's: 1
1920's: 5
1930's: 4
1940's: 3
1950's: 3
1960's: 3
1970's: 6
1980's: 15
1990's: 9
2000's: 14
2010's: 16
2020's: 21
Along with this, 2023 is the most represented years with 6 films.
24 countries are represented on this list:
USA: 65
Japan: 13
Germany: 9
UK: 9
France: 5
Mexico: 5
Belgium: 4
Ireland: 3
Luxembourg: 3
China: 3
New Zealand: 2
Sweden: 2
Hungary: 2
Guatemala: 2
Czechoslovakia: 2
Spain: 2
Brazil: 1
Canada: 1
Hong Kong: 1
Australia: 1
East Germany: 1
Denmark: 1
Chile: 1
Latvia: 1
103 directors are represented on this list. The following are directors with multiple films on the list:
Hayao Miyazaki: 6 (Spirited Away, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, The Boy and the Heron, Kiki's Delivery Service)
Guillermo del Toro: 3 (Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio)
Peter Jackson: 2 (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)
Marcek Jankovics: 2 (The Tragedy of Man, Son of the White Mare)
Tomm Moore: 2 (Wolfwalkers, Song of the Sea)
John Lyde: 2 (Mythica: The Godslayer, Mythica: The Iron Crown)
Fritz Lang: 2 (Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge, Die Nibelungen: Siegfried)
Zack Snyder: 2 (Zack Snyder's Justice League, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole)
Jayro Bustamante: 2 (La Llorona, Rita)
Dean DeBlois: 2 (How to Train Your Dragon 2, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World)
Don Bluth: 2 (Anastasia, All Dogs Go to Heaven)
Ben Sharpsteen: 2 (Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
Wilfred Jackson: 2 (Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
Ari Aster: 2 (Beau is Afraid, Hereditary)
Ralph Bakshi: 2 (The Lord of the Rings, Wizards)
Kunihiko Yuyama: 2 (Pokemon: The First Move, Pokemon 3: The Movie)
These films earned a total of 98 Oscar nominations and won 38 of them. These nominations include 7 for Best Picture, 2 of which won. These 2 were The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (3) and The Shape of Water (48).
The average length of the list is 108.35 minutes with the longest film being Zack Snyder's Justice League (7) at 242 minutes and the shortest being The Doll (18) at 66 minutes.
The average letterbox score of the list is 3.72 with the highest rated film being The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (3) with a 4.5 and the lowest rated film being Xanadu (78) with a 2.9. I personally gave the top 9 of these films 5 stars and the rest 4.5.