Underrated Fantasy Movies About Magical Creatures
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Can you really go wrong with a movie that features Sean Connery as a giant, talking dragon? It's freaking James Bond himself as a mythical, magical creature! Get on board, people!
We've also got Dennis Quaid, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite, Dina Meyer, and Julie Christie here, too. And it's brought to you by Rob Cohen, the director of The Fast and the Furious and xXx. Is the CGI dated? Well, yes. But if you're willing to roll with it, Dragonheart is just a total blast. Plus, it's fun to see Dennis Quaid's wig doing a fantastic Geralt of Rivia impression.
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Animation legends Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass are best known today for creating numerous stop-motion Christmas specials your grandparents and parents grew up on back in the 1960s and 1970s. But Rankin and Bass were prolific workers who put their particular expertise to numerous lesser-known projects over the years. Case in point: 1982's The Last Unicorn.
It may not have the high production quality of a Disney film or the legacy of other '80s animated films from Hollywood like An American Tail or The Land Before Time, but it stands out for being a genuine piece of family entertainment buoyed by two masters and a standout cast. Over the years, The Last Unicorn has garnered a cult following, and it is easy to see why. Who doesn't like unicorns?
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When the late, great Jim Henson began a project, he would go all in. The Muppet Show? All in. Fraggle Rock? All in. Labyrinth? All in. That is just how the man worked. 100% all in, 100% of the time. So when the guy who brought the delightful, family-friendly creatures of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show to life decided to make a dark fantasy story... what did he do? He went all in, and people weren't ready for it.
When The Dark Crystal came out in 1982, it was met with mixed reviews and a disappointing box-office return. But, as is evidenced by the 2019 Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, the movie would become a cult hit in the decades afterward. The story is your typical "restore balance to the entire world" yarn, but the character design is second to none. And don't act like you don't wanna learn more about the Gelflings and the Skeksis...
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After becoming an up-and-comer thanks to The Outsiders, Risky Business, and All the Right Moves, but before Top Gun, Cocktail, and Rain Man turned him into an A-lister, Tom Cruise actually starred in a traditional fantasy film. Seriously, he fights against Tim Curry's Lord of Darkness to save the Earth from eternal night. It's that kind of movie. And the weirdest thing about all of it might be that Ridley Scott spent all of his hard-earned clout after directing Alien and Blade Runner to make this 1985 box-office flop.
Legend may have been a disappointment for Universal Pictures upon release, but it has gone on to have a cult following in the decades since. How can you go wrong with Tim Curry hamming it up, Tom Cruise and Mia Sara showcasing their youthful exuberance, and Ridley Scott bringing his signature panache to the big screen? Answer: You cannot.
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The current generation of kids only knows what The NeverEnding Story is thanks to the theme song being sung as a goofy duet on an episode of Netflix hit Stranger Things. But children of the '80s and '90s grew up on the fantastical story of the land of Fantasia. And without telling you anything about the story at all, could you guess this is a fantasy tale by the inclusion of names like Atreyu, Engywook, and Falkor?
Though the sequels fell flat on their faces and sullied the franchise name a bit, the original 1984 film (based on Michael Ende's 1979 novel of the same name) still holds up as an imaginative '80s classic. To this day, The NeverEnding Story serves as a reminder that great practical effects can stand toe-to-toe with CGI in the magic department. Is it more difficult to implement? Sure, but the results can be stunning.
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It is easy to forget now, but back in 2010, How to Train Your Dragon was just the little DreamWorks picture that could. Based on the children's book of the same name, How to Train Your Dragon came out in a world where DreamWorks was slipping in its fight against Pixar due to lackluster reaction to films like Bee Movie, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and Monsters vs. Aliens. Today, the How to Train Your Dragon franchise spans multiple films, television shows, short films, graphic novels, and video games, not to mention the mounds and mounds of merchandise that can be found at stores across the globe.
And the original film that started it all is a fantastic movie that was universally beloved upon release. That dang Toothless is so adorable, we can hardly stand it. It turns out that making a dragon basically into a massive puppy was a brilliant idea from the production team.
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For about a decade, Nickelodeon Films really only got involved with smaller live-action films and animated features based on their popular cartoons. We're talking things like Good Burger, Snow Day, The Rugrats Movie, and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. That all changed in 2004 with the big-budgeted Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. And in the wake of this shift came 2008's The Spiderwick Chronicles. It was also based on a children's book series, and though the CGI looks a bit dated by current standards, it mostly succeeds in telling a fun fantasy tale as three young siblings take on an angry horde of goblins.
Freddie Highmore shines in his dual role as twins, and the movie is helped by the fact that they were able to get some serious talent to voice the CGI characters. If you can round up Martin Short, Nick Nolte, Ron Perlman, and Seth Rogen to bring the fantastical creations to life, you are probably going to be alright.
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Disney+ censorship controversy be darned, Splash stands up as a very fun movie almost 40 years after its release. This 1984 Ron Howard film (along with 1985's Cocoon) served as a coming-out party for the former child star as a serious director in Hollywood. And we'd like to think people with good sense would still enjoy a rom-com about a mermaid that stars Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, Eugene Levy, and John Candy.
How many 1980s romantic comedies do you know that earned a best original screenplay nomination at the Academy Awards? It also makes the Mouse House's release of The Little Mermaid a few years later feel a little bit odd. Betting on two major hits being mermaid-related was an interesting choice, but it worked out!
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For decades, Robert Zemeckis was the guy who brought some major Hollywood hits to the big screen. Romancing the Stone. Back to the Future. Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Forrest Gump. Cast Away. After all those blockbusters, the director turned his attention to motion-capture animation to create feature films with an aesthetic no one had ever seen before. And sandwiched between his pair of family-friendly holiday films (The Polar Express and A Christmas Carol), Zemeckis decided to pair his mo-cap filmmaking with the epic poem of Beowulf.
Though the changes the production team made to the story found a lot of controversy from academics at the time, there is no denying Beowulf is a big-budget adventure that is mostly forgotten nowadays. And, yeah, it was a box-office disaster set against its massive $150 million budget, but it oozes all kinds of style. And how many tentpole pictures have Ray Winstone as the main character?
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The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep is just a mouthful of a title. Does anyone really need the second part of that title? The first part does a pretty good job of describing what the film is about while also engendering curiosity: What is a water horse? And in an era where modestly budgeted family entertainment is hard to come by, this well-made $40 million film became a box-office success on the back of traditional storytelling with wonderful special effects.
If you thought you'd never see a cute origin story about the Loch Ness monster, well, we've got news for you. The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep is well worth your time, even if you don't have kids. Adults can like Nessie, too.
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Is it right to consider My Neighbor Totoro underrated? Can a film with My Neighbor Tororo's legacy even be underrated? Totoro is the mascot for Studio Ghibli, for goodness sake! He even shows up in Toy Story 3. But while other animated films from legendary director Hayao Miyazaki, such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, have released to critical and commercial success here in the states, this 1988 classic had a much bigger impact in Japan than it did in America.
We don't want to spoil the story, but if you have somehow missed out on watching My Neighbor Totoro up to this point in your life, you owe it to yourself to check this classic out. It is beautiful. It is timeless. It is a masterpiece.
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Have you seen the original 1977 Pete's Dragon? It's fine for a 1970s film that merges live action with animation, but it certainly isn't anything to write home about (the tagline of "Brazzle Dazzle Brilliance!" is pretty fantastic, though). The 2016 remake, however, stands atop the heap of Disney's mediocre live-action, classic-animated-film remakes as a truly fantastic movie.
Directed by David Lowery, a filmmaker known for his affecting indie films like Ain't Them Bodies Saints and A Ghost Story, Pete's Dragon feels distinct from other recent live-action Disney movies. It doesn't feel like it is trying to be a blockbuster; it feels like it is trying to tell a story. It's just a small-scale narrative about a boy and a green dragon. No muss, no fuss... just good, old-fashioned filmmaking. You know, good, old-fashioned filmmaking with the benefit of a giant budget and incredible CGI.
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Lady in the Water is often regarded as one of M. Night Shyamalan's worst films. But, um, it clearly isn't. Have you seen The Happening? Have you seen After Earth? Have you seen... *gulp* The Last Airbender? These are the true dregs of the Shyamalan filmography.
Lady in the Water may be inconsequential when compared to The Sixth Sense, Signs, or Unbreakable, but if you can get on board with a realistic take on a water nymph story, it is just fine. It also has a stacked cast that includes Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bob Balaban, Jeffrey Wright, Freddy Rodriguez, and Jared Harris. It certainly isn't a great movie, but it's much better than the reputation it has.
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Perhaps the most blatant example of a Hollywood "true story" not actually being true, FairyTale: A True Story is decidedly not a fact-based tale. Though it is based on the real-life friendship of Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and famed escape artist Harry Houdini, FairyTale is not a true story and isn't meant to be.
It is meant to capture the child-like wonder surrounding fairies, and through the magic of filmmaking, it brings the mystical creatures to life. Check out this 1997 film, and you just might believe in little winged sprites yourself. And if you don't think the always-fantastic Peter O'Toole plays a convincing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, you've got another thing coming.
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