10. “Tale of Tales” (2015)
Big-ticket marketing requirements mean that filmed fantasy often hews close to family-friendly fare, but “Tale of Tales” roves deep into horror and the grotesque, and it’s safe to say you probably don’t want to watch this with your 5 year-old. The baroque stories-behind-the-stories that inspired the Brothers Grimm and other purveyors of familiar fantasy, fairytale and folklore get a sumptuous, ornate cinematic treatment in this three-chapter melange of desire and violence. Just to set the stage, the first tale features a ritual in which a queen played by Salma Hayek conceives a child by consuming the heart of a water dragon which is cooked by a virgin, plus there’s a pig-sized engorged flea, an ogre, and some good old-fashioned shape-shifting as well. The weird excesses of “Tale of Tales” are balanced by controlled production design and excellent cinematography, allowing each story to depict human passions so extreme that they become supernatural in highly idiosyncratic fashion. Fantasy at its best should create new realms that feel a bit dangerous with a layer of dark uncertainty hidden under a seductive outer shell, and Matteo Garrone’s film brilliantly captures that polarity, coherence be damned.
9. “Coraline” (2009)
Tim Burton may have slightly choked on a piece of his heart when “Coraline” came out. Master of the comforting macabre Neil Gaiman gave his blessing to Henry Selick (i.e. the answer to that most incorrectly answered questions in movies, “who directed ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas?”) to turn the story of a little girl who discovers an alternate, button-eyed, parallel reality into a small, perfectly formed, darkhearted stop-motion beauty. Coraline Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning) goes through familiar prepubescent angst until stumbling on a secret doorway and meeting her Other life. With a smidgen of Roald Dahl and a tablespoon of Lewis Carroll in its story of a childhood innocence disrupted by dark alternate universes, the Academy Award-nominated “Coraline” is gorgeous in its raw, 3D-printed design (those opening credits alone are enough to stitch your eyes to the screen for the next hour and 40 minutes) and is as immersive as anything else on this list. Bobbing and weaving through a plethora of horror tropes, the source of “Coraline’s” highly calibrated resonance is found in Selick’s complete trust in Gaiman’s world. In lieu of any Disney-esque bombast, this is a patiently-told, supremely atmospheric story full of charm and wickedness.
8. “Trollhunter” (2010)
André Øvredal’s freakishly compelling found-footage fairytale is to fantasy what “Chronicle” and ‘Blair Witch‘ are to superheroes and horror —and it’s way funnier than both. The buildup to the titular monsters in “Trollhunter” is wonderfully organic, as we watch from the vantage point of three laid-back college students who make it their project to follow up on a supposed bear hunter called Hans (Otto Jespersen). Turns out that he’s actually a troll hunter, and that trolls exist. At least, that’s what you find yourself thinking while watching Øvredal’s indie pearl. Belief gets in reality’s blind spot and crashes into Norwegian folklore spectacularly, thanks to scarily believable visual effects and a script that constantly keeps the story anchored to the realm of the real —the taxing profession of troll hunting and a veterinarian talking about the trolls’ Vitamin D issues are two standout moments. And the film’s gorgeous: images of trolls turned to stone, broken cameras and intense night-vision sequences turn “Trollhunter” into a visual feast as well as cautionary tale of wildlife preservation. But it’s above all a brilliant display of imagination toying with reality.
7. “The Secret of Kells” (2009)
Under the right circumstances, the most convincing fantasy can be indistinguishable from religious text. But this animated film knits the two traditions closer than most, drawing its major inspiration from the collision of early Irish Christianity and Celtic folklore through the story of a young monastery resident who assists a noted illuminator in his task of crafting a book able to “turn darkness into light.” This parable about the spread of Christianity in Ireland has the conviction of a religious film, but the pacing and twists of work by Miyazaki, rendered in fanciful and detailed hand-animated artistry, puts much CG animation to shame. Directors Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey guide “The Secret of Kells” with confidence, and the result is a film of unusual strength and calm drawing on the inspiration of illuminated manuscripts such as the actual Book of Kells, a gorgeous collection of the Gospels created in the late 8th century. The story is allowed to breathe, and the art direction and voice work keep pace to synthesize a portrait of a world that never quite existed, but feels built on a calm and very beautiful faith.
6. “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (2004)
JK Rowling captured the world’s attention with the story of orphaned young wizard Harry Potter, and the eight Warner Bros. films adapting the seven novels are a remarkable incarnation of the story’s enormous span. But the third ‘Potter’ film, directed by Alfonso Cuaron, represents the most massive evolutionary step forward the franchise ever took, after the first two well-cast but ultimately pedestrian entries. Here, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint truly grew into their roles as the film took more liberties with the source material, cementing the movie series’ own tone and character. Cuaron shows off his flair for casting by bringing in Gary Oldman and David Thewlis for major roles and choosing Michael Gambon to replace the late Richard Harris, who died just prior to filming, as a more cautious and mysterious Dumbledore. “The Prisoner of Azkaban” is where the real danger and the real potential for tragedy of Harry’s world begins to reveal itself alongside the wizard’s developing magical abilities. This is an entry strong enough to make the first two films seem like merely an extended prologue and which set the tone for the films to follow.