The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classics

[JD]

Since we had a thread for old sci-fi movies, I thought it might be fun to do one for old fantasy movies.
My favorites are The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and The Never-Ending Story. All three movies created really cool worlds, with some great characters, and memorable scenes.
I like Willow too, but nowhere near as much as those three.
Another big one that comes up a lot is Conan: The Barbarian, but I've only seen it once and don't really remember it.

 

[DigificWriter]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

I'm going to put the Beastmaster movies out there for consideration. I used to love those films as a kid (even though I haven't seen them in years).

I also don't think a thread of this nature can be complete without at least one mention of what is one of the greatest comedy films of all time as well as a fantastic Fantasy film, The Princess Bride.

 

[JD]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

I can't believe I forgot The Princess Bride.
I watched the first Beastmaster movie years ago, but I don't really remember much of it. The biggest thing for me was the fact that my family had ferrets at time, and the movie had ferrets in it.

 

[Shanndee]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

I have a soft spot for Ladyhawke.

Rutger Hauer with a double barrelled crossbow, a sword, and a big black horse. A medieval fantasy with castles, curses, sword fights, and shape shifting. I love, love, love, this movie!

 

[Christopher]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

I loved The Dark Crystal, but I hated Labyrinth. I guess you have to be a David Bowie fan to enjoy it. I couldn't stand him or his songs.

I think Krull is underrated. It stars Kenneth Marshall, whom Trek fans know as Eddington from Deep Space Nine, and he's a surprisingly effective fantasy hero. And Ladyhawke isn't bad, although it's marred by two things -- a really cheesy electronic score, and the presence of Matthew Broderick.

 

[DigificWriter]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

I have a soft spot for Ladyhawke.

Rutger Hauer with a double barrelled crossbow, a sword, and a big black horse. A medieval fantasy with castles, curses, sword fights, and shape shifting. I love, love, love, this movie!

Ladyhawke is freaking awesome. I watched the heck out of my family's VHS copy of that movie back in the day, especially when we went on long car trips in our Custom Van.

 

[JD]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

I still need to watch Ladyhawke. It always comes up in these kinds of conversations, but I've never gotten around to seeing it.

 

[Shanndee]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

Well then, JD, your mission (if you choose to accept it), is to find a way to watch Ladyhawke as soon as possible!

 

[JD]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

I just found it in my Netflix disc queue and moved it up to #6, so I'll probably watch it sometime in the next month or so.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

The Dark Crystal is pretty awesome, I think.

Conan the Barbarian is good, and The Princess Bride is great.

I've seen every movie mentioned here so far, but for the rest of them, it's been too long for me to know what I'd think of them today.

Krull has a great cast, which is the thing I remember being its biggest positive. I remember thinking that it was okay, but nothing great.

I'll throw out Ralph Bakshi's Wizards as worthy of mention. I don't know what contemporary audiences might think of it, but I like it.

 

[Sindatur]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

I love Dark Crystal, and I'm very sad the Sequel is in Development Hell, the false, almost starts have been very irritating (just when I get used to the idea ir'll never happen, someone comes along and gives me false hope again)

Never seen Krull or Lady Hawke, but, I enjoy the rest of the movies that have been mentioned

 

[MacLeod]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

^I've seen all the films mentioned above, though I think I've only seen Ladyhawke once a long time ago and barely remember it. But a few others do grace my BR/DVD collection.

 

[Sindatur]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

Oh, and they're often Maligned, but, I enjoyed most of the Hallmark Fantasy Mini-Series I've seen, especially the one with Colm Meaney (the "Leprechauns vs Fairies" one)

 

[USS Triumphant]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

You've already mentioned the movies in the thread title, plus Labyrinth, and The Princess Bride. (And while I can't really stand them, my wife loves Ladyhawke and Krull.) So...

Time Bandits

Xanadu

Star Wars (which is frequently miscategorized as Sci-Fi)

Legend

 

[Kilana2]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

Finally, a Never-Ending Story thread. I almost missed it.

There are three never-ending story movies: movie 1 is great, the others a failure.

And author Michael Ende didn't like film 1 very much. Not to mention Nr. 2 and 3.

I did some research. The English name for the luckdragon is Falkor. In German it is Fuchur, but I guess you would have some pronunciation issues.

In each movie they changed the cast. Neither Jonathan Brandis, nor Jason James Richter were the right choice. For such an epic story you simply can't change the cast. They didn't do that in Harry Potter (I don't know about Lord of the Rings).

I very much prefer the novel, it's one of the best books ever. Film Nr. 1 is a classic. Everything else I've long since buried.

 

[BK613]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

I would add to the list:

Dragonslayer: Weak in some places (Peter MacNichol is juat wrong for this movie) but when it came to dragons in movies, for many years Vermithrax Pejorative was the gold standard for me.

Excalibur: Loved the score. Loved the move away from the Camelot-esque romanticism. Very quotable movie.

...for it is the Doom of Men that they forget.

Speaking of scores, Basil Poledouris' score for Conan the Barbarian is one of my all time favorites.

 

[Christopher]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

Finally, a Never-Ending Story thread. I almost missed it.

My problem with The NeverEnding Story is that the title is false advertising...

In each movie they changed the cast. Neither Jonathan Brandis, nor Jason James Richter were the right choice. For such an epic story you simply can't change the cast. They didn't do that in Harry Potter (I don't know about Lord of the Rings).

Well, the difference is that the Harry Potter films were based on a series of books in which the characters got a year older in each volume, and they were made only one to two years apart, so the actors and the characters grew up together. In the case of the NeverEnding Story films, the second came out six years after the first, and the third was four years after that. Noah Hathaway, the star of the original film, would've been 18 when the second film was made, probably too old to fit the story.

(Also, seriously? Noah Hathaway was the original star? He was absolutely terrible in Battlestar Galactica. It's hard to imagine anything starring him being any good. Although I suppose he could've learned to act in the intervening few years.)

 

[beamMe]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

Legend

That's a beautiful film.

Die Unendliche Geschichte scared the shit out of me as a kid with that wolf-monster-thing.
I loved the second film; that must have been because of Jonathan Brandis - even at 10 I was already smitten with him

 

[Kilana2]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

I loved Jonathan Brandis in It, but not in TNES. Unfortunately he is no longer among ous.

As to TNES: I love the soundtrack by Klaus Doldinger. And Limahls song.

 

[JD]

Re: The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, and other fantasy classi

Has anybody else here read The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths? It's a prequel graphic novel trilogy that covers the entire history of Thra from it's creation at least through to the fall of the Gelflings. The first two have come out so far and they are awesome. The third and final volume comes out this September.
The same publishers, Archaia, who are now part of Boom! Studios had planned on also doing a Labyrinth comic, but I haven't heard much about it since they originally go the Jim Henson contract, so I don't know if it's ever actually coming out.