Fantasy can make children more creative, give them better vocabulary, and help them understand the world and think outside the box. It may be good for adults, too. Find here the best fantasy movies for kids and enjoy your time with your kids.
Return to Oz
A famous fairy tale and one of the best fantasy movies for kids directed by Walter Murch, and starring Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson and Jean Marsh.
Movie Plot
Dorothy Gale is fascinated by the land of OZ, she returns back from it to her home later, but she cannot stop talking about it. Her Aunt Em cannot believe her, and thought that something wrong happened to her, that maybe she is delusional or feeling depressed!
Aunt Em took her to a psychologist in another town, and when he tried to give her electric shock therapy, a young girl suddenly appears and leads her to the Land of OZ where she wants to be.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 53 minutes.
Movie Type: Adventure, Family and Fantasy.
Labyrinth (best fantasy movies for kids)
Another one of the best fantasy movies for kids directed by Jim Henson and starring David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly and Toby Froud.
Movie Plot
Sarah is a young girl, her father and her stepmother forced her to take care of her young brother, but she is a child herself and doesn’t have enough experience to do this. He is crying and crying but she cannot do anything for him.
She wishes that her brother would go far away from her, and suddenly he stops crying, and he dispersed, so she knew that her wish come true.
Jareth the Goblin King takes him to his kingdom to stay with him in the castle, in the Goblin City, and to reach that place you had to go through a labyrinth.
Sarah felt bad and asks Jareth to return him back, he agrees with her, but she has to reach him and save him before midnight.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 41 minutes.
Movie Type: Adventure, Family and Fantasy.
The NeverEnding Story
One of the kid friendly fantasy movies directed by Wolfgang Petersen, and starring Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver and Tami Stronach.
Movie Plot
The story is about a young boy named Bastian. He is living on a hill because he always get tortured from the school bullies, he escapes from his suffering by reading. One day he finds an ancient book in a book shop and borrows it. The shop owner warned him that the book may be dangerous.
Bastian went to the school attic and started reading book, he found himself in a mysterious land in need for a hero to save it from destruction.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 42 minutes.
Movie Type: Adventure, Family and Fantasy.
The Dark Crystal (best fantasy movies for kids)
Another planet, another fairy tale, and another one of the best fantasy movies for kids directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and starring Jim Henson, Kathryn Mullen, and Frank Oz.
Movie Plot
The movie is set one thousand years before on another planet, where the magic dark crystal keeps everything in good condition. However, someone from the Urskeks’ family damages it, then chaos ensues.
Many kinds of evil creatures like dragons and flying reptilians colonized the plant, until an orphan girl called Jane goes on a journey to find the missing part of the crystal.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 33 minutes.
Movie Type: Adventure, Family and Fantasy.
Willow
Another one of the kid friendly fantasy movies directed by Ron Howard and starring Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley and Warwick Davis.
Movie Plot
The movie is about a prophecy related to a girl named Elora Danan, who will end the era of the evil witch queen Bavmorda and bring peace and justice to the kingdom.
The girl was found in the river when she was a newborn by Ranon and Mims, they bring her to their father Willow Ufgood, until one day a terrifying creature that looks like a dog attacks the village to find the girl.
Willow knows about the prophecy, so he took the girl away and tried to protect her from the queen and her daughter Sorsha, also from her general Kael the commander of her army.
Movie Time: 2 hour and 6 minutes.
Movie Type: Adventure, Family and Fantasy.
Spirited Away (best fantasy movies for kids)
A movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki and one of the best fantasy movies for kids starring Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Miyu Irino and Rumi Hiiragi.
Movie Plot
Chihiro is a young girl feeling angry because she had to movie with her parents to another town, but on the road, Chihiro’s father takes a wrong turn with no way of getting back to the main road.
He decides to stop his car and discover the area. They take a walk there and found a restaurant full of delicious dishes but no one was there, he and his wife ate as much as they can, but Chihiro did not eat anything.
Chihiro walks away and she finds a boy called Haku. The boy told her to leave with her parents because it is a dangerous place. She runs back to her parents but she found that they had turned into pigs.
Even the park has turned into a place for demons and evil spirits, Chihiro learns that all these creatures used to go to a bathhouse owned by an evil witch called Yubaba, and that this witch wants to enslave everyone passing the town and keep them working for her.
Chihiro will do her best to get her parents out of this place with some help from Haku.
Movie Time: 2 hour and 5 minutes.
Movie Type: Adventure, Animation and Fantasy.
Kiki’s Delivery Service
One of the good fantasy movies for 12-year-olds, directed by Hayao Miyazaki and starring Kirsten Dunst, Minami Takayama and Rei Sakuma.
Movie Plot
Kiki is a 13-year-old young witch, she has a beautiful cat named Jiji. She is not expert enough in magic work, but she is creative and has a wide imagination, it makes her powerful enough to face the world or at least the European village she chooses to lives in with her cat.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 43 minutes.
Movie Type: Adventure, Animation and Fantasy.
Jumanji
A lovely movie starring the amazing Robin Williams with Kirsten Dunst and Bonnie Hunt, and directed by Joe Johnston, and it is one of the best fantasy movies for kids and adults as well.
Movie Plot
The movie is about a board game with mysterious magical properties. The game is found by Alan Parrish, a teenager boy, and transports him into a savage forest that he could not escape from. He stays in the game until the siblings Judy and Peter played with it after 20 years.
Alan becomes a young man and he leads the other players through the forest until they finish the game, because no one can escape unless they finish the game.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 44 minutes.
Movie Type: Adventure, Comedy and Fantasy.
Casper
A famous movie directed by Brad Silberling, and starring Bill Pullman, Christina Ricci and Cathy Moriarty, and it is one of the best fantasy movies for kids that the whole family can enjoy.
Movie Plot
Carrigan Crittenden is a young woman that inherited an old mansion from her late father. She hates that mansion but she found a treasure map that ends there, so she went inside it, but she was terrified by a group of ghosts.
She hired Dr. James Harvey the ghost exorcist, who moves to the mansion with his daughter Kat, and meets Casper the friendly ghost, but the problem now is with his uncles Fatso, Stinkie and Stretch who want to keep all the humans outside.
Movie Time: 1 hour and 40 minutes.
Movie Type: Family, Comedy and Fantasy.
