Butler's Fantasy Cinema: Impossible Worlds on Screen

A young boy dreams that he is in an imaginary world where, assisted by his family's plumber, he must save other piano-playing kids like himself from the dungeons of his dictatorial piano teacher who also mind-controls his mother.

When a princess is shrunken by an evil wizard, Sinbad must undertake a quest to an island of monsters to cure her and prevent a war.

The highly respected and often cited milestone in Science Fiction cinema. Director Stanley Kubrick takes us into the future, into outer space and aboard a spacecraft that’s controlled by a seemingly trustworthy computer named HAL.

Three modern-day pilgrims investigate a bizarre crime in a small town while on their way to Canterbury.

When a young airman miraculously survives bailing out of his aeroplane without a parachute, he falls in love with an American radio operator. But the officials in the other world realise their mistake, and despatch an angel to collect him.

Aladdin is the Walt Disney animated film based on the famous fairytale. The film would start a new era in special affects with its modern animation style and its excellent speaking parts.

In Bagdad, Princess Badr al-Budur, the daughter of the Sultan, falls in love with Aladdin, the son of a poor tailor, and rejects the suit of evil alchemist al-Talib, her father's choice. Al-Talib consults his Evil Spirit, who advises him to find the magic lamp hidden in an underground cave. Unable to get it himself, al-Talib hires Aladdin, who s...

Ali Baba, a poor Turkish wood chopper, discovers that a robbers' cave, concealed in the mountains that surround his house, opens to the magical phrase, "Open Sesame." Learning that the cave is filled with stolen treasure, he takes home as much as he can carry, but his greedy brother forces him to reveal the cave's location. After gaining admitta...

Alice in Wonderland (1966) is a BBC television play based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was directed by Jonathan Miller, then most widely known for his appearance in the long-running satirical revue Beyond the Fringe.

Jon Hall, Maria Montez and Sabu star in this lush, epic story of two half brothers who battle each other for the power of the throne and the love of a sensual, gorgeous dancing girl, Scheherazade

Raised on tales of a Djinn fairy princess, Azur, a young Frenchman goes to North Africa in search of the sprite, only to discover that his close childhood friend, Asmar, an Arab youth whose mother raised both boys also seeks the genie.

A young woman becomes the eighth wife of the wealthy Bluebeard, whose first seven wives have died under mysterious circumstances.

Catherine, a novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite, becomes a prime suspect when her boyfriend is brutally murdered -- a crime she had described in her latest story.

Novelist Catherine Tramell is once again in trouble with the law, and Scotland Yard appoints psychiatrist Dr. Michael Glass to evaluate her. Though, like Detective Nick Curran before him, Glass is entranced by Tramell and lured into a seductive game.

The controlled explosion of an atomic bomb in the Arctic Circle awakens a frozen dinosaur that will wreak havoc in New York City.

Dar, is the son of a king, who is hunted by a priest after his birth and grows up in another family. When he becomes a grown man his new father is murdered by savages and he discovers that he has the ability to communicate with the animals. After that, Dar begins his quest for revenge in this Conan-like movie.

Spike Jone’s debut feature film is a love story mix of comedy and fantasy. The story is about an unsuccessful puppeteer named Craig, who one day at work finds a portal into the head of actor John Malkovich. The portal soon becomes a passion for anybody who enters it’s mad and controlling world of over overtaking another human body.

Passengers on an ocean liner can't recall how they got onboard or where they are going. Soon it becomes apparent that they all have something in common.

The ghosts of three elderly industrialists killed in an airplane crash return to Earth to help reunite a young couple whom they initially brought together.

Throughout his life Edward Bloom has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, he remains a huge mystery to his son, William. Now, to get to know the real man, Will begins piecing together a true picture of his father from flashbacks of his amazing adventures.

A lazy, irresponsible young clerk in provincial Northern England lives in his own fantasy world and makes emotionally immature decisions as he alienates friends and family

The Birds is a classic cult film from Alfred Hitchcock. His new horror elements made film history and one of hismasterpieces.

From the atmospheric vision of Ridley Scott comes this futuristic film noir declared by many as the greatest Science Fiction movie of all time. Based on the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick.

Blue Velvet is a thriller from David Lynch that depicts the contrariness of two worlds that Jeffery is a part of - and torn apart from. The film is very ambivalent in the style that Lynch fans have come to love.

Brazil is a Terry Gilliam dystopic black comedy film that reflects the melancholy, dreamlike quality of a famous Brazilian song that’s been translated into English. The film parodies the mostly dysfunctional bureaucratic world we live in and takes us to a post-apocalyptic world in the future yet with our present day attitudes in mind.

New classmate Leslie Burke unlocks a mesmerizing world of fantasy and imagination for fifth-grader Jesse Aaron in this magical adventure. The two outcasts, who are rivals at first, eventually become friends and create the make-believe kingdom of Terabithia, where they reign supreme and plot vengeance against school bullies.

Folklore collectors and con artists, Jake and Will Grimm, travel from village to village pretending to protect townsfolk from enchanted creatures and performing exorcisms. They are put to the test, however, when they encounter a real magical curse in a haunted forest with real magical beings, requiring genuine courage.

A guy who complains about God too often is given almighty powers to teach him how difficult it is to run the world.

Sketch artist Irena Dubrovna (Simon) and American architect Oliver Reed (Smith) fall in love and marry after a brief courtship. But Irena believes that she suffers from an ancient curse and won't consummate the union for fear that she will turn into a panther compelled to kill her lover.

A fairy godmother magically turns Cinderella's rags to a beautiful dress, and a pumpkin into a coach. Cinderella goes to the ball, where she meets the Prince - but will she remember to leave before the magic runs out? Méliès based the art direction on engravings by Gustave Doré. First known example of a fairy-tale adapted to film, and the first ...

A young boy wins a tour through the most magnificent chocolate factory in the world, led by the world's most unusual candy maker.

The story of four siblings who during the bombing of World War 2 find the magical world of Narnia in a wardrobe. The beginning of a trilogy from ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ books. The film was a blockbuster success during the 2005 Christmas season yet not received well by critics and viewers.

A film adaption of the myth of Perseus and his quest to battle both Medusa and the Kraken monster to save the Princess Andromeda.

A la suite des récits que lui fait sa grand-mère sur d'étranges légendes, la jeune Rosaleen fait d'étranges rêves, peuplés de loups-garous. Selon les recommandations de son aïeule, elle doit éviter à tout prix de fréquenter les hommes dont les sourcils se touchent, signe d'appartenance aux loups-garous.

The epic tale of child sold into slavery who grows into a man who seeks revenge against the warlord who massacred his tribe.

Another evil threatens to conquer the world, as Conan journeys on a search to find a magic crystal before the sorceror Toth Amon can use it. He is also required to rescue the Princess Jehnna for the treacherous Queen Taramis who plans to betray Conan and rule the world.

On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal and restore order to his world, before the grotesque race of Skeksis find and use the crystal for evil.

A boy's life is turned upside down when he learns that he is the last of a group of immortal warriors who have dedicated their lives to fighting the forces of the dark.

A lone warrior nicknamed Deathstalker is sent by a witch on a quest to find a sword, a chalice, and an amulet, two of which are held by the wicked king and sorcerer, Munkar.

Taken from The Arabian Nights, a wicked sorcerer and the beautiful prince Achmed battle one against the other during a series of wondrous adventures.

A mansion is a large and stately dwelling house for the wealthy.

After Siegfried's dead, Kriemhild marries Etzel, the King of the Huns. She gives birth to a child, and invites her brothers for a party. She tries to persuade Etzel and the other Huns, that they kill Hagen, the murderer of Siegfried, but he is protected by her brothers. A fierce battle begins to force her brothers to give Hagen to her.

Siegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, travels to Worms, capital of the Burgundian kingdom, to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Kriemhild.

The sorcerer and his apprentice Galen are on a mission to kill an evil dragon in order to save the King’s daughter from being sacrificed in accordance to a pact that the King himself made with the dragon to protect his kingdom. A fantasy film from Disney Studios that exhausted all possible visual effects of the time.

Pans Labyrinth is the exquisitely produced fantasy film from Mexican director Guillermo del Toro who is actually famous for his works in science-fiction and horror. The film stars a little girl lost in a fantasy world. The film won three Academy Awards in 2007.

In 1940, after watching and being traumatized by the movie Frankenstein (1931), a sensitive seven-year-old girl living in a small Spanish village drifts into her own fantasy world.

In his homeland of Alagaesia, a farm boy happens upon a dragon's egg -- a discovery that leads him on a predestined journey where he realized he's the one person who can defend his home against an evil king.

Eraserhead is a confusing film from independent cult director David Lunch from 1977.

Merlin the magician helps Arthur Pendragon unite the Britons around the Round Table of Camelot, even as dark forces conspire to tear it apart.

In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.