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Curated playlist

American fantasy adventure films

  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)Walt Disney once acted out all of Snow White for his animators, playing every character.
  • The Return of the King (1980 film)In The Return of the King, Gollum bites off Frodo's finger and falls into lava with the Ring.
  • The Lord of the Rings (1978 film)Ralph Bakshi used footage of actors in Orc costumes walking to lunch in his 1978 Lord of the Rings film.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RingMany stars turned down Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring. Sean Connery said he did not understand the plot.
  • The Avengers (2012 film)Joss Whedon read the first Avengers script and said to pretend it never happened.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingThe Return of the King won all eleven Oscars it was nominated for. No fantasy film had won Best Picture before it.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two TowersGollum was first planned as a voice only, played by Andy Serkis. Actors did better with him on set.
  • The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz, a 1939 musical fantasy from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, holds a title few films can claim. According to the U.S. Library of Congress, it is the most seen film in cinematic history. A Kansas farm girl is swept away by a tornado…
  • Highlander (film)The 1986 film Highlander began as a UCLA student's class assignment. Gregory Widen sold the script for US$200,000.
  • Excalibur (film)The 1981 film Excalibur began as an attempt to adapt The Lord of the Rings.
  • Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among ThievesA sports bar chat got two directors the Dungeons & Dragons movie job. They had just left directing The Flash.
  • Barbie (film)The film Barbie used up the world's remaining supply of one shade of pink paint. The shade was Pantone 219.
  • The 13th WarriorThe 13th Warrior, a 1999 action film directed by John McTiernan, grossed 61 million dollars worldwide and still became the biggest box-office bomb of its year. It tells of a poet from Baghdad who is swept into a war among Norse warriors.…
  • Yellow Submarine (film)One voice actor in Yellow Submarine was arrested before he finished recording George's lines.
  • Conan the Barbarian (1982 film)Arnold Schwarzenegger trained for 18 months before filming Conan the Barbarian. He dropped from 240 to 210 pounds.
  • A Minecraft MovieA Minecraft Movie arrived in theaters in 2025, and at one screening at Provo Towne Centre in Provo, Utah, audience members hoisted a live chicken into the air. They were promptly ejected from the theater, and videos of the moment spread…
  • The Odyssey (2026 film)The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan's film of Homer's ancient epic, went on sale to ticket buyers on the 17th of July 2025, exactly one year before its release. That was considered an unprecedented move for a major distributor, and audiences…

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