5 Best Fantasy Movies Streaming On Netflix

You no longer have to drive to a movie theater to be transported to far-off and fantastical lands. Magic, monsters, and more can be found right in your living room when you have a Netflix subscription. Of course, the streamer has plenty of genres to suit all kinds of tastes, but one of the most eclectic categories remains fantasy.

However, just because you're a fan of fantasy doesn't mean all the titles available are worth watching. Let's be honest, there are plenty of fantasy films where it's more maddening to witness their mess than anything else. You want something that makes you feel like you're in another world and not like you constantly have to pick apart every minuscule detail that doesn't make sense.

These are the best fantasy movies on Netflix, with a good assortment of adults-only titles as well as movies suitable for children. Just when you think you've already seen everything Netflix has to offer, here are a few more imaginative stories to add to your watchlist. 

David Bowie's genre-defining '80s movie is a must-watch on Netflix. That's right; we're kicking things off with the 1986 classic "Labyrinth." It's one of many dark fantasy films from the 1980s that continue to terrify children and adults alike, as the film contains plenty of surreal imagery and a story that gets more spooky and mature the further you dig into it. 

The film sees Jareth (Bowie) kidnap a young boy after an ill-considered wish, so it's up to the boy's sister, Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), to survive and make her way through a twisted labyrinth to save him. If nothing else, "Labyrinth" is still worth watching due to the impeccable production design and copious use of puppets. "Labyrinth" was directed by "Muppet" creator Jim Henson, and he stretched the limits of what was possible with creature design within a feature-length narrative. Say what you will about '80s cheesiness, but there's something about seeing a puppet that was actually on a stage rather than a CGI abomination that was put there in post. 

Even without the puppets, "Labyrinth" is a great coming-of-age story for young girls trying to figure out what it means to be a grown woman. Oftentimes, becoming an adult means putting away childish things. That should probably be true to an extent, but it doesn't mean you need to have all the answers just because you turn a certain age. Many films from the '80s haven't aged well, but "Labyrinth" matured perfectly.

It's not every day you get to witness history in the making. "I Am Frankelda" holds a special place in Mexico's cinematic history. "Frankelda" is the first Mexican feature-length stop-motion animated film, and the artistry is nothing short of astonishing. Stop motion and dark fantasy go hand-in-hand, and it's the perfect medium to tell this story of a young female writer, Francisca (Mireya Mendoza), who's the key to resolving a conflict between the realms of fantasy and fiction.

Like "Labyrinth," "I Am Frankelda" is another fantasy film about a young woman coming of age and seeking her own identity. Francisca takes on the name of Frankelda to represent her coming to terms with whatever identity she wants that isn't defined by the men in her life. 

Ultimately, this is a movie about art and imagination itself. Frankelda meets her own creations, who need her assistance in protecting the barrier between the two worlds. It shows how fiction can sometimes bleed into reality, which is an appropriate plot point seeing as how stories can influence our lives in ways we can't even imagine. Hopefully, "I Am Frankelda" proves to be a fictional story that encourages young viewers to pursue their passion while not allowing the naysayers to get the best of them. 

There's a good chance you had to read "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" as part of a high school English class. But if you didn't, it doesn't hurt to check it out before watching 2021's "The Green Knight," which takes the Arthurian legend and subverts some of its more outdated tropes for modern sensibilities. 

The film begins with the mysterious Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) offering the Knights of the Round Table his axe if they can strike him down, on the condition that they take an equal blow in one year's time. Gawain (Dev Patel) takes on the challenge, but soon must embark on an epic quest to the Green Chapel to face his destiny. It's a dark fantasy that may not be what one immediately assumes of an Arthurian legend. But it deconstructs some knightly tropes in order to offer a lesson on what true nobility entails. 

Sir Gawain is unaccomplished when the film first begins. He has done nothing of note but still sits at the Round Table. Throughout his odyssey, he becomes more world-weary and realizes how much more there is to life than enjoying excesses from a castle. There are plenty of unanswered questions by the time "The Green Knight" ends, but piecing through all of the possible meanings helps give this film even greater depth. 

Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio" came out the same year as Disney's live-action adaptation of its 1940 animated film. The latter didn't have much to offer the world that you can't already get by watching the original movie on Disney+. But del Toro saw a way to adapt a story almost everyone has seen and make it feel relevant to the 21st century.

The main beats are still there. Gepetto (David Bradley) wants his puppet Pinocchio (Gregory Mann) to become a real boy, and thanks to magic, he does. From there, del Toro's film takes some darker turns. For starters, the film is intentionally set in 1930s Italy under the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini. This inclusion emphasizes the film's themes that society will often force people to obey whatever commands are handed to them by an authority figure, even if they don't make sense or are actively harmful. 

Disney's "Pinocchio" from 1940 has some pretty standard morals at its core. Namely, that it's good to be selfless and honest. Del Toro's version has a similar message but told in a different way, like how being honest in the face of a fascist dictator may lead to very bad things, but that doesn't mean people should remain silent. Del Toro made "Pinocchio" a tale worth revisiting, and it goes to show that sometimes old stories just need a fresh coat of paint (and some exceptional stop-motion animation) to feel relevant and alive again. 

There are many ways one could've gone about trying to make a "Goosebumps" movie. The book series is massive, with each installment telling its own standalone story. Sure, you could've just taken one book at random and fleshed it out to 90 minutes, but what we got in 2015's "Goosebumps" was a true celebration of everything the franchise stands for.

"Goosebumps" author R.L. Stine is a character in the movie, played by Jack Black. One night, all of his creations come to life and start wreaking havoc on the town. Now it's up to Stine, his daughter, and the neighbor kid to put all the stories back in their place. This premise allows many of Stine's classic creations to run amok, particularly the ventriloquist dummy Slappy (voiced by Black, too). 

"Goosebumps" feels more inspired by something like "Jumanji" than any of Stine's actual work, but that's in the film's favor. It's more of an action-comedy than a straight-up horror, making it perfect for any scaredy-cats in the household. Naturally, there are still plenty of monsters, but it functions as more of an entryway to spooky fun than something truly horrific all on its own. It offers nostalgic enjoyment for anyone who grew up with "Goosebumps" in the 1990s, and hopefully, for kids watching it today, it will inspire them to seek out some of those fun books.