Fantasy films 402 films

Fantasy is the genre most likely to mistake money for imagination. What we are actually scoring is whether the invented world has rules it keeps, and whether anyone in it wants something we recognise: a job, a way home, a meal cooked properly. The spirit bathhouse and the hobbit's front door earn their monsters because the housework comes first. Our shelf leans towards animation, and towards films made for families that adults have quietly kept for themselves.

Start with Spirited Away, 92, which frightens and consoles in the same scene. Then A Matter of Life and Death, 92, where heaven is a bureaucracy and the colour is the case for staying alive. Then The Fellowship of the Ring, 90, for anyone who believes they dislike hobbits. After that, try Ratatouille, which takes a rat's ambition seriously, or Fanny and Alexander, which belongs here more than you might expect.