If you're looking for any really deep thoughts, then you've come to the wrong place. However, if you're looking for simple opinions on ordinary, mundane things, then you've come to the right place.
When was the last time you saw a fantasy movie in the theaters? I'm not talking about movies with absolutely fantastic elements like giant gorillas (Mighty Joe Young) or talking animals (Dr. Dolittle). You could argue the point, but to me the one marketed itself as an adventure flick that challenged the border of sci-fi, and the other was a modernized novel adaptation/remake that was more comedic than fantastic. No, I'm talking about the kind of flicks that involve real fantastic elements, like dragons and unicorns, and wizards and warriors, and godly wars and magic. I'm talking about fantasy!
Let's be honest. There's no dearth of action/adventure films, and certainly no scarcity of science fiction movies. Each year sees dramas by the score and comedies and tragedies by the dozen. Even horror flicks aren't underrepresented, if you can call the bloody slasher type movies "horror". But where, oh where are the fantasy movies?
Okay, every year a number of animated movies appear in the theaters. Last year Mulan was Disney's offering; to judge from the home video previews, this year's choice is Tarzan. Now, the previews for The King and I look good, as do--though I'm not a big fan--the ones for Doug's First Movie. Then, there's the new trend of computer animated/generated movies, like Toy Story that have been appearing off and on. Last year there was Ants and A Bug's Life. Who knows what will appear this summer? These are all fine and good, and they offer a dose of fantasy, but it isn't enough to satisfy my interests. I want live-action fantasy, and there's been very little of that lately. I mean, when was the last time you saw an actor dressed up in a suit of armor duking it out with a three-headed giant or a fire-breathing dragon squared off against an evil wizard with the fate of the world hanging in the balance? In an animated flick, perhaps, but not in live action.
Maybe I'm just too isolated in Hawai'i. Maybe there are fantasy movies offered in the continental United States and elsewhere and I'm just not hearing about them. Or perhaps there really is a dearth of fantasy movies being made. The last one I can remember hearing about that seemed to really be a fantasy was Dragonheart. That one had a stupendous dragon involved, along with a knight on horseback and a touch of magic. That was a fantasy. I really enjoyed it, so I'm wondering why there aren't more like it.
I suppose one reason might be the work involved in making one. It's probably considerably less expensive to produce an animated fantasy movie rather than a live-action one. I have no idea what the production costs for a movie like, say, Anastasia was compared to that of Dragonheart, but I'd suppose them to be much lower. That would certainly be a major consideration to any producer and his/her backers. After all, there's the possibility that the movie won't go over too well with the intended audience, right? Certainly the advertising must be up to snuff and the movie spectacular enough to attract attention. And let's face it: you can rarely capture the vibrancy of color and the magnitude of special effects through live-action entertainment, while with animated features everything looks fresh and new and things like lightning and spectral images are easily drawn in...or so I suppose. Then again, how simple can it be to produce the science fiction or action/adventure movies that appear each year? The upcoming Wing Commander can't possibly be less expensive that Dragonheart was, can it?
As I understand it, audience interest determines what movies each studio produces. So, if there is no interest in fantasy movies, then there won't be any produced. But that reeks! Are we so caught up in looking to the future that we consign fantasy movies to animation and younger viewers alone? Again, that reeks! What is it about fantasy that so repulses mature viewers? The lack of, er, physical intimacy? The lack of a basis in reality? The idea of magic playing a major role in the characters' lives? The fact that everything seems impossible or archaic? What?
When we read, we must all undergo what Samuel Taylor Coleridge called a "willing suspension of disbelief". That is, we must put aside all our preconceptions and make allowances for what we know or percieve to be impossible and accept that they--in the terms of the book, at least--are possible. If we didn't do that, we wouldn't be able to understand what we were reading. This goes for all genres of literature, not simply fantasy. Let's take, say, a book like Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. We must suspend our disbelief and allow that cloning prehistoric creatures long extinct and vanished from our world is actually possible and that the techiniques outlined by the author will allow the accomplishment of the intended goal. We must suspend our disbelief and allow that a rival corporation will pay a disgruntled employee to steal company secrets and sabotage the entire computer system. We must suspend our disbelief and allow that the drive to survive will reveal the baser facets of human nature as well as bring to the fore long suppressed or previously unknown skills and strengths. Or how about a book like John Grisham's The Client? How likely is it that every single detail that takes place in that book will take place in real life? Sure, considering the way the world is now, maybe fairly likely. Still, we must set aside, however unconsciously, our willingness to deny the possibility that there could be those out there willing to kill young children simply because they heard or saw something they shouldn't have. That is still Coleridge's maxim in play.
The same thing goes for movies, or television for that matter. How likely is it that the events in a single episode of a soap opera will actually take place in real life? It requires a particularly fortuitous set of coincidences to allow this man to sleep with that woman after happening to see his wife in a compromising position with another man, or to let this man return to that town because of a business transaction only to discover that the client he's meeting happens to be his long-lost older half-sister. Yet we accept these things readily enough. In Pretty Woman we just happen to have a prostitute enter into a long-term contract with a businessman who just happens to have a fear of heights, and he just happens to arrange for her to learn how to be a "lady" (sorry, quotation marks only because it's so hard to define the concept of "lady" overall), including arranging for a new wardrobe, lessons in etiquette, and taking her to the opera. Is the only reason we accept these favorable coincidences because they're based in real life? How very narrow-minded of us.
There's no lack of fodder for fantasy movies, and not all of them involve magic or dragons or giants. Look at Red Sonja, the movie that starred Brigitte Nielsen opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger. Special effects were minimal (at least, no lightning bolts flying across the room or bodies turning to stone and crumbling to dust), yet the storyline involved and the situations encountered plainly indicate that this was a type of fantasy movie. Okay, maybe you'll argue "action/adventure", but that's your choice. My point is that not all fantasy requires extensive special effects. Of course, special effects does increase the appeal, but it isn't wholly necessary. Look at all the books I review under the Tomes of Spellcasting heading. A lot of them might require special effects to make them into good and believable movies, but something like Emerald House Rising would require very little, as would The Darkening Flood. Most of the magic involved in these are at a minimum, and good acting can almost totally account for it all.
I admit, I rarely go to the movie theaters; I can't even remember the last movie I saw in an actual theater, probably while I was still in high school, I think. But I think that if the fantasy movie interested me enough, I would go and see it, especially if the previews looked as promising as the ones for The King and I do. But I suppose it's all wishful thinking. It isn't going to happen unless there's greater interst, and I know not everyone shares my opinions, right?
I don't know if this has prompted any deep or interesting thoughts in you, but if you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to send me an e-mail. I'm generally up for any debate and maybe--just maybe--we can start some sort of regular exchange of thoughts.
Comments? Suggestions? E-mail me with your words of wisdom. I'm up for a hearty e-mail debate if you are!
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