
My Lord of the Rings collection back in 2004. It's somewhat larger now.
I own 24 copies of the book (it’s not a trilogy, it’s one book that the publishers decided to split into three). I read it every year. My wedding ring is inscribed in Elvish. Is there any question what’s going to come in first?
But of course, the question becomes, what are the other 9? Part of that answer depends on knowing what qualifies for the answer. Field of Dreams and It’s a Wonderful Life do not, in spite of the AFI ballots. Besides, how does Field of Dreams end up on their fantasy list but not their Sports list? Also not on my list are Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins because they already went on the Kids list. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair if Wizard of Oz was at the top of every list.
Anyway, the other films that AFI considers a Fantasy that would make my list if I considered them Fantasy are Purple Rose of Cairo, Being John Malkovich, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (all Comedies), Brazil (Sci-Fi) and King Kong (Horror). And I classify pretty much every Comic Book movie under Action.
When I make a list of Fantasy films, I include films in which the primary world is Fantasy, in which things happen that don’t happen in reality, but not in a futuristic or science based setting. So no Science Fiction films on this list. However, for those of you who like Sci-Fi, check back next week for my review of the book Multireal by David Louis Edelman. It’s worth reading.
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