This marks Part 3 of our varied list of underrated fantasy films! If you're keen on exploring Part 1 and Part 2, you can find them here: Part 1: ruclips.net/video/P_GFdhHkaB0/видео.html Part 2: ruclips.net/video/xLarGiXN864/видео.html
I definitely hit the "Like & Sub" button, for a can remember too have a movie marathon with these classic.. would love too see a full CGI like Blizzard Warcraft intro remake of these movies or full animation remake ..
Did you know that the movie Zombie Strippers, is a pastiche of French absurdist play the Rhinoceros? This is also the reference of a "rhino" in the beginning of James adn the Giant Peach.
Always looked over and a little flawed Rock and Rule should be on this list. Unfortunately all the original negatives were lost in a fire. There are several versions (5 i think) that are pooled from Lazer disk and clean vhs copies. It's worth a look. It has one of the best villain intros ever.
It was a strange movie I think my mom didn’t know it was so mature and let me watch it super young really though only the flood and the murderous owl really scared me.
Yeah it was pretty dark and violent in places, like the sword ⚔️ fight at the end. I hated the bit where they shoved needles into the rat’s 🐀 bodies. 😬 But my favourite was Fire 🔥 and Ice 🧊 & Heavy Metal
There was definitely an energy and spirit so to speak, which we've lacked for so long. Good movies have still come and gone, but not the same sorts of movies. Hard for me to really place my finger on it, but perhaps you also understand what i'm trying to say?
Yeah they really were. My other favorite decade for films is the 1930s. Not as many animated films from back then, but I think the live action films from that decade were the best.
You mean "Rotoscope" animation ? Yeah it definitely was kool in the late 70s and 80s ... we got Japanese Anime or CGI nowadays .. would mind seeing these remastered .
@@joezar33 I mean animated movies that are not for kids in general(PG13 and R), though yes I would like more "Rotoscope" and 2D animation in general, etc. Also Fantasy movies in general.
@DragonKingX78 well you are missing out alot, if you are really a fan of this kind of stuff that caters to "adult" as what you said we have tons of material that is currently watchable, but if you are a purist/gatekeeper kind of guy, well don't bother, stay on whatever you are on, cheers
@BabaHuguYeah, I agree. Most of the modern good animations are shows, not movies (Arcane, Samurai Jack, Castlevania, Young Justice etc.). Even anime movies were better before - Akira, Cowboy Bebop movies, Vampire Hunter D etc.
People often think of science fiction and horror when they think of the Eighties, but there were also quite a lot of fantasy movies during that decade (Conan The Barbarian, Legend, Dragonslayer, Krull, The Never-Ending Story, The Dark Crystal, Willow). The Dark Crystal is my personal favorite.
I own most of those on bluray apart from Dragon 🐉 Slayer and Krull. Conan’s my favourite but Dark Crystal, goodness me the puppetry in that was insane! Jim Henson was a master in that department.
"The Secret of NIMH" was Don Bluth's first foray as an independent animation producer, having been passed over for the top animation job at Disney... for a Disney relative. Said relative had been pushing "The Fox & the Hound" whilst Bluth had been recommending "NIMH". "The Fox & the Hound" was made with the full might of the Disney studio. "The Secret of NIMH" was (according to legend) made in Bluth's garage. You be the judge. (😄)
The Secret of NIMH is a beautiful film. It's been one of my favorite movies since I was a kid. I'll never forget watching it for the first time and hearing Justin say "Damn!" after Mrs. Brisby gets caught trying to drug Dragon blew my young mind. Further still after seeing the sword fight between Jenner and Justin ending in his bloody death. That and seeing the Dark Crystal in the theater as a kid was quite something to say the least.
these are all favorite movies of mine, particularly Last Unicorn and Flight of Dragons! The Black Cauldron got me to read Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain which is absolutely amazing. I hated how much Disney sort of buried it for years. When I went to Disney World in the 90s, the ONLY remnants I could find were a couple animation cels for sale (of course I couldn't afford those!)
Don Bluth is my second cousin once removed, but the connection between Helaman's children was only via half-siblings, so.... maybe not so close, lol. But growing up watching his movies was still just as magical. :)
Thanks for this collection. it contains two movies I missed out on but will definitly check out!! I would additionally mention "Les Maîtres du Temps", a french sci-fi-animation of the 80s. Absolutely stunning.
I feel like I'm in an alternate universe with most of these movies right now. I was so in love with movies like 'The Never-Ending Story" / "Willow" / "Dark Crystal" / etc., that I'm completely blown away that in my nearly 40yrs on this planet I've never not once heard of most of these movies. My Mandela Effect alarm has steam blowing out the sides of it right now.
I've come to notice that the pattern of movie watching is related to the ideology of the parents/guardians and even their political views. I've seen almost all these movies and my parents were kinda hippy college professors. Some of my conservative friends never heard of most of these. Just a theory.
Lucky you - you get to watch some epic titles for the first time. I envy you! FYI, try not to get your hopes up as some of these will inevitably not be your cup of tea and there's NOTHING worse than going into a move with high hopes and being let down. Some of these aren't great, so keep your expectations low and you may end up loving a couple of them!
Same here - I'm in my 50s and loved fantasy movies my whole life, and grew up with parents who were fans of horror and science fiction movies and passed that love down to me, so it seems like it should be natural that I'd have seen many of these dark fantasy movies from my childhood - yet somehow, I've only seen 'The Secret of NIMH' and 'Heavy Metal', and know 'The Last Unicorn' and ''The Black Cauldron' and 'The Adventures of Mark Twain' by reputation, but have barely heard of most of the others! There are a handful of '80s animated fantasy films I am somewhat familiar with that could perhaps be added to the list - 'The Dark Crystal', Bakshi's 'Wizards', the Rankin and Bass and Bakshi Tolkien films, 'Puff the Magic Dragon' (1978), 'Fritz the Cat', 'Dot and the Kangaroo', and 'The Princess and the Goblin' are some nice choices, depending on how much you stretch the definition of "animated", "1980s", or "dark fantasy", and I don't doubt that Japan and other countries have a few animes and the like stashed away that would fit this list brilliantly, but what I appreciate about this list as-is, is that most of the movies are obscure enough that I've really never seen them before, and in most cases haven't even heard of them! An aside about 'The Black Cauldron' and 'Secret of NIMH' from someone who remembers that era: Disney at the time was struggling to reinvent itself from a reputation for relatively "safe" kiddie fantasy fare at the time, and ran into what must have seemed like unexpected trouble with many of the movies it released in the late '70s and eaarly '80s by trying to attract older, more sophisticated audiences with darker fantasy and science fiction fare that somehow failed to find its audience at the time! A lot of great stuff like 'The Black Cauldron', 'The Secret of NIMH', 'The Black Hole', and so on kinda flew under the public's radar by being "too dark" for kiddies, and "too Disney" for adults, with critics kind of warning parents away from this stuff. Movies like 'Return to Oz' fell into similar territory! - being "too scary" for kids, but "too fantasy" to find a foothold in adult audiences at a time when science fiction and fantasy had somehow been relegated to a "kiddie entertainment ghetto"! Of all things, it was probably the success of the infamous sci-fi/horror movie 'Alien' combined with the respectable success of '2001: A Space Odyssey' and the popularity of the Christopher Reeve Superman movie from 1978, and the success of 'Star Wars' and 'Conan the Barbarian', that kind of helped thaw out the wall between fantasy/sci-fi/comic book entertainment, and adult audiences back in the late '70s and early '80s ('Alien' was definitely NOT a "kiddie movie", but bizarrely they tried to sell toys and merchandise for it as if it were 'Star Wars', while confused parents looked on in horror! I'm not sure how surreal the TV commercials for 'Alien' toys would be to modern audiences, but they were pretty weird back then!) Still, in spite of fantasy being dragged into the mainstream against the kicking and screaming of whoever decided it should be "kid's stuff", a lot of dark fantasy from the late '70s and early '80s just sort of seems to exist in a weird twilight zone of obscurity after being ignored in its day, and apparently never quite finding anything more than cult audiences in the years since! Anyway, I say it's a fine "top 10" style list of cult dark fantasy movies from the '80s when I'm not at all familiar with 8 out of 10 of the movies!
I find things like this are usually rubbish; but! This is why I keep looking on youtube, it is a little gem, talks about movies and an in-depth psychology and perspective of them, well done and kudos!
I didn't look ahead, and was so happy to see the films that shaped my childhood the most listed as your top 3 (Hobbit way up there too, but I think that was done in the late 70's).
StarChaser is one of my all time favorite animated films. I actually went to the theater to see it as a kid. This cartoon will always have a very dear space in my childhood memories
Really neat compilation. Ty! The Prydain Chronicles are wonderful. I remember being exceptionally disappointed in the Black Cauldron movie, which is actually a mash up of The Book of Three, and the namesake. They Disney-fied it. Read the books, they are vastly better, and great for young readers.
For over 30 years I have been looking for this movie. The flight of dragons. It was in Canada where I got to watch a smidge of it about 20 minuetes. Thanks for posting this.
The 80s was the best for fantasy in all its form. Your narration is wonderful :) I downloaded a copy of The Pied Piper. Excellent. So many I haven't seen or have fragments of memories. Very cool.
@@oldsaddad7274 They move naturally like people actually move because they're drawn over actual people, but I don't find it overly fluid in many cases (unless you compare it to low budget anime) because few films have a high enough frame rate.
I have really old memories of watching The Flight of Dragons and was once searching the internet like mad trying to find out what it was. Glad this video showed up in my feed and certainly glad that you made this video. Several years ago, I was feeling a little settled on it probably being Fire and Ice since it was the closest thing I could find.
I would add "Les Maîtres du temps" - Time masters from 1982. French-Hungarian production with the involvement of Moebius. The animation doesn't really stand the test of time, but the worldbuilding and story is awesome.
I would personally replace the Black Cauldron with Twice Upon a Time (1983) or Rock & Rule (1983) but a good list. It really is heartening to see someone else that shares the same love of this era of animation. The 70s and 80's were a ball of creativity for animation with the House of Rodent on it's knees.....if only they didn't recover.
Maybe because it has not the typical musical Part as most of the Disney Films, i personal love the Darker Fantasy Art of the Black Cauldron and The Last Unicorn from this Time.
As a huge fan of the books, I hate on the movie for how toned-down Disney made it. The difference between the books and the movie is like the difference between *_Conan the Barbarian_* and *_Conan the Destroyer._* Disney turned an R rated YA fantasy into PG rated trash.
Speaking as someone who would have been a kid just old enough to notice this sort of thing at the time, Disney and Disney-adjacent studios suffered something of an identity crisis in the late '70s and early '80s. I'm not 100% sure of what was going on to cause it to begin with - the "kid-friendly" thing was maybe getting a little stale and confining, and they wanted to stretch their wings and try to attract a sophisticated new audience. I'll also point to movies like 'Alien' (1979), 'The Thing' (1984), 'Superman' (1977), 'Star Wars' (1979), '2001: A Space Odyssey', and 'Conan the Barbarian' 1982 as movies that were successfully attracting adult audiences to sci-fi and fantasy movies at a time when sci-fi and fantasy were still being regarded by older critics as embarrassments best left for the kiddies. Whatever the case, the gist of what was going on was that fantasy movies of the era that didn't fit squarely into a kid-friendly fantasy mold were suddenly a thing that Disney and other studios were wanting to do, while more traditional critics and parents didn't quite know what to make of it, and generally dismissed dark fantasy as being "inappropriate for children", but "beneath adults". So, stuff like 'The Black Cauldron', 'The Secret of NIMH', 'The Dark Crystal', 'Return to Oz', 'The Black Hole', and so on were kind of treated at the time like the black sheep of "proper kiddie entertainment unfit for adults", and sort of shunned in their day. A few of these sorts of movies picked up cult audiences later on, others just sort of seem to have flown under the radar ever since. To put the mood of pre-Stranger Danger America into context, think of a stereotypical movie about kids in the 1980s, and you'll probably think of a group of unsupervised kids on bikes riding around neighborhoods seemingly without parents to keep an eye on them: 'E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial', 'Gremlins', 'The Gate', 'Stranger Things', 'Stand By Me', and so on. That's kind of the way things really were at the time: kids were kind of left to their own devices while both parents worked late. Parents would leave the kids to watch TV alone all Saturday morning as a sort of electric babysitter, under the assumption that cartoons and other kids' programming was mostly kid-friendly and safe, and in the early days of cable and VHS and so on kids might be assumed to be sitting down with family-friendly Disney movies for a nice, safe, wholesome time without parental supervision. It's these dark fantasy and sci-fi movies that kind of shocked and confused parents working on those assumptions that whatever the kids were doing when asked "it's 8:00, do you know where your kids are?", they were probably safely in the wholesome hands of Disney and a little Schoolhouse Rock! "What do you mean, I left my babies to watch Disney's 'The Black Cauldron', and it gave them nightmares??? Not In My Back Yard! Baby on board! Think of the children! I need to see your manager!" I'm sure that snobbery about differences made in adaptation from the source material and that sort of thing played into things later on, but I think that mostly the reaction of critics and parents back in the '70s and '80s helped make a huge difference in the reception of fantasy films at the time, along with the likelihood that the movies would have traveled well to cable TV and video rentals to find a new life with those audiences, and then survived as part of "Mainstream '80s Nostalgia" into the modern era - that is, there would be a big difference in the fondness that modern audiences will remember 'E.T.' with vs. 'The Black Hole', in spite of both being fine sci-fi movies, with 'The Black Hole' being somewhat darker in tone, and struggling in its day to get recommendations as a family or kid-friendly film. 'The Black Cauldron' falls into a similar pattern as a darker Disney movie compared to more standard Disney Princess fair! I remember it by reputation as something that parents kind of stayed away from to avoid scaring the kiddies, and I really don't remember seeing it reappearing afterward in the Cable and VHS eras, either - it just sort of flew under my radar my entire life, and I have a feeling that's the case for most of the "haters" who forgot all aboutit, or don't have particularly fond memories of it, or who hesitate to recommend it alongside more obvious and safe fare.
I think you need to do another list for 80's animation from over seas.Akira is one that jumps to mind, along with Fist of the North Star and Wicked City.
With anime streaming widely available, the type of anime film industry that was popular in the 80s and 90s seems to have become incredibly scarce and it makes me sad, because before the advent of the internet and streaming in general, this is what we looked for. Casshan: Robot Hunter, Green Legend Ran, Princess Mononoke were some of the classics...
@@keithtorgersen9664 You are the first person I have ever seen reference Green Legend Ran. I have completely by accident on a VHS tape with some MST3K episodes. A friend of mine grabbed 'em off of satellite way back when, and just kept recording the station. Such a cool movie.
„Valhalla“ or „Walhalla“ is an another good animated Fantasy Movie from Danmark from the 80‘s! With the Legendary Christopher Lee as the Voice Character of Thor in this animated Movie. Also Ralph Bakshi‘s LotR animated Movie Even if it came shortly before the 80s, so at the end of the 70s, it is already one of them for me. And the Hobbit animated Movie also from the 80‘s. The 80‘s have in all category‘s THE BEST: The Best animated Fantasy movies, the best real Fantasy Movies, the Best Action Movies, The Best Horror Movies, Best Sci-Fi and so on and on… and of course the Best Music.
I wasn't familiar with 'Valhalla' - great find to add to a "top ten" list that already includes about 8 movies I've never seen! In trying to think of some movies to add to the list, the Bakshi and Rankin & Bass Tolkien movies (from 1977 and 1978) were definitely some of the first ones I thought of. Some others that I could think of, which perhaps stretch the definition of "80s", "dark fantasy", and "animated" a bit, but mostly fit into the bracket closely enough that they'll still be enjoyable by the same audiences: - 'The Princess and the Goblin' (1991) - a beautiful little animated fantasy movie that hovers just a bit on the kid-friendly side of "dark", and released a year or two too late to be properly considered a product of the '80s, but I think will still appeal to older audiences who enjoy movies from that era. - Bakshi's 'Wizards' (1977) - made a couple years too early to be fairly called a product of the '80s, but fans of 'Heavy Metal' and 'Fire and Ice' and most of the other movies on this list will surely enjoy this one, too! - 'Fritz the Cat' (1972) - this one definitely falls a bit too early for the '80s proper, and as a '60s counter-culture allegory with talking animals might stretch a definition of "dark urban fantasy" pretty far, and it's definitely not for kids (I believe it was rated x at the time!), but it doesn't get much darker than 'Fritz the Cat', and I think it's another animated movie that will appeal to fans of Bakshi's '80s fantasy work. - 'Puff the Magic Dragon' (1978) - another "almost the '80s" animated fantasy - I haven't seen it since I was a kid, and remember it being at least mostly kid-friendly, but I do remember it getting a bit dark at times, with a melancholic, nostalgic, and/or bittersweet quality to it... I also get the vague impression that it ran on thinly-veiled drug references for the amusement of hippie parents, but don't remember enough to confirm that suspicion! - 'Dot and the Kangaroo' (1977) - "almost the '80s" again, and a little more contemporary than the sword-and-sorcery and sci-fi movies that would usually make this sort of list, but it was animated, there were talking animals, and I think most of us who saw it as a kid in the '80s will never forget that spooky song about the Bunyip! - 'The Dark Crystal' (1982) - the "animation" here takes the form of puppetry, but when looking at '80s dark fantasy, 'The Dark Crystal' is probably the best entry-level movie to start with! - 'Return to Oz' (1985) - there are some live-action characters here, and anything else, though not flesh-and-blood actors and actresses, is puppetry and maybe stretches the definition of "animated" a bit, but 'Return to Oz' earned a reputation for terrifying young audiences in the '80s with some fairly dark content and damned uncanny-looking characters! ...and I'm sure some anime experts can suggest some reasonably dark animated films from Japan and elsewhere from the late '70s to the early '90s. I've never seen it and I'm not sure how dark it was, but there was an animated Narnia movie from the '70s that I didn't know existed! I think there might have been an obscure animated LotR movie made in Russia in the '70s or '80s, in fact I know the Russians/Soviets made a number of animated fantasy and sci-fi films in the '780s and '80s! ...and so on: I'm guessing there's a treasure trove of animated films out there in languages other than English that might surprise a lot of us! And then there would be all the animated movies based on fairy tales, many of which could get pretty dark - the '70s and '80s would have been a golden age for that sort of thing around the world.... Hmm... maybe that's enough material to start a list of obscure '70s animated fantasy movies?
Little Nemo was a favorite movie of mine growing up as a child in the 90s. Whenever i bring it up, no one knows what im talking about. It's upsetting. It came out the year i was born. I still watch it now and then. I'll never stop loving it.
If violence is your thing, watch Heavy Metal. If story and excellent animation is something you seek.... The Black Cauldron and The Secret of NIHM are two to behold!
Just to break the almost entirely English language list I recommend seeking out “the Son of the White Mare” from Hungary, anything by Jan Svankmeier (notably his disturbing stop motion Alice in Wonderland), and the snow queen from the USSR. I cheated and asked for some ideas from chatGPT and here’s what it added: Here is a list of non-English fantasy animations from the 1970s and 1980s, including "Son of the White Mare": 1. **Son of the White Mare** (Fehérlófia) - Hungary, 1981 2. **The King and the Mockingbird** (Le Roi et l'oiseau) - France, 1980 3. **The Mystery of the Third Planet** (Тайна третьей планеты) - Soviet Union, 1981 4. **Tales of the Street Corner** (Aru Machi Kado no Monogatari) - Japan, 1962 (though not in the 70s or 80s, it's a notable precursor) 5. **The Adventures of Sinbad** (Приключения Синдбада) - Soviet Union, 1975 6. **Puss in Boots** (長靴をはいた猫) - Japan, 1969 7. **The Little Mermaid** (Русалочка) - Soviet Union, 1968 8. **The Magic Pony** (Конёк-Горбунок) - Soviet Union, 1975 9. **The Cat Who Walked by Herself** (Кошка, которая гуляла сама по себе) - Soviet Union, 1988 10. **Jack and the Witch** (少年ジャックと魔法使い) - Japan, 1967 (another notable precursor) These films represent a range of fantasy storytelling traditions from different cultures during the 1970s and 1980s. Certainly! Here are some additional non-English fantasy animations from the 1970s and 1980s from South America, India, and Western Europe: ### South America 1. **Piconzé** - Brazil, 1973 - A Brazilian animated film about a young boy who embarks on a fantastical adventure. ### India 1. **Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama** - India/Japan, 1992 (slightly beyond the 80s but noteworthy) - A collaboration between Indian and Japanese animators, this film is a retelling of the Indian epic Ramayana. ### Western Europe 1. **Time Masters** (Les Maîtres du temps) - France, 1982 - Directed by René Laloux, this sci-fi fantasy film involves a young boy stranded on a distant planet and the efforts to rescue him. 2. **The Secret of NIMH** (though primarily American, has significant European animation involvement) - 1982 - Directed by Don Bluth, with contributions from European animators, this film tells the story of a field mouse who must move her family to safety, aided by a secret society of super-intelligent rats. 3. **The Ballad of the Wind and the Trees** (La Chanson de l'Arbre de l'Air) - France, 1981 - A French animated short film with a fantasy theme. 4. **The Wild Swans** (De vilde svaner) - Denmark, 1987 - A Danish animated film based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale about a princess saving her brothers from a curse. These films provide a richer look at the fantasy animation landscape from these regions during the specified decades.
Just watched Scavenger's Reign. It's sci-fi but not obnoxiously so. Truly reminded me of this era with its world-building, breath and pacing, attention to detail. Highly recommend for fans of animation.
This video appeared in my timeline and caught my eye, you're doing great considering how young the channel is! I can definitely see it blowing up! Good luck👍🏻
The Black Cauldron is definitely one of the most underrated Disney films. It's absolutely terrifying and yet totally enthralling. Could be seen as mature and dark at times, but that's what makes it so special
My kids adored Little Nemo so much, we must have watched it 50 times. Thank you for this, there were a couple I didn't know about and I've never seen The Black Caldron, I'll have to find it. I know this is 4 months on so for the algorithm? I really enjoyed this.
Fire and Ice was really good. Teegra was fine as h-. AHHH, Black Cauldron scared the heck out of me as a kid. But I loved it. Starchaser was really good. Heavy Metal was good for all the wrong reasons. I loved the Mark Twain claymation movie. Flight of Dragons is one of me favorites. Last Unicorn was great. But I always fast forward though the unnecessary and totally awful musical number from Mia Farrow and Jeff Bridges. Other than that, the musical score is really good. Yes, NIMH! I love this flick. Dom DeLuise made the film.
Fun fact, fire and ice was one of the major influences to the modern world of Warcraft, Draxxar, the lich king, the locals, there is a lot that vanilla wow pays homage to in fire and ice
Fantastic list, I have a few more movies to watch! Also, what musics did you use under your narration? They are magical to listen to, altough your voice adds a lot!
This is a false dichotomy. When has money never been a consideration in any human enterprise? Ask any starving artist if they would shun an opportunity to make money from their work. It’s never been an either-or issue. It’s both. You can have artistic vision but you can’t continue to produce art if you don’t make money either. They’re not mutually exclusive goals.
The budgets were smaller so the risk is lower. Nowadays it’s so expensive to create a movie that Hollywood refuses to do anything that might alienate the mainstream.
Thank you! Thank You! Thank you! I have spent almost 40 years trying to remeber the name of Starchaser: The Legend of Orin. I have very fond memories of seeing this in theaters with my dad and wearing those terrible 3D glasses. I always thought that the end of Space Mountain where you walk out, looked similar to some of the scenes in this film. Or at least Spacemountain circa 1980s. Just found a copy on RUclips and will be watching it later.
Fire and ice is awesome fantasy I was quite impressed when I saw it with frank frazetta involved how can u go wrong? A story of good verse evil and dark magic 😮
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
This marks Part 3 of our varied list of underrated fantasy films! If you're keen on exploring Part 1 and Part 2, you can find them here:
Part 1:
ruclips.net/video/P_GFdhHkaB0/видео.html
Part 2:
ruclips.net/video/xLarGiXN864/видео.html
I definitely hit the "Like & Sub" button, for a can remember too have a movie marathon with these classic.. would love too see a full CGI like Blizzard Warcraft intro remake of these movies or full animation remake ..
Did you know that the movie Zombie Strippers, is a pastiche of French absurdist play the Rhinoceros? This is also the reference of a "rhino" in the beginning of James adn the Giant Peach.
Always looked over and a little flawed Rock and Rule should be on this list. Unfortunately all the original negatives were lost in a fire. There are several versions (5 i think) that are pooled from Lazer disk and clean vhs copies. It's worth a look. It has one of the best villain intros ever.
May I ask what the background music is, especially used in the Last Unicorn clip?
The music is "Rivellon (Light Version)" and "Videte Gigantem".
The Secret of NIMH was my favorite animated film when i was a kid, and still is 43yrs later
It was a strange movie I think my mom didn’t know it was so mature and let me watch it super young really though only the flood and the murderous owl really scared me.
I love it. Hands down one of my favorite animated films.
Yeah it was pretty dark and violent in places, like the sword ⚔️ fight at the end. I hated the bit where they shoved needles into the rat’s 🐀 bodies. 😬 But my favourite was Fire 🔥 and Ice 🧊 & Heavy Metal
Nimh and Watership Down were on the same VHS tape in my house, and I watched that tape hundreds of times as a kid.
The sequal was horrible, I had bought it, major disappointment..
"Fire and Ice" was and still is one of my favorites this genre. Definitely worth the watch if you've never seen.
There's a team that's trying to enhance it w/ A.I. to make it look more 3D and detailed.
Yes that and Heavy Metal are my favourites
Plus Pat Benatar sings the theme song on the soundtrack.
I remember watching this.
I have Fire and ice on DVD. Before DVD's I had it on video. Always loved this movie.
The Last Unicorn is such a masterpiece! And Christopher Lee even dubbed himself for the german version because he was able to speak german. :)
Crazy I never knew he was Haggard but yeah of course it fits.
Lee was a polyglot - I think he spoke about 7 languages fluently & no matter how old - stunning
The Last Unicorn summed up - "I ain't crying! I'm peeling onions!"
Completely agree. It is my favorite animated film of all time. I have the book and the graphic novel as well.
I'm from Indonesia, I watched it on our local tv station back in 1990. Still my favorite.
The 80s truly were a magical age for cinema!
I'd rather have GOOD movies, with less impressive effects than BAD movies with GREAT effects. We did know they were "bad" effects back then, anyway!
There was definitely an energy and spirit so to speak, which we've lacked for so long. Good movies have still come and gone, but not the same sorts of movies. Hard for me to really place my finger on it, but perhaps you also understand what i'm trying to say?
Copious amounts of cocaine i assume?
Yeah they really were. My other favorite decade for films is the 1930s. Not as many animated films from back then, but I think the live action films from that decade were the best.
@@titanomachy22171940 is heir to the goat animated movie
I miss the days when we got animated movies like these.
You mean "Rotoscope" animation ? Yeah it definitely was kool in the late 70s and 80s ... we got Japanese Anime or CGI nowadays .. would mind seeing these remastered .
@@joezar33 I mean animated movies that are not for kids in general(PG13 and R), though yes I would like more "Rotoscope" and 2D animation in general, etc. Also Fantasy movies in general.
You should watch In the spine of night. Has a lot of 80’s influences
@DragonKingX78 well you are missing out alot, if you are really a fan of this kind of stuff that caters to "adult" as what you said we have tons of material that is currently watchable, but if you are a purist/gatekeeper kind of guy, well don't bother, stay on whatever you are on, cheers
@BabaHuguYeah, I agree. Most of the modern good animations are shows, not movies (Arcane, Samurai Jack, Castlevania, Young Justice etc.). Even anime movies were better before - Akira, Cowboy Bebop movies, Vampire Hunter D etc.
That rotoscoped fight scene in fire and ice with Darkwolf was awesome
"Who are you?"
"... An angel."
"What's your name?"
"Satan."
"Uh oh."
Most understated reaction to confronting Satan of all time.
That was so funny, I couldn't stop laughing at that
@@bradleylovej I also laughted a lot from that
People often think of science fiction and horror when they think of the Eighties, but there were also quite a lot of fantasy movies during that decade (Conan The Barbarian, Legend, Dragonslayer, Krull, The Never-Ending Story, The Dark Crystal, Willow). The Dark Crystal is my personal favorite.
The 80's were definitely the best time for SIFI, Horror, and Fantasy.
I own most of those on bluray apart from Dragon 🐉 Slayer and Krull. Conan’s my favourite but Dark Crystal, goodness me the puppetry in that was insane! Jim Henson was a master in that department.
not really fantasy but belong in this list are Excalibur and Time Bandits
@@brianjackson9801 Excalibur is definitely fantasy. There's also Red Sonja, The Return to Oz, Princess Bride, and Labyrinth.
Willow is still my fave of course I have all mentioned on dvd and more haha
"The Secret of NIMH" was Don Bluth's first foray as an independent animation producer, having been passed over for the top animation job at Disney... for a Disney relative. Said relative had been pushing "The Fox & the Hound" whilst Bluth had been recommending "NIMH".
"The Fox & the Hound" was made with the full might of the Disney studio.
"The Secret of NIMH" was (according to legend) made in Bluth's garage.
You be the judge. (😄)
Sad that Don Bluth didn't get the money too make a full "Dragon's Lair" movie
Really - but, but I put so much money into that game!! 😧
(😄)
The Secret of NIMH is a beautiful film. It's been one of my favorite movies since I was a kid. I'll never forget watching it for the first time and hearing Justin say "Damn!" after Mrs. Brisby gets caught trying to drug Dragon blew my young mind. Further still after seeing the sword fight between Jenner and Justin ending in his bloody death. That and seeing the Dark Crystal in the theater as a kid was quite something to say the least.
Bluth produced the better product.
NIMH looks absolutely gorgeous. The quality of the animation is unsurpassed, imho. Clearly a labour of love.
What a great and comforting video to end my evening on. Well done.
these are all favorite movies of mine, particularly Last Unicorn and Flight of Dragons! The Black Cauldron got me to read Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain which is absolutely amazing. I hated how much Disney sort of buried it for years. When I went to Disney World in the 90s, the ONLY remnants I could find were a couple animation cels for sale (of course I couldn't afford those!)
Don Bluth is my grandfathers cousin, growing up with his art and movies is something I hold dear.
@@NotAGreatGamer1981 Mohammad Ali was my mothers sisters brothers cousin on my Dads side once removed.
Don Bluth is my second cousin once removed, but the connection between Helaman's children was only via half-siblings, so.... maybe not so close, lol.
But growing up watching his movies was still just as magical. :)
So... He is your granduncle of some sort...
@@jabrondestoroyah Well, _descended_ from a grand uncle anyway.
This is the BEST Dark fantasy list i'd ever seen
What a great list and a nice blast from the past. Rainbow Brite would have been a nice addition to the list as well. Such a great time period.
*Wizards* *[1977]* is by far one of the GOATs of animated movies.
Thanks for this collection. it contains two movies I missed out on but will definitly check out!! I would additionally mention "Les Maîtres du Temps", a french sci-fi-animation of the 80s. Absolutely stunning.
I feel like I'm in an alternate universe with most of these movies right now. I was so in love with movies like 'The Never-Ending Story" / "Willow" / "Dark Crystal" / etc., that I'm completely blown away that in my nearly 40yrs on this planet I've never not once heard of most of these movies. My Mandela Effect alarm has steam blowing out the sides of it right now.
Don't miss the Dark Crystal TV series. They did a brilliant job.
I've come to notice that the pattern of movie watching is related to the ideology of the parents/guardians and even their political views. I've seen almost all these movies and my parents were kinda hippy college professors. Some of my conservative friends never heard of most of these. Just a theory.
Lucky you - you get to watch some epic titles for the first time. I envy you! FYI, try not to get your hopes up as some of these will inevitably not be your cup of tea and there's NOTHING worse than going into a move with high hopes and being let down. Some of these aren't great, so keep your expectations low and you may end up loving a couple of them!
Same here - I'm in my 50s and loved fantasy movies my whole life, and grew up with parents who were fans of horror and science fiction movies and passed that love down to me, so it seems like it should be natural that I'd have seen many of these dark fantasy movies from my childhood - yet somehow, I've only seen 'The Secret of NIMH' and 'Heavy Metal', and know 'The Last Unicorn' and ''The Black Cauldron' and 'The Adventures of Mark Twain' by reputation, but have barely heard of most of the others!
There are a handful of '80s animated fantasy films I am somewhat familiar with that could perhaps be added to the list - 'The Dark Crystal', Bakshi's 'Wizards', the Rankin and Bass and Bakshi Tolkien films, 'Puff the Magic Dragon' (1978), 'Fritz the Cat', 'Dot and the Kangaroo', and 'The Princess and the Goblin' are some nice choices, depending on how much you stretch the definition of "animated", "1980s", or "dark fantasy", and I don't doubt that Japan and other countries have a few animes and the like stashed away that would fit this list brilliantly, but what I appreciate about this list as-is, is that most of the movies are obscure enough that I've really never seen them before, and in most cases haven't even heard of them!
An aside about 'The Black Cauldron' and 'Secret of NIMH' from someone who remembers that era: Disney at the time was struggling to reinvent itself from a reputation for relatively "safe" kiddie fantasy fare at the time, and ran into what must have seemed like unexpected trouble with many of the movies it released in the late '70s and eaarly '80s by trying to attract older, more sophisticated audiences with darker fantasy and science fiction fare that somehow failed to find its audience at the time! A lot of great stuff like 'The Black Cauldron', 'The Secret of NIMH', 'The Black Hole', and so on kinda flew under the public's radar by being "too dark" for kiddies, and "too Disney" for adults, with critics kind of warning parents away from this stuff. Movies like 'Return to Oz' fell into similar territory! - being "too scary" for kids, but "too fantasy" to find a foothold in adult audiences at a time when science fiction and fantasy had somehow been relegated to a "kiddie entertainment ghetto"! Of all things, it was probably the success of the infamous sci-fi/horror movie 'Alien' combined with the respectable success of '2001: A Space Odyssey' and the popularity of the Christopher Reeve Superman movie from 1978, and the success of 'Star Wars' and 'Conan the Barbarian', that kind of helped thaw out the wall between fantasy/sci-fi/comic book entertainment, and adult audiences back in the late '70s and early '80s ('Alien' was definitely NOT a "kiddie movie", but bizarrely they tried to sell toys and merchandise for it as if it were 'Star Wars', while confused parents looked on in horror! I'm not sure how surreal the TV commercials for 'Alien' toys would be to modern audiences, but they were pretty weird back then!) Still, in spite of fantasy being dragged into the mainstream against the kicking and screaming of whoever decided it should be "kid's stuff", a lot of dark fantasy from the late '70s and early '80s just sort of seems to exist in a weird twilight zone of obscurity after being ignored in its day, and apparently never quite finding anything more than cult audiences in the years since!
Anyway, I say it's a fine "top 10" style list of cult dark fantasy movies from the '80s when I'm not at all familiar with 8 out of 10 of the movies!
Have you seen *Wizards [1977]* ?
I find things like this are usually rubbish; but! This is why I keep looking on youtube, it is a little gem, talks about movies and an in-depth psychology and perspective of them, well done and kudos!
What a great list! Thank you Sir!
Flight of Dragons is criminally underrated. 🐉
Agreed
Is that the one where everything happens because of ANTIQUITY
So much so I didnt even know it existed, despite being a major fantasy buff in that decade.
@@flyingsodwai1382 plz watch it. Come back & tell me what you thought.
@@flyingsodwai1382 plz watch it & come back & let me know what you thought.
fire and ice,heavy metal and black cauldron 🔥🔥🔥🔥❤
💯
Half ht films on this list are my all-time favorite films. I have them on DVD! What a wonderful time to have been a child in the 80s!
dope list, last unicorn is fantastic. still love it
I didn't look ahead, and was so happy to see the films that shaped my childhood the most listed as your top 3 (Hobbit way up there too, but I think that was done in the late 70's).
StarChaser is one of my all time favorite animated films. I actually went to the theater to see it as a kid. This cartoon will always have a very dear space in my childhood memories
Really neat compilation. Ty! The Prydain Chronicles are wonderful. I remember being exceptionally disappointed in the Black Cauldron movie, which is actually a mash up of The Book of Three, and the namesake. They Disney-fied it. Read the books, they are vastly better, and great for young readers.
Including Flight of Dragons lends an amazing amount of credibility to you and your lists. Well done.
I love the 80s and dark fantasy, those were the best times where best shows were made. Thanks for sharing !❤✨🙏
Underrated Cinema, I loved this video so much, I had to hit the like button!
Amazing compilation, thanks! Excellent narration to this video.
Little Nemo Adventures in Slumberland is amazing, I’m so happy it made this list
Этот мультик детский а в топе мульты которые не с рейтингом пиджи 13.
For over 30 years I have been looking for this movie. The flight of dragons. It was in Canada where I got to watch a smidge of it about 20 minuetes. Thanks for posting this.
Absolutely excellent and respectful reviews of some ( nearly) forgotten gems . Thank you . Subscribed
The 80s was the best for fantasy in all its form. Your narration is wonderful :) I downloaded a copy of The Pied Piper. Excellent. So many I haven't seen or have fragments of memories. Very cool.
these older animations always looks great because they moved fluently and natural
Man I don't know how natural rotoscoping really looks
@@oldsaddad7274 They move naturally like people actually move because they're drawn over actual people, but I don't find it overly fluid in many cases (unless you compare it to low budget anime) because few films have a high enough frame rate.
It's called rotoscoping bro
He even explains it in the video.
Isnt that wild?!!
@@j_shelby_damnwirdAFAIK Rotoscoping was mainly used by Ralph Bakshi in films such as Fire and Ice, and Lord of the Rings.
I have really old memories of watching The Flight of Dragons and was once searching the internet like mad trying to find out what it was. Glad this video showed up in my feed and certainly glad that you made this video. Several years ago, I was feeling a little settled on it probably being Fire and Ice since it was the closest thing I could find.
I would add "Les Maîtres du temps" - Time masters from 1982. French-Hungarian production with the involvement of Moebius. The animation doesn't really stand the test of time, but the worldbuilding and story is awesome.
Thank you for heighligjting this amazing classic film - I’ve loved it since I saw it about 35 years ago.
Director Pierre Laloux also produced the amazing Fantastic Planet and Gandahar which are both fascinating and otherworldly.
Everytime I stumble in such obscure channels, i feel at home. Thank you.
The list is amazing and your narration is wonderful 🗡️
Its an Elevenlabs A.I voice
This took me back to my childhood. So much more creativity and pushing the envelope back then.
I would personally replace the Black Cauldron with Twice Upon a Time (1983) or Rock & Rule (1983) but a good list. It really is heartening to see someone else that shares the same love of this era of animation. The 70s and 80's were a ball of creativity for animation with the House of Rodent on it's knees.....if only they didn't recover.
I really don't know why so many people hate on Black Cauldron. It was very different from the books, but it was still a great animated movie.
Maybe because it has not the typical musical Part as most of the Disney Films, i personal love the Darker Fantasy Art of the Black Cauldron and The Last Unicorn from this Time.
Always loved it even as a kid
I was a kid and I LOVED Black Cauldron as a kid. Black Cauldron and Sword in the Stone were top 5 for me
As a huge fan of the books, I hate on the movie for how toned-down Disney made it. The difference between the books and the movie is like the difference between *_Conan the Barbarian_* and *_Conan the Destroyer._* Disney turned an R rated YA fantasy into PG rated trash.
Speaking as someone who would have been a kid just old enough to notice this sort of thing at the time, Disney and Disney-adjacent studios suffered something of an identity crisis in the late '70s and early '80s.
I'm not 100% sure of what was going on to cause it to begin with - the "kid-friendly" thing was maybe getting a little stale and confining, and they wanted to stretch their wings and try to attract a sophisticated new audience. I'll also point to movies like 'Alien' (1979), 'The Thing' (1984), 'Superman' (1977), 'Star Wars' (1979), '2001: A Space Odyssey', and 'Conan the Barbarian' 1982 as movies that were successfully attracting adult audiences to sci-fi and fantasy movies at a time when sci-fi and fantasy were still being regarded by older critics as embarrassments best left for the kiddies.
Whatever the case, the gist of what was going on was that fantasy movies of the era that didn't fit squarely into a kid-friendly fantasy mold were suddenly a thing that Disney and other studios were wanting to do, while more traditional critics and parents didn't quite know what to make of it, and generally dismissed dark fantasy as being "inappropriate for children", but "beneath adults".
So, stuff like 'The Black Cauldron', 'The Secret of NIMH', 'The Dark Crystal', 'Return to Oz', 'The Black Hole', and so on were kind of treated at the time like the black sheep of "proper kiddie entertainment unfit for adults", and sort of shunned in their day. A few of these sorts of movies picked up cult audiences later on, others just sort of seem to have flown under the radar ever since.
To put the mood of pre-Stranger Danger America into context, think of a stereotypical movie about kids in the 1980s, and you'll probably think of a group of unsupervised kids on bikes riding around neighborhoods seemingly without parents to keep an eye on them: 'E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial', 'Gremlins', 'The Gate', 'Stranger Things', 'Stand By Me', and so on. That's kind of the way things really were at the time: kids were kind of left to their own devices while both parents worked late. Parents would leave the kids to watch TV alone all Saturday morning as a sort of electric babysitter, under the assumption that cartoons and other kids' programming was mostly kid-friendly and safe, and in the early days of cable and VHS and so on kids might be assumed to be sitting down with family-friendly Disney movies for a nice, safe, wholesome time without parental supervision.
It's these dark fantasy and sci-fi movies that kind of shocked and confused parents working on those assumptions that whatever the kids were doing when asked "it's 8:00, do you know where your kids are?", they were probably safely in the wholesome hands of Disney and a little Schoolhouse Rock! "What do you mean, I left my babies to watch Disney's 'The Black Cauldron', and it gave them nightmares??? Not In My Back Yard! Baby on board! Think of the children! I need to see your manager!"
I'm sure that snobbery about differences made in adaptation from the source material and that sort of thing played into things later on, but I think that mostly the reaction of critics and parents back in the '70s and '80s helped make a huge difference in the reception of fantasy films at the time, along with the likelihood that the movies would have traveled well to cable TV and video rentals to find a new life with those audiences, and then survived as part of "Mainstream '80s Nostalgia" into the modern era - that is, there would be a big difference in the fondness that modern audiences will remember 'E.T.' with vs. 'The Black Hole', in spite of both being fine sci-fi movies, with 'The Black Hole' being somewhat darker in tone, and struggling in its day to get recommendations as a family or kid-friendly film.
'The Black Cauldron' falls into a similar pattern as a darker Disney movie compared to more standard Disney Princess fair! I remember it by reputation as something that parents kind of stayed away from to avoid scaring the kiddies, and I really don't remember seeing it reappearing afterward in the Cable and VHS eras, either - it just sort of flew under my radar my entire life, and I have a feeling that's the case for most of the "haters" who forgot all aboutit, or don't have particularly fond memories of it, or who hesitate to recommend it alongside more obvious and safe fare.
Thanks for sharing this list. All animations presented are of excellent quality
I think you need to do another list for 80's animation from over seas.Akira is one that jumps to mind, along with Fist of the North Star and Wicked City.
With anime streaming widely available, the type of anime film industry that was popular in the 80s and 90s seems to have become incredibly scarce and it makes me sad, because before the advent of the internet and streaming in general, this is what we looked for. Casshan: Robot Hunter, Green Legend Ran, Princess Mononoke were some of the classics...
@@keithtorgersen9664 You are the first person I have ever seen reference Green Legend Ran. I have completely by accident on a VHS tape with some MST3K episodes. A friend of mine grabbed 'em off of satellite way back when, and just kept recording the station. Such a cool movie.
I have seen 6/10 of these. I knew of two of the other four. Thanks for the suggestions and the great review. Keep it up.
I watched five of these when I was a kid. Brings me back, going to check out of few of the others.
As soon as I saw the title, "Heavy Metal" came to mind. Very nice overview!
„Valhalla“ or „Walhalla“ is an another good animated Fantasy Movie from Danmark from the 80‘s! With the Legendary Christopher Lee as the Voice Character of Thor in this animated Movie. Also Ralph Bakshi‘s LotR animated Movie Even if it came shortly before the 80s, so at the end of the 70s, it is already one of them for me. And the Hobbit animated Movie also from the 80‘s. The 80‘s have in all category‘s THE BEST: The Best animated Fantasy movies, the best real Fantasy Movies, the Best Action Movies, The Best Horror Movies, Best Sci-Fi and so on and on… and of course the Best Music.
I wasn't familiar with 'Valhalla' - great find to add to a "top ten" list that already includes about 8 movies I've never seen!
In trying to think of some movies to add to the list, the Bakshi and Rankin & Bass Tolkien movies (from 1977 and 1978) were definitely some of the first ones I thought of. Some others that I could think of, which perhaps stretch the definition of "80s", "dark fantasy", and "animated" a bit, but mostly fit into the bracket closely enough that they'll still be enjoyable by the same audiences:
- 'The Princess and the Goblin' (1991) - a beautiful little animated fantasy movie that hovers just a bit on the kid-friendly side of "dark", and released a year or two too late to be properly considered a product of the '80s, but I think will still appeal to older audiences who enjoy movies from that era.
- Bakshi's 'Wizards' (1977) - made a couple years too early to be fairly called a product of the '80s, but fans of 'Heavy Metal' and 'Fire and Ice' and most of the other movies on this list will surely enjoy this one, too!
- 'Fritz the Cat' (1972) - this one definitely falls a bit too early for the '80s proper, and as a '60s counter-culture allegory with talking animals might stretch a definition of "dark urban fantasy" pretty far, and it's definitely not for kids (I believe it was rated x at the time!), but it doesn't get much darker than 'Fritz the Cat', and I think it's another animated movie that will appeal to fans of Bakshi's '80s fantasy work.
- 'Puff the Magic Dragon' (1978) - another "almost the '80s" animated fantasy - I haven't seen it since I was a kid, and remember it being at least mostly kid-friendly, but I do remember it getting a bit dark at times, with a melancholic, nostalgic, and/or bittersweet quality to it... I also get the vague impression that it ran on thinly-veiled drug references for the amusement of hippie parents, but don't remember enough to confirm that suspicion!
- 'Dot and the Kangaroo' (1977) - "almost the '80s" again, and a little more contemporary than the sword-and-sorcery and sci-fi movies that would usually make this sort of list, but it was animated, there were talking animals, and I think most of us who saw it as a kid in the '80s will never forget that spooky song about the Bunyip!
- 'The Dark Crystal' (1982) - the "animation" here takes the form of puppetry, but when looking at '80s dark fantasy, 'The Dark Crystal' is probably the best entry-level movie to start with!
- 'Return to Oz' (1985) - there are some live-action characters here, and anything else, though not flesh-and-blood actors and actresses, is puppetry and maybe stretches the definition of "animated" a bit, but 'Return to Oz' earned a reputation for terrifying young audiences in the '80s with some fairly dark content and damned uncanny-looking characters!
...and I'm sure some anime experts can suggest some reasonably dark animated films from Japan and elsewhere from the late '70s to the early '90s. I've never seen it and I'm not sure how dark it was, but there was an animated Narnia movie from the '70s that I didn't know existed! I think there might have been an obscure animated LotR movie made in Russia in the '70s or '80s, in fact I know the Russians/Soviets made a number of animated fantasy and sci-fi films in the '780s and '80s! ...and so on: I'm guessing there's a treasure trove of animated films out there in languages other than English that might surprise a lot of us! And then there would be all the animated movies based on fairy tales, many of which could get pretty dark - the '70s and '80s would have been a golden age for that sort of thing around the world....
Hmm... maybe that's enough material to start a list of obscure '70s animated fantasy movies?
Little Nemo was a favorite movie of mine growing up as a child in the 90s. Whenever i bring it up, no one knows what im talking about. It's upsetting. It came out the year i was born. I still watch it now and then. I'll never stop loving it.
the goosebumps and memories when i saw the last unicorn after such a long time, waht an amazing feeling!!! thanks alot for this video
Excellent list, i've only seen Fire and Ice but now i have 9 more movies to watch. thank you.
If violence is your thing, watch Heavy Metal. If story and excellent animation is something you seek....
The Black Cauldron and The Secret of NIHM are two to behold!
Just to break the almost entirely English language list I recommend seeking out “the Son of the White Mare” from Hungary, anything by Jan Svankmeier (notably his disturbing stop motion Alice in Wonderland), and the snow queen from the USSR.
I cheated and asked for some ideas from chatGPT and here’s what it added:
Here is a list of non-English fantasy animations from the 1970s and 1980s, including "Son of the White Mare":
1. **Son of the White Mare** (Fehérlófia) - Hungary, 1981
2. **The King and the Mockingbird** (Le Roi et l'oiseau) - France, 1980
3. **The Mystery of the Third Planet** (Тайна третьей планеты) - Soviet Union, 1981
4. **Tales of the Street Corner** (Aru Machi Kado no Monogatari) - Japan, 1962 (though not in the 70s or 80s, it's a notable precursor)
5. **The Adventures of Sinbad** (Приключения Синдбада) - Soviet Union, 1975
6. **Puss in Boots** (長靴をはいた猫) - Japan, 1969
7. **The Little Mermaid** (Русалочка) - Soviet Union, 1968
8. **The Magic Pony** (Конёк-Горбунок) - Soviet Union, 1975
9. **The Cat Who Walked by Herself** (Кошка, которая гуляла сама по себе) - Soviet Union, 1988
10. **Jack and the Witch** (少年ジャックと魔法使い) - Japan, 1967 (another notable precursor)
These films represent a range of fantasy storytelling traditions from different cultures during the 1970s and 1980s.
Certainly! Here are some additional non-English fantasy animations from the 1970s and 1980s from South America, India, and Western Europe:
### South America
1. **Piconzé** - Brazil, 1973
- A Brazilian animated film about a young boy who embarks on a fantastical adventure.
### India
1. **Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama** - India/Japan, 1992 (slightly beyond the 80s but noteworthy)
- A collaboration between Indian and Japanese animators, this film is a retelling of the Indian epic Ramayana.
### Western Europe
1. **Time Masters** (Les Maîtres du temps) - France, 1982
- Directed by René Laloux, this sci-fi fantasy film involves a young boy stranded on a distant planet and the efforts to rescue him.
2. **The Secret of NIMH** (though primarily American, has significant European animation involvement) - 1982
- Directed by Don Bluth, with contributions from European animators, this film tells the story of a field mouse who must move her family to safety, aided by a secret society of super-intelligent rats.
3. **The Ballad of the Wind and the Trees** (La Chanson de l'Arbre de l'Air) - France, 1981
- A French animated short film with a fantasy theme.
4. **The Wild Swans** (De vilde svaner) - Denmark, 1987
- A Danish animated film based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale about a princess saving her brothers from a curse.
These films provide a richer look at the fantasy animation landscape from these regions during the specified decades.
This brings back a lot of childhood memories. Thanks! :)
The Secret of NIMH is a work of art
Great collection and presentation - thanks a lot! May I ask for the source of the beautiful backround music?
The music is "Rivellon (Light Version)" and "Videte Gigantem"
Another animated fantasy movie that could be on this list is Gandahar. It is kind of obscure, but it is pretty good.
1-3 all favorites when I was a kid. Have all on dvd to share with my kids. great animated films with great stories.
Thank you! What a fantastic trip back to films I remember so fondly from the past....keep it up!
Just watched Scavenger's Reign. It's sci-fi but not obnoxiously so. Truly reminded me of this era with its world-building, breath and pacing, attention to detail. Highly recommend for fans of animation.
Just watched your top ten underrated sci Fi list. Awesome. You have a new subscriber
Criminally undersubscribed channel
This video appeared in my timeline and caught my eye, you're doing great considering how young the channel is! I can definitely see it blowing up! Good luck👍🏻
I would say that The Last Unicorn was one of the most influential movies to me as a kid. And the soundtrack...wooaahh
Thank you so much for these videos. I remember some of these movies, they are such good memories.
The soundtrack is marvelous.
Divinity 2 !
@@TheWhirled Thank you.
@TheWhirled yes! I knew that sounded familiar!
The Black Cauldron is definitely one of the most underrated Disney films. It's absolutely terrifying and yet totally enthralling. Could be seen as mature and dark at times, but that's what makes it so special
I like Thundar the Barbarian. Loved Johnny Quest.
Johnny Blackstar was cool as well
CT by
Thank you so much for this amazing list. Huge fan of animation and haven't seen half of these.
Great video. I do have one criticism. If you're using the beautiful music of Borislav Slavov, you should credit him.
THANK YOU. I have been scanning every bit of the video info looking for the name or creator of the score I was hearing. Beautiful.
My kids adored Little Nemo so much, we must have watched it 50 times. Thank you for this, there were a couple I didn't know about and I've never seen The Black Caldron, I'll have to find it. I know this is 4 months on so for the algorithm? I really enjoyed this.
Anything with Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazietta I'm in!
Great narrating. You have given me a lot to look into.
The secret in Nimh 🎉😃 great flick
I really love how much respect was just paid to the secret of nimh
Wizards! That’s the ultimate adult animated fantasy of the 80s.
That came out in 1977, but it’s an amazing movie! I love Wizards!
I was thinking the same thing at first. Would have been number one on my list. 70s though. 😢
Came out in the late 70’s.
Your list is amazing i have to watch them.
Fire and Ice was really good. Teegra was fine as h-. AHHH, Black Cauldron scared the heck out of me as a kid. But I loved it. Starchaser was really good. Heavy Metal was good for all the wrong reasons. I loved the Mark Twain claymation movie. Flight of Dragons is one of me favorites. Last Unicorn was great. But I always fast forward though the unnecessary and totally awful musical number from Mia Farrow and Jeff Bridges. Other than that, the musical score is really good. Yes, NIMH! I love this flick. Dom DeLuise made the film.
Wow man... thank you so much for this list!
Fun fact, fire and ice was one of the major influences to the modern world of Warcraft, Draxxar, the lich king, the locals, there is a lot that vanilla wow pays homage to in fire and ice
Fantastic list, I have a few more movies to watch! Also, what musics did you use under your narration? They are magical to listen to, altough your voice adds a lot!
Do a video on Rock and Rule!
I can't thank you enough for compiling this list.
Thanks for highlighting but not spoiling these films.
I've watched all these movies and there is something to be said about the style of the 80s. It always seemed made for adults or older audience.
Great collection, great presentation👍 I've never heard about Piped Piper - it looks magnificent!
XXth century Czech cinema is a veritable mine of hidden gems.
And I remember almost every single one of them you are talking about. I loved them.
No mention of the animated Lord of the Rings movies?
@keithbright-xy7sg The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were in 77 and 78, respectively. But Return of the King was released in 1980.
And maybe because they are one of the more well known ones? This video focused on less known ones
Reviews aren't great for Fellowship OTR and Return of the King, but I loved the Hobbit cartoon growing up.
Reviews for adults don't touch on the magic some movies can create for kids
It's because it's too real for the younger generation 😅😅😅😅😅😅
The Adventures of Mark Twain scared the hell out of me as a kid. Maybe it's the reason horror movies are my favorite?
When art was made for the sake of art rather than profit.
Right because the 80s wasn’t entirely about making money and doing cocaine 😂
It was always profit, you're just a delusional boomer.
This is a false dichotomy. When has money never been a consideration in any human enterprise? Ask any starving artist if they would shun an opportunity to make money from their work. It’s never been an either-or issue. It’s both. You can have artistic vision but you can’t continue to produce art if you don’t make money either. They’re not mutually exclusive goals.
... was never the case
The budgets were smaller so the risk is lower. Nowadays it’s so expensive to create a movie that Hollywood refuses to do anything that might alienate the mainstream.
Thank you! Thank You! Thank you! I have spent almost 40 years trying to remeber the name of Starchaser: The Legend of Orin. I have very fond memories of seeing this in theaters with my dad and wearing those terrible 3D glasses. I always thought that the end of Space Mountain where you walk out, looked similar to some of the scenes in this film. Or at least Spacemountain circa 1980s. Just found a copy on RUclips and will be watching it later.
There used to be alot more unqiue animated films, when disney became the main model of the industry it all became kid friendly cgi visual monomania
Great presentation…i remember the book of Mrs Frisby being read to me at junior school
No Watership Down? Pretty amazing list 👍
That came out in 1978.
This is like my entire childhood, I grew up with almost ALL of these movies. ALL of them, and I am better for it.
NECROOOOOOOOOOOOON!
aah the 80s, when media wasnt hell bent on pushing propaganda down everyones throat, and you can just enjoy a good story
Wow! This is epic! Ive seen only half of these growing up! I will not omly revisit those. But watch the ones i haven't seen now. Thanks for this!!
Fire and ice is awesome fantasy I was quite impressed when I saw it with frank frazetta involved how can u go wrong? A story of good verse evil and dark magic 😮
Love this list! Expected to see “Wizards” there though!
So cool. I remember all of these and I have every intention of watching them all again soon.