Fantasy from the 1980s: the best movies
24 fantasy films from the 1980s, ranked by audience rating. The best of the decade, and it still holds up tonight. Updated September 25, 2026
My Neighbor Totoro leads with 8,1 out of 10, ahead of The Man Who Planted Trees (8). Ratings range from 7,4 to 8,1. All were released between 1980 and 1989.
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My Neighbor Totoro
Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.
The Man Who Planted Trees
The story of one shepherd's single-handed quest to re-forest a desolate valley in the foothills of the French Alps throughout the first half of the 20th century.
Castle in the Sky
A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.
Warriors of the Wind
After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä, the people of the Valley engage in an epic struggle to restore the bond between humanity and Earth.
Saint Seiya: Legend of Crimson Youth
The Sun God Abel returns to life, bent on punishing the humans and cleansing Earth from their presence. When Athena joins him, leaving humans to their fate, the Bronze Saints must defend the world in their greatest battle yet.
Vincent
Young Vincent Malloy dreams of being just like Vincent Price and loses himself in macabre daydreams that annoy his mother.
Kiki's Delivery Service
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
Fanny and Alexander
As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.
Wings of Desire
Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.
The King and the Mockingbird
A young shepherdess and a chimneysweep plan to get married and escape the clutches of a tyrannical king in love with her, assisted by the guile of a cheeky mockingbird, the king's archenemy.
Nothing Left to Do But Cry
Two 20th-century friends accidentally stumble into the year 1492, where they meet a charming teen and try to alter history.
The Princess Bride
In this enchantingly cracked fairy tale, the beautiful Princess Buttercup and the dashing Westley must overcome staggering odds to find happiness amid six-fingered swordsmen, murderous princes, Sicilians and rodents of unusual size. But even death can't stop these true lovebirds from triumphing.
Angel's Egg
In the ruins of a strange city, a young girl takes care of a large egg she holds carefully in her arms. She bonds with a boy who is searching for a bird he saw in a dream.
Saint Seiya: The Heated Battle of the Gods
Hyoga is missing somewhere in Asgard... When Seiya and the others are looking for him, Athena is kidnapped and they have to rescue her from Dolvar and some mysterious warriors.
Dimensions of Dialogue
Three surreal depictions of failures of communication that occur on all levels of human society.
Time of the Gypsies
Perhan is a gypsy teenager with telekinetic powers. A wealthy gypsy, Ahmed, visits the village and promises to get Perhan's sister the medical treatment she needs if they join him to Italy. Perhan soon discovers that Ahmed's business activities are in fact quite shady and he is soon lured into the elder's corrupt surroundings.
The Snowman
A young boy makes a snowman one Christmas Eve, which comes to life at midnight and takes him on a magical adventure to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Toon star Roger is worried that his wife Jessica is playing pattycake with someone else, so the studio hires detective Eddie Valiant to snoop on her. But the stakes are quickly raised when Marvin Acme is found dead and Roger is the prime suspect.
Evil Dead II
Ash Williams and his girlfriend Linda find a log cabin in the woods with a voice recording from an archeologist who had recorded himself reciting ancient chants from "The Book of the Dead." As they play the recording an evil power is unleashed taking over Linda's body.
Somewhere in Time
Young writer Richard Collier is met on the opening night of his first play by an old lady who begs him to "Come back to me". Mystified, he tries to find out about her, and learns that she is a famous stage actress from the early twentieth century. Becoming more and more obsessed with her, by self-hypnosis he manages to travel back in time—where he meets her.
Ghostbusters
After losing their university jobs, three parapsychologists start a ghost-catching business in New York City and uncover a supernatural threat that could destroy the world.
A Christmas Carol
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.
The Secret of NIMH
A widowed field mouse must move her family -- including an ailing son -- to escape a farmer's plow. Aided by a crow and a pack of superintelligent, escaped lab rats, the brave mother struggles to transplant her home to firmer ground.
Alice
A quiet young English girl named Alice finds herself in an alternate version of her own reality after chasing a white rabbit. She becomes surrounded by living inanimate objects and stuffed dead animals, and must find a way out of this nightmare - no matter how twisted or odd that way must be.
What to know before choosing
Fantasy stands or falls on one thing: the consistency of its rules. A world may be implausible, it cannot be incoherent, and audiences feel it instantly even without naming it. Ratings in this genre are far more scattered than elsewhere — you will find 8s and 5s on the same premise. The rating floor applied here deliberately cuts low into that spread.
The 1980s produced the grammar of the mainstream film as we still know it. It is also the decade with the widest gap between the best and the worst films, because production was massive and budgets wildly uneven. Read the ratings here alongside the vote counts: a well-rated, heavily voted 1980s film has passed forty years of examination.
Frequently asked questions
How were these 24 films chosen?
They come from the TMDB catalog, filtered on audience rating and on a minimum number of votes — without that second filter, a film rated 9 out of 10 by eleven people would outrank a classic. No place is for sale: no platform, distributor or studio can enter this list other than by being well rated.
Which film in this list is rated highest?
My Neighbor Totoro (1988), with 8,1 out of 10 from 9,093 audience votes.
Where can I watch these films?
Taro eira shows, film by film, which platforms carry it in the US and at what price — subscription, rental or purchase. The per-platform lists are further down this page.
How often does this list change?
It is recomputed every day. Ratings move slowly, catalogs move fast: availability is what mostly pushes titles in and out.
Do I need an account?
No. Taro eira is free, asks for no account and no subscription, and the two-or-three-question flow works without installing anything.
See also
- Fantasy
- Fantasy from the 2020s
- Fantasy from the 2010s
- Fantasy from the 2000s
- Fantasy from the 1990s
- Fantasy from the 1970s
- Fantasy before 1970
- Action from the 1980s
- Adventure from the 1980s
- Animation from the 1980s
- Comedy from the 1980s
- Crime from the 1980s
- Documentary from the 1980s
- Drama from the 1980s
- Family from the 1980s
- Biopic from the 1980s
- Horror from the 1980s
- Musical from the 1980s
- Romance from the 1980s
- Sci-fi from the 1980s
- Thriller from the 1980s
- War from the 1980s
- Western from the 1980s
How this list is built
Films come from the TMDB catalog, filtered on audience rating and vote count, then cross-checked against real availability in the country. No paid placement, no partnerships. How we choose the films.
Film data and posters: TMDB. This app uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.