Biography genre conventions of fantasy film
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Hallmarks of Fantasy: A Brief History of the Genre
Alice was joined by Dorothy Gale in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), as well as Wendy Darling in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (1904). The works of Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and others were highly influential and helped create new sub genres such as “The Lost World”, where characters accidentally stumble across an ancient world hidden beneath our own.
With few exceptions, fantasy novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries were primarily aimed at and marketed towards children, however, adults can still enjoy them. These were the stories that inspired future fantasy writers, and these were the stories that had profound impacts on the development of the genre as a whole.
While this list is by no means exhaustive, we felt these titles serve as sufficient guidelines for any traveler interested in learning more about the key tropes and iconic moments of the fantasy genre. Most of the tropes, plots, and even story frameworks of modern fantasy novels borrow heavily from these novels. These titles have inspired countless forms of media from film to television to board and video games. Their heroes and villains have captured the attention of audiences for
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Conventions of description Fantasy genre
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So you want to make a fantasy movie? Here’s what you need to know about working in the genre.
Fantasy is old. Very old. Our earliest recorded narratives all contain elements of fantasy, and it’s safe to assume that the oral traditions that informed these ancient tales were themselves chock full of fantasy.
There was a time when the planet was a magical place. Monsters and fairies and capricious beings of all kinds inhabited the forests, caves, and rivers we depended on for food and shelter.
Mysterious or confusing events often had only one explanation—magic. There were forces at work in the world that shaped how people lived their lives, and there wasn’t much else to do at night except tell ourselves stories about it.
And, this was happening everywhere. Cultures across the planet were explaining photosynthesis and meteorology and medicine and just about everything else with tales of magic—the key element of the fantasy genre.
From the Epic of Gilgamesh to the works of Homer to the Panchatantra, fantastic stories about good vs. evil have recorded the development of the human story all over the world.
So what, technically, is “fantasy?” The term itself can mean anything, so does a fantastic story or movie just need a little razzle