Any particular reason?
Or is it all just market forces.
btw I love fantasy (done well), just wondering though.
Any particular reason?
Or is it all just market forces.
btw I love fantasy (done well), just wondering though.
Past generations had The Lord of the Rings, E.T., Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc. But a few things happened to make it such a large genre in the 2000s:
- The advent of CGI made it much easier/cost-effective to actually make fantasy films. (Probably the biggest reason.) Same for comic book/superhero movies. The reason we've seen an explosion of them now is because we can actually film them convincingly now.
- Harry Potter contributed a lot. It had an advantage over past fantasy series, like The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia: the movies were made simultaneously as the books were being written, which built up a lot of hype and turned it into a much more widespread phenomenon with toys, theme parks, games, etc. Same with A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones.
- Reality is depressing. We saw a similar trend of escapism in cinema during The Great Depression and WWII, with the Busby Berkeley musicals, The Wizard of Oz, etc.
"How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love."
-- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
We grew up on Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings... No wonder people of my age love fantasy. I personally like light fantasy based in reality with some mystical and horror like characteristics.
I like fantasy purely because I am EII, so I essentially am fantasy.