Epic (2013)
Type: Animation, Family, Comedy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 64%
Directors: Chris Wedge
Stars: Colin Farrell, Amanda Seyfried
Duration: 106 mins
Rated: G
Plot Summary: The boggans and the ‘leaf folk’ (fairies, ‘Ronin’ even has an Irish accent) are fighting for the heart of the forest, which is watched over by an ineffective if lovable old scientist who is convinced that an advanced fairy society lives there and his estranged daughter who accidentally stumbles into the midst of the battle. Epic is interesting for the development of the theme that fairies are the ‘motor’ of nature, found in a slightly tamer version in the Tinkerbell films. Boggans (see boggarts?) are, instead, forces of entropy and not honestly that scary: your seven year old won’t die of fright. Highlights include the frog with a Harlem accent and the pseudo-science of fairies living at a higher velocity than us mere human beings.
Secret of the Wings (2012)
Type: Animation; Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 58%
Directors: Roberts Gannaway, Peggy Holmes
Stars: Timothy Dalton, Lucy Hale, Megan Hilty
Duration: 75 minutes
Rated: G
Plot summary: In the fourth of Tinker Bell’s recent films, the famous fairy’s curiosity about the forbidden Winter Woods leads her to discover she has a sister in that world. In their attempts to spend time together, trouble ensues as the two realms and respective fairies are unable to survive in each other’s conditions. Through teamwork by all the fairies and the star-crossed lovers ruling the two realms, the sisters secure a future in which they can see each other.
The Tooth Fairy 2 (2012)
Type: Comedy, Family
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 38%
Director: Alex Zamm
Stars: Larry the Cable Guy, David Mackey and Erin Beute
Duration: 90 minutes
Rated: PG
Plot Summary: Inferior to the first in the series. Larry the Cable Guy has lost his fiancé to a wealthy and unpleasant neighbour. However, he campaigns to win her back while being magically transformed into the tooth fairy.
Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (2010)
Type: Animation; Adventure, Family
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 71%
Director: Bradley Raymond
Stars: Lucy Liu, Mae Whitman and Michael Sheen
Duration: 76 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: The third instalment to Tinker Bell’s saga since her Disney debut in Peter Pan in 1953, this film finds the famous fairy trapped inside a tiny house belonging to a human girl with a fascination for fairies. The two form a friendship, which is then put to the test by the girl’s disbelieving father. But with help from Tinker Bell and her fairy friends, he in turn discovers the truth and a newfound bond with his daughter.
Barbie: A Fairy Secret (2011)
Type: Animation; Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Director: William Lau, Terry Klausen
Stars: Diana Kaarina, Adrian Petriw, Britt Irvin
Duration: 72 minutes
Plot Summary : The Barbie franchise discovers fairies and Ken is kidnapped by fairies. Barbie and her friend/rival Raquelle must ‘learn that the real magic lies not just in the fairy world itself, but in the power of friendship’. Tell that to the fairies though…
Neverland (2011)
Type: TV Mini-Series; Adventure, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Director: Nick Willing
Stars: Rhys Ifans, Anna Friel and Charles Dance
Duration: 180 minutes
Plot Summary: A strange neo-realistic take on Peter Pan with real pirates, real Indians and little in the way of fairies.
Gnomeo and Juliet (2011)
Type: Animation; Comedy, Family
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 55%
Director: Kelly Asbury
Stars: James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Maggie Smith
Duration: 84 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: A spin on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, feuding next-door neighbours have clans of gnomes living in their gardens and who likewise despise each other. Following a similar pattern of events as the classic play, Gnomeo and Juliet, gnomes from the two fighting clans, meet and fall in love. A twist on the originals ending, the film ends with the gnomes resolving their disagreements and the couple getting married.
The Tooth Fairy (2010)
Type: Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 18%
Director: Michael Lembeck
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Ashley Judd and Julie Andrews
Duration: 101 minutes
Rated: PG
Plot Summary: This comedy stars Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as Derek Thompson, a hockey player and boyfriend to a single mother by day and a tooth fairy by night. Thompson is a minor league hockey player whose misdeed lands him a two-week sentence as a tooth fairy. Balancing his new nocturnal activities with his daytime career and romance lead Thompson to realize the importance of being a influence to those around him.
The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)
Type: Animation; Adventure, Family
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 94%
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Stars: Bridgit Mendler, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett
Duration: 94 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: The story of the unlikely friendship between a human boy and a girl belonging to a race of tiny people who live unseen by humans and are known as ‘Borrowers’ because they get what they need to survive by taking it from humans. In the short time they spend together, the pair inspire each other to have the courage to fight on in the face of adversity.
Secret of Kells (2009)
Type: Animation and Adventure
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91%
Director: Tomm Moore
Stars: Evan McGuire and Christen Mooney
Duration: 78 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: Perhaps the greatest animated production of this century (to date). Secret of Kells describes the work of Aidan, a young Irish monk, as he helps Brother Brendan create the Book of Kells, ‘to take among the people’ in the dark days of the Viking invasions. In creating the book Aidan makes an unlikely alliance with a fairy, Aisling in the woods outside Kells. Aisling saves her friend, but does she die? The film gives no easy answers.
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure (2009)
Type: Animation; Adventure, Family
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 75%
Director: Klay Hall
Stars: Lucy Liu, Mae Whitman and Anjelica Huston
Duration: 81 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: In the second of the Pixie Hollow films, Tinker Bell is given a special task for the coming autumn. She soon finds herself on an adventure to find a lost wish-granting mirror and teams up with a firefly named Blaze along the way. Though the pair ultimately finds what they sought, the most valuable things are what they discover of themselves along the way.
The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning (2008)
Type: Animation; Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 40%
Director: Peggy Holmes
Stars: Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright and Jim Cummings
Duration: 77 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: In this prequel to the 1989 classic, Ariel’s father bans music from the underwater realm after a ship kills his wife when she tries to recover a music box. Years later, Ariel discovers her own love of music with help from Sebastian the crab. However, an ambitious servant with an eye for Sebastian’s position ruins their fun by alerting the king. With the help of her friends, Ariel shows her father his own forgotten love of music.
Tinker Bell (2008)
Type: Animation; Adventure, Family
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 89%
Director: Bradley Raymond
Stars: Mae Whitman, Kristin Chenoweth, Raven-Symoné
Duration: 78 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: The return of Peter Pan’s Tinker Bell with her own leading role, the film takes place in a part of Neverland known as Pixie Hollow. The story brings to light the world of the magical island’s fairies and their various roles such as fixing things, bringing about the seasons, and helping animals. Tinker Bell’s desire to visit the mainland, or the real world, causes her to attempt the jobs of other fairies, which inevitably brings about disaster. These forays lead Tinker Bell to gradually come to terms with her own talents and see them as equal in importance to those bestowed on the other fairies.
Gnomes and Trolls: The Secret Chamber (2008)
Type: Animation; Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomato Rating: N/A
Director: Robert Rhodin
Stars: Elizabeth Daily, Greg Berg, James Arnold Taylor
Duration: 70 minutes
Plot Summary: A coming-of-age story about a young gnome named Junior who lives in the forest. Continually at odds with his father, the leader of his people, the Junior must put aside his differences when trolls steal the gnomes’ winter food supply and he embarks on a quest to retrieve it. Travelling to unknown lands and facing various dangers, Junior finds courage he never knew he possessed.
A Very Fairy Christmas (2006)
Type: TV Movie; Animation.
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Director: Ron Crown
Stars: Ashleigh Ball, Kathleen Barr and Alexandra Carter
Duration: 48 minutes
Rated: G
Plot summary: Leah Carpenter makes friend with Shaily an elf who works in Santa Claus’ workshop and visits Santa’s workshop.
Tooth (2004)
Type: Family and Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 29%
Director: Edouard Nammour
Stars: Rory Copus, Vinny Jones, Stephen Fry, Sally Phillips and Tim Dutton
Duration: 91 minutes
Plot Summary: A tooth fairy accidentally on purposes leaves far too much money for a tooth and allows the anti-Clause, a fairy-hunter to track her and her kids down.
The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea (2000)
Type: Animation; Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomato Rating: 38%
Directors: Jim Kammerud, Brian Smith
Stars: Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright and Tara Strong
Duration: 75 minutes
Rated: G
Plot summary: The sequel to Disney’s 1989 classic, the film features Ariel’s daughter in a full reversal of the original’s storyline. Melody finds herself bound to land and wanting nothing more than to go explore the ocean, which her parents have forbidden out of fear of retribution from the original foe, Ursula’s sister. In spite of their wishes, Melody runs away to the ocean where she strikes a deal Morgana to turn her into a mermaid.
Faeries (1999)
Type: Animation; Adventure, Family
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 67%
Director: Gary Hurst
Stars: Kate Winslet, Jeremy Irons and Dougray Scott
Duration: 90 minutes
Rated: G
Plot summary: Never eat fairy food! A child eats a fairy cake and ends up in fairyland. The only way out is to complete three tasks and return to the world.
The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns (1999)
Type: Adventure, Comedy and Family
Rotten Tomatoes’ Rating: 77%
Director: John Henderson
Stars: Randy Quaid, Whoopi Goldberg, Roger Daltrey
Duration: 172 minutes
Plot Summary: A very long and often complicated film but one with real intelligence behind it. Jack Woods is an American who comes to live in an Irish cottage that is full of leprechauns. While Jack tries to relate to these strange creatures and catches the eye of a local girl, a Romeo and Juliet style story is underway as the prince of the leprechauns falls in love with the princess of the fairies and the two tribes go to war. Notable for Whoopi Goldberg (the Grand Banshee!) and special fairy vocabulary: ‘trooping fairies’ etc etc.
Rated: N/A
The Last Leprechaun (1998)
Type: Adventure, Fantasy and Drama
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%
Director: David Lister
Stars: Veronica Hamel, Jack Scalia and David Warner
Duration: 93 minutes
Plot Summary: Two exiled American children fight the evil designs of their step-mother and her creepy butler in Ireland.
Toothless (1997)
Type: TV Movie; Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 56%
Director: Melanie Mayron
Stars: Kirstie Alley, Dale Midkiff, Ross Malinger
Duration: 92 minutes
Plot Summary: A woman descending from a long line of dentists dies of a car accident and finds herself in a purgatory-like place, from where people either ascend to heaven or descend to hell depending on the deeds they perform while there. She is then given the job of tooth fairy though quickly breaks the rules by being seen by humans – at first only children, whose innocence allows them to see the paranormal – and interfering in the their lives. Though disastrous at first, her meddling ultimately lands her a second chance at life.
Ferngully 2: The Magical Rescue (1998)
Type: Animation; Adventure, Family
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 44%
Director: Phil Robinson, Dave Marshall
Stars: James S. Baker, Erik Bergmann and Connie Champagne
Duration: 75 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: Poachers have stolen some animals from Ferngully and the fairies leave their ancestral home to retrieve them.
Spellbreaker: Secret of the Leprechauns (1996)
Type: Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 80%
Director: Ted Nicolaou
Stars: Gregory Smith, Madeleine Potter and Godfrey James
Duration: 85 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: Mike Dennehy, an American kid finds himself at Fairyhill (Ireland) for the summer and makes friends with the local leprechauns and fights Nula, queen of the dead.
Pom Poko (1994)
Type: Animation and Adventure
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 83%
Director: T. Takahata
Duration: 112 minutes
Rated: PG
Plot Summary: Not strictly a fairy film, but the description of a tribe of Tokyo raccoons who fight to protect their home from building development has many fairy echoes from the east. The raccoons, doomed to defeat, learn to shape change and to use magic against their human foes.
The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
Type: Drama, Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 98%
Director: John Sayles
Stars: Jeni Courtney, Eileen Colgan and Mick Lally
Duration: 103 minutes
Rated: PG
Plot Summary: Fiona is ten and goes to live with her grandparents in Donegal where she learns that she has selkie blood: she then makes contact with the selkies and her lost baby brother. A beautiful film.
Thumbelina (1994)
Type: Animation; Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 25%
Director: Don Bluth and Gary Goldman
Stars: Jodi Benson, Gary Imhoff and Gino Conforti
Duration: 87 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: Traditional story as a cartoon.
Ferngully: the Last Rainforest (1992)
Type: Animation; Adventure, Family
Rotten Tomatoes Rating:
Director: Bill Kroyer
Stars: Samantha Mathis, Christian Slater and Robin Williams
Duration: 76 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: Hexxus is a logging firm that wants to destroy Ferngully. Its fairy guardians though are determined not to let this happen.
Hook (1991)
Type: Animated
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 31%
Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts
Duration: 144 minutes
Rated: PG
Plot Summary: A twist on the old Peter Pan story with an adult Peter Pan determined to take on Captain Hook.
A Gnome named Gnorm (1990)
Type: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Director: Stan Winston
Stars: Anthony Michael Hall, Jerry Orbach and Claudia Christian
Duration: 84 minutes
Rated: PG
Plot Summary: A gnome’s attempt to gain notoriety among his race and an undercover detective’s sting operation go awry simultaneously, forcing the two to work together as they attempt to fix their debacles.
The Little Mermaid (1989)
Type: Animation; Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 56%
Directors: Ron Clements, John Musker
Stars: Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Rene Auberjonois
Duration: 83 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: In Disney’s take on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, Ariel, a teenage mermaid and daughter of the king of the ocean, wants nothing more than to walk among the humans. After making a deal with the octopus-like witch, Urusula, who seeks to depose Ariel’s father and take his place, Ariel gains a pair of legs in exchange for her voice and, unless she is kissed by a human prince within three days, her soul as well. With the hep of her lively friends from the sea, Ariel attempts to fulfil her to sway the prince and so keep her soul and her happiness.
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Type: Cartoon
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 92%
Director: H. Miyazaki
Stars: Dakota Fanning, Ellie Fanning and Tim Daly
Duration: 87 minutes:
Plot Summary: Two children go to live in the country with their archaeologist father, while their mother is in hospital trying to recover from a mystery illness. The two slowly make friends with various local elementals in the Japanese countryside and, above all, a friendly troll called Totoro. Look out for the cat bus…
David the Gnome (1985)
Type: Animated, Family and Adventure
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Director: Ernest Reid
Stars: José María Cordero, Matilda Conessa and Ramón Langa
Duration: 30 minutes
Plot Summary: This Spanish adaptation of the children’s book, The Secret Book of the Gnomes, follows the adventures of David and several other Gnome, who live in the forest and use their magical powers to battle the damage humans have created on the environment as well as their age-old enemies, the trolls. Twenty-six episodes were created in total for this television series.
Dark Crystal (1982)
Type: Animation; Adventure, Family
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 71%
Director: Jim Henson, Frank Oz
Stars: Jim Henson, Kathryn Mullen, Frank Oz
Duration: 93 minutes
Rated: PG
Plot Summary: DC is set on another world but the parallels with our earth’s fairy lore are striking.
Faeries (1981)
Type: TV; Animation; Short, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: N/A
Director: Lee Mishkin
Stars: Hans Conried, Craig Schaefer, Morgan Brittany
Duration: 30 minutes
Plot Summary Oisin is taken by a fairy to the fairy king to asks for his help against the evil Shadow. The film is notable for being based on the illustrations of Brian Froud.
Gnomes (1980)
Type: TV Movie; Animation; Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 76%
Directors: Jack Zander, Lars Calonius
Stars: Lee Richardson, Arthur Anderson and Rex Everhart
Duration: 45 minutes
Plot Summary: Based on the same children’s book as the Spanish television series, David the Gnome, the film revolves around a family of gnomes living in the forest and who prepare for the wedding of the eldest son in the family. The ceremony, however, is put to the test by a family of trolls intent on ruining the wedding as well as obnoxious members of Tor’s own extended family.
The Gnome Mobile (1967)
Type: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 61%
Director: Robert Stevenson
Stars: Walter Brennan, Matthew Garber and Karen Dotrice
Duration: 84 minutes
Plot Summary: A millionaire is committed to a mental institution for seeing gnomes and his grandchildren (the Mary Poppins duo) have to both rescue him and save the gnomes.
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Type: Animation; Family, Fantasy
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91%
Director: Clyde Geronimi
Stars: Mary Costa, Bill Shirly, Eleanor Audley
Duration: 75 minutes
Rated: G
Plot Summary: Three fairy godmothers help sleeping beauty break the curse and find her prince.
Peter Pan (1953)
Type: Animated
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 75%
Director: Clyde Geronimi and Wilfred Jackson
Stars: Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont and Hans Conried
Duration: 77 mins
Plot Summary: The classic Disney telling of the Peter Pan story with a particularly memorable and often angry Tinker Bell – who according to silver screen legend was based on Marilyn Monroe. Tinker Bell returned to Disney’s frontline in the Pixie Hollow films starting in 2008