Looking back today at some fantasy films that have marked the collective imagination, and were also great successes, the effect can be surprisingly different. With a more conscious gaze and a changed cultural context, many beloved works of the past reveal limitations that in 2025 make us think that no, not all stories age the same.
This is the case of five famous titles, among the most discussed when it comes to fantasy films that today are not. they seem more like we remembered them until a few years ago.
Among these there is inevitably the saga of Twilighta global phenomenon capable of dominating cinema and pop culture at the end of the 2000s, but looking at it today, however, the relationship between Bella and Edward appears less romantic than it was perceived at the time and decidedly cringier. Some behaviors presented as protective and passionate are now disturbing, real red flags, but the film remains a generational symbol, but the way in which it talks about love represents one of the main reasons why it is reread in a critical way today.
A similar fate concerns Highlandera cult classic from the 1980s with a still fascinating basic idea: immortal warriors fighting through the ages. What betrays the film above all is the execution, between unlikely casting choices, inconsistent accents and special effects that today appear dated. The result is a work that works better as an iconic memory than a current viewing experience. Also 300visually revolutionary at the time of its release, has undergone a downsizing in contemporary judgment, the hyper-stylized aesthetic remains powerful, but the simplified and ideological telling of the story, together with the caricatured representation of the enemies, makes the film difficult to separate from a vision of the world that is much discussed today.
More subtle, but equally evident, is the case of Big. The comedy with Tom Hanks retains its interpretive charm intact, but the romantic relationship at the center of the story is now read with great discomfort. An idea born to entertain ends up raising ethical questions that were not questioned at the time. Finally, Peter Pan in the 1953 Disney animated version it remains one of the most emblematic cases, a technical and musical masterpiece, the film is today inevitably marked by explicit racial stereotypes, especially in the representation of indigenous peoples.
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