So here we are – the final countdown! It was so hard organising my top five. I knew which films would be in here, just not what order they should go in. After writing each entry though, I feel good about the order I settled on; it feels right to me.
We got there in the end, thanks for being patient! Now please enjoy my Top 5 Favourite Films…
5: The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements and John Musker, 1989)
IMDb score: 7.6 | ‘Somewhere under the sea and beyond your imagination is an adventure in fantasy.’
As I have mentioned before (and as any of my friends and family will tell you), I adore Disney films. More specifically, I adore animated Disney films (although I’m not totally adverse to the live-action kind either). I am in fact in the process of collecting all of the animated classics on DVD (it’s going very well, thanks for asking). I am telling you this so that when I say that The Little Mermaid is my favourite Disney film of all time, I want you to appreciate the scope of that.
Now I’m sure everyone knows the story, but just to give an overview; The Little Mermaid is about a young mermaid named Ariel (amazingly voiced by Jodi Benson) that falls in love with a human (Prince Eric, voice acted by Christopher Daniel Barnes) and wants desperately to experience the human world, out of the sea.
There is so much I love about this film. As with Sleeping Beauty, there are the shallow reasons I love it so much. I just think she’s so beautiful! Ariel is definitely the prettiest princess/Disney character. That hair! So amazing. Also, her singing voice is just stunning. ‘Part of your World’ will forever be my favourite Disney song (and let’s be honest, one of my favourite songs period). Of course Ariel’s voice is very important to the narrative so it had to be amazing, and Jodi Benson absolutely nailed it. By far the best singing in any Disney animation.
A deeper reason that I love The Little Mermaid is that, having no Mother and quite a strict Father myself growing up, I felt like I could relate to Ariel (and I would love to be a mermaid, that would be awesome!). This is one of the things that made me love Ariel, and by extension the film, over the other Disney princesses and their stories. I just felt like somehow we were the same and had similar problems, and this seems to have tied me interminably to the film.
4: Howl’s Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki, 2004)
IMDb score: 8.2
This was the film that really got me into anime initially, and for that I think I feel some kind of loyalty to it. It was actually my brother that showed me the film, and I’m very grateful to him for that (thanks Ayman! 🙂 ) It follows the story of Sofi (voiced in Japanese by Chieko Baishô and Emily Mortimer as young Sofi and Jean Simmons as Grandma Sofi in the American). Sofi is put under a spell that gives her the body of an old lady, by the jealous Witch of the Waste (Akihiro Miwa and Lauren Bacall), and so Sofi must seek out another witch or wizard to lift the curse. The wizard she finds however is Howl (Takuya Kimura and Christian Bale) – a vain and selfish man notorious for stealing and eating the hearts of pretty girls.
From this list of my favourite films, you may have picked up on the fact that I love fantasy. It is definitely my favourite genre and I wish there were more fantasy films out there (and I do not agree with people that say it isn’t a proper genre – it most certainly is, and it is different from sci-fi and I don’t think they should be lumped in together all the time). This is partially why I love anime so much, and Miyazaki’s films in particular – they are just so wonderfully fantastical. Howl’s Moving Castle is a great example of fantasy, with loads of magic and fantastical creatures, all overlapping the themes of love and war and politics. The whole thing is so well written, with many layers of depth and meaning.
Anyone that has seen a Studio Ghibli film will know the beauty of their animation. I have seen Howl so many times now that on my last few viewings, instead of watching the direct action, I looked all around it; at the scenery and the background activity. Doing this, you can start to appreciate the magnitude of making a film like this. There is such an enormous amount of detail in every shot, it really is amazing. And there are instances when a beautiful landscape is coupled with some element of fantasy, which somehow both makes the landscape seem like an impossible fantasy world, while also making the fantasy seem more tangible; more attainable. It’s just amazing.
3: Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002)
IMDb score: 7.5 | ‘America was born in the streets.’
My boyfriend is always telling me off for having this as one of my top five; “it’s not even Scorsese’s best film!” he says. And to be honest, I haven’t actually seen many of his others (I know, I know, please try not to hate me) so I can’t really argue this. But personally, I think it’s amazing and I love it. It’s set in 1863 New York, where the gangs of the Five Points (which is basically just everyone) are in constant conflict. Amsterdam Vallon (the wonderfully incredible Leonardo DiCaprio) returns to the Five Points after being forced to flee when he was a boy, in order to exact revenge on Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis), who is just super cool… if rather immoral.
It is quite long this film, but then a lot of Scorsese’s are (or so I hear), but I don’t mind this about it. A lot of people scoff at the attempts of American actors doing Irish accents, but again this just doesn’t bother me. It’s just so cool! Bill the Butcher is such a super cool character; I love everything about his costume, his attitude, his speech, his demeanour… just everything! Daniel Day-Lewis is amazing and thinking about it now, Bill is possibly one of my favourite characters ever. When I think about the film, all my favourite bits that come to mind first involve him. He is super creepy and sinister, but he just does it so well! Such a good villain. And then there’s Leonardo DiCaprio, who is also super awesome. I just love him though, I think he’s such an excellent actor; he’s in so many great films, but he also makes films great, which is a big achievement I think. For example Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012) – this is a good movie, I enjoyed the first half; but when Leo D comes in, it gets awesome.
But back to Gangs of New York… so yeah, the acting is great, the set and the costumes and everything are awesome, the story is interesting and really well told. Just all round entertaining.
2: Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)
IMDb score: 8.4 | ‘15 years of imprisonment, 5 days of vengeance.’
I would just like to stress the point that this is the Korean film, not the American remake of the same name (Spike Lee, 2013), so please do not get them confused! After being locked in a small room for 15 years for an unknown reason, by an unknown assailant, one day Oh Dae-su (Min-sik Choi) is inexplicably released. He is then given just five days to work out who imprisoned him and why.
It’s just so exciting! There are so many twists and turns and awesome scenes. There are quite a lot of gruesome instances where you almost want to cover your eyes, but then it’s just too horrifyingly good to not watch. This really is an interesting film; it keeps you guessing and wanting to know more and more. A lot of Park Chan-wook’s films are really good, you should definitely check them out if you haven’t already (I really recommend Joint Security Area, which appears as #14 in my Top 40), but I must say Oldboy is my favourite. It’s so well done, with great cinematography and really memorable scenes and images, some of which I don’t think I’ll ever forget. And I just love the narrative, as I’ve said it’s so intriguing and engrossing; you just have to know what happens next.
Please watch this version; it is sooooo much better than the Spike Lee remake! (which yes, I have suffered through – not sure why). To those that say “bleurgh subtitles? Reading?! No thanks!” (and yes, I have had this conversation with more than one person, which is why I feel the need to say this) – just stop. Please do not avoid a film because it is subtitled; there are so so many amazing foreign films that you are just missing out on! After ten minutes of reading subtitles you don’t even realise you’re doing it, and that’s coming from me and I’m dyslexic and read very slowly so you don’t have any excuse!
1: Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
IMDb score: 8.3 | ‘In darkness, there can be light. In misery, there can be beauty. In death there can be life…’
So here we are; my number one favourite film of all time! And it fully deserves its place. Can I just say that I love this tagline! Really good, and it really suits the film. Anyway, it’s set in 1944 Spain, a young girl named Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her pregnant Mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil) move into the countryside to live with Carmen’s new and highly sadistic husband Vidal (Sergi López). When a Faun (Doug Jones) comes to Ofelia with a magical book, she relishes the opportunity to escape her traumatic daily life under Vidal’s torment, even if it is a dangerous escape.
Just… wow. Pan’s Labyrinth epitomises fantasy for me. Although it is not an entire fantasy world, but rather incorporates fantasy into a ‘real life’ setting, it doesn’t feel any less fantastical. In fact, there is something about Ofelia’s use of the fantasy elements as an escape that makes the film feel more real and more relatable. Perhaps it is because I use films, and in particular fantasy films, as a form of escapism from the mundanity of everyday life, which means that I can in some way relate to her wish to leave reality behind. (Of course my life isn’t nearly as traumatic as hers is, but I can relate on a very scaled down level).
Pan’s Labyrinth is just so well done and well thought out. All of the costumes and fantasy elements are amazing. Literally, the Pale Man scares me so much! (also played by Doug Jones) I’d include a picture for those that haven’t seen it but I’m genuinely too scared to have to look at him, I always close my eyes at that part now! 
And the Faun looks amazing too; sinister but not so much that you can’t trust him at all (picture on the right). His character reinforces this as well; you are never sure whether he is actually helping Ofelia or if he is working against her. It is very clever in this way; having black and white/good and bad characters, but also having shades of grey.
There is a lot of symbolism, which I really love, and mirrored shots that align the fantasy and the reality; showing that there is a connection between them if you care to see it. I really could go on and on, but I don’t want to ramble too much! What I might do at some point is write a full in depth review of Pan’s Labyrinth if that would be of interest to anyone? It is a great example of fantasy at its best, and particularly a brilliant example of fantasy made specifically for adults (seriously, don’t let your kids watch it). It really is just such a magical and fascinating film, with so many layers of meaning, even in the smallest details.
And there we have it! The final entry in my Top 40 Favourite Films.
For some reason I am just obsessed with these 5 films, and have been for a long time. I just think they’re brilliant and deserve so much praise.
In doing this list I had hoped to give you an insight into me and what I rate in terms of films. On the whole, it’s a fairly widespread list as far as genre goes though, so maybe it isn’t that helpful in hindsight.
I can tell you that I absolutely love fantasy in general, and am particularly obsessed with Disney and Studio Ghibli. I can also be pretty soppy when it comes to any kind of love story, but I also love a good fight scene and a bit of violence… not sure what that says about my personality!
I hope you have enjoyed reading my mini-reviews as much as I have enjoyed writing them. Now I’ve got to come up with something else to write about! But please keep reading, and let me know what you think of my list, or any of the films I’ve written about, or even tell me what some of your favourite films are; just leave a comment!
Look Closer 