Fantasy Pros

          What up? I was at a screenwriting lecture this week and the subject of fantasy came up, which got me thinking. John Lasseter, the head of Pixar and Disney animation, is infamously against all things fantasy which is why he is also my mortal enemy. Sure he makes movies about talking fish and sentient cars, but minus the english these are all things in the real world, there’s nothing to speak of in the way of magic or mythical beings. Lasseter likes this because it means you don’t have to ask the audience to suspend their disbelief in the way that accepting a human can turn into a frog via makeouts does, but on this I call BULLSHIT. Yes it does take more of a leap for an audience to accept this, but if it was such a hindrance to story then how come Lord of the Rings is tatooed on the heart of every man and wo-man child the world over? How come J.K. Rowling has enough money to buy ALL OF THE THINGS? My question here is this; what are the advantages of fantasy?

What is it that draws people to this genre? There are the obvious answers of cool imagery and escapism, but I would argue that a non-ficiton novel can be just as much of an escape and have just as many awesome visuals. So what is it specific to fantasy that we can’t do in other genres? I’ve thought about it and one thing sticks in my mind; the fact that in fantasy you can make intangible concepts tangible. Think about it; in Lord of the Rings you never actually see Sauron, he is at best a floating eye somewhere off in the distance. Sauron isn’t a character, he’s an idea. The idea of evil and corruption. Similarly the ‘Nothing’ in the Neverending Story is an all consuming black void of destruction, but its’ real menace is in the idea of the death of imagination. And even in elements with actual character this is utilized; look at Totoro, who is the physical embodiment of the forest. He can be fun and loveable, but also has a danger to him; I mean have you seen those claws?

         In fantasy you can take abstract concepts like fear and death and kindness, and make them into sentinent characters, so instead of the hero fighting a murderous villan who represents death, she can literally fight death, something no other genre can do. And this goes for the imagery too; in fantasy dream-like imagery can reflect the emotions of a scene, hightening 'girl must clean room' to 'girl must complete task given by witch'. The task is essentially the same, but the latter better represents how we feel when we're in that situation. What do you guys think, if you’re a fan of fantasy what about it appeals to you?