Best Italian fantasy movies

The Queen of Selvascura risks everything to be a mother; the King of Roccaforte falls in love with the voice of a mysterious girl; the King of Altomonte becomes obsessed with a flea and neglects his daughter.

In this live-action adaptation of the beloved fairytale, old woodcarver Geppetto fashions a wooden puppet, Pinocchio, who magically comes to life. Pinocchio longs for adventure and is easily led astray, encountering magical beasts, fantastical spectacles, while making friends and foes along his journey. However, his dream is to become a real boy, which can only come true if he finally changes his ways.

Purehearted teen Lazzaro is content living as a sharecropper in rural Italy, but an unlikely friendship with the marquise’s son will change his world.

Just out of jail, rumpled English archaeologist Arthur reconnects with his wayward crew of tombaroli accomplices – a happy-go-lucky collective of itinerant grave-robbers who survive by looting Etruscan tombs and fencing the ancient treasures they dig up.

Four super-powered circus freaks find themselves trapped in war-torn Rome after their foster father is captured by the Nazis.

When young Joshua learns that he will be going on vacation with his family to a small town called Nilbog, he protests adamantly. He is warned by the spirit of his deceased grandfather that goblins populate the town. His parents, Michael and Diana, dismiss his apprehensions, but soon learn to appreciate their son's warnings. Guided by his grandfather's ghost, will Joshua and his family stand a chance in fighting off these evil beings?

The lovely Hermia is to wed Demetrius, but she truly cares for Lysander. Hermia's friend, Helena, is in love with Demetrius, while other romantic entanglements abound in the woods, with married fairy rulers Titania and Oberon toying with various lovers and each other.

Two 20th-century friends accidentally stumble into the year 1492, where they meet a charming teen and try to alter history.

In war-torn Balkans, bogus monster hunter Harlan Draka is hired by soldiers who happen to be under attack by an army of actual vampires, uncovering the hidden truth about his past in the process: he is half-human and half-vampire... a Dampyr.

While delivering a parking ticket to a small village in the Florida everglades, Officer Dave Speed finds himself in the middle of a radiation experiment conducted by the American government and NASA, where a detonated nuclear missile gives him a multitude of superpowers.

Michele is thirteen year old, shy, unpopular at school, and in love with Stella. After wearing a costume for a Halloween party, he finds out that he's invisible.

After his young lover, Gitone, leaves him for another man, Encolpio decides to kill himself, but a sudden earthquake destroys his home before he has a chance to do so. Now wandering around Rome in the time of Nero, Encolpio encounters one bizarre and surreal scene after another.

The final part of Pasolini's Trilogy of Life series is rich with exotic tales of slaves and kings, potions, betrayals, demons and, most of all, love and lovemaking in all its myriad forms. Mysterious and liberating, this is an exquisitely dreamlike and adult interpretation of the original folk tales.

A gravity-defying boy raised in seclusion matures into an extraordinary man -- and an international celebrity -- who longs for human connection.

A pair of smugglers manage to pick up a castaway while running from the authorities, who turns out to be the only survivor from a secret mission to destroy a mysterious superweapon designed by the evil Count Zartharn. The smugglers are soon recruited by the Emperor to complete the mission, as well as to rescue the Emperor's son, who has gone missing.

Middle-aged Giulietta grows suspicious of her husband, Giorgio, when his behavior grows increasingly questionable. One night when Giorgio initiates a seance amongst his friends, Giulietta gets in touch with spirits and learns more about herself and her painful past. Slightly skeptical, but intrigued, she visits a mystic who gives her more information -- and nudges her toward the realization that her husband is indeed a philanderer.

Roberto Benigni adapts the classic children's tale by Carlo Collodi for the big-budget family-oriented comedy Pinocchio.

A teenager in modern-day Miami finds a magic lantern and out pops a genie, who's been asleep for 200 years and in his gratitude grants the boy several wishes.

A thief and a priest end up magically transported in the year 0's Palestine, where they'll have to make sure that the Nativity will follow its course.

Once upon a time a wise and kind old woman discovers a baby in her cabbage patch. She brings up the child and, when she dies, the boy, Totò, enters an orphanage. Totò leaves the orphanage a happy young man, and looks for work in post-war Milan. He ends up with the homeless and organizes them to build a shanty town in a vacant lot. But when greedy developers threaten the community’s land, Totò will need all the help he can get in order to find an impossible way out.

Sixteen years ago the most powerful warrior wizards of the Magic Dimension sacrificed themselves to fight against absolute evil. Now the fate of a kingdom is in the hands of a young girl - Bloom, the fairy of the Dragon's flame. Accompanied by her Winx Club girlfriends, Bloom must overcome the greatest challenge of all: enter the depths of the obscure dimension, fight against evil to bring her parents back to life and reveal the mystery linked to her origins. The destiny of the entire Magic Dimension depends on the outcome of this conflict.

A movie adaptation of Homer's second epic, that talks about Ulysses' efforts to return to his home after the end of ten years of war.

The charismatic Snaporaz encounters an alluring woman on a train and pursues her through a forest. He ends up at a hotel populated by women gathered for a feminist conference, where he is an unwanted presence. Snaporaz soon discovers he’s entered a phantasmagoric world where women have taken power.

Father Maurice, a priest living in a residential college for priests in Rome, is called out one day to "exorcise" the devil from someone. The devil turns out to be in the form of a fun-loving man called Giuditta. What Father Maurice doesn't know is that this type of devil will turn his life around.

A man and his son take an allegorical stroll through life with a talking bird that spouts social and political philosophy.

The classic tale of Dante's journey through hell, loosely adapted from the Divine Comedy and inspired by the illustrations of Gustav Doré. This historically important film stands as the first feature from Italy and the oldest fully-surviving feature in the world, and boasts beautiful sets and special effects that stand above other cinema of the era.

Three years later Michele (The Invisible boy) meets his mother and his twin sister. Both have stories and superpowers but their intentions may not be what Michele thinks.

In the exact moment they hit rock bottom, four strangers are visited by a mysterious man who gifts them a week to see how the world would be without them.

A bumbling Christmas elf whose Santa's helper job is jeopardized by a complete inability in building toys teams up with a kid harassed by bullies.

The film is a parody of Disney's Fantasia, though possibly more of a challenge to Fantasia than parody status would imply. In the context of this film, "Allegro non Troppo" means Not So Fast!, an interjection meaning "slow down" or "think before you act" and refers to the film's pessimistic view of Western progress (as opposed to the optimism of Disney's original).

Clint is a dead man who lives alone in a frozen tundra. However, this isolation cannot bring either evasion or peace. One night, he begins a journey where he must confront his dreams, memories, and visions, crossing the darkness into the light.

Died in a car crash, Paolo is allowed to come back to life for 92 minutes more, thanks to a miscalculation made by Heavenly accountants. He decides to use this newfound time on Earth to fix his mistakes as a father and husband.

Suddenly and inexplicably Marco and Giulia wake up with three children aged 10, 9 and 6 who call them mum and dad. Getting rid of it and returning to the happy "previous" life will become their only goal.

The archenemies of the Winx Club, the Trix witches, team up with the evil nymph Politea and find out that, to defeat the fairies once and for all and become invincible, it takes very little: a Pearl hidden in the Deep of the Infinite Ocean! As small as powerful, the Pearl of the Depth gives enormous powers to those who possess it! For the Winx there is not a minute to waste: how will they stop the plans of their enemies before it's too late? Get ready: the most dangerous mission of the Winx is about to begin!

An aspiring actor discovers that his spacious new apartment comes complete with eight friendly ghosts.

Based on the plot of Euripides' Medea. Medea centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed her for another woman.

When six elementary school students suspect their missing teacher is Befana, a Christmas witch who delivers presents to good children, they set off on a magical journey to save her.

A queue at the ATM machine, a displaced family after a seismic shock that has half-washed their home, a tour within an art gallery, moments of everyday life that become the cues for the emergence of comic, farce, paradoxical situations – trademarks of one of the most successful Italian comic groups.

A young man, armed with a magical bow and arrows, embarks on a mystical journey through a mystical land to rid it of all evil and joins forces with an outlaw to take down an evil witch bent on claiming the magic bow for evil.

After a queen's tragic death, the king abandons his newborn daughter in a cave, but a witch saves her. Years later, the tomboy princess must confront and ultimately falls in love with the enemy king.

Odd couple Ivo Salvini, recently released from a mental asylum, and former prefect Gonnella wander through the countryside and discover a dystopia made of television commercials, beauty pageants, rock music, Catholicism, and pagan rituals.

Fantaghiro and Romualdo are preparing their marriage when the Black Queen disgusted by their deep love captures Fantaghiro's father. Romualdo and his soldiers go on their journey to free him. But the insidious Black Queen transforms herself into Fantaghiro, makes Romualdo her slave by kissing him and captures the rest of his army. Fantaghiro follows Romualdo although she promised him to stay home, finds the camp deserted and enters the near castle of the Black Queen. When she asks for a duel to free her people she is very surprised to face Romualdo who has forgot her completely due to the magic of the Black Queen.

The enchanted story of Pinocchio.

A black cloud travels across country, kills animals and plants and dries up the rivers. When the cloud reaches Fantaghiro's kingdom she meets Prince Parsel who follows the cloud to get his stolen castle back. After her castle vanishes, too, Fantaghiro joins Parsel on his journey to find her home, her people, her family and her love.

Five stories center on a werewolf, a feudal landlord, peasants, a ghost, and a mother and her sons.

The son of Torren learns of his heritage, goes to avenge the deaths of his fellow villagers, and rescue his sister/love interest from the evil Dakkar and his spider cult.

Upon his return from battle in the previous film, the great warrior Hercules learns that his lover, Daianara, has lost her senses. Acording of the oracle Medea, Dianara's only hope is the Stone of Forgetfulness which lies deep in the realm of Hades. Hercules, with two companions, Theseus and Telemachus, embarks on a dangerous quest for the stone, while he is unaware that Dianara's guardian, King Lico, is the one responsible for her condition and plots to have the girl for himself as his bride upon her revival.

The powerful evil wizard Tarabas gets knowledge about a prophecy that a king's child will defeat him. So he sends out his army of dead soldiers to kidnap all royal children. When the soldiers attack Fantaghiro's castle to steal the babies of her sisters, the battle seems to be lost until she discovers the secret to defeat the solders but by doing that she loses Romualdo. Now Fantaghiro must find the evil wizard Tarabas and convince him to break the spell and bring back Romualdo.

Filippo is a star on the Italian TV. He works for a documentary series about wild animals and nature. He is sent to Tenerife (Spain) to shot an issue about the local stork. It is the 13th of August. After he did his job is time to leave, but the ferry couldn't operate. He has to spend the night in the island. The day after is again the 13th of August, and Filippo live again the same day for different times. Something has to change to exit the paranoid and unrealistic situation.

A loving young couple discover they're expecting a child, but the man isn't too keen on introducing her girlfriend to his family. Is it because he has a vampire father, a witch mother, a ghostly grandma, and a zombie uncle?

In this last episode princess Fantaghirò ends up in a parallel dimension fairy land full of kids. Here the princess must fight against a villain called "Nameless".

Marco, a nine year old boy, is in love with his elementary teacher, and feels neglected by his workaholic parents. When they forget about his birthday he wishes he could grow up at once. This really happens and Marco begins a new life as an adult. He rents a room in his teacher's flat and she falls in love with him. He even fakes a kidnapping when he runs out of money but he is mistaken for the kidnapper.

In this melange of characters and events from separate mythological stories, Hercules, demigod and superman, arrives in the ancient Greek kingdom of Iolcus to tutor Iphitus, son of king Pelias; immediately on arrival, he falls in love with the king's delectable, briefly clad daughter Iole. Before he can win her, he must succeed in a series of quests, in the course of which he teams up with Jason, true heir of Iolcus, whom he accompanies on the famous voyage of the Argonauts.

When Santa's helper La Befana falls ill and must take off a Christmas Eve, she recruits Scarafoni to help deliver all the toys. No one but the toys knows is that Scarafoni plans to auction off the toys to the highest bidder, which means the toys won't make it to the children who have been good all year and deserve them. The toys decide to deliver themselves, and the story follows them as they struggle to avoid the heartless Scarafoni and to find their true homes.

An American ballerina arrives in Hungary to enroll in a ballet school and it soon becomes apparent that things are not what they seem.

A witch being condemned to burn to death by the Holy Inquisition makes a contract with the devil to be reborn in our times.

A feisty 18-year-old Italian-American New Yorker named Cindy is sent off to Rome with her irascible stepmother and vain stepsisters. On the way, she meets and falls in love with, globetrotting bagpacker Mizio, who eventually turns out to be of Italian nobility. There's a fairy stand-in in the form of a spaced-out astrologer, a dance, and she even loses a shoe at one point. Care to venture a guess how it all turns out?

An all-enveloping darkness. Suddenly, a child's voice, frightened, questioning, pierces the darkness... The first flickering rays of light begin to sculpt mysterious shapes out of the darkness... Among them, a very old man. He reassures the child, exhorting him to see the wonders of the earth. And it is with this child's eyes that we will witness the creation of the world.

In this adorable sequel to "Christmas Thieves," Frank and Tony are babysitting for Liam and Olivia, while their parents Emma and Peter are out shopping for last-minute Christmas presents. Emma and Peter get into an accident with Santa Claus, and have scared off all of his reindeer. Santa needs to call for back-up and the only person left to save the day is the Christmas Witch. Unbeknownst to Santa, the Christmas Witch has accidentally landed in front of Olivia and Liam's house, and she has completely lost her memory. Liam, Olivia, Frank and Tony try to find answers for the Witch in the book "Puffins". Will the Puffins help the Witch remember that she needs to go help Santa in enough time to save Christmas? This heartwarming live-action and animated Christmas film is filled with lots of holiday magic, and is something the whole family will enjoy together.

The back-in-time misadventures of Walter and Ascanio are not finished. The defective time-travel machine will bring them from prehistory all the way to outer space, in a funny, light-hearted trip across the time.

The Dragon Ring is an italian film of two parts. It's about Desideria, the dragon king's daughter and Selvaggia, her adopted and magical sister. To get the dragon ring after the death of her father, Desideria needs to marry, but she can't find a husband, so Selvaggia sees her chance to get the ring with all its powers.

A Faustian tale about an old woman who makes a pact with Mephisto to regain her youth, but in return she must stay away from love. After making the deal, she meets two brothers who fall in love with her.

A man tries to cure his friend of his video-game obsession by using a virtual reality machine. When the device traps his friend in a virtual world, he goes in to help him fight for his life.

Some puppets come to life in a theater with no windows. This time the puppets interpret William Shakespeare's Othello.

An old prince lives in his ancient palace in Rome together with the ghosts of his ancestors. For years he has proudly rejected huge offers by a real estate group seeking to buy the palace and build a department store in its place, but when he suddenly dies his nephew signs the deal. The palace seems lost, but the ghosts forge a plan to save it from destruction.