AFI’s 10 TOP 10 — CHALLENGE RANK: FANTASY

Hello and welcome to “AFI’s 10 Top 10 — Challenge Rank,” this is an article series where we put to test the American Film Institute’s various list rankings through a critical and audience consensual assessment scale. We will be breaking down “AFI’s 10 Top 10” lists, right here. The “AFI’s 10 Top 10” originally broke down by genre of what are the 10 best films in that specified genre. We have covered Courtroom Drama, Romantic Comedies, Mystery, Animation, Western, Sci-Fi, Gangster, and Epic in the eight prior articles in the series so far, as we are now going to tackle “AFI’s 10 Top 10: Fantasy” category. Here’s the list of films and how they ranked from “AFI’s 10 Top 10: Fantasy”:

1.) “The Wizard of Oz”

2.) “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”

3.) “It’s a Wonderful Life”

4.) “King Kong”

5.) “Miracle on 34th Street”

6.) “Field of Dreams”

7.) “Harvey”

8.) “Groundhog Day”

9.) “The Thief of Bagdad”

10.) “Big”

If you want to see the actual AFI page of the Top 10? The link is below: http://www.afi.com/10top10/category.aspx?cat=6

Now, this is how AFI ranked the best films of the fantasy genre. But do critics and audiences agree with AFI’s consensus? Well, through a rather collective algorithm from various critical and audience aggregators, I came to forming an overall consensual ranking of the collective films from “AFI’s 10 Top 10: Fantasy”. I was a rather surprised how things turned out here among the consensual rankings compared to AFI’s rankings but here’s how it laid out:

Consensual Placement: 10th

FIELD OF DREAMS (1989)

AFI’S RANKING: #6

LOGLINE: An Iowa corn farmer, hearing voices, interprets them as a command to build a baseball diamond in his fields; he does, and the 1919 Chicago White Sox come.

DIRECTED BY: Phil Alden Robinson

STARS: Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta and Amy Madigan

CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Field of Dreams” descended 4 spots from #6 to #10 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list. This was the biggest drop among all films on the list.

Consensual Placement: 9th

BIG (1988)

AFI’S RANKING: #10

LOGLINE: After wishing to be made big, a teenage boy wakes the next morning to find himself mysteriously in the body of an adult.

DIRECTED BY: Penny Marshall

STARS: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia and John Heard

CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Big” jumped 1 spot from #10 to #9 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.

Consensual Placement: 8th

HARVEY (1950)

AFI’S RANKING: #7

LOGLINE: Due to his insistence that he has an invisible six foot-tall rabbit for a best friend, a whimsical middle-aged man is thought by his family to be insane — but he may be wiser than anyone knows.

DIRECTED BY: Henry Koster

STARS: James Stewart, Wallace Ford, William H. Lynn and Victoria Horne

CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Harvey” moved up 1 spot from #8 to #7 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.

Consensual Placement: 7th

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1924)

AFI’S RANKING: #9

LOGLINE: A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.

DIRECTED BY: Raoul Walsh

STARS: Douglas Fairbanks, Julanne Johnston, Snitz Edwards and Anna May Wong

CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “The Thief of Bagdad” climbed 2 spots from #9 to #7 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.

Consensual Placement: 6th

GROUNDHOG DAY (1993)

AFI’S RANKING: #8

LOGLINE: A weatherman finds himself inexplicably living the same day over and over again.

DIRECTED BY: Harold Ramis

STARS: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott and Stephen Tobolowsky

CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Groundhog Day” scaled 2 spots from #8 to #6 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.

Consensual Placement: 5th

MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (1947)

AFI’S RANKING: #5

LOGLINE: When a nice old man who claims to be Santa Claus is institutionalized as insane, a young lawyer decides to defend him by arguing in court that he is the real thing.

DIRECTED BY: George Seaton

STARS: Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn and Natalie Wood

CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “Miracle on 34th Street” stayed put at #5 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment matching AFI’s placement of the film on their list.

Consensual Placement: 4th

KING KONG (1933)

AFI’S RANKING: #4

LOGLINE: A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal ape who takes a shine to their female blonde star. He is then captured and brought back to New York City for public exhibition.

DIRECTED BY: Merian C. Cooper

STARS: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot and Frank Reicher

CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “King Kong” stayed put at #4 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment matching AFI’s placement of the film on their list.

Consensual Placement: 3rd

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001)

AFI’S RANKING: #2

LOGLINE: A meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.

DIRECTED BY: Peter Jackson

STARS: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin and Orlando Bloom

CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” stepped up 1 spot from #3 to #2 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.

Consensual Placement: 2nd

THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)

AFI’S RANKING: #1

LOGLINE: Dorothy Gale is swept away from a farm in Kansas to a magical land of Oz in a tornado and embarks on a quest with her new friends to see the Wizard who can help her return home to Kansas and help her friends as well.

DIRECTED BY: Victor Fleming

STARS: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger and Bert Lahr

CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “The Wizard of Oz” dipped 1 spots from #1 to #2 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.

Consensual Placement: 1st

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)

AFI’S RANKING: #3

LOGLINE: An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.

DIRECTED BY: Frank Capra

STARS: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore and Thomas Mitchell

CONSENSUS RESPONSE: “It’s a Wonderful Life” ascended 2 spots from #3 to #1 among the consensual critics and audiences assessment over AFI’s placement of the film on their list.

In concluding, you can see the critical consensual assessment with critics and audiences ranked with a little difference in most cases and a few pretty differently in other cases with every placement except for two positions in AFI’s ranking list. So, how would you personally rank these top-tier fantasy films?

Article Note: All loglines are sourced from IMDb.com.

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