Best Fantasy Movies of 1988

The highest-rated fantasy films from 1988, ranked by MovieMagicScore based on authentic viewer ratings.

Fantasy 1987 Fantasy 1989 All Time Fantasy

Action Comedy Drama Horror Science Fiction Thriller Romance Animation Documentary Crime

My Neighbor Totoro

1988

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.

8.1

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

1988

'Toon star Roger is worried that his wife Jessica is playing pattycake with someone else, so the studio hires detective Eddie Valiant to snoop on her. But the stakes are quickly raised when Marvin Acme is found dead and Roger is the prime suspect.

7.5

Beetlejuice

1988

A newly dead New England couple seeks help from a deranged demon exorcist to scare an affluent New York family out of their home.

7.4

Time of the Gypsies

1988

In this luminous tale set in the former Yugoslavia, Perhan, an engaging young Romany with telekinetic powers, is seduced by the quick-cash world of petty crime that threatens to destroy him and those he loves.

7.6

Big

1988

When a young boy makes a wish at a carnival machine to be big—he wakes up the following morning to find that it has been granted and his body has grown older overnight. But he is still the same 13-year-old boy inside. Now he must learn how to cope with the unfamiliar world of grown-ups including getting a job and having his first romantic encounter with a woman.

7.2

Saint Seiya: Legend of Crimson Youth

1988

Athena receives the visit of Phoebus Abel, her older brother and God of the Corona. He informs her that he has come to destroy humanity as punishment for their corruption, just as it was done in ancient times. He dismisses Seiya and the Bronze Saints, as she will now be guarded by Abel's three Corona Saints, Atlas of Carina, Jaow of Lynx and Berenike of Coma Berenices, and the five resurrected Gold Saints who died in the Sanctuary battle: Saga of Gemini, Deathmask of Cancer, Shura of Capricorn, Camus of Aquarius and Aphrodite of Pisces. When Athena rebels against Abel's plan, he attacks her, sending her soul to Elysion, the final resting place from which there is no return. The Bronze Saints immediately rush to the Sanctuary to save her and ultimately overcome Abel.

7.7

Alice

1988

A quiet young English girl named Alice finds herself in an alternate version of her own reality after chasing a white rabbit. She becomes surrounded by living inanimate objects and stuffed dead animals, and must find a way out of this nightmare - no matter how twisted or odd that way must be. A memorably bizarre screen version of Lewis Carroll’s novel "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland".

7.4

Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School

1988

Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy are on their way to a Miss Grimwood's Finishing School for Girls, where they've been hired as gym teachers. Once there, however, they find that not only is it actually an all-girl school of famous monsters' daughters but there's a villainess out to enslave the girls.

7.4

Willow

1988

The evil Queen Bavmorda hunts the newborn princess Elora Danan, a child prophesied to bring about her downfall. When the royal infant is found by Willow, a timid farmer and aspiring sorcerer, he's entrusted with delivering her from evil.

7.0

#10

Saint Seiya: The Heated Battle of the Gods

1988

In Siberia, Hyōga saves a man that is being attacked. Injured, the man manages only to say something about Asgard. Some days later, Saori, Seiya, Shiryū and Shun are wondering about Hyōga and decide to go to Asgard to investigate. At Valhalla, the Lord of Asgard, Dolbar, says he has not heard of any Hyōga and neither has his right hand, Loki. However, at all times Seiya and the others can feel an evil cosmo emanating from Loki and the other Odin Saints called God Warriors. Shiryū, in particular, notices a familiar cosmo coming from Midgard, a mysterious, masked God Warrior. Dolbar makes it clear that he is trying to take control of both Asgard and the Sanctuary, imprisoning Athena in a strange dimension within the giant statue of Odin. Midgard reveals himself as Hyōga and tries to kill Shiryū to prove himself to Dolbar. Thus, it is the task of the Bronze Saints to defeat Dolbar, Loki and the rest of the God Warriors, to save Athena and Hyōga.

7.6

#11

Moonwalker

1988

This fantastical movie inspired by the music of Michael Jackson features imaginative interpretations of hit tracks from the iconic 1987 album “Bad”.

7.1

#12

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

1988

An account of Baron Munchausen's supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits.

7.0

#13

Scrooged

1988

Frank Cross is a wildly successful television executive whose cold ambition and curmudgeonly nature has driven away the love of his life. But after firing a staff member on Christmas Eve, Frank is visited by a series of ghosts who give him a chance to re-evaluate his actions and right the wrongs of his past.

6.8

#14

The Little Devil

1988

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.

6.7

#15

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark

1988

Arriving in the small town of Fallwell, Massachusetts to claim her inheritance, horror hostess Elvira receives a less than enthusiastic reception from the conservative locals, including her sinister uncle Vincent.

6.7

#16

Paperhouse

1988

A young girl lost in the loneliness and boredom of reality finds solace in an ill boy, whom she can visit in a surreal dream world that she drew in her school composition book.

6.5

#17

Pumpkinhead

1988

When a group of teenagers inadvertently kill his only son, Ed Harley seeks the powers of a backwoods witch to bring the child back to life.

6.4

#18

Hellbound: Hellraiser II

1988

Now confined to a mental hospital, young Kirsty insists her supposedly dead father is actually stuck in Hell following his wife’s betrayal. Few believe the young woman’s lurid stories aside from the thrill-seeking Dr. Channard. Kirsty is undeterred and, with the help of a fellow patient, heads to Hell for a rescue.

6.4

#19

Demon City Shinjuku

1988

Ten Years ago, Genichiro Izayoi died trying to stop the sorcerer Rebi Ra, and as a result Shinjuku became a playground for demons. And now, the day approaches when Rebi Ra will complete his decade-long ritual to plunge the rest of the world into chaos! As Genichiro's son, it falls to Kyoya to venture into the heart of Shinjuku and put an end to the sorcerer his father couldn't beat. Can Kyoya exceed his father's legacy, or will the demons of Shinjuku create Hell on Earth?

6.0

#20

Vice Versa

1988

A mysterious oriental skull transforms a father into his son, and vice versa.

5.8

Page 1 of 2

Best Fantasy Movies of 1988

This ranking features the top fantasy movies released in 1988, sorted by MovieMagicScore viewer ratings. Looking for more? Browse all genres from 1988 or see the best fantasy movies of all time.