by Elizabeth Kelly

Created on: April 16, 2008

The 60s were tough years for the fantasy geeks. In fact, the word "geek" wasn't cool yet; now fans wear it like a badge of honor. Dungeons and Dragons wouldn't be invented for years, and the works of Tolkien were still just ratty paperbacks from the used bookstore that only a few had heard of. Fantasy films were a long, long way from being the hot property they are today. Journey back to a time when being a fantasy fan made you a member of a very small, but passionate club, and view one of the classic fantasy films of the 60s.

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

For a lot of fantasy fans, this was the film that started it all. Most people remember this fondly as a movie they saw when they were kids that, at the time, was the coolest thing they ever saw. Based on the Greek hero legend of Jason and his quest for the golden fleece, this film is the masterwork of producer Ray Harryhausen, whose 1958 Sinbad film was a cult hit.

Today, the movie may seem stilted and dated, but in the 60s the stop-motion special effects were mind-boggling. When Jason fights a seemingly endless legion of skeleton warriors, each one had to be painstakingly moved piece by piece to create the scene. Supposedly it took four-and-a-half months just to create that one sequence. In the days before CGI, we'd never seen anything like it. A seven-headed hydra and a giant bronze statue that comes to life to stalk Jason are just a few more of the thrills that made our childhood flesh break out into goosebumps. Jason and the Argonauts made fantasy geeks of us all, before we even knew what that meant.

The Sword in the Stone (1963)

When the musical Camelot was made into a movie in 1967, most of the magical elements disappeared. For fans of wizards-and-magic fantasy, the movie version of the legend of young King Arthur had already been made successfully by Disney. Based on T. H. White's novel The Once and Future King, the animated version was the last feature-length animated movie made while Walt Disney was still alive.

The movie has plenty for magic lovers, as it follows Arthur during his youth while he trains with the legendary wizard Merlin. Previously, England was mired in the Dark Ages, waiting for a ruler to fulfill the prophecy of pulling the sword from the stone. Arthur, who is an orphan known as "Wart", seems an unlikely candidate for future king. Under the tutelage of the great wizard, he learns science, magic arts, fighting and chivalry. Will this lovable ragamuffin become the future King of England?

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