Film

Time Bandits

Time Bandits is Terry Gilliam's gleefully subversive fable: six thieving dwarfs burst from a boy's closet, map of history's loopholes in hand, and drag him through Napoleon's camp, Robin Hood's forest and Agamemnon's siege. It's slapstick, swashbuckling, and quietly savage—funny enough for children, unsettling enough to rattle adults. Anyone wanting fantasy adventure with real teeth, and an ending that refuses to comfort you, should watch this.

TMDb rating6.6

If you liked this

Monty Python and the Holy Grail1975

Gilliam's earlier riot of historical mayhem, absurdist violence, and anachronistic jokes—the same anarchic engine, minus the child protagonist and existential dread.

But More sketch comedy than story; if you want Time Bandits' emotional gut-punch, this stays gleefully shallow throughout.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail poster

The Princess Bride1987

Fairy tale adventure balancing wit, swordplay and genuine heart, narrated with the same wink at its own absurdity that Gilliam brings to history.

But Warmer and safer—no Supreme Being lurking to remind you the universe doesn't care about you.

The Princess Bride poster

Labyrinth1986

Jim Henson's puppet-heavy fantasy sends a kid through a dreamlike, morally slippery world with real stakes and a genuinely unsettling villain.

But Leans more musical and romantic than satirical; less interested in mocking history than building its own mythology.

Labyrinth poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Lost in La Mancha2002

Same director, same obsession with impossible quests and history refusing to cooperate; here the Supreme Being is just money and weather.

A documentary chronicling Terry Gilliam's disastrous attempt to film Don Quixote—flash floods, injured actors, collapsing financing—the same restless, doomed-heroic imagination behind Time Bandits, crashing straight into reality.

But No dwarfs, no jokes, no time travel—just a portrait of ambition curdling into chaos. Painful rather than funny.

Lost in La Mancha poster
More like this (8)

Willow1988

Lucas-produced quest fantasy with a scrappy small hero, practical effects, and a found family of oddballs battling something much bigger than them.

But Plays it straighter and more earnest—little of Gilliam's cynicism or jokes at the expense of great men.

Willow poster

The NeverEnding Story1984

A lonely boy pulled into an imperiled fantasy realm, told with genuine dread beneath the wonder and a finale that still rattles people who saw it young.

But Sincere where Time Bandits is sardonic; less interested in comedy than in aching, earnest melancholy.

The NeverEnding Story poster

Brazil1985

Gilliam's own follow-up, swapping dwarfs and history for dystopian bureaucracy—same nightmarish imagination, same fatalistic joke that reality always wins.

But Far darker and stranger, with none of the family-friendly wrapping; not for anyone wanting a lighter evening.

Brazil poster

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen1988

Gilliam's most extravagant tall tale, a baroque fantasia of lies and spectacle that makes Time Bandits look almost restrained by comparison.

But Its notoriously chaotic production shows on screen—gorgeous but bloated, and less tightly plotted.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen poster

Return to Oz1985no page yet

A genuinely disturbing children's fantasy that trusts kids with real menace, much like Time Bandits' refusal to soften its scarier turns.

But Grim and slow in places; famously unsettled a generation expecting something more like the 1939 musical.

The Dark Crystal1982

Jim Henson and Frank Oz's puppet quest fantasy, gorgeously handmade and unafraid of genuine dread, cruelty and cosmic stakes.

But Entirely puppet-based with almost no comic relief; a much more solemn, myth-heavy experience.

The Dark Crystal poster

Donnie Darko2001

Both strand a bewildered kid at the mercy of forces manipulating time itself, and both land on an ending far bleaker than the poster suggests.

A troubled teenager gets pulled into a cosmic scheme involving time, fate and a menacing rabbit-suited figure who may or may not be real.

But Broods where Time Bandits jokes; slow, moody and ambiguous rather than slapstick and swift.

Donnie Darko poster

The Court Jester1955

Same DNA—slapstick chaos dressed in historical costume, mocking kings and knights with gleeful disrespect—just from an era too polite to be cynical about it.

Danny Kaye's manic, pun-drunk swashbuckler through a fairy-tale Middle Ages, decades before Gilliam took his own anarchic tour through history for laughs.

But Old-fashioned musical-comedy rhythms and a much gentler, safer sense of danger throughout.

The Court Jester poster

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Recommended by

Labyrinth, Brazil, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Jason and the Argonauts, The Legend of Vox Machina, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Back to the Future Part II