Television series
Tales from the Neverending Story
A one-season HBO adventure from 2002 that expands the Neverending Story universe with new characters and stories set in Fantasia. It's a gateway show for kids discovering that imaginative worlds can be serialized, mixing genuine wonder with the episodic structure of Saturday-morning TV. Best for families who want their children to believe in the power of reading and make-believe.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love fantasy where a child's inner life spills outward into a whole invented kingdom, and you don't mind a family-friendly adventure that treats wonder seriously.
Skip it if you need grown-up stakes or a brisk plot, since this is a gentle children's series with earnest sincerity that can feel slack at times.
What it asks of you: Thirteen hour-long episodes, so you're committing to a full season of patience, with a gentle pace that lets each chapter unfold before the momentum builds.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance2019
Visually stunning puppet fantasy with a genuine sense of danger and moral complexity. Every frame is handcrafted world-building that rewards close attention, and the stakes feel real despite the fantastical setting.
But It's deliberately slow and meditative in places. If your kids expect Marvel-pace action beats every five minutes, they'll fidget.
Avatar: The Last Airbender2005
A complete, three-season arc that respects its young audience's intelligence. Balances comedy, genuine character growth, and world-building with serialized storytelling that unfolds like a story being told well.
But First season moves cautiously. You're investing in tone and world before the larger plot crystallizes.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power2018
A reboot that trusts kids to engage with complex themes: identity, belonging, and the cost of war. Visually gorgeous, sharply written, and genuinely funny without pandering to adults in the room.
But Shifts significantly in tone and ambition between seasons one and five. Early episodes can feel lighter than what's coming.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Tales from the Neverending Story
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Conan the Barbarian1982
Both follow the hero's journey into an unfamiliar magical world as a form of self-discovery; Conan is what that story looks like when the world doesn't coddle you.
Same foundational DNA: a young person discovering an imaginative world larger than themselves and learning to survive it. But this one is epic, violent, and operatic—showing you what the darker edges of Fantasia could look like.
But This is rated R and genuinely brutal in places. Not a kids' film, though older teens fascinated by dark fantasy will find it mesmerizing. The philosophy is existential and heavy.
More like this (8)
The NeverEnding Story1984
The original film that inspired this series. A masterpiece of children's fantasy that works for adults: genuinely moving, visually inventive, with a philosophical core about imagination and growing up.
But Made in 1984 with practical effects. It moves at its own pace and doesn't cut to keep you constantly stimulated.
Labyrinth1986
Jim Henson and David Bowie create a fantasy maze that's theatrical, strange, and utterly committed to its own logic. The practical puppetry is extraordinary and the world-building is dense without feeling exhausting.
But The pacing is deliberately dreamlike. It won't rush. Some younger kids find David Bowie's villain unsettling rather than charismatic.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe2005
A solid film adaptation of the gateway book to fantasy worlds. Clear-eyed about good and evil without being preachy, and visually convincing about a world beyond the wardrobe door.
But The CGI has aged noticeably. And Narnia's Christian allegory becomes more obvious on revisits, which some find didactic.
Spirited Away2001
A Studio Ghibli film about a girl entering a magical world and learning to survive it. Visually astonishing, with a strange beauty that lingers. It trusts its audience to accept ambiguity and strangeness.
But It's meditative and quiet in places. The logic of its world isn't spelled out. Some kids (and adults) find that frustrating rather than intriguing.
The Story of the Stone2018
A short, earnest Australian series about kids discovering magical worlds and learning to navigate them. Low-budget sincerity that compensates for modest production values with genuine warmth.
But Exactly as low-budget as it sounds. If you're watching immediately after modern TV, the production design takes adjustment.
The 10th Kingdom2000
A miniseries adventure that drops modern people into a fairy-tale world. It's both funny and genuinely suspenseful, with real consequences and characters you come to care about across its length.
But At four hours, it's a commitment. And it plays more for adult humor than for kids, which can create tonal whiplash.
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts2020
Like Tales from the Neverending Story, it's about a young person inventing/discovering a world that runs on imagination and metaphor rather than physics, but it uses entirely different visual language and tone.
Netflix animation that captures the sense of wonder in exploring an impossible world, but does so in a post-apocalyptic setting. Optimistic rather than dark, inventive in its creature design, and genuinely funny.
But The art style is stylized rather than realistic, which some viewers initially find jarring. And the optimism might feel saccharine if you're jaded about the genre.
The Magus1968
Both explore the idea that magical worlds are tools for self-knowledge—but Magus treats that premise as inherently sinister and manipulative rather than benevolent.
A trippy, disorienting film where a young man stumbles into a stranger's elaborate magical world designed to teach him something about himself. Genuinely strange and philosophically unsettling in ways most fantasy isn't.
But It's deliberately cryptic and refuses to explain itself. You'll leave uncertain whether you liked it or what it meant, and that uncertainty is the point, which bothers many viewers.
People
Cast
Recommended by
The Animals of Farthing Wood, Amazing Stories, Inside the Labyrinth, CyberGirl, Mickey's Christmas Carol