Television series
The Chronicles of Narnia
This is Narnia rendered in wobbly BBC studio magic: a lion costume standing in for Aslan, visible wires for flight, and children in hand-me-down jumpers stepping through an obviously fake wardrobe. Theatrical rather than cinematic, closer to pantomime than blockbuster, but played with real conviction, and Tom Baker growls wonderfully as Puddleglum. Watch it for nostalgia and a fantasy world built from cardboard and belief rather than CGI.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring2001
If Narnia's talking beasts and quests for a lost land stirred something, Peter Jackson's trilogy gives you the same moral clarity and journey-through-danger structure, scaled up to mountains, armies, and genuine dread.
But Nearly nine hours across three films, and the tone is far weightier — grief, war, and real stakes rather than gentle allegory.
His Dark Materials2019
Another British children's fantasy built from a beloved book trilogy, with armoured bears and daemons standing in for talking lions, and the same interest in faith, doubt, and growing up fast.
But Pullman's story is deliberately anti-Narnia in its theology, so if you loved the Christian allegory, this one argues back.
The Dark Crystal1982
Puppets and practical creatures built with genuine craft rather than CGI polish, the same sense that you're watching something handmade and slightly uncanny, just for adults as much as children.
But Dark, slow, and genuinely eerie in places — less cosy adventure, more fever dream with teeth.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Wizard of Oz1939
Same engine as Narnia — an ordinary child pulled from a grey world into a vivid, morally-charged fantasy land and sent home changed — done first, and in glorious theatrical Technicolor rather than BBC lino.
Fifty years before Narnia's wardrobe, a Kansas farmgirl stepped through a tornado into Technicolor, and the whole genre of children-into-magic-land was basically written down for good.
But It's a musical, and some of its whimsy is baked into songs rather than swordfights or lions.
More like this (8)
The Princess Bride1987
Same era, same wardrobe-and-swordplay charm, but funnier and knowingly so — a fantasy adventure that winks at its own fairy-tale furniture while still meaning every word of it.
But It's a comedy first, so if you want your fantasy played completely straight, this isn't it.
Willow1988
Made the same year, with the same Reagan-era practical effects budget and earnest hero-farmer-saves-the-world plot — a good companion piece for spotting how differently film and TV handled fantasy then.
But The effects have aged unevenly, the plotting is thin, and the middle stretch sags badly.
The Worst Witch1998
Another low-budget British children's fantasy adaptation, all boarding-school corridors and slightly dodgy magic effects, with the same charm of actors clearly having a wonderful time.
But It's aimed squarely at younger viewers and the humour is broader, so adults may find it thin.
Labyrinth1986
Jim Henson's puppet-heavy dreamscape shares that same sense of a child navigating an illogical, faintly dangerous fantasy world built entirely from practical craft rather than digital trickery.
But It's stranger and more surreal than Narnia's tidy moral universe, closer to a fever dream than an allegory.
Jim Henson's The Storyteller1988no page yet
A short, gorgeous anthology of fairy tales from the same year, narrated by John Hurt with puppet creatures and firelit sets that feel like Narnia's slightly stranger cousin.
But Each story is self-contained and only about twenty minutes, so there's no ongoing quest to sink into.
Merlin2008no page yet
A gentler entry point for British fantasy adventure, quest-of-the-week plotting, and a young hero learning who he's meant to become, in the same family-friendly register.
But It's glossier and more modern in style, so it won't scratch that specific creaky-BBC-studio nostalgia itch.
Pan's Labyrinth2006
Both send a war-displaced child into an alternate world that tests their moral choices — Narnia's evacuees and this film's Ofelia are cousins, but del Toro strips out the comfort and leaves the danger.
Guillermo del Toro takes the same premise — a child escaping wartime hardship into a fantasy world with its own rules and monsters — and plays it as savage, adult fairy tale rather than gentle allegory.
But It's genuinely frightening and violent in places, subtitled, and offers no tidy Christian comfort at the end.
Shadowlands1993no page yet
Lewis wrote Narnia's allegory of faith and mortality before this loss, but this film shows the man living out the same questions for real — the emotional engine behind Aslan's story, stripped of fur and magic.
No fantasy at all here — just Anthony Hopkins playing C.S. Lewis himself, falling in love late in life and facing devastating loss, which is the real grief underneath everything Narnia is trying to say about death.
But It's a quiet, sad, very adult drama with no lions, wardrobes, or adventure of any kind.
