Why have fantasy films become so popular?

My experience with fantasy films is rather poor. I am not that kind of person who is keen on imaginary things, spectacular performance, or dreams that will never come true. Still, fantasy in nowadays world is inevitable and, despite we want it or not, it interferes our lives. Why is it so? Why do people want to forget the reality so much?

Yester week my friend Aino and I were discussing about fantasy films, and I liked a lot one idea that came to her mind. She said, that one of the reasons for popularity of those films could be cruel reality that we have. All newspapers, magazines, television, radio and other sources of information are almost always full of violence, some kind of wars, economic problems, and other unkind things. It might be that people already got sick of this, therefore, they try to create imaginary world and they expect movies will help them implement their wish. That is why films like Harry Potter, Shrek, Lord of the Rings, or Finding Nemo appeared on the cinema screens.

What is more, today is the time when technologies are competing, every year new things are being invented, and people feel necessity not to stand behind it. I remember films that were watched when I was a little girl – those nice pictures on the screen, melodious songs and happy endings. They are more than incomparable with those that children watch nowadays. And all the computer games that many children are crazy for. Besides, not only children. There are 20-30 years old people, who love to dive into imaginary world and stay there for a while. Maybe it is so because they could not do it during their childhood? Thus, fantasies on the screen became so popular – to pull in the audience which is hungry for computer tricks.

Furthermore, it is possible that by creating and watching fantasy films people are trying to guess what is outside the Earth. For many years people did not even know that it can be something else besides our world. Now, when we know the system of the Sun and more things about the universe, we have an attempt to check if there is some other kind of life outside. Therefore, film-creators think of some idea about various existences, and humanity absorbs the idea. Moreover, the more people know, the more they do not. As the life does not stand still, many questions arise and we cannot answer them. Again, people hope for some sort of answers in the fantasy films and that is how they make fashionableness of those films grow.

For the popularity of fantasy films people sometimes forget they are living on the Earth and do behave as if they were in the fictitious world. Fortunately, sooner or later, everyone comes back to reality. But think what could happen if they do not? Maybe some day we will read in a newspaper about journey of little fish, and, meanwhile, politicians will argue on the cinema screen?