High fantasy movies are epic stories that take place in a world apart from any known world. Some take influence from real places, like medieval Europe or the Middle East, but the kingdoms are generally fictional. If a high fantasy movie has a romance, it tends to be a subplot, rather than the primary point of the narrative.

That said, there are many fantasy movies where the romance is front and center, directly influencing the A-plot and main characters. Some fantasy romance movies are enduring classics with a star-studded cast. Other fantasy romances are sleeper hits or cult classics — hidden gems that deserve more attention from modern viewers.

10 Westley & Buttercup Share True Love’s Kiss in The Princess Bride

• The Princess Bride is based on a novel of the same name by William Goldman, who also wrote the film’s screenplay.

Westley and Buttercup have a love that spans oceans and kingdoms in The Princess Bride. The story takes place in the fictional kingdom, Florin, which is ruled by a pugnacious prince named Humperdink (though there are characters who come from real-world places like Sicily and Spain). The Princess Bride is a genre-bending romantic comedy that’s a tongue-in-cheek love letter to fairy tale archetypes.

Westley seeks his fortune to provide for Buttercup when they confess their love to each other and returns to her many years later as the Dread Pirate Roberts. By then, Buttercup’s been coerced into an engagement with Prince Humperdink. The magical elements in the film are a bit more subtle, but there are some fantasy creatures like Rodents of Unusual Size and a near-death revival potion crafted by a forest wizard.

9 An Evil Lord Separates Two Lovers in Legend

• Three different endings were filmed for 1985 Legend.

Princess Lili and Jack are two pure-hearted lovers who meet and fall in love in the forest in Legend. Their forest idyll is broken by the Lord of Darkness who wants to cover the world in an eternal night. Legend is a great cult classic fantasy because it remembers the darker parts of older fairy tale versions and doesn’t defer to more sanitized Disney-like versions.

Legend has many classic fantasy tropes, like a unicorn that’s attracted to a maiden and a hero who emerges from obscurity. It also inverts popular fantasy romance plot elements, like the damsel-in-distress. Princess Lili may be in distress, but she has agency as a character and tries to escape from her prison. She’s also complex because she has her own corruption arc. Legend also has a notorious open ending where the viewer can conclude on their own whether it’s a happily ever after, or not.

8 Snow White Fights Her Prince in Mirror, Mirror

• Mirror, Mirror is inspired by the Brothers Grimm version of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.”

Mirror, Mirror is a vivid and creative take on the “Snow White” fairy tale. It takes place in a whimsical kingdom usurped by Snow White’s evil queen stepmother. To escape the queen’s assassination attempt, Snow White retreats to the forest where a dangerous dragon dwells, and befriends several dwarves who teach her how to swordfight.

Lush designer gowns and fashion with animalistic imagery add to the fantasy backdrop. Snow White’s prince is also clumsy, handsome, and a bit egotistical. Snow White is more than happy to challenge Prince Alcott’s ego, though, and the two fall in love after a lot of bickering and some swordfighting. Mirror Mirror has many high fantasy elements, including a witchy queen, sleep curses, and a cursed dragon. The romance is delightful and quirky, diverging from the more understated original fairy tale romance.

7 Miroslava Has an Unlikely Romance in I Am Dragon

• I Am Dragon combines plot elements from Arthurian legend and the “Beauty and the Beast” tale type. The Russian movie’s title is literally translated to He Is a Dragon.

I Am Dragon is for fantasy romance fans who always wished in the back of their minds that the villain or the monster got the girl in the end. It’s a Russian film that combines several different fairy tale elements. Miroslava, its female lead, is sent to a man-eating dragon as a sacrifice, but instead of certain death, she finds transformation and true love.

Lucky for Miroslava, not only is the dragon uninterested in her demise, its true form is that of a handsome man around her age. Mira and the dragon, Arman, are both victims of their circumstances and of humanity’s violence, and they find solace with each other. The story takes place in a fictionalized Kievan Rus.

6 Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother Grants Her a Chance at Love in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella

• Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is a direct retelling of Charles Perrault’s version of “Cinderella” (versus the Brothers Grimm version, which is far more grisly).

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is a 1997 musical reboot of the 1965 classic, taking place in a vaguely European world. Fairy tale archetypes aside, the main fantasy magical elements are Cinderella’s fairy godmother and her wish-granting magic and transmogrification.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella differs from the Charles Perrault fairy tale “Cinderella” because the hero and the prince, Prince Christopher, meet before their fateful ballroom dance. Prince Christopher is already smitten by Cinderella before she appears to him in a beautiful, fairy-made ballgown. The fairy tale is also adapted more for modern sensibilities, and the Fairy Godmother stresses to Cinderella that she needs to be brave and take charge of her own life.

5 Ariel Trades Her Voice to a Sea-Witch to Find Her Prince in The Little Mermaid

• The Little Mermaid is a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s original Dutch fairy tale, “The Little Mermaid.”

The 2023 Disney The Little Mermaid has two fantastical settings. First introduced is the underwater merpeople kingdom, Atlantica, and second is a seaside kingdom off the coast of a fictionalized Caribbean. Disney famously changed the ending of its retelling, giving the romantic couple a happily ever after (the nameless mermaid protagonist dies and becomes an air sylph in the original story).

Mermaid Princess Ariel’s world is steeped in magic, and she is a magical creature, herself. The main magic practitioners are her father, the King of Atlantica, and her father’s sister, the sea-witch, Ursula. Ursula manipulates Ariel’s transformation spell into a curse to try to keep Ariel and her human lover, Prince Eric, apart. Thankfully, the couple ends up working together to get their happily ever after.

4 Misunderstanding Separates Two Lovers in The Secret of Moonacre

• The Secret of Moonacre is based off a children’s fantasy novel titled The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.

There are two love stories unfolding in the 2008 fantasyThe Secret of Moonacre, which takes place in a fictional world inspired by the English countryside. Benjamin Merryweather and Loveday are star-crossed lovers who get a second-chance romance. Their story is echoed again with the childhood friends romance between their descendants, Maria Merryweather and Robin De Noir.

Maria and Robin have a “Romeo and Juliet” style romance as they come from two feuding families. The feud comes from the De Noirs stealing a gift from nature — enchanted pearls from a Moon Princess. The pearls unleashed a curse on the fictional Moonacre Valley, which only united lovers can solve.

3 An Evil Clergyman Curses Two Lovers in Ladyhawke

• Ladyhawke was filmed in several historical castles and countryside estates.

Ladyhawke is set in a fictionalized French kingdom, Aquila, and has many medieval Italian influences, like Italian court dances. Lady Isabeau is known for her beauty, and an evil Bishop covets her. When she resists his coercion, the Bishop of Aquilla curses her and her lover, Captain Etienne Navarre.

The exiled Captain becomes a black knight with a grudge who thinks he will solve their curse by killing the Bishop. Ladyhawke isn’t directly inspired by any one fairy tale; it’s an original fairy tale with classic tropes and ’80s twists (especially with the haircuts and synth musical score). The magic system is far more esoteric and subtle than most other high fantasy movies.

2 Belle Travels to a Beast’s Enchanted Castle in La Belle et la Bête

• There are many different versions of the “Beauty and the Beast” fairy tale, including more than one written French version. La Belle et la Bête draws from French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanna de Villenueve’s version of the tale.

La Belle et la Bête is a classic black and white French film that still stands up today for its unique fantasy elements, and its sweeping romance. There weren’t many ways to depict magical transformations and moving, sentient objects in the mid-’40s. Film production relied on clever practical effects, and clever makeup and costuming.

La Belle et la Bête takes place in a vaguely French kingdom, ruled by a cursed prince. Finding true love is the key to breaking the beast prince’s curse, and while he hopes for Belle’s love, he never pushes her and only shows her kindness. Belle can’t help but fall in love with the gentle Beast as he protects her, supports her family, and selflessly gives her everything she could wish for.

1 Tristan Steals a Fallen Star for His Lady Love in Stardust

• Stardust is based on a novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman.

Everything in Stardust revolves around obtaining the heart of a star. Witches seek a fallen star’s heart because they want to eat it to restore their youth and powers. Bloodthirsty princes seek the star because of a stone she carries around her neck. Tristan Thorne seeks the star because he wants to bring it back to gain a local beauty’s fickle favor.

Neil Gaiman wrote Stardust as a love letter to 1970s epic fantasy novels. It takes place in a fictional, European-inspired human village called Wall, and in the magical kingdom called Stormhold. Magical beings like unicorns, witches, and star beings litter Stormhold. Curses imprison lost heirs, candles help people travel great distances, and enchanted ships fly through the air to harvest lightning straight from the clouds. But nothing in Stardust is more magical or powerful than the true love between two pure hearts.