This is the third in a series of articles where we’ll be covering Sword & Sorcery Films. Sword & Sorcery is a term used for a fantasy subgenre that features adventure-based films with sword-wielding heroes who often battle magical forces of evil. Most of these films are set in the Bronze & Iron Ages, Classical Roman Era, and Medieval Era and blend fact-based elements of history with fictional mythology and fantasy.
The Sword & Sorcery Films subgenre often features a variety of fantasy elements from wizards to dragons so often overlaps with other subgenres including Action Adventure Films, Dark Fantasy Films, Epic Fantasy Films, Films About Fairy Tales, Films About Mythology, Films with Dragons, Post Apocalypse Films and Adult Animation & Anime Films.
The works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard are often the basis and inspiration for Sword & Sorcery Films and the subgenre emerged as one of the most popular fantasy subgenres in the 1980’s with Excalibur (1981), Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Highlander (1986) and again in the 2000’s with Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
This third article will cover the Best Animated Sword & Sorcery Films for Adults and you can check out additional articles for the subgenre below. There are many hidden gems of the Sword & Sorcery Film subgenre so we’re going to create a variety of articles covering different themes to help you discover some of the lesser-known films of the subgenre. We’ll also be compiling a Best Of list of the subgenre that will likely feature many films you’ve already heard of or have seen.
- Top Sword & Sorcery Films You Haven’t Seen
- Best of the Worst 1980’s Sword & Sorcery Films
- Best Animated Sword & Sorcery Films for Adults
- More Top Sword & Sorcery Films You Haven’t Seen
- Best Animated Sword & Sorcery Films for Kids
- Best Sword & Sorcery Films
In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, animated films with mature subgenre themes began to emerge. These animated Sword & Sorcery Films often featured excessive violence, blood and nudity and were not your animated Disney cartoons for kids. However, for adults, these animated films would often show many of the Sword & Sorcery elements that live action films could not at the time – due to budgetary or technological constraints.
For this article, we decided to take a look back at some of these early classic films of the subgenre along with the recent emerging trend of Anime Films with Sword & Sorcery themes and elements. Many of these films are adult-focused and not for kids. But our hope is that fans of the subgenre will discover and enjoy some of these animated films as much as we did.
What are the Best Animated Sword & Sorcery Films for Adults? Read on as we look at some of the best animated classics of the subgenre including a very mature and animated version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, a classic anthology film featuring intertwined tales of sci-fi, fantasy and horror and a raunchy Sword & Sorcery animated comedy from Denmark that parodies many classic films of the subgenre.
For our rankings we’re going to use some criteria to help define and refine our list. First, the film must be entirely animated. We will include rotoscoping as that is an animation technique used in a few of these films. However, if the film is primarily live action with animated elements, it won’t be on this list.
Second, we’re going to focus on animated subgenre films with mature themes or content. As a general rule, these are films that either have a PG-13 or R rating for their content. We are going to make two exceptions for this list with Wizards (1977) and The Lord of the Rings (1978) as both films had PG ratings at the time but were released before the PG-13 rating was created. If you had seen either of these films upon their release or even recently, it’s apparent that both films should not have been rated PG.
Third, we are going to include Anime Films on this list but with some restrictions. Most fantasy-focused anime will often include a variety of subgenres from alternate realities or worlds to post-apocalyptic settings meshed with everything from magic to cyberpunk. For the films on this list, we are going to only include anime with traditional sword and sorcery narratives that are set in a medieval or similar setting. We will include a separate list of anime films we reviewed below that didn’t make the cut in the event you want to check them out. And let us know in the comments of any anime films we might have missed for this list.
Fourth, only films will be considered for this list. There are many animated subgenre series with mature themes such as Arcane (2021), The Legend of Vox Machina (2022) and Delicious in Dungeon (2024), but these are animated series and not films. We will, however, create a list in the near future of all the best animated Sword & Sorcery series for adults.
And fifth, as per our usual rule, only films with a 4.0/10 or higher rating and that were released after 1970 will be considered for the list.
Our complete list of Sword & Sorcery Films features over 143+ films from 1956 – 2024. This collection features almost every fantasy-based film featuring sword-wielding heroes, dragons, wizards and orcs. As we’re always updating our collections and will be releasing additional articles of Sword & Sorcery Films, subscribe to our newsletter for our latest updates as we post them.
We have embedded a compilation video of the Best Animated Sword & Sorcery Films for Adults and more details on these films can be found in the list below. Note: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Animated Sword & Sorcery Films for Adults that didn’t make our list: Slayers The Motion Picture (1995), Slayers Return (1996), Slayers Great (1997), Slayers Gorgeous (1998), Escaflowne: The Movie (2000), Lady Death (2004), Blade of the Phantom Master (2004), Beowulf (2007), Heavenly Sword (2014), Krut: The Himmaphan Warriors (2018), Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild (2021), The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (2021) and Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King (2023).
Here is our list of the Best Animated Sword & Sorcery Films for Adults:
